Awesome, thanks for the quick response!

I found a room in the Central Loop Hotel for an avg of $182 per night on expedia.com and a room in the Wyndham Blake Chicago for an avg of $218 per night. Good prices? Anyone know anything about these hotels?

I'm not from Chicago (moving there in Sept.) and know nothing about these hotels, but just from traveling a lot, you should be able to do a bit better than that, especially considering you're booking so far in advance.

I booked this 4 star hotel: http://www.jdvhotels.com/hotels/lincoln/ for $115 per night and I only booked it two weeks in advance (normal price was listed at $180ish). Haven't stayed there yet but even though it's not in the loop, it seems like really good value.

Edit: if location is a top priority then obv it's worth paying the prices you mentioned...

I actually found a pretty good deal for a room at the Chicago Inn but it was with a shared bathroom. I ran it by the gf but... yeah... the words "shared bathroom" didn't really conjure up positive images that were congruent with a romantic getaway weekend.

Couldn't find the Best Western you were mentioning. Would you have a link or an address I could plug in?

Just checked the site out and there's no availability for the dates we're headed

Ah that sucks, looks like I got pretty lucky. Good luck on your search!

it's called Best Western Hawthorne Terrace or something like that. Broadway and Hawthorne. Parents stay there every time they visit. Recently renovated. Nice place.

that's the one. Here's the site link:

http://www.hawthorneterrace.com/?utm...elp_listing_ms

Where is the best place to go rock climbing? (artificial)

Girlfriend and I are itching to go but when I look it up I just see clubs where you need a membership. Any insight?

there's a little bouldering cave with a bit of roped climbing just north of chicago ave west of halsted. It's hidden inside a gymnastics gym, but is good for a few hours; it's also very close to the Matchbox, a must-visit bar for the margarita. Better roped climbing can be had in naperville at Vertical Endeavors. But it's a 30-40 minute drive.

Vertical Endeavors is definitely the Cadillac of climbing spots around Chicago.

I don't know anything about rock climbing but there is an outdoor wall at Diversey and Sheffield and an indoor wall at Broadway and Belmont-ish.

Yeah, but the 6-story wall at lake shore is craaaaazy.

Any clue on pricing? is it a membership gym?

No membership required. Day pass with shoes and harness rental was something like $13 total last time I was there. Discount if you buy a ten pass. Probably google will have more info. They have a room of auto belay and then if you want to do human belayed routes you have to do a quick test. Similar if you want to do top roping. (is that the right word? Lead climbing?) also a small but cool bouldering area.

Changing room had a minimum number of old dudes airing it out, too.

surprised that scofflaw hasn't been mentioned yet here. It definitely has a hipster vibe to it and it's in a less traveled part of logan square. But, it's well worth going to.

Was there on a saturday night and while you couldn't really grab a seat at the bar, it wasn't bad standing and it was still easy to get a drink. I'm not a cocktail's expert, but I really enjoyed their wares and it was $8 a cocktail.

Side benefit was that it's a quick drive or cab ride up kedzie to also get to L&E