Just got back from five days in Chicago and would like to pass on some of our experiences while we were there. We opted to stay at a few different hotels for comparison purposes. The Red Roof in downtown (this was formerly Motel 6) was $149 a night, is very conveniently located, close to both shopping and within walking distance to Navy Pier. The room was extremely small, but serviceable. The Omni, just a few blocks away, was twice as expensive, but oh so wonderful. We had a corner mini-suite consisting of a sitting room, divided by french doors into the bedroom. Lush towels, great pool and workout room. TV's in both the sitting room and bedroom. We could have gotten better prices on both these hotels through Hotrooms if it weren't for a huge convention in town. We did get a Hotrooms price ($169) for the Lowe's House of Blues Hotel. What a great place! The decor is so cool and each room is different and fun. The Kaz bar is like walking into another world. No pool, but access to Crunch, a huge fitness club (warning - they do charge you $10 to use this facility). It is also farther from the center of downtown, about 12 blocks back to the Omni area.

It would make it easier and more interesting for anyone wanting to read your trip report if you would put all the parts together. If they are very long, then put the successive parts as replies. Just a suggestion.

Really appreciate your "reports', Plan a trip next spring and will use your input to form my choices....

Thanks, Kay. To "just a suggestion" that's a good idea. In the past I have had trouble posting long reports on this forum and figured I would break up the report into sections. Does anyone know how many words Fodors will allow in one posting?

How much can you post at a time? My experience is about a little more than one reply screen page full.