Advice needed regarding restaurants and hotels in Chicago area (Campus: buy, theatres)

[jamespeter]

Hello Guys,

I will be going to Chicago for my vacation in Mid August. I am doing my reservations of hotels online. I need suggestions as to which sites would be the best ones for getting deals on hotels. I will be in Chicago for about 7 days and i am looking for 4 start hotels and ideally somewhere near the O'Hare International Airport. Would appreciate any advice.

Another thing i am looking for is restaurants. A friend of mine suggested that i would save money if i can buy some deals on restaurants if they are available. I am looking on google to search for such deals and i am coming across quite a few daily deal sites but none that are specific to Chicago. Any suggestions on where i can find such deals. Also if there are any other things like tickets to famous places which could be bought at a discounted price.

Highly appreciate any advice and suggestions. Will be my first time visiting Chicago so trying to find as much info as i can. Thnx in advance.

[soulful]

As far as hotels, I've always had the best luck going to expedia, travelocity, orbitz, hotwire and then, after getting a good feel for prices, go to priceline's "name your own price" feature and put in a much lower bid. You can select the O'Hare area and the star category of your choice (but not the actual hotel). The only caveat is that you aren't able to select the number of beds when using priceline's bidding feature. Anyway, this is only an issue when people require 2 beds or some unique situation. Even then, the hotel will try to accommodate special requests upon checkin but won't usually guarantee the bedding on priceline name your own price reservations.

I've had great luck using priceline to get the lowest rate.

[chet everett]

I really really really really really would AVOID the O'Hare area!!!! It is far far better to choose places in River North/ Museum Campus/ Michigan Ave/ Loop.

The only reason to choose stuff near O'Hare is if you have a BUSINESS NEED to be around the offices and metting rooms in that part of region.

Orbitz is Chicago based, so the employees do help to weed out the crummiest hotels, I have had good luck with their prices. For lower cost options the pricline bid type stuff works well too.

[jwaiter]

Hot Tix - Half price ticket program offered by League of Chicago Theatres

[Chicagoexec]

The advice given above is great. I have been living in Chicago for the past 25+ years and know the city pretty well. For restaurants there are many deal sites here.. There is a new site about to launch that focuses on Ethnic food that I saw on the news. [url=http://www.brownhub.com]brownhub : Featured Offer[/url] they seem to have deals half off or more, and have a special niche of Mediterranean, Indian, and Pakistani restaurants. Good luck!

[Attrill]

This link will give you a listing of Prix Fixe deals at restaurants organized by day of the week.

[knitgirl]

try lth forum for restaurant reviews and suggestions: LTHForum.com • Index page

[juilletdix]

Tippr, Living Social, Groupon, Opentable and Daily Candy all offer dining "deals" (although not necessarily everyday) and if you use these sites, you can specifically set up searches for Chicago.