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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

I wouldn't walk at night from downtown to Chinatown, especially during the summer.

If Chinatown and ORD are your only two options, I would choose ORD, even though it will take you a while to get out to the ORD hotels, but it is safer and, as you mentioned, the hotels are much nicer than Chinatown's hotels. To save a few minutes, you might find a hotel near the Rosemont blue line station. Those would be perfectly fine (and safe) too.

if you end up choosing Chinatown, State or Michigan might be decent options. at the very least, there is a police station near 18th and State.

good luck and have fun!

What about Belmont and the drive? A little further north, Lincoln park, lake view? Used to be good food, safe, good bars

I lived at Belmont and drive and drive LSD to midway everyday.

Absolutely. Belmont & LSD would be great. Not far from Wrigley or the lake front path and harbor. Also not far from the Lincoln Park bars and restaurants. Much better (in my opinion) than Chinatown.

Thanks guys for the input. Let me look around some more and see if there are hotels there in the areas you suggested, before making a final decision.

Must have some kind of convention next week. Everything is either sold out or super high priced.

Best western Hawthorne is one we used to use

Only choice have around there within client budget is The Inn at Lincoln Park at 601 W. Diversity @ about 3.75 miles one way. A decent walk in the morning (no shower so don't want to run), maybe change to run back in the evening?

Is it safe from Willis Tower to this hotel to walk or run or I will still have to uber or train?

Having spent most of my adult life living in Lakeview I can say the Zackary hotel or the Best Western on Broadway would be a better choice then staying in China town as far as safety for non-locals. That being said your commute would be on the red line or brown line or bus from the loop and it would be 30-40 minutes door to door depending on mode.

China town is cool and for the most part it's safe, but for the non-local it would be easy to get in trouble as some of the places you'd walk through to get to the loop can get kind of skeezy. The guy no one has ever seen before schlepping to and from a conference would stand out quickly.

Hotels or Air BnB on State or Michigan north of Soldier field would be safe but much farther south than that it can get dicey.

We've done a few "staycations" where we've done a priceline at the last minute and gotten hotels in river north for 125 per night, you just have to have some luck that there isn't some big event going on in the city like a big convention or something that takes up all the rooms.

yes, it is safe to walk from there to the Willis Tower -- it would actually be quite a nice walk down Clark Street to get down into the city from Diversey. You could also go east a few blocks and walk down through the park and then along the lake. With unlimited time, that would work out quite nicely.

Thanks. I will check to see if those are available or any hotels in the area.

The thing is, I have to use the client's reservation system, I can't use priceline, expedia, etc. and they don't offer everything out there. I can only use the hotels that they negotiated with and are offered in this system.

Yes. Don't know where the rower is but from inn on Lincoln to downtown is safe.

There is also an amazing ribb joint on north and wells.......or there was

If you run back. You can run all the way along the lake. It's awesome.

agree with atwist, about the walk from Lincoln Park to the S. Loop. Its been a while but I had family stay there at the time it was nice but I know it's changed hands few times since then.

Tell your client to quit being a cheapskate if they're requiring you to do business in the loop.

Is it safe from Willis Tower to this hotel to walk or run or I will still have to uber or train?
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The only unsafe part is calling it the Willis Tower. It's still the Sears Tower, no matter what they tell you.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

I wouldn't do it. Try finding a hotel north of the river.

It would be a pretty long walk from 601 Diversey to the Sears Tower. Looks like 4 miles (or thereabouts) on Google Maps. It would be faster to take the train. It's been 23 years since I lived in Chicago, but my recollection is that the Brown Line stops at Diversey and Sheffield Street (couple of blocks west) and will let you off at Quincy/Wells, which is less than a full city block east of the Tower.

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''The enemy isn't conservatism. The enemy isn't liberalism. The enemy is bulls**t.''

—Lars-Erik Nelson

You can take the brown line - the train station is 4 blocks west

or a bus, the #22 and #36 both go down clark and you will be dropped off 4 blocks from Willis tower

Good location for restaurants and bars

Restaurants: half shell, Kuma’s Too (burgers), Duke of Perth (Scottish, they do a Fish fry one night of the week), Weiner’s Circle (hot dogs, ask for the Chocolate Shake)

Is the half shell still there? I used to drink in the duke of Perth all the time

I nearly saw someone get punched out at the weiner circle for not understanding the dynamic and getting all offended

Is Sheffield still there.......lincoln tap?

Chicago is just amazing. It was awesome living there

Sorry guys, they just changed up everything. Instead of going to Sears tower to see client, I have to now go to Elk Grove.

You guys know if the area around White Castle in Elk Grove near Higgens and Busse, is ok? There's a motel 6 there, I will walk/run up Busse to algonquin, and then go east a bit.

Elk grove is fine. Busse woods is just west which would be good for running

Thanks, and I appreciate the tip for running area. I will check it out since I have nothing to do after work.

Wow..that brings back some memories. Ever been asked to take your hat off there? I sure have..made that mistake once.

Drinking and eating oysters/cherry stone clams was our staple for a number of years at the Half Shell. I'll be back in a month and plan on hitting it again.

To the OP if I had the option of staying in the O'hare/Rosemont area or around Chinatown I would opt for O'hare/Rosemont. I also would not walk the loop to Chinatown and back either. After 14 years there I might be a bit more risk adverse but that's my 2 cents.

Edit - I see the OP is in Elk Grove now and mentioned nothing to do after work. If you're not too familiar with Chicago I would suggest getting in some exploring time on the north side of Chicago while you're there. If you're not up for driving you can blue line it all the way into the loop, snag the brown or red line and be in the area's discussed above fairly easily.