My sister wants to take me to Chicago for my bachellorette party, along with a few other friends. When I was just starting college my family met in Chicago for a weekend and we had a hotel suite that slept like six to eight people I think. Do you know of any hotels we can check out for this so that all of us girls could stay together? Thanks for any help

If you want to stay downtown, your best bets are Embassy Suites on North State or Columbus Drive near Navy Pier; Lenox Suites or Residence Inn on East Walton. All are within walking distance of most of the sights and transportation.

Here are others to try:

* Homewood Suites
* Omni (not the Omni Ambassador East) is an all-suites hotel
* Comfort Inn & Suites
* Doubletree
* Fairfield Inn & Suites
* Hampton Inn & Suites
* Radisson Hotel & Suites
* Residence Inn

Another option to consider, depending on what feel you want for your party, is renting a few rooms in a B&B. You wouldn't all be in the same room, but in the same house and having breakfast together, with most likely a common room to share as well. Some are small enough that you could just rent the whole place and have it to yourselves. I know there are many, but these two are close in to the main tourist areas:

Gold Coast House B&B, Old Town B&B

You can see the locations of all of these hotels and many others here:

http://www.choosechicago.com/hotels_location.html

The ones I listed are from the North Michigan Ave. and Near North areas, but the River North and Loop areas are also great and central. Many of the other hotels may also have some suites, even if most of their rooms are not.

If you have a price range, time frame and specific activities or areas that you want to visit in mind, people may be able to help with more specific advice on the hotels.

A little more info on our plans for the weekend. We'll probably get in on a Friday afternoon and just hang out a little, maybe get some good pizza for dinner and have some drinks. Saturday we are heading to the suburbs to check out the IKEA store. That night we'll probably head to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse (I've wanted to go back since I was there years ago), have some dinner and drinks, then head to a club for some dancing. With all this in mind, how much easier will it be for us to be downtown? Could we stay elsewhere, like near the airport, and still get around okay? I haven't been to Chicago in years, and when I used to go I would stay with a friend who lived there so I didn't have to worry about anything. Thanks for your responses so far, I appreciate it.

Our family recently spent a night at the Residence Inn (first weekend in June) and were really pleased with the hotel. I was just looking for the cheapest room I could find($133 for 3 people inc. tax, booked on their website) but was pleasantly surprised at how nice this place was. We have stayed at the Drake, the Marriott and the Whitehall before.
We had the cheapest room, with a king bed and a sofa sleeper/kitchen area, but they do have rooms that accommodate more people. The room was spotlessly maintained and looked to have been recently refurbished with new appliances. The wonderful serve- yourself breakfast in the morning was included and had waffles, scrambed eggs and more items than any other "breakfast included" deal we have seen.
There is no pool but it has a great location by the Drake Hotel. Easy to get to the paved beach path for a walk/jog.

You could stay in the Ohare/Rosemont area and get to Woodfield Mall and downtown easily. It takes about 45 minutes via the blue line. There's also a bus that runs between the Rosemont station and the mall area (I believe it's route 606).

There are also hotels closer to the mall and a shuttle that stops at the several shopping centers around there.

You can check <YourCTA.com> for city transit info or <pacebus.com> for the suburbs. Both sites link to a trip planner where you can plug in your starting point, destination and when you're traveling and it will give you the best options to get there.

2bebeaus, not to rain on your parade, but you need to check with the hotel to see if they'll allow that many people in their suites.

Fire statues have limits as to how many people can be legally in any room for obvious reasons.

Depending on how late you want to be at the clubs, trains to the suburbs run infrequently late at night. Also, I'm not sure how comfortable I'd be on them, so consider if you want to spring for a cab to get back to the hotel after.

I love staying in Chicago because I love the city, but if the city is not what you want you can probably find clubs in the area of Woodfield Mall (where Ikea is) and do most of your trip right there, including hotel.

We stayed at the Hampton Suites just off of Michigan Avenue....2 beds in the bedroom, and a sofa sleeper in the living room, so it slept 6. Two TVs, but only one bathroom. Pretty much a full kitchen. It was about half the price of the nearby Embassy Suites.

When are you going? I tried to find a suite hotel for my family of four next weekend back in June and had troubles with no availablility. We ended up out near O'Hare airport at the Marriot Suites with a good weekend rate.

I have stayed in the past in Chicago at the Residence Inn, Hampton Inn & Suites, Doubletree, Omni & Embassy Suites. I really liked the Hampton Inn & Suites because of the rate and location, close to Michigan Ave and not too far away from the Loop. The Residence Inn is a renovated apartment building and we stayed in a 2 bedroom which was very spacious. Both of these hotels had a breakfast program which was also very nice. The Doubletree has a smashing pool located on the top floor and is across the street from the John Hancock. Both Embassy Suites is full of families on the weekend and may not be an ideal place for your party.

All the hotels jlm_mi menitoned are good, you can not go wrong with any. I would be careful with the Lenox, not mentioned, it is an older property which has not had the best reviews.