Trip to Chicago in March- itinerary help? (Normal, Lincoln: how much, hotel)

[roselily]

I'll be coming with my husband to Chicago in March. We want to do all the typical touristy things.

For sure on our list is the Lincoln Park Zoo, Museum of Science and Industry, and a brewery tour (Goose Island? Others?).

Also open to other suggestions, as time permits. (other than sports or theatre. Not interested in sports and I work in theatre so that's not much of a vacation for me, lol)

No idea how much time to allow for Science and Industry or the Zoo. I know most brewery tours run about an hour.

Also, what are good days to do things? Normally I'd try to avoid anything touristy on a Saturday but there's no help for it.

We'll be coming in Thursday night, so can possibly do things that evening. Then we'll have all day Friday free, and Saturday as well (we're going to a concert Saturday night, but that's not till 9:00). Sunday we check out, we'll probably want to be on the road by noon.

So two full days to fill. Prefer not to spend alot of time in the hotel.

[chicagobear]

The Art Institute is worth seeing.

[Vlajos]

For beer, I would also consider these:

Half Acre Beer Company

Revolution Brewing | Chicago, Illinois

Metropolitan Brewing - Chicago, IL

And Lagunitas Brewing Company just opened a brewery and taproom here.

[marothisu]

The Museum of Science and Industry is the largest science museum in the western hemisphere. If you want to see a lot, I'd allocate at least 3 hours there.

If you are interested in museums, then close to that there are some free museums on the U of Chicago campus. SMART Museum of Art and Oriental Institute. Oriental Institute is actually about the ancient middle east, ancient Egypt, and Persia. Not a huge place, but they have tons of artifacts and some real impressive things. You can easily spend an hour there, or possibly two if you actually read everything. I believe at one point some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were there. If they're still there, I missed them last time I was there. DuSable Museum of African American History is near there too and pretty cheap. There is also the Renaissance Society down there which is one of the oldest contemporary art museums/galleries in the country.

Otherwise for museums too, the Art Institute is huge and worth seeing, as is the Field Museum. There are some other small museums in that area like the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Surgical Sciences, etc. There's also the National Museum of Mexican Art in the Pilsen neighborhood close to a train stop, which is also free. The neighborhood also has some great mural art on the sides of buildings scattered around.


Also, if you're coming in the middle or later part of the month, then there are Architecture river cruises that start up around then that I, and many others on here, would highly recommend. Go up to the 96th floor lounge at the John Hancock Tower too if you want some excellent views. Near there are a bunch of old mansions including the original Playboy Mansion too.

Then of course there's the food discussion. Vlajos' list of breweries is good too..

[roselily]

We'll be there over the Ides of March

Thanks for the suggestions, keep them coming!

Beer and museums are good, any evening suggestions? It seems like everything is closed at 4 or 5. We're going to a concert Saturday night, but need things to do Thursday and Friday nights...

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by roselily

We'll be there over the Ides of March

Thanks for the suggestions, keep them coming!

Beer and museums are good, any evening suggestions? It seems like everything is closed at 4 or 5. We're going to a concert Saturday night, but need things to do Thursday and Friday nights...

What do you mean, everything is closed at 4 or 5?

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by roselily

Beer and museums are good, any evening suggestions? It seems like everything is closed at 4 or 5. We're going to a concert Saturday night, but need things to do Thursday and Friday nights...

By everything, I hope you meant museums. That kind of bugs me too that museums close so early but I think it's pretty standard across the country. There are bars and clubs in the city open until 4am and 5am, and many restaurants open until at least 11pm or 12am. What kinds of "things" are you into for nightlife?

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by marothisu

By everything, I hope you meant museums. That kind of bugs me too that museums close so early but I think it's pretty standard across the country. There are bars and clubs in the city open until 4am and 5am, and many restaurants open until at least 11pm or 12am. What kinds of "things" are you into for nightlife?

Exactly.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

Exactly.

Oh, and we should mention that the Loop area sucks, and you should get out of there, especially at night. It's the Central Business District and not THAT many people live there. All of the action happens in other neighborhoods. Some people are hilarious when visiting the city and actually never leave the Loop, then complain that everything around there closes at 9pm. Yet they don't go to other neighborhoods like a normal traveler would do.

[roselily]

Yes I meant all the museums. Even the brewery tours are mostly in the afternoon, which is too bad since that would be ideal. It looks like the Art Institute is open later on Thursday so that might be an option if we're not too tired from the drive.

We'll be going to the Metro on Saturday night- I think that will be the limit of my clubbing tolerance.