Illinois: Giant City State Park and Carbondale
 

In a couple of weeks, we're going to be spending two nights at Giant City. Does anyone have any comments on the restaurant in the lodge? We've had very good meals at both Starved Rock and Pere Marquette. Can we expect a similar experience at Giant City?

Does anyone have any restaurant recommendations for Carbondale? We're not looking for anything fancy. Just something out of the ordinary, whether it be good sandwiches, good pizza, nice atmospshere, whatever. We'll probably have lunch in Carbondale one day and possibly dinner.

Thanks.

I hope someone gives good feedback - including camping in and around Giant City??

Don't want it to get buried just yet. Hope someone might have some info to pass along!

ttt one more time just in case someone with some info has been away for the weekend! I know I've seen people recommend Giant City on this board. Am hoping someone has experience with eating and/or staying there.

Have you tried this link:
http://www.epinions.com/park-Parks-A...splay_~reviews

As a student at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale in the 60's one of my favorites was Italian Village
405 S Washington St. It was quite small. When I was in C'dale a few years ago it had really grown but was still a great place to eat. If you go to Google.com and type in Carbondale, IL restaurants you may find some more ideas.

We went to Giant City quite a bit when I was a child, but always took a picnic and/or cooked out.

I spent the summer of '80 at SIU-C. I don't remember any particular restaurants (I actually remember more of the bars.) I do remember that the big thing to do was to go to the Dairy Queen then sit on the curb and eat. Also, I had my first falafel at a middle eastern take out place there. It's a big college town, so there are lots of casual choices.

Great link, ziggydoo! Thank you very much!

And thanks for your response, missypie. My husband graduated from SIU in '74. I was there for about a year. Neither of us have been back since.

We're going to be visiting my in-laws in Clinton Co. We figured Carbondale/Giant City would make a nice little side trip as well as a chance to show our teens where we went to school. It's college trip time for our youngest!

Anyway, when we were there, we were too broke to do any eating out! And, it was so long ago, we didn't figure there'd be much left from our time! Glad to see that one of the places ziggydoo remembers is still there.

I've seen it in two eras 64-66 and '98-00.

Fabulous area, and you will have a wonderful time.

My hubby graduated from SIU in the late 60's and I spent about a year and a half there, before finishing at WIU in Macomb a few years later.

We loved C'dale. Would have stayed in that part of Illinois if there had been any engineering jobs when DH got his degree.

We spent a lot of time in GIant City, but never stayed at the hotel. Some of our relatives did, when they would pay us a visit during our college years. They enjoyed the lodge, and always ate there, but that was about 40 years ago! YIKES!! Time flies!
Carol

Just wanted to post a "trip report" to say that we had a great time.

My husband felt that the bed in our cabin could have been more comfortable. And I had some issues with the air-conditioning. But, on the whole, we were very happy with our lodging in Giant City State Park.

The kids and I really enjoyed the swimming pool. And we were all pleased with the restaurant.

We did stop in Carbondale on the way. Our kids seemed to get a kick out of touring the campus. And we had a great lunch (very tasty and quite reasonably priced) at Thai Taste at the corner of Illinois and Main Streets.

Unfortunately, on our one full day there it rained off and on all day. However, considering how badly we need rain in Illinois (although not quite as badly in southern Illinois as we do here), it's hard to complain. But we were able to have a very nice drive that day anyway.

We hit quite a lot of southernmost Illinois that day including Cave-In-Rock State Park and Garden of the Gods.
It was a very pretty drive.

What I'm about to say may sound bitchy. And, if so, I apologize. But I'm going to say it anyway!

I've seen people on this board recommend to foreign visitors to Chicago that they take the train out to the western suburbs so that they can experience "small town America". I wish that these posters would take a drive through the tip of Southern Illinois. I think they'd quickly realize that there is very little similarity between a suburb in a major metropolitan area and a small town in rural America.

There is just no way a foreign visitor to the US is going to experience "small town America" by visiting the suburbs of Chicago. And I think that suggesting that they will is a real disservice to the rural areas of this country.

CAPH52,

CAN I hear ya, and it doesn't sounds bitchy at all to me. It sounds like the truth.

There is NO comparison between any town near Chicago and the small rural towns in mid or Southern IL. Nor is there ANY semblance between a suburb and any of the towns in very rural MI or IN that I am entirely familar with.

The tip of the state (IL) is outstanding, and I'm glad you had a good time. I used to trek to Carbondale on the train to parent my youngest on various occasions. The train culture and the "regulars" are all different as well.

After Champaign, you can feel the change and by Effingham- it's like you've entered another country. I LOVE Southern IL.

How about Bethalto, IL? Very tiny town when I lived there on "Rue de Chateau" back in 1970-1971 (my husband then was attending SIU-Edwardsville). I also lived in Edwardsville, and later, we moved to the Bloomington-Normal area which, in comparison to the other two towns, was a "busy center" for us.

Here's another that might help, wtm

Idiot that I am, I just figured out that my trip report is within this thread. Hope it's of some help to you and/or your husband. :)

Thanks CAPH, this is definitely helpful! I appreciate that you topped this.

CAP-Good to hear you enjoyed your campus tour. Did you take an official one? Just wondering, I run the campus tours : )

No, Katharine, we just did our own tour! It was more of a nostalgia thing for DH and I than a tour for DS who was between his sophomore and junior years of hs that summer.

But, should we ever decide to do a tour of SIU, I'll keep you in mind! :d

Sounds like it'd be a fun job!