Springhill Suites Chicago Ohare

Family friendly lodging

by Dabs about Various

Family friendly lodging is a topic that comes up frequently, I've never stayed at any of these hotels but these are some of the places I see frequently mentioned that have multiple bedrooms and amenities such as microwaves and refrigerators plus sometimes free breakfast.

Homewood Suites

Embassy Suites

Springhill Suites

Hampton Inn and Suites.

I've also seen VRBO listed as a place to accomodate more than 2 people, these are basically short term apartment rentals

www.vrbo.com

United States of America

by mafootje

"Were have we been..."

Map taken from:
Town USA

We now made 12 visits to the VS and been to 26 states or 50% of all states.


Map updated on June 20th 2004

"Favorite Destination"

North America has been our favourit Destination for about 5 years now..

"Latest trip taken"

On the map at the left you can see the route we have taken this may and june.

We started in Las Vegas (Nevada) where we stayed 4 nights in Ballys. We also got married during this stay, not on the spur of the moment but months before this trip.

After this we took a flight to Chicago (Illinois) where we stayed 1 night in the Hilton Homewood Suites downtown Chicago.

Then we went to Indianapolis (Indiana) for a two night stay in Wyndham Indianapolis.

The next trip was to St. Louis (Missouri) in the Marriott Residence Inn westport we stayed for 2 nights.

After this we went to Kansas City (Kansas) here we spended two nights in the Hilton Garden Inn.

A one night stay was for Des Moines (Iowa) we stayed in the Fairfield in & Suites.

Then it was of to Minnetonka, but because the hotel room we got was so dissapointing to us we cancelled our room and went to the Marriott Hotel in Downtown Minniapolis (Minnesota) for two nights.

One of our last hotels this trip was in Madison (Wisconsin) it was a Best Western Towne Suites for a one night stay.

After this it was back to Chicago ( Illinois) the last two days of our vacation we stayed in Marriott Springhill Suites.

Under this line is the trip of summer 2003

We started in Kenner(LA) near New Orleans.

After we picked up our car at the Car Rental we had to drive to our first hotel of this trip which is about 3/4 of a mile away from the car rental. So that we didn't have to drive to far our first day.. We were up early the other morning because of the Jet Lag...

The second day we drove to Sulphur (LA) which was a 370 Km long drive. We stayed here for one night..we also made a side trip over here which made the total driving distance for this day 672 km / 420 miles.

The third day we drove to Houston (TX) about 245 km here we stayed for two nights.

The fifth day we drove to Bedford (TX) about 437 km here we stayed for two nights.

The seventh day we drove to Oklahoma City (OK) about 314 km here we stayed for one night.

The eight day we drove to Fort Smith (AR) about 295 km here we stayed one night.

The nineth day we drove to Memphis (TN) about 482 km here we stayed for two nights.

The eleventh day we drove to Pearl (MS) about 355 km here we stayed for one night.

The twelveth day we drove back to New Orleans (LA) about 300 km here we stayed for two nights.

We then flew to Newark and stayed an unexpected night in a hotel payed by Continental Airlines including two $500 vouchers, breakfast and lunch. This was because we voluntered our seats.

We flew back to Amsterdam on a Old Northwest Airline plane which has crappy seats, no head rest and to short back, my head would lean backwards on the top of the chair when i sat straight up, it was also the smallest chair we ever had on a continental flight and the only entertainment was one screen for the complete segment in the plane where the programming stopped about two to three hours before we arrived in Amsterdam. It was our first flight on Northwest and i don't know if they have better planes for continental flights, but i will surely not book myself anytime.

The complete circule to be driven was at least 2800 km not counting any side trips during our stays.

In total we drove around 5000 km's in these two weeks.

Hot Tix

by Dabs

Updated September 9, 2007

Hottix now has tickets available for purchase online which is great for me since I no longer work near any Hottix locations. You have to pay a small Ticketmaster fee per ticket but it's worth it for the convenience.

1/2 price tickets are also available at the Hot Tix booths for day of show purchase, weekend tickets can usually be purchased on Friday. You probably won't find good seats to the Broadway touring productions usually since they don't stay for very long and I've yet to see Wicked tickets. Weekend tickets for Second City are rare except for the late Friday night show. But you will find a lot of the longer running comedy productions, improv shows and many of the other smaller theater productions. I've never seen a line longer than 1 or 2 people.

Hot Tix locations

MOVED 72 E. RANDOLPH, Chicago-across from the Cultural Center

163 E. PEARSON, Chicago-Michigan Avenue in the Water Works Visitor Center

9501 N. SKOKIE BLVD, Skokie-in the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts

They are not open on Monday since most theaters are dark on Monday

Citipass

by goingsolo

Chicago's version of the citipass is a great deal for the museum-bound tourist. The pass includes admission into 5 museums- Science and Industry, the Art Institute, Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium and the Adler Planetarium as well as to the top of the John Hancock building. The price- $49 as of May,. 2005, is considerably less than what you'd pay if you visited all of these places.

There are a couple of drawbacks, though. The first is that this is not such a good deal unless you plan to visit all attractions. If you only want to see a couple, you are better off just buying individual tickets. Also, the pass does not include admission into many of the shows at the museums, including the very popular Bodywars at the museum of science and industry, so its not exactly all-inclusive.

On a positive note, with a pass in hand, you can bypass the often long ticket lines, especially on the weekends, and make more efficient use of your time. That worked pretty well for my 72 hour foray into Chicago. If you see no other museum, check out the Field Museum. I have a separate tip on it on this page, but I felt compelled to mention it here. This place can go toe to toe with the Smithsonian or any other large museum in terms of content, displays, etc. I could have spent my entire visit here.

MILLENIUM MONUMENT IN WRIGLEY SQUARE

by LoriPori

Located at Michigan Avenue at Randolph St., the MILLENIUM MONUMENT designed by Chicago architects OWP/P. is a nearly full-size replica of the original, semi-circle peristyle of Doric-style columns that graced the northwest corner of Grant Park between 1917 and 1953. In appreciation of the park's founders, the monument displays their names along its base.