Chicago Trip: Plan and Save!

My family of seven and my parents (nine total) recently traveled to Chicago for a quick one-night stay.  We planned well in advance and this is our 9th straight year heading to Chicago during the holiday and Christmas season.  There are so many things to do this time of year and the kids really enjoy the museums, Christmas lights, and walking along the city streets.  Here are some tips and ideas for your next trip to this awesome city!

Hotels - During the Christmas season (Dec 1st-Jan 15th), rooms are incredibly well-priced.  There are very few conferences this time of year in Chicago (actually all the way into March).  Most of the hotels have very discounted pricing.  We love to stay at Embassy Suites and there are multiple locations in the Chicago area including two downtown.  The rooms are really big and each can sleep up to six people (two double beds and a pull-out couch).  There is also an evening reception every night from 5:30-7:30 including free adult beverages, kids' drinks, and light snacks and appetizers.  Every morning there is an awesome breakfast buffet with scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, french toast, cereals, oatmeal, fresh fruit or you can wait for a made-to-order omelette or eggs!  This is all included in the price!  Parking is expensive if you are driving at $43/night.  We were able to snag a great deal - room, taxes, and parking, for $144 total!

The Kids Loved the View from the Embassy Suites!

Museums - One of the great benefits of a museum membership is the reciprocity of admissions between other museums.  Since we live in northern Michigan, we purchased a family membership to the Grand Rapids Public Museum for an annual fee of $65.  This gave us free admission to three locations in Chicago - The Field Museum, Adler Planetarium, and The Museum of Science & Industry.  We did not go to Adler this time.  General admission to the Field and MSI is $18 per person - so we made out great with our $65 membership to GRPM!!!  The kids love exploring both of these great places including dinosaurs, animal exhibits, and learning about other countries.  MSI has a some great interactive, hands-on learning activities including watching chickens hatch, creating a tornado, Tesla lightning display, U-505 submarine, and much more.

Playing instruments at Crown Family Playlab - Field Museum

Video - Tesla Electricity/Lightning Exhibit - MSI

Walking the City - When staying downtown, you can walk to many cool places.   This trip, we stayed mostly along Michigan Avenue (The Miracle Mile).  The Christmas lights were amazing and the kids love stopping into stores and window shopping.  

Toward the north end of Michigan Avenue is Ghirardelli Chocolate Shop - where they give you a free piece of chocolate when you enter!  They also have amazing ice cream sundaes and other fun treats.

Right across the street on the east side of Michigan is Water Tower Place.  Inside is a huge mall with some great stores including American Girl and Lego Store.  If you're daughter is a big fan of American Girl, you can plan a spa day with your day, have lunch or tea, or just get the doll's hair done.  We opted for a FREE picture in front of the American Girl Star in the front of the store!

As you exit the American Girl store on the second floor, the Lego Store is immediately on your left. It's fun to look around and see all of the unique Lego offerings including Lego Friends and Star Wars. Sometimes, a worker may ask you to help organize the Mini-Lego Figure towers and then you can make and keep a Mini-Lego Figure!  We were able to help out and all three kids received a free figure!   A Star Wars Stormtrooper was guarding the front of the store!

Another favorite spot for us to stop is Garret's Popcorn!  It's the absolute most amazing popcorn.  We usually buy the Garret Mix which is a combination of cheddar cheese and caramel popcorn.  It's rich and buttery and delicious!

As a runner, I love to visiting Chicago and getting an early morning run in the books.  I ran out to the end of Navy Pier for a picturesque return back into the city, turning up Columbus Avenue, and then up some stairs and west on Upper Wacker Ave.  It was still dark and the lights were gorgeous - here's a great picture of the Christmas Tree in front of the Tribune Building.  The Wrigley Building is lit up in the background.  

We had a great visit and hope to come back again in summer of 2016!  It will definitely be more expensive to stay and play, but the warm weather will provide some different places for our family to visit including "The Bean", a water taxi cruise, and maybe some bicycling!