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need advice for chicago trip


Beegreenstrings

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Fiance is graduating OSU soon and I wanted to do something nice for her. I was thinking Vegas or a nice place at OBX for a weekend or whatever. She said she wanted to go to the natural history museum in Chicago...

Anyone know of some really nice places to stay in Chicago. I was looking at the Hard Rock on the magnificent mile? :cool:

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I have a buddy that lives there, went to grad school and ended up staying... PM me if you are interested and i will give you his phone number and let him know you will be calling. He is a real good guy and can point you to a lot of good places to stay, eat, and visit while there.

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Check out hotels.com for some good hotel rates. They will buttrape you on parking. Check out Groupon and Living Social since they offer getaways and hotel deals as well. I loved the Westin when I went.

Walking the Mag Mile is always cool, you can take it down to Millenium Park to walk around there. I would suggest taking the water taxi up to chinatown and wondering around there. Go saturday or sunday for some Dim Sum for lunch. Most Ohians have no clue what this is, but just picture asian tapas.

If you want to pull out all stops for something really special, take her to L2O for dinner. This is not cheap, the tasting menu was around $250-300 for both of us. This was a trip...the most memorable restaurant my fiancee and i have ever been too. Service is AMAZING...its like an orchestrated show, and the food was an artful experience. Definitely not for the faint of heart (or wallet) but if you wanted a one-off experience its great. Definitely something a lot of folks here would disagree with, but if your a foodie well worth it.

Theres tons of good food around...cheap and expensive. The museum is tons of foun, check out the Museum of Science and Industry too.

We've been several times and have yet to go see everything we wanted to see. I love Chicago.

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Plenty of places to stay downtown near the Field, just depends how much you want to spend - $70/night on up to $way too much/night.

If you like art at all, go to the Art Institute, won't regret it.

HAVE to do Lou Malnati's, Giordano's, and/or Geno's East if you're a 'za fan.

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Plenty of places to stay downtown near the Field, just depends how much you want to spend - $70/night on up to $way too much/night.

If you like art at all, go to the Art Institute, won't regret it.

HAVE to do Lou Malnati's, Giordano's, and/or Geno's East if you're a 'za fan.

There's a Gino's West off the Mag Mile...the sausage deep dish pizza almost made me jizz my pants.

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That's a wonderful museum in Chicago. Check out the Shedd aquarium right next door while you are there. Some of the hotels in Chicago have fantastic views of the city from the rooms. Try to get one of those, it's an experience you will remember forever.

For what you are wanting to see, one of the nearby hotels along Michigan Ave would be within walking distance. Or a short cab ride. (Take the cab! This is Chicago! lol) Start picking out some nice restaurants to try out while you are there. Don't pick a hotel that is too far from the downtown area, unless you want to be closer to the shopping areas.

In descending order of cost, right downtown on Michigan Ave (all within a mile through the park):

Renaissance Blackstone

Hilton Chicago

Essex Inn

Congress Plaza Hotel

Best Western Grant Park (closest to museum)

Chicago's Essex Inn (cheap)

Hotels in the shopping areas, mostly just North of the river are mostly a little more expensive.

Hotels in the Financial Loop downtown are two or three times the cost or more.

The maximum that I see is the Trump Hotel Chicago starting at $420.

edit: Charlie Trotter's Restaurant is closing in August 2012. Considered one of the best in the world. (Yikes! 700 bucks to eat there...)

Edited by ReconRat
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Yeah I was looking at a King suite at the top floor of the Hard Rock. But that is why I was asking. I have been there before but never stayed.

My wife and I stay at the Hard Rock every spring for a weekend away from the kids. I was actually just checking prices and packages last night. Current packages and prices aren't as good as I've seen in the past for the April / May time frame. We normally stay in a Tower King which is great. 2 years ago we got a free upgrade to a Tower Suite because they were painting the Tower Kings. I highly recommend it. The location is pretty central to all the activities with plenty of great restaurants around. If you like good Italian you have to go to Rosebud's. It's is a little pricey but the food is incredible. Here are some pictures of the suite and the view.

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Edited by cmh_sprint
added photos
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