Chicago week-long trip - Need your suggestions

I am going to Chicago for a week-long trip on my own to explore and get away from Toronto. I have set my sight on Chicago and I need our suggestions as to flights/coach bus (not driving) and where to find the cheapest place to stay.

Anyone been recently that you can list the things that you did (good and bad)? Restaurants? Must-sees?

Thanks!

Have you tried google.com, any airlines, any bus, hotel.com or, the Chicago tourism website?

Use Priceline for the hotel. Sometimes you can luck out and get one for cheap. Hotels downtown are expensive.

I highly recommend biking around as it's a great way to explore the city safely. There's a great bike trail all along the lake shore that takes you to most of the tourist sites. Rent a bike for a day or two and you can cover Buckingham Fountain, Millenium Park, Navy Pier, Lincoln Park, Wiggley Field, and everything in between. You can also go south to the museums and Soldier Field.

Check out the architecture in the Loop (join a tour or a river cruise if you'd like) or go shopping on the Magnificent Mile if that's your thing.

Do lots of walking and shopping downtown, take lots of pics the architecture is amazing. Do the river boat tour. Also check out House of Blues and Buddy Guys Legends clubs for music/drinks. maybe see if theres any comedy shows going on. Dont bother going to see Harpo Studios (Oprah's) unless you get tickets. it looks like a dump from the outside.

We just got back from Chicago over the weekend after a week there. We stayed in one of the big hotels along the magnificient mile.

We drove all the way there from the GTA, stopping over in Gary Indianna to visit Michael Jackson's childhood home before heading on to Chicago. There is a lot of contsruction along the 1-90, 1-96 right now by the way.

We bought the chicago pass that gives you access to the shedd aquarium, filed museum, planeterium, children's science museum and sears ( willis ) tower or the hancock tower. The walk from the shedd aquarium to navy pair is a good one.

We even headed out to Gurnee Mills mall for shopping, but there wasn't much bargain going on this time of the year and I was quite disappointed actually. Six flag america is right there by gurnee mills.

At the sears tower, we got on the newly erected ledge glass block looking down from the 103 floor. With your chicago pass, you by-pass the long lines. We ate at the following places:

rainforest cafe
the weber grill restaurant
espn zone restaurant


We visited Oprah's studios, but there is no filming now until Sept. The building doesn't look like a dump from outside, don't know what people were expecting for a studio that is in the middle of town and not Hollywood? She has about 4 building in the area there and we even parked in the studios car park even though it said employees only.

There was no sign of Miss O, but we went into her shop and bought some stuff. I am quite impressed with the hospital service at northwestern hospital too, as we had an emergency with our toddler and had to take him to the ER there.

We also took public transport after purchasing CTA pass for the day or you can buy a 3 day or 5 day one too.

The Chicago City Pass for $69 is a great value. Includes front-of-the-line admission to a bunch of neat places

http://www.citypass.com/city/chicago.html

Also we did the Segway tour. Unlike Toronto, you can go anywhere legally with Segways. Had a blast on this one