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What's fun in Chicago?

I

IHAVEAQUESTION

Golden Member
Well, I will be visiting for a couple of nights and would love to have some advice from locals.

I think I will do kayak near the Goose Island...or anywhere (suggestion?) on the river. Think it will be fun to see the tall building on river.

Art of Institute. Having lived in DC for several years, paid museum usually turns me off...but I heard this one is particularly good.

Millenium park. Of course.

Food...Pesquod (sp?)...I don't know much else. Any good Chinese food there?

How about transit? This is one of my big concern...my hotel is Hyatt Regency in McCormick...which is a bit far from the loop. I look at the map...there is a Metra station, how does it work? I plan to buy a 3-day pass if it works on various transit system.

Any more suggestion?
 
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IHAVEAQUESTION said:
I think I will do kayak near the Goose Island...or anywhere (suggestion?) on the river. Think it will be fun to see the tall building on river.
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I prefer the Chicago Architecture Foundation boat tours: https://www.architecture.org/experience-caf/tours/detail/chicago-architecture-foundation-river-cruise-aboard-chicagos-first-lady-cruises/

Art of Institute. Having lived in DC for several years, paid museum usually turns me off...but I heard this one is particularly good.
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Art Institute is good. Also Field Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shedd Aquarium, and the Museum of Science and Industry are worthy of consideration.

Millenium park. Of course.
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Also check out the new river walk on the south side of the river. The observatories at either the Willis (Sears) Tower or John Hancock are also worth a visit.

Food...Pesquod (sp?)...I don't know much else. Any good Chinese food there?
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Pequod's has probably the best pan pizza anywhere. The city has everything else except for good Chinese food. Hot dogs, italian beef/sausage, steak, italian, greek, you name it. Avoid chains if possible though a visit to Portillo's is acceptable.

How about transit? This is one of my big concern...my hotel is Hyatt Regency in McCormick...which is a bit far from the loop. I look at the map...there is a Metra station, how does it work? I plan to buy a 3-day pass to if it works on various transit system.
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Metra is essentially commuter rail, expensive and infrequent. Three blocks west of where you are staying there is a new station on the CTA green line. This will take you up into the main part of downtown where you can use other lines or walk to your final destination. Google's transit directions are usually pretty good. A multi day CTA pass will also be good for busses Though all the rideshare companies (Uber, Lyft, etc) have lots of penetration into the market as well. Taxies are kind of a last resort.
 
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Pizza. We ate at a few different places and would have a hard time picking a favorite to be honest. Tried Giordano's, Lou Malnati's, Pizano's, and Gino's East.

The boat tour suggested above was phenomenal. I'd highly suggest doing the last one of the day so you can take in the sights by day going one way and then see the city at night when coming back.

We bought some type of booklet that gave us access to a few museums (Art Institute, Shedd Aquarium, and Field Museum) and each of the tower viewing spots. Was a good deal if you intended to do those anyway.

Cubs game. Do the stadium tour as well. Not sure when you are going but a Bears or Blackhawks game might be worth checking out as well.
 
K1052 said:
Metra is essentially commuter rail, expensive and infrequent. Three blocks west of where you are staying there is a new station on the CTA green line. This will take you up into the main part of downtown where you can use other lines or walk to your final destination. Google's transit directions are usually pretty good. A multi day CTA pass will also be good for busses Though all the rideshare companies (Uber, Lyft, etc) have lots of penetration into the market as well. Taxies are kind of a last resort.
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I will definitely consider the boat ride. I just thought Kayaking will be more fun.

3 blocks of walk is easy. But any idea if the pass will work on Metra as well?
 
You can literally stroll by the docks on any summer day and there is a ton of stuff going on. When I got there I never make plans- plans always find me 🙂
 
IHAVEAQUESTION said:
I will definitely consider the boat ride. I just thought Kayaking will be more fun.

3 blocks of walk is easy. But any idea if the pass will work on Metra as well?
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The CTA pass won't work on the Metra. The Metra generally leaves the city, so you won't need it much. The thing about the pass is you can only use it every like 15 minutes or something, so you can't share it with two people.

I would avoid the Red Line, as if you go too south on it, it gets pretty sketchy. Just avoid going very south in general. Also, Ubers are pretty easy and cheap to get.

Depending on when you're there, if you like soccer, there is a great pub to pitch service where you can go to a bar, take a bus to the Chicago Fire game, and get a bus back to the pub.

As far as Chinese food, there isn't a lot of great Chinese food here strangely. There is a ton of Eastern European food though.
 
was there a couple of weeks ago.

costco sells a decent pass that works at some of the places in the city. if you buy direct from the city pass company you get more fast passes though.
http://www.costco.com/Chicago-'Choose-4'-Explorer-E-Pass--.product.100112381.html

architecture tour was pretty cool. they serve alcohol and the tour guide was really informative and very interesting to listen to.

chicago deep dish is pretty good. tried Lou Malnati's. might want to order ahead of time because it takes like 30 minutes or something for them to make the pizza. chicago style dogs are pretty tasty and relatively cheap.

metro is pretty easy and you can use google maps to determine what stops to take. Uber was pretty cheap and easy also.

shedd aquarium was nice. smaller than i expected though. field museum has a ton of stuff. great if you love to read. you have to pay $5 each for their premium exhibits.

Adler planitarium was OK. They have some interesting artifacts in there. Watched one of their shows and wasn't too impressed to be honest.

if you go to chinatown there's a ton of all you can eat hot pot places. there's a late night dim sum place also.

get some popcorn while you're in town. chicago mix. garrets seems to be the most popular.

navy pier was OK. big tourist trap with a bunch of chain restaurants and overpriced beer. They had a fireworks show that was pretty awesome though. millenium park is pretty small. still worth a visit though. the bean is really cool in person. art institute is across the street.
 
IHAVEAQUESTION said:
I will definitely consider the boat ride. I just thought Kayaking will be more fun.

3 blocks of walk is easy. But any idea if the pass will work on Metra as well?
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The CAF tour is narrated which I always thought was more interesting.

Unfortunately passes are not cross honored between CTA and Metra (yet). Off peak Metra schedules can be quite limited, especially during the weekends.

Also if you decide to go to the Museum of Science and Industry the best way is to take the #10 CTA bus which runs about every 30 min express between MSI and the south end of Grant Park.
 
Chicago has very good Mexican food considering that it is in the Midwest. Good Indian food too.

And one of the very best cocktail bars in existence (The Aviary).
 
Scarpozzi said:
Definitely go watch the Cubs lose if they're playing while you're there. Drink an Old Style at Wrigley Field.
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The Cubs are doing a hell of a lot more winning than losing this year. They have the 4th best Win / Loss record in all of baseball. But yeah, Wrigley Field is an awesome experience if OP has a chance to check out a game.
 
Scarpozzi said:
Definitely go watch the Cubs lose if they're playing while you're there. Drink an Old Style at Wrigley Field.
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mcurphy said:
The Cubs are doing a hell of a lot more winning than losing this year. They have the 4th best Win / Loss record in all of baseball. But yeah, Wrigley Field is an awesome experience if OP has a chance to check out a game.
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:biggrin:

Never have been to the museums there, there are some good ones I'll probably never see.
 
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