So, I just graduated from college in May and I decided I am going to give myself a little gift for finishing in five years. That gift is a trip paid by me to Chicago. I told my sister Amber (the former Chicagoan) that she has to come with me. We planned this trip for maybe two months. Since Amber has moved she has visited and scored sweet deals on hotels from priceline.com, she insisted we do the same for this trip. So, the week of our trip we started putting
bids in to see what we could get. Nothing. Not even the day before our trip. I'm going to just state right now, we didn't bid anything over $85 a night for a down town hotel. We are bot
h cheap asses who don't have any money. Well, our bids were rejected, and Amber moved on
to the next best thing. The down-town hostel.
Now, I am not an experienced traveler by an means. Amber, on the other hand, has spent a whole semester abroad, traveling Europe, eating delicious food, and staying at hostels with complete strangers. So to her, this was no new hoopla to get into a tizzy about. I was a bit nervous. I had barely stayed in a Super 8. However, I trusted Amber, checked out the pictures online, and at least kne
w I would have a good story from this trip.
It cost me $72. 93 to stay in the hostel for two night. You can't go wrong. It was just like a college dorm room. It was a HUGE room with three windows that were floor to ceiling with spectacular views of the city. Amber and I shared the room with 8 other women and the bathroom was right down the hall. The door was locked at all times and could be entered with a, I'm going to call it, credit card key that you would get at any other hotel. There
was a locker for each person that you could put your belongings in. It could be locked wi
th a pad lock. Thankfully, I still had mine from my P.E. days in high school. I dusted that sucker off and found that I still knew my combination. My memory isn't as bad as I thought it was.
Linens were also provided. You do have the option to upgrade to a room with a bathroom in it, but let me mention one more time, Amber and I are cheap asses and to us it really didn't matter where the bathroom was as long as we didn't have to pee in a five gallon pail. However, to each their own.
In the mornings, free continental breakfast is provided. There was fruit, bagels, bread, jam, butter, cereal, milk, juice, coffee, and pop-tart type things. I could be forgetting stuff too. In short, it was a decent spread for someone who would rather spend their money on something else other than breakfast. The only draw back, you have to do your own dishes
when you have finished your meal. No biggie. The room that houses the cafeteria is another site. Huge windows that give you a wonderful view of the c
ity. Oh it was so nice to sit and eat breakfast, drink some coffee, and hear the chit chat going on from people across the globe. For a brief moment I felt l
ike I wasn't even in the United States anymore.
In the same area as the cafeteria, there is a commons area with games, computers, and an information desk where you can get the low down of the happenings in the city.
I could seriously go on forever about this hostel and the positive experience I had from it, but let the pictures speak for themselves.
The hotel's website:
http://www.hichicago.org/
