We just stayed in Chicago over a part of Easter week 2025. The first night we stayed at the Gray, which was a solid experience in an older building. After a day elsewhere, we returned to Chicago and stayed at the Canopy by Hilton on Jackson, just a couple of blocks from Union Station. It is in the same building as the Hilton Garden Inn, but the entrance for that one is around the corner on Franklin. The two hotels even share adjacent elevator banks. We were quite pleased with the Canopy; they even let us check in early at 9am without demanding a surcharge.

Both the Kimpton Gray and the Canopy are within a couple of blocks of the CTA Blue line to O'Hare, albeit different stations (Monroe and La Salle, respectively). The Canopy is one block from the L at Quincy, and 2 blocks from Union Station, while the Gray is perhaps 5 blocks from Union Station. Downtown Chicago is very walkable, and we found that there were always quite a few people out and about, even on the weekend. We walked the half mile to the Cadillac Theatre for Moulin Rouge in the evening, and to the Art Institute on Michigan Avenue. The Sears (Willis) Tower is right across the street from the Canopy. We took the 146 bus on a Sunday from State St. to the Adler Planetarium, took the L to easier walking distance of the starting point for the architectural river cruise (and walked back, about 1.5 miles to the Canopy),. We walked to the West Loop, about a mile each way, to "The Girl and the Goat" restaurant of celebrity chef Stephanie Izard on West Randolph in Restaurant Row, walking via Greektown (Halsted). Overall, a very good experience on the streets and on transit. We took the Blue Line to O'Hare twice. No complaints about Chicago. The streets still look relatively clean in the Loop compared with other cities, as I remember it from one or more decades ago. There were a few homeless people here and there, but the typical person out and about during our stay was a normal person.

This is my neighborhood. Glad to hear you enjoyed your experience. Thanks for sharing!

Hi guys, which would you recommend for nice views, with a pool and in a strategic tourist location?
From what I can see that should be around the little horizontal river up to the lake right?
Only going to be there for a few nights in summer, so have to use our time efficiently.

No preference re/hotel chains etc.
Preferably not a very grey room (as in the person I am travelling with really does not like that, so no Voco/Silversmith etc).
Also; nice hotel breakfast is on the preference list
I don't mind old/historic etc but should not feel tired/dirty

If within your budget, I would definitely recommend the Park Hyatt. Heart of the Mag Mile and retail district, easy public transit access throughout the city. Short walk along Michigan Ave to the tourist sites downtown, riverwalk as well as the lake. Also recently renovated, bright and energetic decor, very good breakfast and superb experience overall.

Yeah agree it looks very good! Unfortuantely a bit above budget. max is around the 1000-1100 mark but preferably lower than that.
Radisson Blu looked nice but reviews are bad.
The Wade looks cool but a bit far from public transport.
Sentral looks ideal but no more 2 beds.

If I'd need to choose I would prefer an excellent breakfast over having a pool

I like the Sofitel and they have a good breakfast (I don't usually eat breakfast at hotels, but my travel agent got them to comp it for us); I don't think that they have a pool, though. It's close to Michigan Ave., however, just far enough to be away from the massive crowds there, and it's two and a half blocks from a Red Line station.

Instead of hotel breakfast, I'd go to Lou Mitchell's and get an old timey Chicago diner experience.

Good tip, will definitely try to check it out!
Thnx

For complex reasons, I need to be in Chicago for work on both the Friday and Monday either side of the Marathon weekend. I have absolutely no interest in the Marathon, and also want to avoid the sky high hotel prices downtown over that weekend. Ideally, I’d like to find a mid scale hotel somewhere within about 30mins of downtown by public transit, ideally with some walkable places to eat and have a stroll etc (e.g. I don’t want to stay at an airport hotel) so I could avoid going downtown on Marathon day.

Evanston seems to tick my boxes - there’s a cluster of reasonably priced hotels around Davis Metra and L stations, and it looks like I could walk to the lake and the Northwest campus.

I don’t know Chicago well at all, so my question is - are my assumptions reasonable, is Evanston a good choice given my criteria, are there other places I should be looking?

See this post further up the thread:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/35688805-post5.html

It may partially depend on the location of your workplace. If you have to be in River North in the mornings anyway, Old Town is not a bad suggestion since you'll just be two stops away on the Red Line but it's also right in the middle of the race over the weekend (at mile 10, not near the start or finish, but still).

I will say that Evanston is extremely walkable. Any of the five hotels in the downtown Evanston area are within ~15 minutes of the lake and of multiple restaurants. The commute to the Loop will be 25-30 minutes on Metra or 45-60 minutes on the L. Depending on where you're headed, one might make sense more than the other. Getting from O'Hare to Evanston you might try the Pace Pulse BRT because on Metra or the L you would have to go into downtown and back out.

Thanks very much, that�s really helpful.

Evanston is fine. You could also check out the Robey in Wicker Park. Looks like it's $399/night for Fri-Mon. Cool newish hotel in an old bank building right in the middle of one of the more happening neighborhoods. It's next to the Blue Line, which will get you downtown in 15 mins and to O'Hare in about 30.

Just a note to thank posters above for their help. I ended up in the Holiday Inn at Evanston, which was fine - nothing special but clean and functional. I was impressed with Evanston, plenty of places to eat around Davis and more options around Dempster, including an amazing pizza place. I had a pleasant walk around town and a nice run up the coastline along the Northwest Lakefill.

The Pulse bus worked well. The concept was a bit bizarre - very bright livery, which just seems to signify it gets some priority at traffic lights, whereas the bus is just a normal city bus inside. A long ride from ORD, but direct and still quicker than going into town and out again.