Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Illinois > Chicago
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 06-13-2011, 11:20 PM
 
1 posts, read 1,289 times
Reputation: 10

Advertisements

We will be visiting Chicago for the 1st time and thought I would ask here for some possible places to stay since most of you know Chicago very well. I know there are some "bad"/high crime rate areas, but since I'm not familiar with Chicago and since it is so big, I have no idea what areas to avoid.

We will be visiting some people we know for a long weekend. They live near Irving Park.

We are looking for a condo or townhouse but would take a hotel that has a kitchenette (trying to save money on eating out so much while we are there).

At least one of the days we are there, we would like to go fishing. I'm not sure how I find out about local tourists fishing license or where to fish or anything. Are there any places to stay on or near the water?

Also, what are some good places to visit during our stay?

Thanks in advance!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 06-14-2011, 12:10 AM
 
3,697 posts, read 5,001,481 times
Reputation: 2075
Fishing info: Chicago Park District: Fishing

What sort of intrests do you have and is the vaction more about seeing the friend that seeing the town? Most of the fun touristy things to do are downtown. However be warned they charge for parking at downtown hotels and the ones near O'hare.

If the vaction is more about seeing the friend and you don't want a 20-30 min commute to your hotel downtown from Irving Park then stay somewhere on the northside near Irving Park.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-14-2011, 04:05 AM
 
Location: Chicago, IL SouthWest Suburbs
3,522 posts, read 6,106,199 times
Reputation: 6130
Explore Chicago | The Official Chicago Tourism Site
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-14-2011, 07:57 AM
 
11,289 posts, read 26,213,079 times
Reputation: 11355
You basically have to make a concerted effort to "wander" into any of the really high crime areas of the city. They're not near the tourist and main "flashy" and "party" areas of the city.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-14-2011, 08:35 AM
 
1,325 posts, read 4,199,307 times
Reputation: 513
Most tourists stay in the hotels located on or just off North Michigan Avenue (also called the Magnificent Mile area). Most don't have kitchens, however, some of those suite type hotels may have them.

I don't know a good source for renting a condo for a weekend (but i know there are some websites that offer that so you can probably google "condo rentals chicago" and find it).

Wish I could be more helpful, but just not sure about the kitchen thing. good luck
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-14-2011, 09:03 AM
 
1,478 posts, read 2,414,733 times
Reputation: 1602
The only thing I can think of that may be easily findable/available would be a Residence Inn by Marriott located downtown/Streeterville. They do offer 2-4 day stays as well and come with a full kitchen. I would think the going rate for something like this would be $200-$300 a night. As others have mentioned, parking fees down there are a killer, so the money you save on food may get washed out by parking if you're driving to Chicago.

There may also be some other hotels that offer something similar.

Private apartment/condo rentals may be cheaper (and closer to your friends in Irving Park, but they will be more difficult to track down, and quality will obviously be highly variable.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-14-2011, 09:46 AM
 
28,453 posts, read 85,413,242 times
Reputation: 18729
There are sites that allow folks to rent condos and even houses short term. Most of the listings are in the typical vacation spots for the region (lake Geneva, New Buffalo MI, Door County WI, Traverse City MI) but there are some regular downtown condos.

If you want a charter boat for fishing your nest bet to actually catch something is probably using the charter services that run out near the state park north of Zion, there is much more "cover" on the Lake Michigan bottom up there. You will spend boring hours bobbing around down in the Chicago area. The honest charter boat guys in Chicago will tell you up front that it is cheaper to drive to that area (or even Noethwest Indiana) than to have them use thier boat as a taxi, of course if you do it for an all day combined sight seeing fishing trip you cannot best the skyline from Chicago.

The media does a horrible smear job of sensationalizing crime. The tourist areas of Chicago are well patrolled and odds of any sort of crime, even pick pockets, is tiny. If you have friends here they will certainly know there are only a few areas that are to be avoided, none of which hold any delights for the tourist that is not shopping for drugs or hookers...
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-14-2011, 10:04 AM
 
Location: Tower Grove East, St. Louis, MO
12,063 posts, read 31,635,965 times
Reputation: 3799
Check out homeaway.com for condo rentals.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Illinois > Chicago

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top