Visiting Chicago

My wife and I will visit Chicago in May from 15-20 and I am now making the hotel reservation, I want to ask someone have had been there these questions:

1) What kind of weather is like in May? should we bring a warm jacket?

2) Each of us will have one luggage each, should we take the train from Midway airport to downtown?

3) For the hotel, our budget is $150.00 per night, it%26#39;s possible to stay in a 3 star hotel in downtown.

4) What area in downtown would be best to stay? We want it to be closed to the center of attraction so we can walk.

Please let us know.

Thanks!

Tann

Visiting Chicago

1. Average temperature in May is 58F. Bring an umbrella.

2. The CTA orange line train from MDW will get you downtown. www.transitchicago.com for public transit information. There%26#39;s a trip planner function on the home page. A CTA visitor pass might come in handy for your visit.

3. Check for deals here - http://hotels.travelzoo.com/chicago-hotels/

4. A property in the Magnificent Mile or River North area is best from a tourist perspective. Read hotel reviews in the Chicago Hotels section of this web site.

Visiting Chicago

My wife and I stayed in Chicago last May, and here is what we found:

It can get cold, especially at night. Bring warm clothing just in case, but expect some very pretty weather as well. Keep an eye on the forecast as it grows closer, and judge for yourself what you will need.

The best place to stay, imo, is on the Mag Mile. We have stayed in the Loop also, which is fine, but it%26#39;s not the same as Michigan Avenue north of the river.

Luggage, coming in on the train from Midway, can be tricky. We had two large rolling suitcases, and it was no easy task. We had to negotiate getting the bags through an almost impossible turnstyle. There is little room on the train to store your luggage. Lastly, we had to roll our bags down the stairs to get to the street in downtown, and got some funny looks. That said, it was actually a funny experience for us, and definitely better than paying $30+ for a cab. Just know that it%26#39;s not a walk in the park with regard to larger pieces of luggage.

On the hotel, you can find a deal but it%26#39;s tougher because there is a huge convention in town during your stay. I would go with Hotwire, personally. If you do a hotwire search for your dates, a 4* hotel shows up for $159 a night. This hotel is almost certainly the Sutton Place hotel (go to www.betterbidding.com for more help). This is an excellent hotel by location and rating.

For $109 there is a 3.5* hotel in the Loop. This is the Hotel Allegro. It also has very good reviews, but map the location to see if it fits what you are hoping for.

You can purchase with confidence on these hotels, but if Hotwire is a little risky for you, then hotels.com has the Allerton for $147 (great location). After that, your options get pretty slim. Let us know and we can walk you through the Hotwire (or Priceline) process if you happen to be new to it.

Good luck!

Stay in the loop if you like musuems or stay in mag mile/river north if you are a shopper. At the end of the day, if you stay in the loop or river north/mag mile, you are close to most everything anyway. From midway, take the train/orange line from the terminal and get off at Clark/Lake because it has an elevator, should you want that for your luggage. It also has escalators, all the way to the street which should be adequate if you have rolling luggage. From Clark/Lake, take a cab to wherever hotel you are staying.

Thanks a lot for the info and I will check with hotwire.com for the hotels.

Thanks again!

Tann

Mid-May is usually nice weather, but you will want to be prepared for the occasional cold or rainy day. Instead of a warm jacket, bring a raincoat, a light sweater and a warm sweater. Check the forecast regularly because things change rapidly around here.

Thanks to TripAdvisor MSU17, we will be staying at The Hotel Allergo on 171 West Randolph Chicago Loop.

We will take CTA from MDW to downtown, what train station should we get off ?

Please let us know.

We will also be visiting in May and booked the Millenium Knickerbocker for $119.00/night (std. king). They were (still are?) offering a ';Stay longer and save'; rate if you are planning on staying 4 nights or more (we booked directly through their website). It looks like a great deal and has good reviews. Good luck!

';We will take CTA from MDW to downtown, what train station should we get off ?';

Orange line to Randolph/Wells. www.transitchicago.com for details. There%26#39;s a trip planner function on the home page.

Congrats on landing the Allegro! That%26#39;s truly an awesome deal for your travel dates. Don%26#39;t be afraid to call the hotel in advance and ask nicely for any accommodations you may want (like a King bed instead of two doubles, early check-in, etc). Almost every hotel I%26#39;ve booked through Hotwire has been very accommodating even with a ';discount'; purchase.

Your best options for getting off the orange line are: Washington/Wells or Clark/Lake. Both appear to have handicap access, which leads me to believe there will be elevators for your luggage. Perhaps someone local can speak to that, however.

Google maps has a great feature where you can look up travel by public transit. I have copied the link from Midway to the Allegro for you...hopefully the link works:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d%26amp;source=s_d%26amp;saddr=MDW%26amp;daddr=171+W+Randolph+St,+Chicago,+IL+60601+(Hotel+Allegro,+Downtown+Chicago+Luxury+Hotel)%26amp;hl=en%26amp;geocode=%3BFRQbfwId-NLG-iGq_iPD4vPpdA%26amp;mra=cc%26amp;dirflg=r%26amp;sll=41.876975,-87.658882%26amp;sspn=0.118102,0.287361%26amp;ie=UTF8%26amp;ll=41.883014,-87.632661%26amp;spn=0.007381,0.01796%26amp;z=16%26amp;start=0

Congrats again!

One more piece of advice:

Before getting on the train at Midway, go ahead and spend the money on 5-day visitor passes for the CTA. These will get you on any bus or train at anytime throughout your stay.

My wife and I routinely used the CTA in traveling to Lincoln Park, Wrigley, up and down State and Michigan, etc. There is only so much walking you will be able to do, so the CTA comes in very handy. Just be sure to visit the transitchicago.com website and map some things out in advance. Then get a route brochure once you get to the city.

The CTA saves you tons of money on cab fare, plus it adds to the experience, I think. Also, staying at the Allegro, you may not want to walk all the way to Hancock, Millenium Park, museums, etc...at least not every time.

Anyway, just a thought.