If you were going to take a wintertime vacation, would you go to someplace like Chicago, where a nose-nipping icy wind whips off the lake and temperatures often hover well below freezing?
Not surprisingly, Chicago`s wintertime visitors are far fewer than the guests of summer. Chicago`s tourism professionals, however, are convinced that Chicago can be just as much fun in the winter as in the summer.
For the third year in a row, the Chicago Tourism Council is doing its part by promoting its ”Wrap Up a Holiday Package,” a brochure that offers winter-long discounts at downtown and suburban hotels, theaters, museums, shops and attractions-the indoor variety, naturally. Although the promotion includes the word ”Holiday,” this year`s discounts began on Nov. 24 and are available until Feb. 28.
To get a copy of the brochure, write the Chicago Tourism Council, Historic Water Tower, 806 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60611, or call 280-5740.
One of the new attractions included in ”Wrap Up a Holiday Package” is the Windy City Winter Tour, coordinated by the Here`s Chicago tourism center. Simply present the brochure at Here`s Chicago and you can experience Here`s Chicago (including its multimedia Sound and Sight Show), a two-hour American Sightseeing Tours-Chicago bus tour, and a trip up to the John Hancock Tower Observatory-all for $18. Tours leave daily at 10 a.m. from Here`s Chicago, across from Water Tower Place at 163 E. Pearson St. (467-7114).
American Sightseeing is one of several bus-tour companies that work year round. Both American Sightseeing and Chicago Motor Coach offer two-for-one winter bus tour discounts if you present the ”Wrap Up a Holiday Package”
brochure at their boarding sites. Buy your American Sightseeing ”grand tour” tickets at the company`s 530 S. Michigan Ave. office (427-3100) and you`ll get two tickets for the normal $18 fare.
Chicago Motor Coach is one of two bus companies in Chicago that use double-decker buses. (The other company, Fun Chicago Tours, is closed in winter.) If even the thought of riding in an open-air, double-decker bus at 5 below gives you frostbite, don`t worry. Chicago Motor Coach has warm buses for winter use, although the open-air ones are also available (should anybody be fool enough to request one).
To get the ”Wrap Up a Holiday Package” discount, board a Chicago Motor Coach bus at the Sears Tower, the Field Museum or the corner of Chicago Avenue and Pearson Street (where Here`s Chicago is located). The cost is $5 ($4 for seniors, $2 for children under 12)-which means you get two tickets for that price with the brochure. For more information, call Chicago Motor Coach at 922-8919.
Gray Line of Chicago offers bus tours in the winter, also, but its cold-weather service is limited. Call 346-9506 for more information.
If it`s a winter weekend getaway you`re after, Chicago hoteliers are eager to make you a deal. The Hotel-Motel Association of Illinois has published the 1989-1990 Fall-Winter Hotel Guide. It`s chock-full of weekend package deals at 47 luxury and not-so-luxury downtown and suburban hotels.
(For weekday discounts, stick to the ”Wrap Up a Holiday Package”
brochure.) For a copy of 1989-1990 Fall-Winter Hotel Guide, write the Hotel-Motel Association of Illinois, 27 E. Monroe St., Suite 700, Chicago, Ill. 60603 or call 236-3473.
What of Chicago`s outdoor attractions? Surprisingly, winter might be a good time to visit places like Lincoln Park Zoo, Brookfield Zoo or the Chicago Botanic Garden. Not only are such cold-weather beasts as polar bears, seals, sea lions and arctic foxes more active during the winter, but you`ll have the views all to yourself.
”I love the zoo in winter best,” raves Carol Liefer, director of public relations at the Lincoln Park Zoo. ”It`s too crowded during the summer for you to really observe the animals. In the winter, you can sit back and really watch them interact.”
Aside from its annual ”Caroling to the Animals” event held every December, the Lincoln Park Zoo doesn`t offer any special winter promotions. After all, there`s no admission charge. The zoo`s behind-the-scenes animal visits, wildlife conservation series and children`s activities in the Farm in the Zoo are continued year round. For more information, call 935-6700.
Brookfield Zoo also offers educational programs for all age groups year round, as well as a number of special holiday events. Later during the winter, Brookfield presents ”Ice Giants,” animal ice sculptures (Jan. 21); Groundhog Day (Feb. 2); Chamber Music for Children (Feb. 18); and National Pig Day
(March 1). For times and admission, call 708-485-0263. Brookfield Zoo is at 1st Avenue and 31st Street in Brookfield.
Another unlikely, yet attractive, winter spot is the Chicago Botanic Garden, one-half mile east of the Edens Expressway in Glencoe. Although its 300 acres of display gardens don`t show much color during the winter, the 17.8-acre traditional Japanese garden is beautiful during the winter, says Stan Zoller, public relations coordinator for the Botanic Garden.
”It relies heavily on evergreens and pine,” explains Zoller, ”and the contrast of the green with the white of a light snow is very, very nice.”
The Chicago Botanic Garden grounds include three greenhouses and an exhibit center. From Jan. 20 through March 3, the center will exhibit a juried show of works by 120 Midwest artists. Admission is free, but you must pay for parking ($2 until Monday; $3 after that). Call 708-835-5440.
For the truly determined (or perhaps the merely crazy) tourist, the Chicago Architecture Foundation offers its popular Oak Park and Loop walking tours year round, with a few adjustments for fierce winter weather and occasionally underdressed tourists. (Most foundation tours are warm-weather only.)
Like postal carriers, foundation docents are deterred by neither rain nor snow, says Joseph La Rue, a docent since 1980. Only once has La Rue felt sure a tour would be canceled, and that was a few years ago, during one of Chicago`s very worst winters. One brisk day, La Rue set out to guide a tour in Oak Park, feeling certain no one would show up. Four people did. ”That was the worst tour ever,” La Rue recalls. ”The wind chill was minus 40. But all four made it through the tour. They were hardy.”
Foundation tours are available daily. Call 326-1393.
