Trip Report 4-30 thru 5-3 (LONG)

Just returned from my 1st trip to Chicago. Fiance and I went for the weekend to celebrate my 40th b-day.

We flew in Thursday afternoon and took the train to the DoubleTree hotel on Ohio %26amp; Fairbanks at $80/nt booked through Priceline. Personally, I found the train too difficult with carry-on luggage as there were many, many stairs. While the cost savings was significant and we ';could'; have taken elevators, with trains on time schedules it really wasn%26#39;t comfortable. We took a cab back to the airport, which was $28 + tip.

Check-in was very quick and our room was nice. Clean (which is pretty much my only criteria :)), king bed, a chair, 2 night tables, a nice desk and chair (charge for internet, but I can hook my phone up to my laptop for internet access), tub/shower with waterfall type fixture (poor water pressure). Our room was at the end of the hall, so only one neighboring room. Thin walls, so you could hear everthing going on in adjacent room, hallway and on the street. There was a restaurant and an Einstein Bagel in the hotel, as well as a bar in the lobby which seemed pretty busy most evenings. Location was about 4 blocks from Michican Ave (Magnificent Mile) and there were lots of good restaurant choices up and down the streets near the hotel. Overall we really liked this hotel and would stay again.

Restaurants we dined at..

Quartino(about 8 blocks from hotel)- loved it and went several times during out stay; for dinner, for late night snack, for dessert at the bar. Had pickled vegetables, ravioli, chocolate gelato and pizza were some of the highlights.

Kamehachi(within 1 block of hotel)- we had a delicious lunch here of several appetizers; cucumber salad, pan-fried dumplings, steamed dumplings, asparagus wrapped beef. Yummmmmm. Sushi looked fabulous, but we were pretty full

Gino%26#39;s East(about 7 blocks from hotel)-We tried a small sausage deep dish pizza. Sauce, cheese and sausage were good but we thought the crust was too dry. Would get the thin crust next time.

Su Casa(about 7 blocks from hotel)-Excellent margarita%26#39;s. We got the sampler appetizer, which was not very good (it did get better on my 2nd margarita HA!)

Park Grill(this was in the Millenium Park)- we sat on the patio and had delicious burgers and fries. Hit the spot at the time. The burgers were excellent and juicy/messy. Yum!

Capital Grill(within a block of hotel)-Nice steak restaurant. Snobby service, which bugs me. Would try somewhere else next time.

Tours(we went on 3)

Progressive Dining Tour-group on tour was great fun. We went to Quarinto for appetizers, Rosebud for main course and some restaurant on Navy Pier for dessert. Quartino was great and included wine, Rosebud was chicken, noodles and broccoline; ehh, seemed like wedding dinner fare, dessert included coffee, but was not good imo.

Bucktown/Wicker Park food tour- Excellent!!!! This area had GREAT food and club options. I would like to stay closer to this area next time. We walked to this tour (about 4 miles) and took a cab back. We went to Georges Hot Dogs(A+), Hot Chocolate cold hot choc and homemade marshmallow(A+), Piece (B+), I-Cream made to order ice cream(neat concept; B+), Milk %26amp; Honey for granola(B), Goddess %26amp; Grocer for beets(B+), Coco Rouge for chocolates (B). We also walked around the residential areas a little. I was STUFFED after the 3rd place! Fun, fun

Segway Park Tour-Lots of fun. Guide was very good. I would do another tour in a minute.

We walked everywhere and found the city very easy to navigate and safe. There were some aggressive homeless, but nothing that was too big of a problem if you just keep walking. We asked our concierge if we could walk to the Bucktown area for one of the tours. I knew it was about 4 miles and had a route, but wasn%26#39;t sure if we might run into freeway/bridge/etc that would stop us. The concierge insisted we wouldn%26#39;t be able to get there without getting blocked somewhere, but we tried it anyway. When I had the map out at one point, a very nice man asked us if he could help and we told him what we were doing. He said we could absolutely walk all the way there and gave us several options. Then, he asked for money..so we happily gave him $5 and went on our way. He was right and the concierge was very wrong; we could walk all the way with no problems. The city was very clean and there were tulips blooming everywhere; great time of year to be there!

Well, if you%26#39;ve read all this you deserve an award :). We have a wonderful time and a great b-day. Hope I%26#39;ve helped others plan a great trip too..

Trip Report 4-30 thru 5-3 (LONG)

Thank you for your trip report. I am moving back to Chicago this summer after being in Ohio for the last 17 years. I have looked into the same 2 diing tours you took. Glad ot have a recent review of them. I am adding them to my %26#39;to do list%26#39; once I move. I was 22 when I left Chciago and have visited since, but only to see family and a teenage girls trip for my daughter;s sweet 16. So I am so looking forward to experiencing all the changes and wonderful things Chicago has to offer. Thanks again.

By they way...the Segway tour...did you have any problmes riding it? Or any problem with getting around? What area did you see while on the tour?along?

Trip Report 4-30 thru 5-3 (LONG)

Tracey, Great report! Do you have links for the food tours?

I think this is the food tour referred to in the report -http://www.chicagofoodplanet.com/

There were about 12 people in our segway tour group. All of us were riding just fine within 5 minutes of getting on them. We watched a short video at the meeting location, then walked the segways 1/2 a block to a park where the guide gave a short training session. Then, he had one person from the group get on and we all watched him ';learn'; how to make them go, stop, turn, etc. Within 2 minutes he was zooming all around while each of us worked with the guide in turn. It took about 15 minutes in total before we were all off on tour. We rode all around several parks, along the water, all around the outside of Soldier Field and then up to the edges of Millenium Park. The tour lasted 2 hours and was very fun. I would recommend every tour we took, but if I were to rank them it would be Buckwick/Wicker Park food tour (reserve through zerve.com), then the segway tour (reserve through zerve.com) and lastly the progressive dining tour(chicagodinearound.com). I did not think the food at the last 2 stops on the progressive dining tour was good enough to do again, while I would do the other 2 again in a minute. The group in the tour made it fun, though.

Interestingly, 1/2 to 3/4 of the people in all 3 of our tours were from Chicago. We found that very srange, as normally tours are mostly tourists. The progressive dining one is the only tour that encouraged the group to get to know each other.

I forgot to mention some evening things we did. After the progressive dining tour, we went to the Redhead Piano bar (which was just around the courner from Quartino%26#39;s) with 3 of the people in our tour for drinks and to talk. I%26#39;m not too big on trashing a place, so I%26#39;ll just say that establishment was not acceptable to us and we ended up leaving and going to the Martini Park club. They had a live band playing 70%26#39;s, 80%26#39;s, 90%26#39;s music. We had a great time there, sitting in a booth towards the back talking and getting to know each other. It was fun!

We stopped by ';Cork Lounge'; (about 7 blocks from our hotel) one evening to listen to jazz, but ended up going back to the Martini Park club because they had another band playing 70%26#39;s, 80%26#39;s, 90%26#39;s and we were more in the mood for that. The band wasn%26#39;t as good and it was a bachlorette bonanza crowd that night, but we had a great time singing along to the music :)