^ $97 per night in early April. My hotels.com secret price.
edit/update: Best Western Grant Park
All of these great food suggestions are making me excited. The two hotels I booked are recommended on the UChicago site, and the Chicago Hilton donates back a portion to the university. They also provide shuttle transportation for official UC events. I have already booked the student orientation dates in September, and will keep monitoring prices since they’re double what I’m paying for the April visit.
Late to the party but my daughter and I visited this weekend (fun weather!) and we stayed at the Sophy. Great hotel. Extremely nice staff who accommodated an absurdly early checkin, late checkout, hours of lobby loitering, and a million shuttle rides to the college. Room was lovely and spacious and the lobby is a comfortable (and warm) place to hang. Price was very reasonable. If she gets in we’ll stay here every time we visit!
We had a fantastic meal at Il Porcellino in the city. Highly recommended. Valois for breakfast within easy walk of the Sophy. $12 for two and we ate so much we almost puked.
We stayed only a block or so from campus. The weather is somewhat improved by then. Fun stuff!
Sophy charges -umm “market rates” during key events eg admitted students day, O- week etc. But very nice hotel and the shuttle is really convenient.
The wind was howling so much all over Chicago on Sunday and I thought we were getting hit by a tropical storm. But at least it was sunny.
Be prepared for Chicago weather in spring during admitted student event. It can change from nice and sunny to cold and snowy in moments.
Another thing- big demand for Uber (and. I presume Lyft) as the admitted students day ends…so unless you want a long wait, you need to book in advance…
I think I booked early enough to get a great rate at the Sophy and the Hilton. I have also already booked at the Hilton for move in weekend, and it was double the price in September than in April. We have already bought our down jackets/parkas, and are looking for waterproof boots too in anticipation of the crazy weather!
When I had my own April admitted visit to UChicago many years ago, we experienced all four seasons in one afternoon.
^^lol. When we went, we got 2 seasons in one day. Spring during the day time and flurries in the evening. It was nice.
We got one season: Pluto’s.
IMO staying in Hyde Park for move in is the easiest. We were running around a lot picking up and returning items for the dorm room. Fighting the traffic to get downtown would not have been appealing plus there’s programming that you may want to have time for. IMO save the sightseeing for when you go in for other visits. BTW - Your kid is going to be busy with his programming. I did purchase a Michelin guide which contains great descriptions of restaurants at all price points. It also has really good maps that help you understand the relative placement of Chicago neighborhoods. We use this heavily to plan fun excursions when we fly in on occasion to treat him and his friends to great meals. The botanical gardens is a great place to visit along with some of the north Chicago restaurants during a nice day in the spring or summer. Of course all of this is speaking from the perspective of a parent whose kid essentially ended up living in Chicago year round from the beginning except for winter break. He doesn’t come home, we go to wherever his opportunities have taken him.
Some families have shown up a few days early to pick up the dorm pack at BBB and get a bit of sightseeing in. It’s also a great time to pick up your Hum and if applicable Sosc books at 57th St. Books. My daughter ordered hers over the summer and they were waiting for her when she showed up the day before move-in to pick them up. The campus and HP is like a different world before the undergraduates arrive so it’s also a great time to look around the neighborhood.
There is a Target on 53rd in HP and a Walmart on Cottage Grove at or around 47th (Kenwood) for any last minute stuff. But it might be a good idea to wait until your student knows what they need for their room before venturing out to buy more stuff. There might be organized shopping trips during O-week and of course there’s always Amazon, Target.com and so forth. Bringing along the bare essentials such as bedding towels lamp Kuerig school supplies and saving rugs, mirror, and room decor for later will save you time, packing and stress.
Great suggestions. We’re coming out on Thursday and move in is Saturday. I’ve already scouted out the closest Target, and instacart stores (Whole Foods yay!). We will also have the weekend to explore after the admitted student visit in April since those events are during the week. I will look into ordering books ahead of time.
ooh - Whole Foods has instacart in HP? Nice.
Just FYI, stay flexible…We showed up early before the move too to have some fun. It ended up different than we planned. I don’t recall exactly why that timing but he was notified that he had to take placement exams before orientation the following week. This is despite having checked in over the summer.
PepperJo - We’ve had a blast exploring Chicago every visit. Enjoy!
There is a Target, but if you’re used to the big, suburban Targets it’s worth knowing that the Hyde Park Target is a cute, little mini-Target. I dropped by there on Saturday evening of move-in weekend and it had been picked clean of many of the common move-in items - batteries, housewares, small kitchen stuff, etc.
It’s a nice amenity, but might not be something to count on for stocking up on move-in weekend. After move-in weekend, DS said Target restocked quickly and is easy to get to on the UChicago shuttle bus, though.
^ True. This year D needed a shower tote of some kind before school started but they were out of them at the HP Target. She showed up the weekend before classes started. First years had picked it clean.
@uchicagomom - is your student class of '21 or '22? I know that Class of '21 was told to complete their placement exams in May/June (July at latest since pre-reg. happened later in summer). Did he not complete those or did he have extras to take? My D did Math (required) and Chem - just in case she wanted to take major chem - but she skipped French Placement because she wanted to re-boot her F/L at UChicago. This fall she showed up for French One and everyone who hadn’t done so was required to take - yes! - a placement test. So much for that strategy. She got bumped into French Two and did well so it worked out better than she expected.