Priceline Hotel: Need Help!!! Hotel near Grant Park!

[honny82]

Next week I will go to Lollapalooza Festival. And I know it sounds crazy that until this late I realize that I have to book a hotel during such busy days..

There are 3 adults. so are we allowed to stay in one room (Priceline only provide # of room instead of # of guests)? My plan is as long as we could get the rooms below $150-180 per night (3* ?) around that area or somewhere near that area.

And I am thinking maybe we could live somewhere in suburban area like Schaumburg (20 min drive to downtown) to save some bucks. However I am worried about the parking. or maybe somewhere near Airport where we could take CTA train to downtown?

Many thanks!

[AaronJB]

The issue is that - despite the fact that the hotels in the NMA-River North area North of the river are not a terrible walk to Lollapalooza at Grant Park, festival guests first look to the closer Millennium Park-Loop-Grant Park properties, which fill up and/or get expensive very quickly.

I'd strongly suggest the North burbs if you're driving. Easy access to Metra trains - those do not run as often on the weekends, but are much nicer than the CTA trains.

Overall, these are the options that I'm seeing:

Downtown: You're probably going to have to push towards the high end of your budget, and may have to look at the NMA-River North area North of the river. Parking will add another $25 in a city lot, or as much as $40-55 at a hotel.

North suburbs: Very nice area, free parking at most properties, easy access to Metra, shopping/restaurants. Probably about a 35-45 minute train ride down to Union Station, then you have to walk across the Loop to Grant Park. Probably $45-60 for a hotel (3.5*?) and free parking. In the North burbs, I do tend to recommend the 3.5* level in the Deerfield zone, as the "known" possibilities are the Hyatt Deerfield (which are "junior suites"), the Marriott Suites Deerfield and the Embassy Suites Deerfield. So, unless a new property has been added/upgraded recently to the 3.5* level, there's a very good chance of a suite w/larger rooms when bidding at this level.

Additionally, the Metra trains stop going outbound around just after Midnight. If you plan to be out past Midnight, you could drive to a CTA station, park and ride, but that would be a further drive than just driving to the nearest Metra. The Metra trains are sort of like Amtrak (two levels, conductors, bathrooms - bench seats that can be flipped so that a larger party can sit next to each other.)

Far West Burbs: Schaumburg would be an option and while Schaumburg is a nice area (IKEA is always fun), it starts to get far. You could drive to the nearest Metra station or CTA station, but that is a hefty trip into the city - you're probably looking at an hour or possibly more on the train once you get to a train.

So, the suburbs would be further out, but the per-night hotel cost is going to be significantly less.

Additionally, Lollapalooza is 8/5-7, do you also need the night of the 6th?

Let us know your thoughts and we'd be happy to offer further suggestions.

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