hello chi types: a two parter

[haardvark]

1. as previously noted in FB space, Clan Haardvark will be in your fair city from approx sat 27th Jul to Fri Aug 9. some of that second week I will be flying solo while C visits her sister in Indy. Would love to meet/get together with whoever's around and can pry the time loose, although if Erica sends me to a pizza joint in the NW suburbs again I'm gonna phone ahead and make sure it's really there.

2. Not quite concurrently with this, a colleague of mine is considering a trip to Chi with her family (hubby and 3 kids aged 1.5 to 7). Knowing that I've been to the city a billion times she's asking me for advice on where to stay neighboorhood wise for reasonable cost, safety, and access to amenities. I had to point out that 90% of my chicago experiences have been day trips from Cary or Harvey by car or onna train (and the few times I've stayed overnight in the city it's in a condo in Old town), I've never had to consider booking a hotel or what might be a reasonably family friendly area to use as a home base. If in-city options can't be found are there any suggestions for first ring burbs on transit? (clearly not oak park!)

I would guess they'd like to do all the standards: mus campus, MSI, art inst, grant park, lincoln p zoo, navy pier, maybe wrigley field etc.

Any suggestions / advice would be greatly appreciated.

Comments

[bristlesage.livejournal.com]

They could stay out by O'Hare (either the O'Hare or Rosemont stops on the Blue Line), which can get very cheap over the weekend. But it's a 45+ minute train ride to downtown, so...that's a long time for little kids.

Staying downtown is probably the best bet. "The Loop" will be cheaper than "The Magnificent Mile", at least over the weekend, though the streets roll up when the businesses close (less so in the North Loop, which is close to the nightlife of River North).

I'd advise them to stay away from McCormick Place; it's a total dead zone.

[gundy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I agree in the Loop is best for all that stuff.

[haardvark.livejournal.com]

I figured the loop would be hella expensive?

any intermediate options between ohare and city centre spring to mind?

[gundy.livejournal.com]

There are some smaller boutique hotels -- City Suites on Belmont comes to mind and it's right off the Red Line, walking distance to Wrigley, easy to get to the LP zoo from there, in the middle of a busy neighborhood with lots of shopping -- but in my experience it's not appreciably cheaper than the Loop hotels, depending on fanciness level.

[bristlesage.livejournal.com]

Not really. The neighborhoods aren't really full of hotels, and the ones I know cost as much as downtown, I think. There's the Lincoln Inn, right across from the Zoo, basically. Link (http://www.innlp.com/wp/), showing $195/night around the time you're talking about. There's Hawthorne Terrace (http://www.hawthorneterrace.com/) in Lakeview, also above $150/night. The Majestic (http://www.majestic-chicago.com/) is over $200.

Have they looked at doing VRBO or something like that? Might be able to find something that works in a neighborhood.

[haardvark.livejournal.com]

we talked about VRBO or B&B too, any neighborhoods to strongly avoid? I hear cabrini green has some nice cafes and so forth...

[bristlesage.livejournal.com]

Anywhere on the north side is going to be better-served by pubtrans than the south side, especially with the Red Line Reconstruction. Closer to the lake, that's also true. If I were them I'd set my limits at something like west to Western Ave, south to Roosevelt, north to Belmont. With a very few exceptions (and those would be, like, a crappy block or two, so I'm sorry I can't be more specific, even the neighborhoods that were not-great a few years ago are gentrifying pretty damned fast), every place in that catchment will be safe, close to pubtrans, and an easy commute to the sights.

[haardvark.livejournal.com]

thanks nancy this is very helpful

[magdalene1.livejournal.com]

My folks usually stay at the Best Western on Grant Park, it seems clean & reasonable, is near a bunch of train & bus lines and walking distance to the Museum Campus.