Chicago in a Week

Myself, My Husband and My Son (6) are planning a Week Long visit to Chicago and its surrounding area in October. Could any locals, experts give advice on the following

3/4**Hotels in the Centre of Town are fairly dear, are there places on the outskirts we could stay where we can jump on a subway?

What should we see / what not?

We would like to visit a Pumpkin Farm, which is the best?

Is there any parts of Route 66 worth seeing?

Many Thanks

Chicago in a Week

If you give us the exact dates of your visit and a budget, the hotel gurus on this forum will be happy to offer suggestions.

If you don%26#39;t want to stay downtown, consider Skokie or Evanston, IL. They are nearby suburbs to the north that have easy train service to/from downtown.

For pumpkin farms, you%26#39;ll need to rent (hire) a car for the day. There are plenty of options, depending on how far you want to drive. Plan on at least an hour + drive from downtown to pumpkin farms.

The same applies for Route 66. It originates downtown at the cornere of Jackson %26amp; Michigan. Depending on what you want to see, a car is a must. http://www.national66.org/66hstry.html

Chicago in a Week

I forgot to mention, please take a look at the introduction to Chicago on this web site. It has a lot of information for tourists.

Also look at metromix.com - you can enter the dates of your visit to see what%26#39;s going on.

Regarding Route 66 - there are vestiges of older incarnations of the road, but you%26#39;d have to go 1.5-2 hours out of town to see them. Basically, ';old Route 66'; parallels I-55 by and between towns like Dwight, Odell and Pontiac. You can see them on Mapquest or Google Maps, places where I-55 goes around the towns but US-66 would have gone right through.

Try: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q%26amp;hl=en%26amp;q=from%3A+old+route+66,+dwight,+IL+%26amp;sll=40.912734,-88.579674%26amp;sspn=0.149444,0.213203%26amp;ie=UTF8%26amp;om=1%26amp;z=11

(hope that works!)

Through much of Illinois, Route 66 was a 4-lane, dual carriageway highway, prior to its being superseded by I-55. Typically, what we see now as ';old Route 66'; is one of those carriageways, now used as a 2-lane two-way highway, with the other carriageway paved over by I-55 or, away from I-55, just abandoned pavement.

But really, the more scenic bits of US-66 would be much, much farther; Illinois does not have the dramatic scenery of places like New Mexico or Arizona.

We will be arriving on the 19th October til 26th October 2007. We do plan to get a car but are unsure if it will be worth it for the whole of the seven days. We did think we would stay in the centre or the outskirts for 3 days and for the rest of our holiday spread our wings a bit.

Could anyone suggestion a Hotel around the $130 mark in the centre and an area/hotel we could go to for the rest of our stay to unwind and do a bit of sightseeing/shopping etc.

Could anyone recommend a Pumpkin Farm?

Is it worth going to SIx Flags Theme Park?

Many Thanks to you all.

The best orchard is Jona Mac...I think....Here%26#39;s the site: http://www.jonamacorchard.com/

They have a 10 acre corn maze that is fun! It is pretty far out west depending on where you are staying...If you decide to stay in Oakbrook, its not toooo bad of a drive. We go back to Jona Mac every year. Another one in Barrington is Goebbert%26#39;s, www.pumpkinfarms.com/

With a young child, the Shedd Aquarium or Brookfield Zoo would be a nice family thing to do.

Shedd aquarium is my favorite and my kids always loved it.

Another Pumpkin farm option (Bengtson鈥檚 pumpkin farm), this one is about an hours drive from downtown Chicago and is located in the far southwest suburbs of Chicago.

http://www.pumpkinfarm.com/

chicagofun.com/home/鈥aunted_houses.html