Who has Hotel recommendations for Chicago and New Orleans?

[MK]

I will be visiting these two cites in October. I need a hotel that has personality and hopefully a good bar. Who has recommendation?

 

[HudsonHawk]

Don't know anything about Chicago, but have spent a little time in New Orleans. Business or pleasure? Lots of good hotels there, depending on how close you want to the craziness of the Quarter. I recently stayed at the Royal Sonesta and enjoyed it. It's in the Quarter, right on Bourbon Street, but it was plenty quiet in the hotel. It has a jazz bar in the hotel, and of course there are lots of bars and restaurants within a few steps, some of them quite nice. Hotel Monteleone is another classic hotel, and home to the famous Carousel Bar. As for bars without a hotel, the bar at Arnaud's is pretty good.

 

[Harp]

The Drake and The Palmer House in Chicago.

 

[Nathan Flowers]

+1 for the Palmer House.

 

[Zemke Fan]

Heard wonderful things about The Roosevelt New Orleans. Haven't been there, though.

 

[WendiJean]

The Olivier House in the quarter is wonderful! It's the only hotel I will stay at. You can get a balcony overlooking Bourbon, but since its just off of Bourbon not deal with all the noise. Their customer service has always been great as well. Good memories of that hotel....my last son was born 9 months after we visited....we named him Oliver
http://olivierhousehotel.com/

 

[Insp. Bumstead]

For Chicago, try out Longman and Eagle tavern. It's one of the city's best pubs, with extremely reasonable whiskey prices, and just happens to rent out a suite of rooms above the dining floor. The food is upscale without being pretentious. The room comes with preferential restaurant seating which is useful because wait times are long right now.

Best part is that a Blue Line CTA stop is right on Longman and Eagle's doorstep, which makes it easy to go all over the city.

 

[CaramelSmoothie]

The Royal Sonesta has a burlesque/blues show on Friday and Saturday nights. Really good show. It's right across from a nice cafe that sells the best beignets, even better than Cafe Dumonde in my opinion. Ive stayed at the St. Louis hotel and several others. So many of the hotels are historic so you can't really go wrong. Hotel Monteleone, another historic hotel, has a spinning bar. You are sitting at the bar and it is like a carousel, it spins, albeit very slowly. Check it out.

 

[HudsonHawk]

The Royal Sonesta has a burlesque/blues show on Friday and Saturday nights. Really good show. It's right across from a nice cafe that sells the best beignets, even better than Cafe Dumonde in my opinion.

Cafe Beignet. It is indeed excellent. I like Cafe Dumonde, but it's just always so crowded. I don't see the joy in waiting an hour or two for a powdered doughnut. However, Cafe Dumonde is open 24 hours, so there is that late-night thing going for it.

 

[hatguy1]

Stayed at the Hotel Monteleone in N'Awlins during a conference there a couple years ago. Very cool place with character right on the edge of the French Quarter.

http://hotelmonteleone.com/

 

[Tomasso]

The Pump Room in Chicago is a must for Golden Era fans. It is located in what was the Ambassador East (since rebranded) where loads of Hollywood stars stayed when switching trains when traveling from NY to LA. Bogie and Bacal honeymooned there. A myriad of photos of famous guests adorn the walls.