Chicago or New Orleans?
Advice for a summer road trip
My friends and I are planning a trip to a major American city this summer. We've narrowed down our choices to Chicago or New Orleans.
What are your recommendations?
Chicago, but then again I am bias!
New Orleans is supposed to be really cool though! I would like to go there myself.
If this is theme park related though, Chicago has SFGA (well, actually Gurnee)
New Orleans is fantastic! I've never been to Chicago though. But NO has a lot of culture, and it has the rebuilt city and Katrina devastation still, so it's really interesting to take a bus tour and see the difference and see how they are rebuilding. And the above ground cemeteries are awesome.
One vote from a Chicagoan for Chicago, one vote for New Orleans from someone that hasn't seen Chicago.
The vote is dead even and I'm back at square one.
I've been to Chicago twice, not New Orleans. I was a kid back in 1979, and was concerned only with establishing the high score on the pinball machine at the hotel and didn't see the sights. In '07, I was meeting an "online friend" which was disastrous, and going to SFGAm with her. The park was decent at best, with two very good wooden coasters and a wonderful double deck carousel. Depending on how long you're there, you could take in a Cubs game, Navy Pier, and the Field Museum. Watch the Blues Brothers (my favorite movie) before you go, and pop by some of the film's locations. Go to GAm, and hit the building that may or may not still be known as the Sears Tower. I know it was sold, but I dunno if the name changed.
From Tony Duda
Posted February 9, 2011 at 5:31 PM
I've been to Chicago twice and New Orleans about 8 times. If you are going just for mindless fun and not for baseball games, museums or to see tall buildings, New Orleans is the choice. Being on Bourbon Street at night, drinks in hand, music and other crazy people is a must-do experience. You actually can drink booze openly outside on city streets in NO. Chicago has so many great big city things but everything has a high price and must be constrained inside or in the parks during festivals (like Taste of Chicago). Every day and night is like that in NO.
But the weather can be unbearably hot and humid in summer in NO. Have fun in either place.
Yeah, you can't drink and walk around in Chicago, but, then again, you really can't do that outside of NO.
If you choose Chicago, you can come to the Taste of Chicago as well along with a ton of other fun things going on in the city. There is a festival every week during the summer in Chicago. There is also Great America in Gurnee!
I can meet up with you guys too if you want (especially Six Flags). I will be a good "online friend!" LOL
Been to them both on a roadtrip last summer. I'd pick Chicago.
I love New Orleans, but in the summer the heat and humidity are just awful. Chicago's bad, but not New Orleans bad. You could always visit New Orleans at another time of year, but if you're going to Chicago, you want to go in the summer.
Chicago: Museums, concerts, lakefront, baseball, amusement park, Rush Street bars, good restaurants (pizza and hot dogs are strengths).
New Orleans: French Quarter history, concerts (especially jazz), river, no major pro sports in summer, no amusement park, much better bars and restaurants (better on just about everything except the pizza and hot dogs).
FWIW, New Orleans is the only place in America I've seen where the bouncers are throwing people into the bars.
Not to mention Chicago is probably cheaper to fly to (or drive!)
Yeah...I'd go Chicago too. Nothing against New Orleans at all, but aside from Bourbon Street, French Quarter, and some good jazz there really isn't much else. Chicago is loaded with things to do. Cubs game, Navy Pier, Downtown, Six Flags, good music, etc...etc...etc. Might I suggest a visit to the Signature Room at the top of the Hancock Building for lunch, dinner, or a drink.
It is not cheap to drive in Chicago though. Parking isn't easy to come by and obscenely expensive (around $50 a day just for hotel parking). Better to fly and take shuttles/cabs/trains or walk if downtown.
Joshua, if you doing this as a road trip from Ottawa, drive along the south shore of Lake Erie and you could include Cedar Point on the way to or from Chicago, or even both ways!
Great suggestions, guys. Much appreciated.
We've done Cedar Point several times - twice last summer, in fact. We enjoyed it a lot, and Cleveland, too (bit of a surprise there).
We visited Orlando in August 2009. The heat was bad - is New Orleans even worse? The summers in Ottawa can get hot and immensely humid, so if it's the humidity that's bothersome, we may be able to take it.
When I was in NO it was over the summer and yes it was HOT. and humid. But we walked everywhere, literally miles at a time [were there for a conference, walking between the superdome and riverwalk conference center multiple times a day]. So i think that's why it was so unbearable. If you used some sort of air conditioned transportation I doubt it would be so bad.
Both sound fantastic for different reasons. Again, though, I must ask - is New Orleans more humid than Orlando in the summer months?
I think so because it is more "swampy" than Orlando.
Don't have the official humidity data in front of me, but I find Orlando's weather much more bearable that New Orleans' in the summer.
Thanks to everyone. I think we're going with Chicago.
Yay!
This discussion has been archived, and is not accepting additional responses.
