We are planning a family vacation to Chicago, and have booked the Wyndham Drake Hotel in Oak Brook for 4 days...mainly because of price, and closeness to golf course, and to be able to see the sights in Chicago...is this hotel a good choice? Tks. I am open to any suggestions for hotel or sights that are a must see (with teenage kids!)

Oak Brook is a plush Chicago suburb; figure on 45 minutes to an hour to commute to the city. It has great shopping and is close to the Morton Arboreteum, if you can get your kids interested in that. Except for the malls, it is completely unwalkable, and also very quiet at night.

Most people prefer to stay downtown, closer to the excitement and better public transportation. There are several suite hotels that might suit you: Hampton, Fitzpatrick, Wyndham, Omni and Embassy are all within walking distance of Michigan Avenue.

For your days in the city, do a search on this website for Chicago and teens, and also go to choosechicago.com. Look under the section called "Travel Professionals" for sample itineraries, including youth travel.

trochs, if you are going to Chicago to see the sights, why are you staying near the golf course?

If you are playing golf and have an early tee time, maybe you could stay out there the night before?

You can get 4 star on the Mag Mile on priceline very reasonably.

My son is a golf nut and thought we would have a day of relaxation in between...can't book on Priceline for downtown, as we are from Canada.

I too suggest you stay in the loop. Preferably the mag mile or even Lincoln park or Wriggley. See a cgo cubs game. My son has a condo 3 blocks from there and rides his bike to the lakeshore to play golf. I know there is a nice driving range there on the lake, and maybe a course?? Bike rides along the lake, navy pier is great fun as are the 2 big museums and the planetarium and aquarium. My kids are in their 20's now but loved the architectural boat ride and the Untouchable tours of cgo. Loved doing those things so much 2 of 3 moved there! Let me know if I can help. Oak brook isn't that great a place to stay. Are you driving?

yes, we are driving 600 miles...OK you all have me convinced to stay downtown! But somewhere along the route we have to let him golf a course or two...we have a total of nine days, and will head up the West shore of Lake Michigan on our way home. Tks!

Please note that the Marovitz course is mostly notable for its lakefront location. If you are casual golfers, it might be ok, but if you are serious, you should look elsewhere. Oak Brook courses are beautiful. If you are coming from the south, check out Cog Hill. If from the west, look at Cantigny.

A step down, but Northbrook, a northern suburb, has a nice public course called Sportsman's. Deerfield Park course is good, used to be a private club. See
chicagogolfguide.com for reviews and info.

There are many nice courses over the Wisconsin border in the Lake Geneva area. Easy to stop at on your way north - exit 94 at Hwy. 50 and drive a half hour west.

I think you should make it downtown for a day or two to do some sightseeing. Contrary to popular opinion, it can be done from staying in the Burbs.

You should take a Metra train downtown, www.metrarail.com, i think the Hinsdale Stop will be the closest to Oakbrook.

the address of the station is:

21 E Hinsdale Ave
Hinsdale il

Nothing to do with golf courses, but just wanted to mention that being from Canada does not preclude you from using Priceline. I live in Toronto and book hotels through Priceline all the time. I highly recommend it for getting superior hotels at bargain prices.

Thanks for all your replies...I could not get Priceline to work (being Canadian), but I did get Hotwire and was able to get the OMNI suites at an incredible price...I didn't even know Hotwire existed, but picked up that tip from another posted message.

Just curious as to why you couldn't get Priceline to work. Being Canadian should not be the reason. Let me know what problem you encountered and maybe I can help. Glad you got Hotwire anyway. It's not as cheap as Priceline but you can usually get a good idea what hotel you're going to get before you buy. Enjoy Chicago. I'm going there at the end of June.

The problem I encountered with Priceline, was when I filled out the address info and it didn't seem to allow for province, postal code, etc. and then the screen kept requesting all areas to be filled out...maybe I just didn't get it! Hotwire was much more user friendly, however, I will try Priceline again in the future.

When I first started using Priceline someone had just posted a messge on the betterbidding.com website explaining how to get around this problem. I just checked better bidding and found the message under "Bidding Tips for Canadians" (May 2003):
"For all you Canadians out there who may encounter a problem bidding once you reach the address screen, use your city ONLY where requested, use CA (California) for the state and use 99999 for the zip code."
I followed these instructions and it worked without a problem. Hope this helps you. I've saved megabucks on hotels from NY to Phoenix to San Francisco.