Going to Chicago. What do I need to do? Avoid?
 

Going to Chicago for a little 4 day vacation(Thrusday - Sunday) on spring break. Going to the Bulls vs. Cleveland NBA game and see Lebron, Derrick Rose, Shaq etc on Friday night. What is the can't miss "stuff" in Chicago? Avoid? opinions welcome...

Staying downtown at the Allerton hotel.

Any Planeteers want to get together?
--------------------------------------------------------------------
03/22/2010 edit to pay it forward for future chicago visitors:
Transportation:
Definitely take the trains and bus’s if you are planning to spend a lot of time downtown. We saved a fortune in cabs. Get the CTA pass and you can get on how ever many buses, trains, transfers etc that you want for how many days you purchase. http://faremedia.chicago-card.com/store/main.aspx?DepartmentId=34 Check the schedule and plan your route out:
http://www.transitchicago.com/travel_information/maps/default.aspxhttp://www.transitchicago.com/riding_cta/populardestinations.aspx

We arrived at 8:00 at the O’Hara airport and not taking the train would have been a disaster. They highways are parking lots that time of the day. We flew out of Midway on the way out and took a cab out there to the airport.
We really enjoyed riding the bus’s and talking to the locals. They gave us great tips on where to eat etc.

You don’t need a car. If you are driving, there is no where to park and where there is parking is very expensive and driving downtown is dangerous trying to navigate all those cabs and buses? Not for the weak of heart.

Attractions:<O:p</O:p
Get the Go Chicago card: Saved us a ton of money on admission fees but more importantly we avoided the lines at the attractions to get tickets. It was snowing and the line to get into the Field museum was over an hour and a half to just get tickets to get into the museum. The lines to get tickets are long. Get your tickets in advance.
http://www.smartdestinations.com/chicago-attractions-and-tours/_d_Chi-p1.html?pass=Chi_Prod_Go

Sears Tower: Was cool but if you have to wait an hour or two? Question the value. The ledge is really cool. Nothing between you and the street 103 stories up but some Plexiglas. It’s an experience you can’t get anywhere else in the world.

John Hancock observatory: We actually liked it better than the Sears tower because of the better ocean and beach views. They have something cool there, a skywalk 93 stories up that you can walk along that is exposed to the wind, temperatures etc 93 floors up. Just some mesh screen between you and the sky.

Science and Industry museum: We all felt that this was the best of all the museums. You have to see the U-Boat. It’s another one of those you can only experience in Chicago things.

Millennium Park: The silver bean was really cool. Seems like a real simple thing but once you get there and see it up close you understand the draw the bean has for people. Make sure you go underneath the bean and check it out. Looks like a wonderful place to watch a concert.

Shedd Aquarium: We were disappointed in this one. Maybe we are just spoiled but we thought the Aquarium in Omaha was much better.

The Field museum: Another disappointment. Sue the T-Rex was really cool but the rest of the museum left us flat. Seemed really educational for kids but for us adults we would like to have seen more exhibits than some pottery.

Chicago Bulls game: We decided to take the bus out there. Straight shot to and from downtown. Not really a bad seat in the house. The mascot seems to be pretty athletic and entertaining. Highly recommend getting one of the monster dogs.

Navy Pier: We went there and it was cold. Looks like a great place to visit in the warm weather.

Second City: We saw “Rush Limbaugh, the musical”. Barney Frank, Hillary, Dancing Ronald Reagan’s…Very funny stuff. Had a bit in there when Rush with the Royals and George Brett on a toilet with hemorrhoids. Highly recommend checking out a show there.

The Art Institute: A wonderful place to see art. So many Picasso’s, Monet’s and Van Gough’s you can’t really appreciate them fully like if some were here in KC just because of the sheer volume of masterpieces in one place. Very impressive collection. We also enjoyed seeing the American Gothic and some American art.
http://www.artic.edu/aic/

Eats:<O:p</O:p
Ginos East: Great pizza. Love the crust. We went to the one on Shapiro and it has all the walls filled with customer graffiti. Not living off its past reputation. My son thought it was the best pizza ever.

Giordanos: on Shapiro, Excellent deep dish pizza here also. Better than anything you can get in KC. Try sprinkling a little Italian herb seasoning on the pizza here.
http://www.giordanos.com/locations.html

West Egg: Breakfast by the doubletree. Reasonable prices and great food. Everything we had was good.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/west-egg-cafe-chicago-2

Yokes: Breakfast on Lake Shore drive. Best crepes we have ever had. Very good food.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/yolk-chicago-2

Quaritinos: Best meal in Chicago. Very trendy and hip place but don’t let that push you away. You order 5-6 things and share them. Ravioli, Brusheta and the Bananas foster desert were our favorites but everything we had was real flavorful and well prepared. http://www.quartinochicago.com/
<O:p</O:p

Lodging: <O:p</O:p
We stayed at the Allerton hotel downtown. I would highly recommend if you are coming to Chicago and you are going to do these things listed above to stay downtown. This was a great hotel. If you can’t afford the downtown rates just take the train into the city and go from there.

Art Institute.

Fantastic.

I would like to check out the new glass balcony thingy on the Sears Tower, too.

Can I get arrested for taking a leak on Wrigley field?

Navy Pier
Sears Tower
All of the different museums along Lakeshore Drive
Ed Debevic's
Giordano's Pizza
Wrigley Field tour

It's encouraged, actually. The team pisses all over themselves every year, so...

If you're driving, stay the **** away from the airport.

I've only been there once for business, and the gal I had to travel with was a ****ing scaredy cat and didn't want to go do anything.

There is some damn good food there though. Damn good. I can't remember the Italian restaurant we ate at there (The best I've had), but I can tell you what town it was in. There is also a fast food place called Buena (I think) Beef. They have some damn good roast beef sandwiches.

Science museum. They have an awesome display of an actual German U-boat. You can walk around it and take a pretty neat tour of the inside. I think the tour is $5.

Sears tower.

If you like seafood eat at Poppadeux's. Very awesome restaurant.

Flying in and out, figured we'd take cabs etc while there. Don't want to drive up there and back for a little 4 day vacation and don't want to screw around with a rental and finding parking spots all the time.

chicago's public transit system is one of the best in the country. you can take the train (isn't it the 'L'? can't recall) almost literally anywhere in the city.

Yep. It's the L.

yeah--you can get packets of passes for the L and save yourself TONS of money in cab fares.

That's fair. I thought it wasn't that far of a drive. Some of my buddies from Emporia drove up there.

In that case, I have nothing to add :D

Enjoy your trip bud.

buy a 5 day City Pass for transit, and you will get unlimited rides on the El and busses. Best way to get around unless it's late at night, but even up until 10pm and you'd be fine. Plus, you can be a nice guy and give it to some new arrival at the airport on your way out. Much cheaper than paying as you go if you are going to be getting around.

The U Boat at MOSI is awesome. And for pizza, I think Gino's East is the best.

Great advice, but you can leave out the Sears Tower :shake:... i got/get the willies being up that high in something man made & that glass balcony can definitely kiss my ass lol.

Avoid the United Center. I hear there is a team stealing people's money.

You know, now that I think of it, I think it was Gino's East where we had the amazing deep dish pizza.

Reza's Restaurant. The one on Clark preferably.

oh and SCTV is a good time.

Isn't the actual cheeseburger place SNL used to skits about downtown somewhere? Cheebuger cheebuger, no coke, pepsi

I can't remember the name of it.

Billy Goat Tavern.

No clue. I don't watch SNL that much to know it.

terrible...only reason it's in business is the tourists. Same with Ed Debevics. If you want to pay more to eat shitty food and be treated like shit, knock yourself out.

Especially from the airports. Taxis are nice right now because of the brutal cold, but you can get from the airport to your hotel with only one transfer for $2.25 as opposed to $40-$50 for a taxi.

Like someone already said, Giordanos is the famous Chicago style pizza place. There's one literally right across from where you are staying. Gino's East is right there too.

Everyone raves about Science and Industry, but I was underwhelmed last time. Be prepared for kids everywhere, most who seem more interested in running around then seeing anything. They offer adult days though, so that could be worth it.

Really depends on what your interests are. Museums? Restaurants? Shops?

Also, if your into it, I'd recommend hopping on the El and getting away from Michigan Ave area and seeing one of the neighborhoods. If you head south, Hyde Park is beautiful with some fun restaurants. The University of Chicago is fun to walk around. Probably easier to take a bus from where you are then to take the El, as its a bit of a walk through whats not the prettiest part of town.

If you head north, Wrigleyville can be fun, especially if you like yuppy 20 year olds. But some real fun bars and restaurants in the Lakeshore and Lincoln Park areas. Still fairly touristy, but not crazy crowds everywhere.

If you are into any type of food too, there are some fun ethnic neighborhoods. Right around Loyola off Devon there are some great Indian food places.

Anyway, like I said, depends what your into. You're in a great area for seeing all the big tourist places. Grab a drink at the top of the Hancock building on a clear night. Go to a nice restaurant on Rush st.

Al's Italian Beef.

Across from Gino's East.

Ed Debevic's was cool when I went there. Servers sang karaoke, and they were supposed to be rude to you (it was comical).

Avoid Jaegermeister.

I've never been in the Billy Goat, but from what i know its not a stretch to envision some rude sh*t.

But you're supposed to expect that treatment at Debevics, definitely a unique concept 'come eat here, our wait staff will be a royal smartass to you'

I'd avoid the Richard Speck museum.

oh, I know that. It just isn't worth the shitty food and premium prices to me. I'd rather eat good food than crap. It's right up there with Bubba Gump Shrimp or Rainforest Cafe to me.

... LMAO, Rainforest Cafe... home of the $15 sorry ass cheeseburger.

I would avoid those big gang-infested public housing projects where the mid-day gunfire sounds like popcorn.

He's probably hoping someone mentions a good escort service but is too afraid to ask.

We had a Rainforest Cafe in Denver for a couple of years. They sank a ton of money into the decor of that place, and then I think it was hard for the mall to find a new renter because the space was full of jungle and robot elephants and giant aquariums. I think I ate there once, but don't remember anything about the food or the pricing. I do remember being kind of annoyed because we were in the robot elephant section and every fifteen minutes or so they would start tumpeting and you couldn't talk until they were done. It was so bad that I considered asking to be moved to the "Savannah Thunderstorm" section where the lights dimmed every 15 minutes as the thunderstorm rolled in and thunder boomed.

I bet the key is to google around a little bit and find out which one the mayor uses.

They are definitely more interested in the decor, than they are the quality of their food.

The ex & i took the kids there one year while on vacation... never been back.

If you're driving, keep in mind that Daley sold the parking meters to an independent company that decided placing only one pay station per city block was a good idea. Also as a result, a lot of the places I used to be able to park overnight at I can no longer do so since they require being fed every two hours or so.

A plus is that you can basically get anywhere you really need to go via the "L", Metra, bus or cab.

I echo the calls for an Art Institute visit. The Field Museum is great if you haven't been before too. Gino's or Due's is good for pizza. If you want a steak/seafood I might hit Hugo's Frog Bar although it is a bit more $$$.

I'm sure you're aware, but they're mostly gone. It's weird that the remnants are right down the street from a Whole Foods now.

The Allerton is a good location. You're close to both Gino's East as well as a Giordano's, so finding good pizza will be easy. The Hancock is only a couple of blocks away and they have a good observation deck if you want to see the city and surroundings from way up high. You're also close to the Tribune Building, which you might pass on a walk down Michigan Avenue. (It's at the north side of the bridge over the river, on the east side of the street.) If you pass it, take a few minutes to check out the exterior wall of that building, which is embedded with stones and ornaments from famous buildings all over the world. One of the Billy Goat Taverns (the most famous location) is right across the street from there, but on the lower level. That's a good place to get a burger. Reza's has good Persian food. The Clark street location was mentioned earlier in this thread, but that's way up on the Northside. The Ontario street location in River North is a short cab ride (or stroll) from your hotel, so that might be more feasible.

You should definitely try to take walks around the area where you're staying and into the Loop, just to enjoy the architecture.

Yeah, I know. But when given the chance to post that pic, I'm going to.

That place may have been the scariest ****ing place on Earth in its heyday.

You have to hit Portillos at least once!

http://www.portillos.com/

Been to Chicago 4 times now, all on business and the only sight seeing I was able to do was back and forth from the airport.
Posted via Mobile Device

This thread is old, but there's lots of good info in it.

http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=138140

You sure picked a shitty time of year to visit weather-wise.

One change - Sears Tower is now called Willis Tower. I haven't been up there since they put in the ledge thing, but I hear it's really cool. I might actually go check it out one of these days - I haven't been up there for over 20 years.

The Museum of Science and Industry continues to be the coolest of the major attractions. I cannot stress that enough.

Also, if you visit the Billy Goat Tavern, wear your Cardinals stuff - they love that. :evil:

And pissing on Wrigley Field would be fine. You might actually get to watch it freeze depending on how cold it is.

If you'd like to do lunch or hook up for a beer or three after I get off work on Thursday or Friday, shoot me a PM. You can tell me about your World Series experience and watch me seeth with envy in person. :D

I know you're a Cards fan, but Uberstein in Wrigleyville has a ridiculously good bratwurst served on a soft pretzel bun and the best mustard I've ever tasted.

Is the restaurant where the food is brought to you via model railroad trains still there? That was very cool... well, to a 12-year old.

Never been to a "real" NBA game and get to see Lebron in person....They can rip me off a little...one time anyway.

BTW, I just added you to my contacts list so you can actually send me a PM. Duh.

Just do what frazod says... heh.

The Museum of Science and Industry is that good... it's a bit off the beaten path as far as the pier, Sears Tower, etc; but it's well worth a day or three.

If it wasn't for the glass ledge, I'd say the Sears/Willis tower isn't worth it... when I went it was 2.5 hours of waiting (the line was out the door, and even when you walk in and see a fairly short line, you go down an elevator to another huge freakin' line) for about 15 minutes at the top... eh. So, if you can find a time to go where it's not crowded (probably first thing in the morning), stepping out on the ledge is really cool.

The aquarium is okay... at least 3rd behind Atlanta and Omaha, IMO. The Field Museum isn't a must-see, but it's nice and you can get through it in a few hours.

Or a foggy day.

We should hook up with BRC and have couple, you can have DP.:D

Yeah we should get together on Thrusday night then. Going to the Bulls game on Friday night.

Plan on wearing my World Series Cardinals gear over to wrigley and at leat get a pic of me flipping the bird. I know its very junior highish but sound like too much fun to pass up.:)

I was flipping around on the radio yesterday and heard the Queen song, "We are the Champions" brought back a very cool memory of hearing it on the sports talk radio station I was listening to as I drove home to KC from St. Louis after watching them win a WS live.

we were there for a club benefit a couple of months ago and hit up portillos twice. VERY GOOD
Posted via Mobile Device

Be careful around there. You may want to take a cab to and from there as opposed to a train. Especially if it is a night game. Stay out of south Chicago at night. The METRA is another train line that will take you to places like the MOSI. It is right by the U of Chicago. Again, daytime only. At night I would stay around the Loop and Near Northtown. That is where most of the things to do at night are anyway. Stay in crowded areas.

Thanks for the tips. Going to have the wife and son with me so safety is a top priorty.

BRC, the wife and I going to Chicago for a quick weekend getaway this coming weekend. Never been before....we're staying downtown at Four Points Sheraton, a block off Michigan Ave.

I think we've planned to go to the Shedd Aquarium, the Art Institute, and a museum or two. If the weather permits, we'll do the Navy Pier. My wife isn't terrible excited about going up in the Sears Tower, but she feels somewhat obligated. We're going to the Bulls/Heat game on Saturday night, so I'm looking forward to that.

Cool. Look forward to hearing how your trip went.:thumb:

Yeah, you have missed some pretty good Chiefs private info

Avoid the guy named Jerry who hangs out at the 1300 block of Michigan Avenue wearing a trench coat, black socks, and no pants.

FAX

Hey! :cuss:

What's wrong with Jerry? I like Jerry. He's the type of guy who would give you the pants off his back if you needed it.

Just pack your mad collection of "Obama, change we can believe in" t-shirts and you will fit right in over there.

According to Mr. FAX that ship has already sailed.

I saw the Bridge Of Brigadoon play at the Drury Lane, I would recommend going there if your into dinner and a play.

get a Chicago style hot dog from Portillo's

They suck compared to the "Combo."

Italian Beef and Italian Sausage:drool:

Yes. HUGO'S rocks.

Don't waste your time on Navy Pier. Marginal in the warmer months, it would be worthless now. Shedd Aquarium I've heard is also iffy.

YEAH!

You could have added me before, you know..... :(

Well?

It said you don't accept private messages.

I'd ask the hotel concierge what is the best way to get to the United Center. I was always told to take a cab.

I only accept PMs from people on my contacts list - it's a wonderful option. I don't need any private death threats or leg humpings from some of the shitheads who infest this place.

????

Just wear a Barrack Obama t shirt or a Acorn pin and you'll be fine.

Going to Chicago. Have to wear the birds on bat proudly. I'm taking all Cardinals gear.ROFL

Damn you're really asking for it then.ROFL