I am attending a two day class held at the Hampton Inn Suites by the fire station. I don't really want to pay their rate of $159.99 when I know I could get something nicer on Hotwire but I'm not sure which hotels, if any, would be within walking distance or a short cab ride.

If anyone could give me an option or two, I'd be grateful.

This will be the second week in February...I don't mind walking a few blocks in cold weather... but not miles!

Any recommendations?

"Hampton Inn Suites by the fire station" ???
Chicago is a big city, with dozens of fire stations, and quite a few Hampton Inns. How about an address?

Sorry... 33 West Illinois at Dearborn.
I've stayed there before and it's not so bad...I just thought if I could I'd try a new spot!

Patg... if you're still here, please forgive my sloppy post!

Go to maps.google.com and put in your address, then click "find businesses" and search "hotel". You'll see several nearby and can click on next to see more.

House of Blues and Amalfi are both nice and very close. Lots of other nearby options, but maybe not quite as nice. Westin River North is also not far.

Unfortunately, Google Maps isn't perfect and won't show everything. The Westin adn the Best Western River North don't show up for me on the "hotel" search, but you can see their locations if you search for them by name.

I'd strongly recommend looking on Travel Zoo. They always have some great hotel buys in Chicago. For example, we stayed at The Courtyard on Ontario/Mag. Mile for $79 in December. The hotel was very nice and close to everything. This site gives a pretty good description of the location of each hotel. Hope this helps.

Travel Zoo has the Hyatt on the River for $69 through March. They have several others for less that the $159 @ Hampton Inn that you mentioned. If you go to their site click on hotels, other cities and scroll down to see all the Chicago hotel specials.

Didn't mean to be so tough on you! Here's a map with some of the closest hotels:
http://www.chicagotraveler.com/maps/...-hotel-map.htm

If you do book something across the river, be warned that crossing the bridge can be awfully cold in February.

Thanks so much... I didn't know you could get that map on google... thanks! I appreciate it... I'll do my homework now and post later to let you know where I ended up!