Palmer House Hilton in Chicago
 

I am planning a trip to Chicago. Can anyone give me any info, good or bad,
about the Palmer House Hilton? It will be just my wife and myself. We are interested
in plays and museums.

In 2005 I stayed at this hotel and truly enjoyed its comfortability as well as location. I had a very well-appointed room on a quiet side, and since this particular hotel was centrally located, this afforded me the opportunity to use public transit-- of which I did a lot.

If my memory serves me correctly-- I did not hail very many taxis but took public transit to the various museums, shopping, and on an extensive tour or two.

From the interests which you indicated, you and your wife will serve yourselves well by staying at The Palmer House.

You are only a few blocks from the Art Institute and well located for pretty much everything else. This is a grand hotel with spectacular lobbies. One thing I would ask others to comment on is casual (or other) dining in the neighborhood.

The Palmer House is in the center of the Loop. It's adjacent to the Orange Line L that runs into the city from Midway and one block from the Blue Line which comes in from ORD.

The Broadway houses are all within a short walk of the Palmer House and Steppenwolf & Second City are accessible on the Brown Line.

Nearby are Italian Village, the Grill Room, Nick's Fish Market, Park Grill, Rhapsody, Atwood Grill, Elephant & Castle and Trattoria No. 10. The restaurants of the Mag Mile and River North are also a short stroll away.

A transit pass would probably be a worth looking into. Three-day passes are available at the rail stations at both airport rail stations for $14. The vending machines accept all credit and debit cards. One-day passes are available in some airport shops for $5.75. Passes allow unlimited rides on all CTA trains and buses for a 24-hour period. For complete transit info, maps and a trip planner, check www.transitchicago.com.

For info on restaurants, check www.metromix.com. You can search by cuisine, price or neighborhood.

The Palmer House has some grand public areas, but some rooms are small by today's standards. The Loop tends to be quieter in the evenings than the Michigan Ave/River North area as it is mostly offices, banks.

If you have time, consider an architectural tour. The Chicago Architecture Foundation offers boat tours and several walking tours in The Loop. Their schedule is at www.architecture.org.

It's a fine hotel. A little bit of history: It's the oldest continuously operating hotel in the US!
The location is most convenient....very close to the Art Institute of Chicago and certainly within walking distance of the famed shopping district on North Michigan Avenue.

The Palmer House is a grand old hotel, and many of the rooms have been renovated in the past two or three years. As previous posters have mentioned, it's centrally located in the Loop, within walking distance of many theatres, lots of restaurants (Citylghts gave a good rundown), and near all of the Loop train lines.

Rooms are often sold on Priceline and Hotwire, so, absent a convention crowd, you can sometimes get a really great deal. DH and I celebrated this past Valentine's Day with a stay at the Palmer House; we walked to dinner at the Italian Village (two blocks away) and then saw <i>Jersey Boys</i> at the LaSalle Bank Theatre (which is right across the street). We got the room on Hotwire for $79, so even with the exorbitant Chicago tax ;-) we stayed for under $100.

I really enjoyed my stay there. the room was updated and totally fine and the lobby is spectacular with an amazing ceiling.