Help me plan 4 nights in Chicago

Cafe Society
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I mean, as a local, I’d prefer to be in the Hilton area on south Michigan. There’s just a lot more cultural walking around stuff to do, even if the night life is a bit quieter down there. My heart of Chicago resides south of the river.

That said, that Hampton Inn (that’s 160 E Huron, right?) puts you in a perfectly fine part of town. I don’t know why that area would be particularly cheap. It’s a perfectly decent area to use as a base to explore Chicago. It’ll be a bit more footwork to get to museums and stuff, but you’ll still be in the heart of things and the more night lifey stuff should be easier to get to.

So, no, I don’t see any reason not to stay there.

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Ok, thanks, I’ll be forming up a plan soon for Chicago mostly from this thread before I asked about hotels. It will likely be the same except for the horrifying gastro intestinal suffering (then again, I might try Malort).

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Ooof…careful with that. It is up there with drinking bug spray.

That said, I have been told it can cure an upset stomach…probably because drinking it makes you forget about whatever else may be ailing you. :wink:

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As a local, I find that Hilton to be a bit out of the main action of the city (just a bit…only barely). It is mainly a business traveler’s hotel and not a tourist hotel. It’s nice, it’s fine, it’s not too far out of the way but there’s just not much there. Sure there is the museum campus but if you are doing that just take a taxi/Uber for five minutes from a little further away.

That said, it really is fine and nice. Nothing wrong with it. I’d just rather be a little more centrally located (north Loop/Mag Mile/River North) so I could walk to more things.

Mine is north of the river. :slight_smile:

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Yet, despite my South Side proclivities, oddly, I’m a Cubs fan. :slight_smile:

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Heh…that actually surprised me! :sunglasses:

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So, to raise this thread a bit again because will be there in three weeks, and booking cruises.

Is the " Chicago Architecture Foundation Center River Cruise aboard Chicago’s First Lady" cruise listed at the start of the thread the same one you get off city pass? Or a different thing? Working out if CityPass is to be gotten.

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Since I live in Chicago I have not used the CityPass.

Looking at the CityPass website it seems the pass is good for a Shoreline architectural tour. Shoreline is a company and it is different than the architectural tour promoted by the Chicago Architecture Center’s river cruise. At least, that is how it looks to me. It seems the cruise by the Chicago Architecture Center is 90 minutes and the Shoreline cruise is 60 minutes. No idea if that makes one better or not but it might figure into your scheduling.

Is one better than the other? I honestly do not know. I have not been on one in a few years (although I always enjoy them). I suspect they are comparable since they compete and are probably well aware of what the other does so you’d enjoy either.

More broadly, the CityPass might be worthwhile if you intend to visit the city’s museums. They are world class and all worth visiting I think.

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A friend of mine is a docent / tour guide for the CAF, and works as a guide on their boat tours. My understanding is that the CAF tour guides are more experienced and knowledgeable.

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I’d believe that since this is sort of the whole thing the CAF is about. I’d hope they’d be the gold standard for this sort of tour and expect they’d try to be. You also pay a bit more for that (which is fair).

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Thanks for the info, probably just do some museums, but the CAF sounds like our bag and I’d rather take that over the citypass one, and pay for the museums we want to go to.

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I found the CAF tour a little bland - lots of “This is the XYZ building, constructed in nineteen dickety-twelve, the architects were Snodgrass, Buckley, and Putsworth…” that all blurs together after 90 minutes, mixed in with a few memorable facts about the history of Sears and how Donald Trump is a corrupt SOB. We’re going on a lake cruise this time instead.

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We’ve done it twice. The first time the guide really taught us a lot about different schools of architecture and how they evolved over time, with stunning examples along the river front. It was fantastic. The second time, it was more like you describe. It’s nice, but yes, it does all blur together.

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So post trip now, and a few pitfalls I’d had. Partly to do with the Hilton website, and also the assumptions of other peoples metro systems.

First day we got off at Grand on the blue line from airport, looking for our hotel. Firstly, our Homeward suites on Miracle Mile wasn’t near a station called Grand like I thought it was, I’d researched it correctly, but when booking it I’d chosen a different Homewards Suites sitting beside a Hampton Inn called Miracle Mile at the same price, and it was the one in East Huron street. There’s a few similar sets of hotels. It wasn’t the worst decision in a city of Chicago’s size, but the plan to use the metro system was thrown by it being at least 5 blocks west and 6 blocks south/north. Still, we made do, and found things we wanted to.

Secondly was it wasn’t clear that there was multiple metro stops called Grand, and the one we got off was Grand and Milwaukee on Blue line, not Grand and State on the Red line. After 20 minutes walking around, we booked an Uber to get there. We booked into a hotel in the correct area on our final night though, and Uber was so cheap we got one to airport and bypassed the fun of the metro on way back. So barely used it twice. Used the buses more (down to Amtrak).

Giordano’s pizza, well, it was the wrong choice on the menu. It wasn’t clear from the menu that it was BBQ sauce rather than marinara on BBQ chicken pizza (looking online it is ambiguous to me, that you default to marinara with option of BBQ sauce), and secondly it wasn’t anything I’d ever call BBQ sauce, it was basically jam/jelly on top. Apart from the BBQ sauce, well, scraping that crap off mostly, it wasn’t that great. Love the Chicago beefs from Al’s though, went back second time.

Anyway, apart from that we had an excellent time in this nice city, rate it above LA, Seattle, Washington and New York, We did a few days in Milwaukee (Amtrak up), and Detroit/Ann Arbor with friends (Amtrak over and back, BOTH ON TIME!).

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I’m thrilled to hear Amtrak was on time, I might take the train to Chicago next time.

Was there a couple weekends ago, mainly got around on the Brown line as we stayed in wrigleyville area. Bussed it too all on a $5 day pass with free transfers.

Took a 90 min architecture boat tour, had no idea there were several operators. But chose Wandella tours family operated, and the tour guide was fantastic, and informative he engaged with the crowd and was very entertaining. The day started out sunny and warm but got on the water and whoosh it was cold again.

Ended the very long day at Rotary Sushi, then much later that evening walked to movie at the Music Box Theatre.

What a great City!

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This is just something you’re going to have to culturally know, I guess, though I’m surprised it wasn’t on the menu. (Though the menu I’m looking at online does say “tomato sauce substituted with BBQ sauce.” The one on their website says “we replace the tomato sauce with BBQ sauce on this one! Please, no substitutions or modifications.” Perhaps this varies by location.) Every “BBQ Chicken” pizza I’ve seen in the US has barbecue sauce instead of marinara. And you’re right. It’s usually terrible, sweet gloppy stuff. But lots of folks here like it. A stuffed pizza version of that, where the sauce is on top and more copious, also sounds especially terrible. But “BBQ sauce” in America generally means a thick sauce with smoke flavoring in it, often quite sweet, with a bit of tang. (I say “generally,” because traditional barbecue sauces that you serve with smoked meats do not contain smoke flavoring themselves – that’s in the meat – and can range from sweeter, thick styles like Kansas City to pretty much pure vinegar with a bit of sugar to balance and hot pepper, like Eastern North Carlina styles. The vast majority of commercial sauces will have liquid smoke in it.)

217

I’ve had plenty of BBQ chicken sandwiches, and other BBQ sauce stuff as well as BBQ itself, but I’ve never come across that vile stuff before. “Quite sweet” doesn’t do it justice, it was red sugar with liquid smoke in it.

I suspect though, even with the stuff mostly scraped off, I’d not have liked the pizza much with tomato sauce on it. You live and learn. Weirdly, I’ve had a superb deep dish pizza in Lahaina, Maui, and really enjoyed it, but it was much deeper a dish pizza than that. Little chance of getting that again though, since the town burned down last year.

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Personally, I’m not a fan of Giordano’s stuffed pizza, or really stuffed pizza in general. Regular ol’ deep dish a la Lou Malnati’s is okay maybe once a year (but it’s not really all that deep compared to the one you described) but thin crust for me 95% of the time.

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Whenever I’m in Chicago, I’ve always liked going to Pizzeria UNO. Lou Malnati’s is great, but UNO is usually my go-to.

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We just did 4 days in Chicago over spring break. Stayed at the Homewood Suites in the South Loop which made it really convenient to walk to the museum campus. The City Pass was a great deal mainly because of all the additional perks that you’d pay extra for at each museum. SkyDeck expedited entry, MSI u-boat and coal mine, Field Museum extra exhibits, etc.
Did a crime tour also that departed near the water tower. Not bad. Saw the John Dillinger alleyway, St. Valentine’s Day massacre sight, the hidden vault in the Harry Carry restaurant basement, etc.
Had Lou Malnati’s a couple times which is always great. Also went to Ed Debevik’s which had moved since I used to go there in the early 90s. Not the same. Overpriced and the rudeness act was way toned down.
Great city and always felt safe walking around even at night.