My husband and I decided recently to take the family on a mini “staycation” to Chicago for the weekend. We wanted the whole staying downtown, walking almost everywhere experience and the Embassy Suites Downtown Lakefront was the perfect solution for our lodging needs.

Part of living area, and hallway leading to bedroom.

We had the pleasure of being guests at the Embassy Suites Downtown Lakefront for a Friday and Saturday night in September. If you’ve never stayed at an Embassy Suites, you should know that for a family with young children who need to go to bed before the rest of the gang is ready for lights out, it’s perfect. The spacious two-room suites are standard, which gave us some much-needed family relaxing time in the evenings. We were able to put our toddler to bed in a hotel-provided portable crib in the bedroom area, close the door and then choose from an extensive list of popular, new movies for rent via in-house pay-per-view. As you would expect, the living area couch also turns into a bed, so the suite comfortably accommodated our family of five without having to force the teen and tween to share a bed (whew!).

As if the big suites aren’t enough, the other fabulous family-friendly features of the hotel are:

•  the made-to-order complimentary breakfast (This was a serious spread of food options and saved us a bunch of money on breakfasts.)
• eager to please staff (While the drive from our home in St. Louis to Chicago is just under six hours normally, it’s a tad longer with an active toddler. When we arrived late Friday evening, they checked us in, parked our car, delivered our luggage and set-up our portable crib in less than 15 minutes!)
• daily manager’s reception with free snacks and cocktails. (Can you say happy husband?)
• on-site fitness center (My competitive swimmer was distraught over having to miss swim practice for our family getaway until she spotted the lap pool.) 

The hotel’s strategic  location in the heart of the city’s top shopping, business and entertainment districts means you can easily walk (even with a toddler in a stoller) to Navy Pier, Michigan Avenue and Millennium Park. It also means the hotel offers a mesmerizing view of the downtown area and of Lake Michigan.

During our visit, we visited Chicago’s Navy Pier, rode the 150-foot high Ferris Wheel, ate Ed Debevics, took a water taxi and shopped up and down Michigan Avenue.

I’d highly recommend a family “staycation” or “vacation” to Chicago, and I’d definitely direct you to the Embassy Suites Downtown Lakefront as your hotel destination. We had a great time and are anxious to do it again next fall.

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Our stay at the Embassy Suites was complimentary.

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