Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
That said, Chicago is still extremely
divided residentially along racial lines.
The South Side is overwhelmingly
African American, the North Side is
mostly white, and Latino residents
tend to settle in neighborhoods such as
Pilsen, just southwest of downtown.
Travelers can explore the city's rich
black heritage with a specialized tour
(see “Chicago & the Great Black
Migration” on p. 296 and “Neighbor-
hood Tours” on p. 215). Visitors with
an interest in Latin-American art
might want to stop by the vibrant
Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum in
Pilsen (p. 199).
STUDENT TRAVEL
The best resource for students in
Chicago is STA Travel, one of the
biggest student-travel agencies in the
world, which can set you up with an
ID card and get you discounts on
plane tickets and rail travel. There are
two STA offices in Chicago: in the
Loop at 429 S. Dearborn St., Chicago,
IL 60605 ( & 312/786-9050; fax 312/
786-9817; www.sta-travel.com) and
on the Gold Coast at 1160 N. State
St., Chicago, IL 60610 ( & 312/951-
0585; fax 312/951-7437).
Chicago also has several hostels
offering students and other travelers
inexpensive, no-frills lodging. The best
is the J. Ira & Nicki Harris Family
Hostel, 24 E. Congress Pkwy., in the
Loop ( & 312/360-0300; fax 312/360-
0313; www.hichicago.org). Opened in
2000, it features many amenities and
can help set up activities throughout
the city. Other hostels open year-round
include Arlington House Interna-
tional Hostel, 616 W. Arlington Place,
Chicago, IL 60614 ( & 800/
HOSTEL-5 or 773/929-5380; fax
773/665-5485), in Lincoln Park;
Chicago International Hostel, 6318
N. Winthrop Ave., Chicago, IL 60660
( & 773/262-1011; fax 773/262-3632;
www.chicagointernationalhostel.com),
on the North Side of the city; and
International House of Chicago,
1414 E. 59th St., Chicago, IL 60637
( & 773/753-2270; fax 773/753-1227;
http://ihouse.uchicago.edu), on the
University of Chicago campus in Hyde
Park.
7 Planning Your Trip Online
To get Chicago info before you go,
check out “The Best Chicago Web-
sites” in chapter 1 (p. 8).
SURFING FOR AIRFARES
The “big three” online travel agencies,
Expedia.com, Travelocity.com, and
Orbitz.com, sell most of the air tick-
ets bought on the Internet. (Canadian
travelers should try expedia.ca and
Travelocity.ca; U.K. residents can go
for expedia.co.uk and opodo.co.uk.)
Each has different business deals with
the airlines and may offer different
fares on the same flights, so it's wise to
shop around. Expedia and Travelocity
will also send you e-mail notification
when a cheap fare becomes available
to your favorite destination. Of the
smaller travel agency websites, Side-
Step (www.sidestep.com) has gotten
the best reviews from Frommer's
authors. It's a browser add-on that
purports to “search 140 sites at once,”
but in reality only beats competitors'
fares as often as other sites do.
Also remember to check airline
websites, especially those for low-fare
carriers such as AirTran (www.airtran.
com), ATA (www.ata.com), and South-
west (www.southwest.com), whose
fares are often misreported or simply
missing from travel agency websites.
Even with major airlines, you can often
shave a few bucks from a fare by book-
ing directly through the airline and
avoiding a travel agency's transaction
fee. But you'll get these discounts only
by booking online: Most airlines now
offer online-only fares that even their
phone agents know nothing about.
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