Chicago Bargains Are Underpublicized

Q. I am a senior who was born and raised in Chicago, but have lived in Spokane since 1947. I am planning on staying in Chicago for a few weeks either in April or October and would like to travel for less, with discounts as mentioned in your column about bargains in New York City. If such price breaks exist in Chicago, please tell me about them.

A. Chicago has as many top-notch attractions and special events as any big city, plenty of good hotels and outstanding food. But it seldom tells the world what it has to offer.

Chicago’s underpublicized bargains for visitors are best during special events: festivals dedicated to everything from flowers and food to jazz and movies. Most are in summer but a good one, Winter Break Chicago Festival, runs Feb. 6-16.

Winter Break time is a good example of the deals available during special events. Visitors are offered two-for-one “passports” good at many theaters, museums and restaurants. Hotels offer special package stays, and flights and rental cars are offered at discounts. Many festival events are free, and there is a free trolley shuttle on weekends to take attendees from event to event - concerts, performances, a big auto show, an ice show and so on. Many events will be staged at Navy Pier, with its 40 acres of parks, gardens, shops and restaurants.

Winter in Chicago? I attended Northwestern University so I know about February along Lake Michigan. But Karalyn Schenk at the office of tourism claimed that many events are indoors, winters can be “cozy and cheerful,” and this is a really fun festival.

The hotel hotline for Winter Break festival is 800-506-0555. A special events hotline, 312-744-3370, is a source for details about all the city’s festivals. Similar hotel, airline, car rental and ticket deals are offered during other festivals.

Aside from festival times, Chicago bargains include:

Hot Tix, half-price day-of-performance tickets for theaters and performing arts events, available at several locations. Call 977-1755 when in Chicago to get locations and ticket availability.

Loop Tour Trains offer free narrated tours on the elevated downtown Loop trains on Saturday afternoons from mid-June to late October. Get tickets at a visitor information center. I’d probably do that tour, but otherwise would stay off the “L,” as most cautious locals do these days.

Chicago Cultural Center, an architectural showcase for the lively and visual arts, has as many as 500 free arts programs every year.

Sculptures by such artists as Picasso, Miro, Moore, Calder and Chagall are scattered outdoors and in inside public spaces all over downtown. I spent most of a day just visiting this street art, done by 37 different artists.

Also free is a good packet of information to help plan a Chicago trip; call 800-2-CONNECT. Included are a calendar of events issued in three-month segments, lists of bus and boat sightseeing tours, and instructions for how to get free tickets for talk shows originating in Chicago: Jenny Jones (312-836-9485), Jerry Springer (312-321-5350) and Oprah Winfrey (312-591-9222).

Also included are a good city map, an information line for riding city buses and the elevated trains (rides are $1.50), and a transportation map that’s better than any I’ve seen for any U.S. city.

Not free, but convenient, are the double-decker sightseeing buses that start out at the Sears Tower or from near the Water Tower on North Michigan Avenue, and stop at attractions and hotels throughout downtown. Riders can ride all day for a single fee, getting off and on at various sites.

Chicago architecture fascinates me, so I’d probably sign up for one or more of the 50 walking or bus tours offered by the Chicago Architecture Foundation at 224 S. Michigan Ave., especially one to Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and studio in a suburban neighborhood of Wright-designed buildings.

Or I’d rent the self-guiding architecture walking tour tape, $5 at the Cultural Center’s shop. And I’d ride up 103 floors to the Sears Tower Skydeck and see the city from the top.

I would also spend time at the “museum campus” on the near South Side where the Adler Planetarium, Field Museum and Shedd Aquarium are lakeside neighbors and outstanding in their fields.

Another new addition should join them in a few years, when “Northerly Island” is developed.

This is planned as a living museum/playground/park, with wetlands, prairies, ponds, a “mastodon” slide and other back-to-the-future features on what has been Meigs Field, a little-used downtown airport/heliport that had only one commercial flight.

Northerly Island is linked to the shore by a bridge near the Shedd Aquarium. It’s another plus in a city with 29 miles of lakefront. In the summer, downtown workers walk to the beach or waterfront park on their lunch hours.

Here are some helpful numbers: For hotel reservations, 800-491-1800. To talk with a tourist office representative, 312-744-2400 from 9 to 5 weekdays. For a state of Illinois Visitors Guide, 800-826-9808.