I’m going to a Sharepoint conference in Chicago in August, and I’m taking the woman with me. It’s my first real trip (and plane flight) by myself so I need some info. Would it be cheaper/better to rent a car there or take taxis around. Then just the usual, what to do, where to eat, blah blah blah.
Where exactly are you staying?
Well don’t bother renting a car then. Looks like you’re right in the center of things.
There are plenty of things to do. The Sears tower is cool, the Magnificent Mile is a good tourist / shopping area. But what you do really depends on what you’re into. Ask the hotel for suggestions.
As far as dinner, don’t eat at the hotel. You can ask the hotel from recomendations but don’t eat there. And make reservations as far in advance as you can. You can tell if a place is going to be good (in general) if it gets booked up. Hotel restaurants typically don’t need to worry about repeat customers so their quality suffers.
Try Chicago Pizza. IMO it sucks, but the place I went to was BYOB so we figured we’d give it a shot, lol.
Being in the city there is a few things I would suggest.
Handcock tower and Sears tower. Cool view and can give you a great photo op of the city. Also the Michigan Ave and Cloud Gate (The bean) is a cool sight seeing and a landmark of Chicago. There is some art gallery’s there too if that interest you all within walking. distance and since its nice, its http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Gate
For food, the Chicago deep dish pizza that I enjoyed was Giordanos http://www.giordanos.com/. There is a bunch so pick and choose. Also for good seafood, Shaws was a frequent stop of us there but it is a little pricy. http://www.shawscrabhouse.com/chicago/index.shtml
A few others was Ditka’s which had really good pork chops.
x2 for the John Hancock tower. But make sure you go at night and have “coffee in the clouds.” It was awesome. I went to Giordano’s and thought it was good. Get a Chicaco hot dog at the place across from the “Rock n’ Roll McDonald’s” on Grand Street. Get it with the pickles and everything too.
Walk along the beach by where the Magnificent Mile ends. I remember there being a lot of of people and stuff going on there and IIRC, the entire coastline of Chicago is walkable.
If you wanna go out to some laid back restaurants and bars, go to the Lincoln Park neighborhood near Lincoln & Fullerton. There’s a bar there called Lincoln Station that actually supports the Bills and Sabres (if only it was the right time of year). There’s also some cool bars there with live music that were pretty cool.
Check out the crazy bean thing and the Chicago Art Institute while you’re there. I would say check out Chinatown too on the red line, but don’t go at night.
I say just walk around, look at the cool buildings and pretend that you live there for the few days that you’re there. I travel a lot like Anthony Bourdain.
Anyway, have fun I went two years ago and had a blast, Chicago is seriously like a big Buffalo.
EDIT:
I just saw that you were staying at the Hyatt. That’s actually where I stayed. It was pretty nice and you’re right in the middle of everything - right near the Magnificent Mile. Don’t dare spend too much time at the hotel, but you owe it to yourself to at least get a drink or two at the bar they have there one of the nights you’re there. IIRC it’s called Big Bar and the view of the city at night is pretty cool. Real big city kind of vibe that you don’t get in Buffalo.
I think we might try to do the Sears tower overlook thing. I don’t do well with heights and this thing will probably make me shit my pants, but it will be worth the photo op. Thanks for all the suggestions so far!
The Hancock tower is really cool. The Field Museum is very neat if you like all sorts of natural science and museum type stuff.
As far as food goes:
http://www.superdawg.com/ - great hot dogs
http://www.kumascorner.com/ - very tasty burgers, on pretzel rolls
I really would recommend the JH Tower too though, I went to both and the JH Tower seemed to have a lot less BS as far as lines and the amount of time you could spend up there, etc. You could actually sit down at the top of JH and there was a cafe, the Sears tower was just an elevator ride to a barren room with a stand selling keychains. The JH center had screens in spots, not glass so you could actually be outside. The Sears tower was all inside and glass enclosed so it wasn’t as cool.
However, they were remodeling the Sears Tower observation deck so I think the one I went to might have been temporary. I heard something about a glass platform you can walk out onto now. Crazy shit.
Added:
I wish this was there when I went!!!
Its called “through the garden”
Navy Pier is usually open and has a carnival at this time which is a cool stop.
Just be sure to watch out for the Flash Mob muggings and assaults that have been escalating on a regular basis there.
Well just arrived back in Buffalo from Chicago. After taking cabs everywhere, there is NO WAY I would have wanted to drive around the city. We got in Sunday (August 7th) and left in the morning of today (August 11th).
Sunday (August 7th)
We went to Subway (yeah I know, w/e) for dinner, and walked around the Magnificent Mile. All the nearby grocery stores were like hipster organic shit. Not that they are really bad, but I wanted some stuff that they clearly weren’t going to carry. I also totally forgot Lollapalooza was wrapping up on Sunday with the closing set being Deadmau5…needless to say I didn’t attend :(. We roamed around about 4 miles stopping at 2 grocery stores, a Walgreens, and 2 seven elevens before I got a cold can of Arnold Palmer. Our room was on the very top of the Hyatt on the 34th floor so the view overlooking the river was quite nice.
Monday (August 8th)
Took a trip down to the other Hyatt that the conference was at to register. Then my fiancee and I proceeded to walk back to the hotel which was about 3 miles away. We stopped for breakfast at a place called Yolk’s, which I highly recommend.
We stopped back at the hotel and rested for a bit, then walked to the Willis (Sears) Tower. Outside we met a couple who needed to catch a train so we bought their tickets which saved us 6 dollars and 30 minutes waiting. We waited about an hour, which included a movie about the tower. Then we headed up to the 103 floor. It only takes 60 seconds to get from the bottom floor to the top. The view is incredible. I am a pussy when it comes to heights but I decided to go out on the ledge which looks ridiculous from the street level.
You can’t tell but I was sweating profusely from being up so high.
I’m pretty sure due to an insane line for cabs, and the fact it was raining we ate at the “151 Bistro” in the hotel for dinner. The food was about as good as expected for hotel food. The menu also had like 10 things on it.
Tuesday (August 9th)
I was in a conference all day so my fiancee walked around and took a boat tour of the Chicago architecture. We went for dinner at Shaw’s as per Boxxa’s suggestion. The food was…eh. Definitely not worth the price. The bill came to $125 for 2 drinks, dinner, appetizer, and dessert. I did have a glass of Goose Island Sofie beer which was delicious.
Wednesday (August 10th)
Conference Pt. 2. We went to the Navy Pier which was pretty cool. Ate dinner at Harry Caray’s, food was meh at best. Friday’s and Applebee’s have better burgers. Our server was cool though, and I used a foursquare deal for 10% off the bill.
too bad I didn’t see this sooner…
lou malnatis > *
too bad it seems like you missed it. chi-town is aweomse
I miss me some labomba like a motherfucker
Yeah my fiancee wanted Pizza too. We saw some delivery guys dropping off at the hotel. Couple of those locations were in walking distance.
Bump
I’m going to Chicago in a couple weeks. I will likely only have a little more than a day to mess around but was wondering which area is the best to stay in. Should I try to stay near the city center?
I stayed right downtown pretty much (See post #3). Everything was pretty accessible within walking distance and only about 10min by cab. Stop at Yolk for breakfast, you won’t regret it.
Right downtown or up north is pretty nice by Lincon Park is pretty cool. Water and pier and that stuff is right there too.
I stayed at the Hyatt too. Great location. Got in on hotwire for like 40% of the regular price btw.
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I also plan to use Hotwire. Which is why I’m asking for areas.
Thanks for the advice. This thread seems very helpful for things to do as well. :tup:
A helpful thread on NYSpeed off-topic? What is this world coming to?!