Priceline Hotel: 2.5* Chicago North Shore (Lincolnshire - Vernon Hills) Holiday Inn Express Chicago NW-Vernon Hills

[lkjr]

Hi! My family and I are planning a trip to Chicago in May (we will be in town from the 10th thru 14th) to attend the graduation ceremony for my daughter who lives and goes to school there.. All together we will be 4 adults and 4 young children.. We are flying Southwest into Midway and will be renting 2 cars to all get around... We are looking at hotels in the suburbs since we will have cars and are wondering if driving up Cicero to the North Suburbs is safe/efficient? We are trying for a 3 or 4 star hotel with a pool for the kids.. breakfast would be great but not a deal breaker.. we would like to spend around 75 per room per night and will need 2 rooms .... any suggestions on the best hotels?? Also any time estimates for driving to the city from say Northbrook or Itasca (saw a 4 star there very reasonable.. any idea what it is? (on Hotwire)

Lots of questions! I appreciate any advice :) Thanks!

[AaronJB]

Questions/thoughts:

1. Where is the graduation happening? (to give us an idea of where to suggest in terms of specific suburbs.)

2. The North Suburbs are quite nice - lots of shopping, some sights (Chicago Botanic Garden, historic Long Grove, a working farm, etc)

3. If you are looking for two rooms and do not need to guarantee two beds per room, you could probably (unless it's a busy day in the area), do better than $75 for a nice property in the North Burbs. If you are looking for four in the room, HOTWIRE would likely be a better choice - if there is a HOTWIRE listing you would like us to ID, please let us know the details (star rating, zone, price, list of amenities showing)

4. If you are going to the North Burbs, I'd drive to a Metra station and take the train in (about 35-45 min, depending). Going out to Itasca gets far, although Schaumburg is a nice area.

5. Driving up to the North burbs from Midway is fine, although it takes some time.

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

[lkjr]

Thanks for responding! The graduation is from Moody Bible Institute with the ceremony being held at the Moody Church. We would need 2 beds per room and would prefer the North Suburbs as we will also visit some friends who live in that area. Is the Metra conducive to travel with small children? We will have a 6 mth old and twin 3 year olds with us... we aren't worried about parking in the city as we can park for free at Moody, which is why we thought we might drive in.. but do you think the traffic would be just too horrible??

[thereuare]

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

Please click each of the links above and we'll continue the discussion for this trip.

Thanks.

[lkjr]

I clicked! :)

[AaronJB]

What would be your desired budget per night?

I particularly like the North Burbs, not only for things like the Chicago Botanic Garden and Wagner Farm (which is a great, quick family-friendly stop - and free), among other sights. The other thing - if you want to make a little extra time for it - there's a very pretty drive along Sheridan road throughout much of the North burbs that winds through pretty areas and near the lake and that eventually wanders into the city and meets up with Lake Shore Drive and then you can take that the remainder of the way towards downtown.

The Metra trains are much better for families than CTA trains - they offer two levels (so children can sit on the top level and look out, or a family of four can all sit together if the train is fairly empty, as the bench seats can flip to face each other in most cars), bathrooms and conductors. They are also much more comfortable.

While it is above your desired budget, I'll note that the Embassy Suites Deerfield is $98 for these dates; this property would offer larger rooms and both free breakfast and evening reception. On Orbitz, coupon code TRAVEL5 takes 5% off. This property is (I think) a particularly nice Embassy Suites property that offers a river running through the courtyard area in the middle of the hotel, as well as a koi pond. There is - at least the last time I stayed there - also a shuttle to the Metra station just down the road.

Oddly, I'm not seeing a great deal of options on HOTWIRE when searching for 2/4/4, but there are some options when searching without the children. When searching with 2/4/4 for these dates, I'm seeing a 3.5* in Northbrook for $94. However, given regular rates I'm seeing for these dates, I believe you could likely be successful on PRICELINE for a 3.5*/4* in the Deerfield area for $45-60 +/-. The issue, however, then becomes having to contact the hotel and requesting rooms with two beds - and PRICELINE doesn't guarantee it; the hotel could say yes and it may be no problem, but the risk is that the hotel could say no.

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

[lkjr]

Ok so we bit the bullet and booked through PRICELINE! We were pretty determined to keep the price down as we decided to add another night to our trip so that meant we had to consider options in the 2.5 star range... We first tried 3.5/4 star in Deerfield for 45$ no go.. then we added North Shore and no go.... then we added Lincolnshire and again no go.. dropped the star rating to 3.. no luck even with a raise of price to 55$... so that is when we decided to research the 2.5 star options and found that we would most likely end up with a Holiday Inn Express in either Deerfield or Lincolnshire or a Springhill Suites in Lincolnshire... so we checked out the internet sites for those properties and were very pleased with all 3 of them (they all had the free breakfast and the pool we were hoping for!) we did decide to drop our price back down to 45$ since we were lowering our star rating and....... after an exceptionally long wait for PRICELINE... we won the bid for the Holiday Inn Express in Lincolnshire! We are very happy with our win, the hotel has all that we were looking for on this family trip... and I feel confident it won't be much trouble to get the double bed rooms.. do you suggest we call ahead for that? Or take our chances upon arrival? The location seemed a bit farther out from the map but on closer examination it was not that bad... all in all a good win for us! Thanks so much for the help!

Very happy with our win! Free breakfast.. a pool and whirlpool... close enough to the city and close to friends we want to visit near the Naval base :)

[AaronJB]

Congrats on your success. :)

This is a very, very nice deal for Vernon Hills, which is mall city - this area has a lot of shopping and restaurant options nearby.

If you're looking for a cute, quaint stop nearby, the town of Long Grove (http://www.visitlonggrove.com/) is a short trip away, and has a variety of restaurants, cafes, antiques and other small shops (including the delightful Long Grove Confectionery candy store), as well as a pretty covered bridge going out of town.

There probably shouldn't be any problem with two beds, but it's worth giving the hotel a call to request.

Please let me know if you have any questions at all about the area/city.

Thank you for sharing your win and please use the site's PRICELINE or HOTWIRE links to start your purchases and searches.

Enjoy your stay.

[lkjr]

Hi! I am wondering about realistic drive times from Vernon Hills to Downtown.. I am very interested in taking the scenic route along the lake that you suggested but just wondering and trying to figure how long to plan for driving...we would be going in on Friday mid morning and Saturday mid morning.. and coming back to Vernon Hills around dinner time each evening as we don't want to be out late with the kids....