Did someone say buffet? Go back for seconds and thirds at the Hampton Inn’s complimentary hot breakfast buffet! This place is a chic fusion of comfort and style, and for those who need to primp after traveling, hit up the on-site beauty salon or barber shop. Elegant accommodations call for elegant hair.
Take your pick from shopping, dining, or going out on the town at this hotel where anything and everything is possible. Request a whirlpool and balcony roo
m if you’re a lover of lounging or bare your bikini at the indoor pool and sundeck. There’s an outdoor terrace for private business functions, and make sure to take advantage of special deals like the Nickel Package that includes two VIP Shedd tickets, a deluxe guest room, and a surprise upon arrival. Four stars for Four points!
Start your day off right with a delicious complimentary breakfast each morning of your stay at this stylish inn that’s centrally located for the convenience of its guests. Exciting attractions like Shedd Aquarium and glam Michigan Avenue are yours for the taking, if shopping is the day’s choice activity. If you’re a health nut at heart, request one of the Wellness Suites equipped with organic bedding, filtered water, and an air purification system. This place puts the “fair” in Fairfield.
The breathtaking views of the lakefront and dazzling cityscape aren’t th
e only fantastic features at this 254 roomed bijou of an inn. Hop on the complimentary personal shuttle to the Magnificent Mile if you want to shop ‘til you drop, or visit the all-season rooftop pool on the fourth floor. Take a stroll in the garden while you’re up there, and if you’re in the mood for a little physical excursion, hit up the fitness center. You might have to force yourself to leave.
Treat yourself to a luxurious stay at this suite-hotel right near Northbrook Shopping Center and just 15 miles from O’Hare International where comfort reigns supreme. Take a dip in the pool, kick back in the spacious suites equipped with two televisions, or visit Gino’s East, the on-site pizza parlor renowned for its delicious deep dish slices that will keep you coming back.
You’ll have plenty of room to stretch out and relax at this hotel where each expertly decorated suite includes a bedroom, an expansive living room, and not one but two televisions for your viewing pleasure. When your stomach starts to grumble, rely on room service or dine out at P.J. Clarkes. If you’re on the market for a to-die-for drink, check out the hotel’s bar, 511 North. So many options, so little time.
Between the pool and its proximity to Rosemont Theater, there’s more than enou
gh to do at this luxury airport hotel. If you’re not a water baby, sweat it out in the fitness room or scarf down a succulent steak at Gibson’s Steakhouse, right inside the hotel. Oh, and did we mention there’s a 24-hour complimentary hotel shuttle? It just gets better and better.
It says it all in the name: comfort is the top priority at this inn that specializes in c
atering to its customers. If your limbs are stiff from traveling, take a soak in the public whirlpool/hot tub or steam away stress in the sauna. For those with work on the brain, there’s a business center, and if you want to do some gallivanting about town, shops and restaurants are walking distance. You’ll want to stay inn the whole time.
Just a hop, skip, and a jump away from O’Hare Airport, the convenient locatio
n is only one of this hotel’s many strong suits. Take off your shoes and loosen your tie in one of the markedly tasteful guestrooms or suites; print, fax, and copy at the full-service business center; wine and dine at one of the 3 on site restaurants; and take a dip in the heated luxury pool in the hotel’s all season atrium. This place is fit for a queen…or businessman.
The city is all around you at this hotel in the Chicago Loop near the Sears Tower and thea
ter district. Get some shut-eye on the hotel’s plush beds each equipped with pillow top mattresses and 350-thread-count sheets. For those who want to relax to the max, loosen up with a deep-tissue massage brought to you by the in-room spa service. Don’t you just love to lounge?
If you’d rather avoid the bustle of downtown Chicago, this hotel may be exactly what you’re looking for. Just 15 minutes from O’Hare Airport, this is a great place for travelers in transition. Take advantage of complimentary transportation to Brookfield Zoo, Oakbrook Mall, and O’Hare, and feel free to break a sweat at the fitness center and outdoor pool. Can you say convenience and comfort?
Guaranteed the Best service in the Windy City, this hotel is truly first rate. Marvel at the stunning view of downtown Chicago from one of the 150 guestrooms equipped with free high-speed internet access and a beautiful contemporary bath design. Bored? Swim a lap at the full-size indoor pool or pump some iron at the Nautilus Weight station at the fitness center. You’ll instantly feel right at home.
Situated on East Ohio Street half a block from shopping central on The Magnificent Mile and right near the Navy Pier, you’ll find the Inn of Chicago. After exploring the rich surrounding downtown neighborhood, retreat to this inn with choice guestroom accommodations, laundry and dry cleaning services, and a staff that is eager to serve. For travelers looking for chic comfort, this is your inn.
Sophistication and style collide at this high rise hotel on Chicago’s ritzy Michigan Avenue. All 443 guestrooms are so beautifully furnished you’ll find yourself opting for a permanent stay. If you’re hankering for a cocktail, try M Avenue Lounge, where you can sip your drink by the fireplace in the center of the room. Now, here’s a hot spot.
The second you step foot into Allegro Hotel, you’ll find yourself in the lap of luxury. Take advantage of personal assistant services, a state-of-the-art on-site fitness center, and a spa where you can relax and reboot. Located in the heart of Chicago’s theater district, you’ll have entertainment right outside your door.
Anastasia (for whom the salon is named) is widely known in Beverly Hills as the go-to girl for the perfectly arched eyebrow. She has styled “forehead caterpillars” for everyone from Madonna to Penelope Cruz to Naomi Campbell, and that’s a tough crowd to please. But perfection is what Anastashia does, which is why she has been written up in every fashion and beauty magazine out there.
This eyebrow wiz flaunts a client list that reads like a Vanity Fair party guest list! Anastasia also has a new makeup line designed with “Old Hollywood” in mind that she describes as “luxurious” and “elegantly old fashioned.” In addition to her eyebrow expertise, Anastasia also branches off with other services including all kinds of facials, waxings, and makeup services.
You don’t have to have a room at this lush and lavish hotel to get a massage or a manicure. The spa is small, but they’re big on service and have a large selection of treatments available.
With luxuries like grand piano music, cappuccino, espresso and fine 
pastries, you may want to book a vacation at the Andre Chreky Salon instead of just a massage. This salon and day spa indulges everything from hair and nails to face and body.
Andre Chreky’s philosophy of stellar service for star clients can be seen any day of the week, with Mr. Chreky himself making an almost constant personal presence in the salon. The Andre Chreky Salon offers express services, extended hours, fuss-free maitenance, discretion, and luxury so that each client leaves feeling like a VIP.
Try an herbal body wrap, complete with a highly concentrated aromatherapeutic serum to ensure hydration. Spoil yourself or someone you love with a package to relax, renew and rejuvenate the mind and body.
Work or play, SomaFit has your body’s needs covered. You can start off with a killer workout in their fitness facilities then grab a healing Carnio Sacral Massage and top off the day with a treat, like the glowing Oxygen Facial. It doesn’t need to be an all day excursion (although that’s always on top of the wish list), you can stop in to get an express manicure or pedicure.
At SomaFit you can buy a fitness package and take a class in a Kukuwa dance workout or body sculpting, then reward yourself with pampering. Now, that’s taking care of your body.
Complete with a wine cellar and private dining room, this Little Italy café stays true to traditional cuisine. With a menu spanning from Caprese salad to pan-seared lobster to chicken scarpiello, it has something for everyone. The wooden moldings and granite floors give the restaurant a feel of Rome and reasonable prices round out its appeal.
Why not step into something with a little more flair? Maybe Michael Kors wedges, or the impossibly high Giusseppe Zanotti stilettos? Heidi Says Shoe Salon steps up to the challenge. Here you’ll find all the latest trends, from high-class stilettos to essential yet sophisticated flip-flops and even a great selection of handbags to go with your new kicks. Spice it up with a beaded necklace from their jewelry collection. Once you see what Heidi Says has to offer, you won’t want to step out empty handed.
This beautifully edited furniture store in D.C. looks like a well designed home. At Random Harvest Antiques & Home Furnishings, you can find the perfect mix of antique, vintage and newly manufactured furniture to make your own abode look like it came out of a design show makeover. From elegant to rustic, formal to casual, each piece is of high quality and is refreshingly affordable.
Random Harvest is the perfect spot to find the one item you’re missing or to make your home unique and special. Random Harvest has four stores in the D.C. area, including this jewel in Georgetown.
Rare Books. Special Editions. One-of-a-kind gifts. Just a few of the things you can expect to find at Assouline. Sporting the motto, All that’s beautiful in the world should be in an Assouline Book, Assouline’s spirit has created a unique and eclectic, chic and elegant brand that is immediately identifiable. With its reputation for style and elegance, Assouline has used this to create a superior line of gifts that represent the best in modern design, from stationery to paperweights.
Modern Appealing Clothing offers an unexpected quality of high fashion clothing. The MAC shop has exposed brick, high ceilings, and funhouse mirrors offered by the sister-brother-mother team of owners. Handsome English-cut suits for men and spartan dresses for women hang with a mix of local and international modern jewelry. Best known as a source for clothing from Belgian designers like Dries van Noten and Martin Marjiela, they also carry an extensive sampling of Japanese designers.
Adventurous eaters, welcome! Coi is small and sleek and caters to foodies who want to sample new and exciting flavors. Chef Daniel Patterson’s unique dishes include 
Yuba (soy skin) papardelle with coconut milk and curry, sea bream sashimi with white soy, yuzu and chives, caviar sautéed bone marrow with beet gelee, and soft cooked egg yolk with spicy onion relish bacon and parmesean foam. With dishes such as these, it’s no surprise he was voted San Francisco Magazine’s Chef of the Year 2007.
Coi prides itself in using only the best ingredients in the dishes. Coi searches high and low, locally of course, to find cultivated plants grown from heirloom seeds; wild-harvested leaves, flowers, barks and roots; seaweeds and coastal grasses, and more. Coi insists its guests are served nothing short of the best that San Francisco has to offer.
The Big Apple is known for rich culture, plays and its high-rise buildings. The Skyscraper Museum explores the ever changing skyline’s history, investment in real estate and design. The museum has many different exhibits including a commemoration of the original World Trade Center. The museum has also created the panels that are shown at Ground Zero. Showing the past, present, and future of New York is the museum’s goal, and they have succeeded.
The striking view of the Chattahoochee River doesn’t rival the actual restaurant that’s been featured in Bon Appetit, Food and Wine, Gourmet, and The New York Times. Decorated like a luxe lodge with an inverted ceiling made to resemble the inside of a canoe, stepping foot inside is a memorable experience in itself. The seasonal menu amasses a loyal clientele.
Visit canoeatl.com for more information.
Between 2001 and 2004, the “Pats” became the second NFL team in history to win three Super Bowls in just four years. Now they’re considered the kings of their own NFL dynasty. Check website for games and schedules.
One of the best teams in the NBA plays right here in Boston at TD Banknorth Garden. The team is rich with history and boasts some of the world’s greatest players. Check out their website for tickets and game schedules.
It’s a sight for sore eyes, indeed, on the Shoreline Sightseeing’s famous Architectural River Cruise tour. You’ll travel the historic Chicago River, and see over 40 of the city’s edificial wonders. Embark on the Skyline tour to get a taste of the impressive urban scape, or feel the wind in your hair during a Water Taxi tour that’ll take you to the docks of the Navy Pier and other lake shore sites in no time flat.
New York Waterway tours offer a variety of entertaining and informative cruises year-round. There are 90-minutes harbor cruises that travel up both the Hudson and East Rivers, from midtown on the west side to the United Nations on the east side. There are also an assortment of 50-minute downtown cruises that depart from historic Pier A in Battery Park. All stop near the Statue of Liberty…great for photo-ops. If you think cruises are just a daytime activity, think again! The twilight evening cruises, happy hour cruises and late-night party cruises are the best part! Plus, if you’re a Yankee fan you might opt to skip the traffic and head up to the stadium ship-style on the Yankee Clipper cruise.
Visit the sites of your favorite movies and TV shows on the tour of Manhattan TV and movie sites (Friends, Hitch, Spiderman II, Manhattan) or follow in the footsteps of Carrie Bradshaw and friends on the tour of Sex and the City hot-spots. See the sites of the shootings on the tour of Sopranos locations or take a walk through Central Park on the walking tour of Central Park Movie Sites. Tours depart daily from Midtown. Advance purchase required.
Romance and opulence make up Radio City Music Hall, one of New York’s great attractions. And it’s not just about the shows! The sheer beauty of this venue is well worth the visit, even if you don’t have those hard-to-get tickets to your dream concert. Here is where many of the city’s star-studded events take place – everything from the Grammy Awards to the annual Rockettes Christmas Spectacular. Originally built as a part of midtown Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center complex, it continues to stand strong as a symbol of glamour and entertainment.
There’s also a way to get a sneak peek inside. Following the lead of Radio City’s experienced tour guides, explore the beautiful art-deco interiors and learn the secrets of the Great Stage, one of the largest indoor performance stages in the world. The stage’s hydraulic system is still in operation since the ’30s. And at the end of the tour, guests meet one of the world-famous Radio City Rockettes.
St. Paul’s Chapel served as a place of rest and refuge for recovery workers at the WTC site. For eight months, hundreds of volunteers worked 12-hour shifts around the clock, serving meals, making beds, counseling and praying with fire fighters, construction workers, police and others. Massage therapists, chiropractors, podiatrists and musicians also tended to their needs. Today, St. Paul’s continues as an active part of the Parish of Trinity Church, holding services, weekday concerts, occasional lectures, and providing a shelter for the homeless.
From hair raising encounters with toothy reef sharks to meeting the adorably playful penguins and just about everything in between and underwater – you’ll see sea lions, sea otters, giant walruses that weigh in at over 1200 pounds, and octopuses – the New York Aquarium will make you go ohh!, ahh!, and eek! Tickle a starfish or a horseshoe crab at one of the two Touch Pools. See California sea lions dance, swim, and sing, er- bark at the Aquatheater musical show; if you are lucky you may even get a kiss from one of these sweet west coast creatures. Or for a real jolt, experience a day in the life of our aqueous friends in 4-D – 3-D is so last year – at the Planet Earth: Shallow Seas show. Or better yet, stop by the Alien Stingers exhibit to explore the many types of spine chilling tentacles. Whatever you go to see, and you should probably see and do it all, you won’t have a complete Coney Island experience until you have visited the New York Aquarium. It’s the only aquarium in New York City and it features over 8,000 creatures waiting to befriend (or eat!) you.
Chinatown has a unique character and charm all its own. There are a number of bargain furniture stores, banks, grocery stores here. Holistic healers often come here to shop the wide selection of Chinese herbs and medicines in some of the natural healing stores. But the big seller here, of course, is the food! More than 50 restaurants are scattered around the area, from Vietnamese, to dim sum to sushi.
The unique architecture of buildings such as Sing Chong Building and the Bank of Canton is what really gives this community its name. Being the city where the first Chinese immigrants arrived in America, it makes sense that SF is home to the largest Chinatown outside of Asia. You can’t help but think you’re not in Cali anymore.
The Double Decker and Alcatraz Combo Tour is a 5-in-1 packing providing you with the experience to see San Francisco’s best sights. It includes a fully narrated tour of the Golden Gate loop, including the bridge, views of the city’s skyline, the mansions of Pacific Heights, and Fisherman’s Wharf. Downtown, you’ll see Union Square, cr
ooked Lombard Street, and even the largest Chinatown outside of Asia, all atop a double-decker bus.
You’ll want to get tickets a few weeks in advance so that you don’t miss the cellblocks of Alcatraz, “The Rock,” which was the home of Al Capone and other infamous mobsters. Featuring interviews with inmates and guards who actually lived there before the prison closed in 1968, Alcatraz is all the rage.
This is a hop-on, hop-off tour allows guests to shop and eat along the way. The Japanese Tea Gardens or Postcard Row is where the most famous of San Francisco’s “Painted Ladies” can be viewed- and, if you’re a Full House fan, you may recognize the sights from the show’s credits. For night owls, there’s even a special night loop.
One trip on the Double Decker and Alcatraz Combo Tour and you will have officially conquered San Francisco- well, kind of.
Cappuccinos are to North Beach as tea is to Chinatown. San Francisco is a city known for fresh ingredients and its cultural melting pot translating into the kitchen. Local Tastes of the City offers an experience to taste it all in the diverse foodie neighborhoods of North Beach/Little Italy and Chinatown.
The North Beach/Little Italy Tour is so much more than a food tour, it’s a cultural experience. Not only will you find freshly baked bread that will send your senses soaring, but also discover quaint shops with handmade ceramic trinkets, intricately woven baskets, quilts, and more; uncover hidden authentic Italian cathedrals; and experience first-hand the coffee roasting process in these small shops. Locals come here for the fresh food, but they stay for the culture.
You’ll think you stepped into Beijing, but don’t be fooled, it’s just Chinatown. The cuisine will enliven your senses with new flavors and aromas. See artisans practice their crafts in back alleyways that can’t be viewed from a double-decker bus, watch as chefs fold fortune cookies by hand, and view the unique architecture of building such as the Sing Chong Building and the Bank of Canton.
Travel deep into the essence of these neighborhoods by trying different foods and drinks from the best and most authentic bakeries, restaurants and cafes in town. These stops are not typical tourist spots, yet places that the locals go to shop and eat. Taste pastries and breads in Little Italy, dim sum and tea in Chinatown, and much more.
Circle Line is the best way to get a bird’s eye view of Manhattan. To see the giant island, take a Circle Line boat tour from West Midtown all the way around back to West Midtown. See the 27 bridges, be awed by the downtown skyline, smell the East River, watch the endless ribbon of cars whip down FDR Drive and listen to the acerbic, to-die-for quips of the dyed-in-the-wool New York tour guides.
One of the easiest ways to get to see the city of Boston is on 
your own schedule but just how do you know where to go and what sights to see? Audissey Guides offers a free one-hour downloadable tour that will show you a unique side of Boston most tourists never get to see. Some of the narrators include Michael Patrick MacDonald, author of All Souls: a Family Story from Southie, Luigi ‘Big Lou’ DeMarco whose family owns Caffe Graffiti, a local hangout in the North End and Dicky Barrett, lead singer of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. On the one-mile tour, you will be led down secret alleys and hidden paths to uncover the pulse of the real Beantown. On the award-winning audio tour, you will visit the former headquarters of the Boston Mafia, meet a Boston Mayor elected from a jail cell, and sip a cappuccino with locals in the North End. There is a walking map to guide you along the tour route – simply visit the website and download the Zip file of tour and a PDF map.