jan_az

With one bag I would do the ORD Hilton thing - I usually give the bellman $5 on checking it and $5 on picking it up. Never had an issue.

The blue line goes right into downtown. I did the 1pm - 7pm deal once and found it very tight - basically just time to meet someone downtown for lunch.

tcook052

Thanks for the info. Even allowing 3 hours roundtrip to/from ORD and an hour for security later afternoon, I'd still have around 5 hours to spend downtown and so think I'll probably go for it. Thanks for the Hilton ORD tip also and will give that a try.

glg

Since you're interested in the Hard Rock, here's a map of the area. I pinpointed the Cafe, the Hotel, and the Blue Line stop that is closest to each. The cafe is about 1/2 mile north of the stop, the hotel is about 1/2 mile east of the stop.

Link

bdesmond

Clark/Lake is the closest blue line stop - bit of a walk from the Hard Rock Cafe, but it is nice. You may want to stop in the Rock and Roll McDonalds right there as well just to look around as it is a neat place.

If you're up for walking around, I'd go east on Ontario to Michigan following the cafe stop, south on Michigan to Randolph and explore Millenium Park. Go west on Madison to State and walk north through the theatre area and then get back on the train at the JRTC. If you've got more time you could instead go west on Jackson to LaSalle and wander through the financial district there. Depending on the time of the day, the Federal Reserve may be open for tours - I've heard its neat, I've never been. You can board the blue line at a subway stop along Dearborn or back whereyou got off at the JRTC.

glg

Is it still "Rock and Roll"? I thought they dropped that when they rebuilt it a couple years ago (I never go in there).

bdesmond

Yup