We've written before about how E and I aren't really museum people, and most of our vacations are spent walking around, eating, and exploring the city we're visiting. We always talk about how much more fun things could be if we included the pooches, though we suspected some things might be limiting. On our latest downtown adventure, we found the perfect balance of exploring Chicago with our pups. In true Frommer's style, here is our version of the "In One Day" tour:
Hotel Home Base:
When people asked us about dog-friendly hotels in Chicago, we never really knew what to recommend. Though after a recent experience with the James Hotel Chicago, they have become our go-to dog-friendly hotel. The gladly accepts all sizes and breeds of dogs and the staff is beyond friendly always giving the pups a friendly pat and running to grab the door for us. They provide dog beds and food bowls. The hotel is also in a really convenient location near north Michigan Avenue across from the Trader Joe's (perfect for picking up extra dog treats, people snacks, and inexpensive late-night bottles of wine). It's also near Chicago Avenue which is the entrance to the lakefront path and within short walking distance to all the activities described below so you can always make quick trips back to rest at the hotel.
Morning Walk to Navy Pier:
Start with an early morning walk to Navy Pier. Since things were less crowded downtown at this time, you can walk down Michigan Avenue taking the Illinois underpass over to Navy Pier. Usually Navy Pier can be unpleasantly filled with crowds, but if you go in the early morning you will be able to beat the crowds with plenty of photo opps and views.
You can pick up an (overpriced!) Chicago hot dog from a cart and check out some of the best skyline views in the city. See more of what our pups did at Navy Pier here, including a video from Mr' B's camera.
Lakefront Walk:
After spending the morning at Navy Pier, take the lakefront path back towards your hotel. The lakefront spans over 18 miles passing along several neighborhoods along with skyline views. If the weather is nice out, you can even plan for this.
Mag Mile Shopping:
If your dogs are tired, spend some time resting back at the hotel. Otherwise, you can do some dog-friendly shopping along Michigan Avenue. The Nordstrom's building is dog-friendly (with the exception of the 4th floor with the food court) and it even has a water bowl and treat stand in the back near the Nordstrom's entrance. We've also seen dogs walking through the Bloomingdales building at 900 North Michigan, we just need to doublecheck their dog policy. Dinner:
After all of the new experiences, walking, and mental stimulation, our dogs were exhausted and they were happy to eat in the hotel while we went out to dinner by ourselves. If you aren't comfortable leaving your pups alone in the hotel room, head over to Portillio's for the best Chicago-style hotdogs, or M Burger . Knowing how dangerous it can be to leave our dogs outside a store unattended, one of us always stays with the dogs while the other picks up food. (We wrote more about it here). Or it's always fun to stay in the hotel with movies and room service.
City Lights:
Head out for one last night walk with the pups to see the city all lit up. Stop by Ghirardelli's for some caramel salted hot chocolate or ice-cream and check a less crowded Michigan Avenue. If your pups are interested in meeting people, walk by the Rush and Division street area. At night the area is known for drunken debauchery; someone even tried to grab Miss M's tush when she was walking there! We also wrote more about nighttime adventures, here.
During one of our last big vacations we realized that one of the best parts of traveling is figuring out our favorite things to do on a vacation and incorporating them into our daily lives. While including our dogs. Since we were on break last week, we thought we would spend our time off becoming real tourists. We packed up our bags, took a cab 2 miles east, and all four of us stayed at a pup-friendly hotel in the heart of downtown Chicago. Being immersed among all of the tourists and their excitement made us feel like tourists ourselves. We began to see the city in a new way. Which meant we needed to head out to Chicago's #1 Tourist Attraction: Navy Pier.
The original idea behind Navy Pier was to create a public space that people from all socio-economic areas can enjoy. It has the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, the Children's Museum, a huge Ferris Wheel, and boat tours. But we usually tell people it's not worth going. If you're not going to do any of those things, it's just filled with trinket shops, over-priced chain restaurants, and huge crowds. Until we came this last trip. Walking over early in the morning with the cooler temperatures, and all of us snugly wrapped up in scarfs, we missed the huge crowds and we realized how relaxing and beautiful the view was. With plenty of photo opps. It actually reminded us a lot of this.
And it was actually a perfect vacation area to hang out with our pups with the never-ending lakefront and skyline views. Mr. B brought his camera to share his dog-eye view of visiting Navy Pier. From walking out of the hotel (thank you doorman!) to heading to the pier, looking at the views and meeting people. My favorite parts are his leaping sequences, meeting people who knew the pups from online (thanks for saying hi!), and seeing spider-Miss M coming down the stairs. Plus seeing the photos we took from Mr. B's point-of-view:
It's so funny to see it from the pups' point-of-view.
While we love traveling, we have found everything has become twice as expensive owning dogs. Besides the cost of our own trip, boarding for two dogs can be as much as our own hotel (per night!). We've been learning more about trips to include our pups which include things we all like to do. I recently realized the New York Times has compiled their "36 Hours in..." series into a book. And I thought it would be fun to make our own dog-friendly version. Last week we wrote about 1 day in downtown Chicago with your dog. This is our Part II.
Riverwalk
This time leave from your hotel heading in the opposite direction down Michigan Avenue. We discovered that while Miss M can navigate things like this with ease (and in costume!) her Kryptonite is bridges. We could only cross towards the loop by going under and walking along the river. The area is fairly empty and quiet which can be good for dogs who are scared by noises. If you are traveling in the summer, one of our favorite experiences is the Mercury Canine Cruise which is a dog-specific architectural tour where you can cruise with your pooch down the Chicago River and part of Lake Michigan.
The Loop
The Loop is the part of downtown south of the Michigan Avenue shopping area where most people work. It's encircled by our Brown Line elevated train (which runs in a loop!) which makes it especially noisy and busy if your pup can handle it. In the Loop you will see much of Chicago's amazing architecture, take photos outside the famous Chicago Theater signs and over the holidays you can even visit the famous Marshall Fields windows (we did!).While most visitors don't know and they spend hours waiting in line at another location, this is where you should visit Chicago's Garret's Popcorn on Jackson or Madison (yes, it really is that good!) where you will be in and out in minutes. We also like Do-Rite donuts. We never recommend dog parking, so only do this if you're with someone else. Dogs aren't allowed in Millennium Park, but you can sit in Grant Park, or one of the pocket parks.
Some of the best views of the city are walking along the Chicago lakefront and through the museum campus. The area south of the museum campus is more isolated, and it even has stairs, which are perfect for these types of Pier Picnics. Take the lakefront path back to your hotel.
What are your must-see's that you would include in your 36 Hours?
While our pups always have an extra-full social calendar, someone had a good question wondering how we figure out so many things to do with our pooches. We have gotten a bit creative, and here are some things we do:
Staying Aware
Since the Internet has made our adventures so public, we always have the incentive to be on the lookout for different things to do with the pooches. Chicago is generally very dog-friendly and most outdoor places, and even many indoor places that don't serve food, will be dog-friendly. Most of the time we will have visited a location or event beforehand to be able to judge how crowded or drunken the crowd might be before taking our pups. The worst thing they could ask us to do is leave. The only time I was ever asked to leave was at Joanne's Fabrics when I was holding former foster dog Jack Frost in my bag.
The major exceptions in the city are Millennium Park (they have park security guards that ride around on Segways and I was once disciplined for sitting on a wall in the park), Lincoln Square Folk and Roots Fest, Circus in the Parks, the sand area of human beaches, and music festivals. The only place I have ever heard of in the entire city that actually discriminates against specific breeds is the Randolph Street Market which advertises being dog-friendly, but has this confusing, discriminatory statement.
While the city does have many specific walks and festivals just for dogs, lately we have been avoiding them seeing that they can be so over-stimulating. We try to find things that we enjoy doing ourselves and decide if it would be fun, safe, and comfortable for the pups to join us. We found we don't run into many other dogs, so it's a good way for dogs to get exposed to new things without the added excitement of other pups.
Through the years we have figured out some of our favorite, annual, can't-miss activities. Many of these tend to be a bit more crowded, though we have figured out some strategies to keep these safe and comfortable for our pups.
