Chicago trip planning help

[slamzim]

Planning a few days in Chicago with the girls (sis, dd10, dd10, dd8) this summer. We definitely want to do American Girl place. What are some other recommendations on things to do? Also any help with transportation would be great. Thinking of taking the MegaBus into Chicago.... need advice in getting around town.

TIA

 

[Dis_Fan]

Planning a few days in Chicago with the girls (sis, dd10, dd10, dd8) this summer. We definitely want to do American Girl place. What are some other recommendations on things to do? Also any help with transportation would be great. Thinking of taking the MegaBus into Chicago.... need advice in getting around town.

TIA

When are you going in Summer? There is a chance you will make it time for a Chicago Festival. For example if your going July 11-15 you will make it for the Taste of Chicago. Great food festival.

Other things:

Navy Pier. Expensive and touristy but still a fun visit. Lots of food, movie theater, childrens museum. BIG Ferris Wheel.

Sears Tower. or Willis Tower if you accept the name change. Not the tallest building in the world now but still top 10 and has a great observation deck where you can go on glass floors and look down. Got to pay to get up there.

White Sox or Cubs games. Both big market teams. Both will be pretty bad this year so chance for walk up tickets should be hi. Especially for White Sox and they have a great park. Both parks can be reached on the Red Line train system and are quick trips from downtown.

Grant Park/Lakefront. Lake Michigan is beautifull and had great walking and bike lanes. Grant Park with the Fountain is also really nice

The BEAN. A BIG silver bean you can walk under. Its located in Millenium Park which is right next to grant park. Walking areas, picture areas and free fun waterspouts to cool off with.

Just south of Grant park is all the museums. Field Museum, Astronomy Museum, and aquarium. Individually maybe not a full day event but do two and your set. Musuem of science and Industry needs a CTA bus ride but its a ALL day event, and is hosting a special Mythbusters exhibit all summer.

For getting around town. If your in downtown, everything is accessible by walking, except the baseball parks and science musuem. There are tons of CTA bus stops that you can ride (for a fee) that will take you around. And as I said the "L" red line will take you to the parks.

 

[Grace&Carolinesmom]

Ditto what PP said. Also--when I have been there in the summer, they were running trolley style buses for free around town.

There are also some fun boat tours. We took an architectural boat tour and it was VERY interesting. The ticket sales and loading dock were down at the market area. Hotel will have a brochure most likely or you can google it. I would also highly recommend buying a walking map of downtown. It really helps you to orient yourself when seaching for things which can sometimes be easier than strictly using your cell phone GPS maps....IMO

For a place to stay, I have stayed at Doubletree Suites(great choc chip cookies BTW), and Embassy Suites downtown. I have not stayed at the Embassy Suites near Navy Pier as it seemed kinda out of the way for us but still a great place if you are spending lots of time at Navy Pier.

When my oldest DD was younger, she loved the cafe at the American Girl store. Food was expensive but tasty. It is more of an experience than getting-your-money's-worth kinda place. We were always there for a birthday and lucked out to get a table overlooking Michigan Ave. nice The play at the store was also fun. Haven't been to AG store in about 6 or 7 years so I am not sure if things have changed.

Have fun! Chicago is a great walking city. THere is usually a good breeze to keep you cool and so much to look at.

 

[Tkeaves1]

Eat LOTS of pizza, go to the Willis Tower and check out The Bean

 

[slamzim]

Thanks for all the advice! I will check out the walking map. That is the biggest thing trying to figure out getting places. We are planning on doing a lot of walking, but not sure about the bus/trolley system.

Any advice on the Zoo? Is it very close to downtown?

We are looking at July, probably the week after the 4th. My try the Taste of Chicago time....

 

[Callie]

Visit the Science and Industry Musuem! I also love staying downtown, and you can get great rates via Hotwire or last minute travel. The public transpo is a great way to get around! buy the day passes!

 

[GoofTroop]

Lincoln Park Zoo is basically in the heart of Chicago, and is also near the beach (Lake Michigan). It's also a free zoo. Brookfield Zoo charges admission, is much bigger than Lincoln Park, and is in a suburb of Chicago.....Brookfield.

I also think Navy Pier lets off fireworks on Wednesday and Saturday nights throughout the summer. They have the past several years. Wonderful fireworks!

 

[irishsharon]

We lived an hour from Chicago for a few years and I have to say it is such a family friendly city! The trolleys are a great way to get around town in the summer also they have water taxis that where great.Everyone is friendly and helpful My boys loved Shedd aquarium.There always seems to be a festival or something going on.It really is a great walking city and very easy to get around.Have a wonderful trip!

 

[Fjobe]

Definitely go to the Shedd Aquarium!

 

[lelei]

I'm a Chicago native and I won't recommend brookfield zoo or the Shedd. Brookfield zoo is pretty lacking by modern standards and is extremely expensive. We have been members since my kids were really young, but Brookfield is just not that great of a zoo. IMO, even the Milwaukee Zoo blows it away. The Shedd tends to be horrfically crowded, especially on weekends. The lines just to get into the Shedd are insane, and the past few times we have visited its been wall to wall people.

I would recommend visiting Lincoln Park Zoo though. Admission is free, it has fairly nice exhibits and the skyline makes a beautiful backdrop for photos. For museums, the field is huge and everyone loves the Egypt exhibit and seeing Sue the t-rex. If you go, take a few minutes to check out the views from the windows, they are beautiful. There is also the museum of science and industry, which is also huge and a lot of fun. My kids prefer MSI due to all the hands on stuff, and they love sitting in the jet still. If you do MSI, the coal mine is awesome, but loud at times. Its best to do that as early in the day as possible, before the museum gets packed.

Navy Pier can also be fun, but we prefer to walk around Grant Park and the zoo instead. Downtown, stuff gets expensive fast and Navy Pier is no exception. Also, don't be shy about catching cabs downtown. The loop is huge and you can exhaust yourself by trying to walk from point a to point b. If your going in warmer weather, the water taxis are a fun way to get around too. They don't get you a real "tour" but they are fairly cheap and you get to see the city from the water, which is always a hit with my kids.

As for food, we honestly don't like eating downtown very often. There's great food in the suburbs, and downtown tends to be overpriced. If you get a chance, stop at a Portillos, its a local chain with great hot dogs, ribs, etc. Chicago has a lot of great little mom and pop type hot dog stands, and personally I think the hot dogs are much better than pizza.

 

[lelei]

With my Shedd-bashing, I forgot to mention one detail. If you're going during the summer, they usually have Jazzing at the Shedd on Wednesday nights. They open the aquarium late, and have live music. Its the best way to see the Shedd with minimal crowds, and you can see the Navy Pier fireworks from the balconies and walkways. If your going to be there during the week and want to see the aquarium, its the absolute best way to do so.

The walkways near the Shedd are also awesome for photos- you can get beautiful pics with the skyline and Navy Pier as your backdrop. At night, its one of the best places to get pictures of the city all lit up and the Navy Pier ferris wheel.

If you have a membership to a museum or aquarium in your home town, check out their reciprocal list. I know the MSI participates and I believe both the Shedd and Field do as well. I'm not sure if they do free entry or just discounts though. The Lincoln Park Zoo participates in the AZA reciprocal program (Brookfield does not), but since they are free you just get a discount on food/merchandise. Still, any discount is better than nothing.


They don't have the free trolleys anymore, and I hate using the bus system. We do cabs, walking and the water taxis and have a great time. There are also a few companies that do private trolleys and double decker buses, where you pay a flat fee and get hop on service between their different stops all day long. I would not rent a car due to the outrageous parking costs around town. Your much better off using cabs and other forms of transportation. If you don't have your hotel room yet, I would try to get one that is near Grant Park. You'll be fairly close to everything and can easily walk to the lake. I wouldn't swim in the water though


There's also a Lego store in the same building as the American Girl store, but I believe on the second floor. I think the second level of the AG store has an exit near the Lego store too. Even if your not Lego fans, you should take a few minutes to check out the window displays. They have a pretty cool one with the Chicago skyline made entirely of Legos


I would also avoid the Sears/Willis tower unless you are there on a weekday morning. Even then it gets crowded, and its not uncommon to have to wait an hour or two in line just to get up to the deck. The Hancock building is a less popular alternative, and if your only in town for a few days, the skydeck might not be worth the long waits and crowds.

 

[budbeerlady]

Looks like the Megabus stop is outside the loop area. You will need to take a cab or bus into the more downtown area like Michigan Ave.

Once we get to the loop area we walk all summer. We only take cabs in winter or rain, the city is so easy to walk around. The walk along the river and then the lake to Shedd, Field museum is very nice but its almost 2 miles from Michigan Ave bridge to that area. We also like to walk out to Navy Pier from Michigan Ave, again its almost a mile.

We have done Bobby's bike hikes from a fun tour. Make reservations for American Girl place, it fills up! Ride the L metra trains out to the Museum of Science and Industry. Its fantastic! Walk over to Ed Debevick's for lunch one day!

We use google maps with the walking directions, give you time and distance.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

Here are my top three:

Architecture boat tour: http://www.architecture.org/tours
Museum of Science and Industry (the Omnimax Theatre is like Imax on steroids!)
Art Institute. Your girls might like the miniature rooms exhibit especially.

 

[MelAnderson]

The Metra train stations have coupon books in the stations during the summer. You can save some $$$ on Chicago Architectural Tour that way.

Be sure to check out FoodEase (great hot food option) while you're at American Girl store in the Water Tower.

You can definitely use the downtown buses; they are pretty fast and will save $$$ on cab fare. Tickets can be picked up at the Currency Exchange (Chicago & Rush is a popular location).

Museum of Science and Industry is my favorite museum, but I also like the Field Museum.

Garrett's popcorn, right next to the Coach store is very popular. I still like it and it's good for a sample. Yes, the lines get long; but, it moves pretty quickly.

The Taste - I would stay far away! It's not like it used to be and this is coming from someone who would take a 1/2 day during the week in order to avoid the crowds. There are other festivals that take place that you might find more interesting.

Hope this helps!

 

[nd5056]

Unless you’re short on time & weather permitting, I always recommend taking the time to smell the roses…

My favorite is to take a long, unrushed walk down on Michigan Ave. starting at the Riverwalk. It offers one of the greatest architectural view of the city. Then I’d walk down to Millennium Park & check out the “Bean” plus everything else there, then continue to the Buckingham Fountain, after that go to the lakefront and fallow the path all the way to the Planetarium, from there you’ll have picture perfect backdrop of the City's skyline.

From there you can take Boat Taxi to the Navy Pier.

.

 

[ckpoodge]

Lincoln Park Zoo is basically in the heart of Chicago, and is also near the beach (Lake Michigan). It's also a free zoo. Brookfield Zoo charges admission, is much bigger than Lincoln Park, and is in a suburb of Chicago.....Brookfield.

Unfortunately, Lincoln Park Zoo is not in the "heart" of Chicago, it's a little north of the "heart" of the city, which is downtown. However, don't let that scare you. It's a simple bus ride from Michigan Avenue on the #151 Sheridan bus. It might take 30 - 45 minutes to get there, though.

Definitely get the day pass, it will save you money. You can get on and off the bus, even if you are only going a few blocks. It will save you some shoe leather.

Don't be afraid to use the busses, they are a great mode of transportation. There's also the Metra if you are in one of the suburbs.

Our city is a great place to be in the summer, so enjoy!

 

[sky226]

Where are you coming from? I live an hour outside of Chicago and we have a few favorites that our three daughters love. Lincoln Park zoo is great and just walking around the stores and restaurants in Lincoln Park area is nice too. Shedd's is cool, but super expensive and really really busy. If you purchase your tickets online, you can save some money. Museum of Science and Industry is our girls favorite because it is the most interactive museum. Walking near the lake shore is great. Millenium Park is awesome (bring some extra clothes for girls as the huge interactive water feature will get them really wet!) Chinatown if you all like Chinese food (and if you want real Chinese food, try Lao Beijing and if you want fun food try Joy Yee). Avoid Legoland---way overpriced and after two hours my girls were ready to go. I would also avoid the Taste festival, we went last year and it was basically fair type food, not impressive at all. Good luck and have fun!!!