Hotwire Hotel: Going to Chicaco for the first time..need advice

[Mark T]

Hey everyone, I'm from Oakville, ON and will be planning a 3 day trip to Chicago, Illinois from June 30th till July 3rd.

My girlfriend and I are planning on purchasing the Chicaco Citypass and would like to visit the Shedd Aquarium, Skydeck, and maybe check out some nice downtown areas for shopping and sightseeing.

Can someone recommend where we would stay?

Our budget would be $90 - $120 per night but we would also like to be close to those attractions, and maybe be situated in the downtown area so that we can walk around at night and then retreat to the hotel by foot.

If anyone can help, thank you!

Mark

[AaronJB]

These dates are a little on the busy/expensive side, but not terrible. The two main downtown zones are Millennium Park-Loop-Grant Park and River North-NMA; I'd rather recommend the latter, especially if you are going to be out later at night. I'd also recommend exploring the North side neighborhoods (Lakeview, Lincoln Park), which offer a lot of boutique-y thrift stores and other such places. I'd say avoid the fireworks crowds on 7/3, but remarkably, there will be no city fireworks this year (one of Navy Pier's smaller weekly displays will happen on 7/2.)

I think you're likely looking at around $100 for a 4* for these dates, possibly as much as $110. I'd recommend starting at $85 for a 4* in NMA-River North and working higher by $5's.

Thank you for using the site's HOTWIRE or PRICELINE links to start your purchases and searches.