Product Description

Synopsis

Whether you want to shop on Michigan Avenue, listen to blues on Lincoln Park or simply ride the El around The Loop, "The Rough Guide to Chicago" will help you all the way. The 16-page, full-colour section introduces all of the city's highlights, from the spectacular city skyline to boat tours along the Chicago River, with two new, 4-page, full-colour inserts: Chicago Food and Chicago Architecture. The guide includes a new author pick' section of the city's top hotels and restaurants to suit every taste and budget plus, lively reviews of hundreds of shops, clubs and live-music venues. There are new chapters on Rogers Park, the Art Institute of Chicago and a re-worked list of art galleries. With maps and plans for the entire city, this guidebook promises to help you to get the most from your trip.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #515687 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

About the Author

Chicago native J.P. Anderson began his career in travel writing as a student at Harvard University. He has contributed to Rough Guides to the USA, Chicago, and the Caribbean and is now the Editor of Where Chicago magazine.

After graduating from the University of Manchester with a degree in American and Latin-American Studies, Caroline Lascom worked in food and drink publishing in London and political research in Washington, D.C., before becoming a travel guide editor in Bath. After marrying a born and bred Chicagoan, she finally relocated to Chicago in 2004.

Chicago native J.P. Anderson began his career in travel writing as a student at Harvard University. He has contributed to Rough Guides to the USA, Chicago, and the Caribbean and is now the Editor of Where Chicago magazine.

After graduating from the University of Manchester with a degree in American and Latin-American Studies, Caroline Lascom worked in food and drink publishing in London and political research in Washington, D.C., before becoming a travel guide editor in Bath. After marrying a born and bred Chicagoan, she finally relocated to Chicago in 2004.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
WHAT TO SEE

The compact heart of Chicago is the Loop; from here the city spreads to the north, south and west, bounded to the east by Lake Michigan, which provides Chicago with some of its most attractive open space, and serves as a clear point of reference for getting your bearings – the lake is always east of the urban grid. The Chicago River, which cuts through the heart of downtown Chicago to Lake Michigan, separates the business district from the shopping and entertainment areas of the North Side, which merit, at the very least, several days’ worth of exploring. Few visitors spend any time on the South Side, and only a slightly greater number venture west.

The best place to start exploring Chicago is the Loop, the city’s downtown and birthplace, and home to perhaps the finest display of modern architecture in the world, from the prototype skyscrapers of the 1890s and the "Chicago School" period to Mies van der Rohe’s modernist masterpieces and their postmodern successors. As well, you’ll find here the quarter-mile-high Sears Tower and the Art Institute, the city’s premier art museum.

Chicago’s most commercial area – Near North – is where you’re likely to spend much of your time. Just north of the river and divided into the River North, N Michigan Avenue and Streeterville areas, Near North is where most of the city’s hotels and restaurants are concentrated, as are its fashionable shops and department stores, on the famed Magnificent Mile. East of Michigan Avenue, on Streeterville’s lakefront, is Chicago’s most popular tourist destination, Navy Pier, a promenade of chain restaurants, shops and concert venues marked by the hard-to-miss giant Ferris wheel. On the other side of Michigan Avenue, River North is the city’s gallery district, the once run-down warehouses now home to a diverse array of art works, not to mention a number of the city’s hottest restaurants.

North lies the Gold Coast, where a few streets of upscale boutiques and gorgeous brownstones make a pleasant stroll, while Old Town to the west is artsier and more unbuttoned, home to the venerable Second City improvisational comedy club and a host of colorful Victorian homes.

Old Town blends into Lincoln Park, a leafy residential area that borders the park of the same name and is home to an enclave of young professionals. The streets, lined with restored flats, also hold some of the city’s best restaurants and bars, giving the neighborhood a lively social scene.

Low-key Lakeview further north draws a younger crowd than Lincoln Park: good for a wander along its commercial stretches, while sports fans will want to head to Wrigleyville, home to baseball’s Cubs and Wrigley Field stadium, as well as a bevy of raucous sports bars.

Beyond here, the distinct city neighborhoods thin out, save for Andersonville, where a small but worthwhile selection of restaurants, delicatessens and bakeries still serve the remnants of a Swedish enclave.

Heading south from the Loop, the Near South encompasses the lakefront Grant Park, with its panoply of museums, the historic Printers Row district and Chinatown’s bustling street life. Further south, the South Side proper takes over, much of it a no-go zone for visitors, except Hyde Park, an island of middle-class prosperity around the Gothic campus of the University of Chicago.

Chicago’s West Side holds the twin culinary attractions of Greektown and Little Italy, the latter mainly a tourist hangout, and the former considerably less so. The city’s large Mexican community makes its base southwest of here in Pilsen, known as well for its home-style eateries and colorful murals.

Northwest of here, Chicago’s blue-collar side takes over; among the warehouses and old churches are a few areas worth your attention. The Ukrainian Village, with its wonderfully ornate churches and Eastern European roots, is worth a stop on your way to the city’s hippest neighborhood, Wicker Park, full of carefully restored Victorian homes and a flourishing alternative music and club scene. Bucktown, just north, is a more gentrified version of Wicker Park, with plenty of restaurants, bars and nightclubs to choose from, along with corresponding high rents and increasingly homogenous make-up.

Nine miles west of the city, the affluent and attractive suburb of Oak Park holds the childhood home of Ernest Hemingway and more than a dozen well-preserved examples of the influential architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright; the most interesting and groundbreaking of these are maintained as monuments and open for viewing.

WHEN TO GO

Chicago’s climate ranges from the unbearably hot and humid in midsummer to well below freezing from December through February, with spring and fall amounting to little more than a month or two in between. The best times to visit are in the early summer (May–July) and early fall (Sept & Oct), when the weather is at its most pleasant; there’s usually snow from December to March, while the heat of late summer is best avoided. Whatever time of year you come, be sure to dress in layers: buildings tend to be overheated during winter and air-conditioned to the extreme in summer. Also bring comfortable, sturdy shoes – you’re going to be doing a lot of walking.

Customer Reviews

Yay!
This book was so helpful. I moved to Chicago for 7 weeks for an internship, and everyone I knew there came to ME to figure out what do do in the city and how to get there. This book was the reason.