It feels like a century has passed since I last wrote an article here (mostly because I was lazy). Hey, folks, I’m back. I actually hadn’t stayed at a hotel purely for leisure in a long time. After the pandemic, all my trips were for work, so some of the free night certificates from hotel cards during the pandemic have since expired. This Ritz-Carlton experience certificate was from the last wave when I applied for the Chase Ritz-Carlton Card, the $450 annual-fee metal card. I used it the day before it expired. After all, it was a Marriott 50,000-point free night certificate, and it would’ve been a shame to let it go to waste (my cheapness kicked in). Marriott is now on dynamic pricing too, and the night I stayed actually required 52,000 points, so I ended up using the 50,000-point certificate + 2,000 Marriott points to cover this stay.
This trip was still completely unplanned, a true spur-of-the-moment one. I booked it on Tuesday, and after work on Wednesday night I took the subway straight to The Ritz-Carlton, Chicago to experience the joy of being rich. Smart readers probably already figured it out: yes, I was doing it mainly to save the $76 parking fee (and I checked SpotHero for nearby overnight parking rates, all of which were over $30). Plus, during rush hour you can basically not drive anywhere in Chicago anyway... The Ritz-Carlton, Chicago has an unbeatable location, at the north end of the Magnificent Mile, with the famous Water Tower Place nearby. From the Chicago stop on the Red Line, it’s a 5-10 minute walk, and there are countless restaurants and shopping spots around, so living in this area without a car is absolutely no problem. I have quite a few coworkers who like living in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood and taking the train to work every day; plenty of people don’t own cars. Of course, if conditions allow near where I work, I still prefer staying somewhere more spread out and living a relatively low-density life.
Entering the Hotel
Because land in Chicago’s downtown core is probably insanely expensive, I couldn’t find the main entrance at first and entered through the valet parking side instead. The hotel’s check-in desk is on the 12th floor of the building. The front desk agent was pretty friendly and welcoming. I hadn’t sent any email or left any note before arriving, but she upgraded me to a room on the lake side, on the 28th floor (which is quite high, since I think the building has 32 floors total). Below are a few photos of the hotel entrance, lobby, and the base room. All photos in this post were taken on my phone.
The photo above is the hotel entrance. The sign isn’t very obvious, so it’s easy to miss.
The two photos above show the first floor of the hotel after entering from the valet parking side. Apparently it was renovated a few years ago, so it doesn’t feel old. The style is pretty standard, not especially modern. I was looking around for the check-in area at first, and only later realized I needed to take the elevator up to the 12th floor.
The hotel lobby is on the 12th floor. I forgot to take a picture of the check-in desk, but it just felt fairly ordinary. There’s also an Italian restaurant called Torali on the 12th floor; interested readers can look up the menu and prices here. Since there are so many restaurants in this area, I didn’t eat there. Gold elite members should get 10% off, and higher tiers probably get 20% off. The front desk will give you a discount card at check-in. If you spend on property, such as dining or the spa, remember to show that card.
This is the café attached to the hotel, and you can sit out on the balcony. The tallest building nearby is the 360 Chicago tower, and the famous 360 Chicago observation deck is at the top of that building.
This is the building with the 360 Chicago observation deck. You can see it from the Ritz’s café balcony. It is currently the 4th tallest building in Chicago (I also found sources saying it’s second or fifth; roughly the same scale, so I won’t dig into it).
This is the interior of the lake-view king room. One slightly awkward thing was that there was only one chair, which made it a little inconvenient for two people to work from the hotel at the same time... Everything else was pretty standard. I didn’t think the room amenities were especially bad, but I also didn’t think they were especially good. My assigned room faced north, so I couldn’t see the Navy Pier fireworks that run every night from 9:00 to 9:10 p.m. Of course, you can go to the gym to watch them; the view there lets you see Navy Pier, which is south of the hotel. And honestly, outside of holidays, fireworks in the U.S. are just so-so anyway. You can skip them.
The bathroom was fairly large and spacious.
What surprised me a bit was that the hotel toiletries were no longer the Asprey Purple Water line. I really liked that scent, so that was a bit of a shame. I looked it up online and Marriott properties are gradually switching to large-bottle toiletries, supposedly to be more environmentally friendly and reduce plastic waste. The toiletries and body lotion now are Diptyque Philosykos, which also smells pretty good.
The view outside the room was really nice. Especially in higher-latitude places, it stays light until late at night. Even though I arrived late that day, I could still watch the sunset right from my room. If you wake up early enough, you can also watch the sunrise from the room.
After checking in, we went to take a look at the spa and fitness center on the 11th floor. The spa area was already closed, but the gym was still open, and I like using the rowing machine there. Nothing else was particularly special. I didn’t see the little bit of fruit near the door that some online guides mentioned, but you can take a few bottles of the complimentary water from the gym, so there’s no need to have someone deliver it. There’s also a small pool on the 11th floor, and it closes at 10 p.m. There were still people in it at the time, so I didn’t feel comfortable taking a photo.
Late-Night Deep Dive into the Magnificent Mile
Although I live in the suburban fringe on Chicago’s north side, the straight-line distance to downtown Chicago isn’t actually that far. But the Loop in Chicago is chronically congested (on par with the stretch near Jianguomen and the Second Ring Road in Beijing), so unless something truly major is happening, I usually don’t go into the city. Since I happened to be staying in the city this time, of course I didn’t miss the chance to go see the night scenery. I still highly recommend the night views here, and you can get a pretty good hit rate by turning on night mode on your phone. What’s more, there are a lot of police patrols in the busy areas, so it feels pretty safe. I left around 9 p.m. and got back a little after 11 p.m., and didn’t feel any safety issues at all. Starting from the Ritz-Carlton, I walked south along Michigan Avenue all the way to the Chicago River, where the city’s largest Apple Store is located, then turned west and kept walking along the river for about 30 minutes. Then I walked back the way I came. The image below shows the official boundaries of Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. Since it was nighttime, most of the stores were closed, and I wasn’t in much of a shopping mood either (people who’ve moved a few times will understand), so I couldn’t experience the joy of shopping (mostly because I’m broke). Still, there were quite a lot of people on the streets at night, bustling and lively, so friends who like city life will probably enjoy it.
Below are a few night shots I casually took myself. They were all taken with my phone, no tripod, and I’m pretty lazy, so please don’t overanalyze them.
The image above is the Water Tower, one of Chicago’s landmark buildings, located at Water Tower Place on the north end of the Magnificent Mile. This building was originally built in 1869, and it survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, so it once became a symbol of resilience. That fire was a very serious disaster: it burned for 2 days, a huge area was reduced to ruins, more than 300 people lost their lives, and 100,000 people lost their homes. But reconstruction afterward did accelerate Chicago’s development and helped it become one of the important economic cities in the United States. I’ve always thought Chicago’s city planning is still pretty good among major U.S. cities.
Starbucks fans shouldn’t miss this place — it’s the largest Starbucks store in the world. It was already closed when I went, but through the glass you could still see that the interior was very carefully designed. Of course, I still prefer tea.
The image above shows the NBC Tower at the south end of the Magnificent Mile, which is also one of the nearby landmark buildings.
At the east side of the road at the end of the Magnificent Mile is Chicago’s flagship Apple Store. I once drove here to pick something up, and oh man, the parking nearby almost scared me to tears. The road is double-decked, and I simply couldn’t find the entrance to the parking garage I had reserved. Only afterward did I learn the garage was on the lower level, while I had been looping around on the upper level the whole time. I even accidentally drove the wrong way into a one-way street... Luckily, I reacted fast and was lucky enough not to run into any police, so I eventually got out of it safely. So if you’re driving into the city and coming near here, you really need to do your homework in advance! GPS often stops working around here because the tall buildings block the signal. I don’t know how much money Apple has poured into this store, but from the outside it still looks very grand, and it occupies a very central location in the city, right next to the Chicago River. Of course, all the pictures in this post were taken with my Huawei P30, which I bought 3 years ago (hand-adding a big laughing emoji here).
This is a view of the river and the high-rises on both sides, shot from the opposite direction of the Apple Store. The end of the river in the photo is Lake Michigan. There are also some cruise boats on the river at night. Local friends recommended them to me, but I was in too much of a hurry on this trip and didn’t plan to take one. Friends from out of town can definitely consider it — everyone who’s tried it says it’s great.
I looked this twin-building complex up online, and everyone seems to call it the Corn Cobs (Marina City). It’s also one of the more interesting buildings west of Michigan Avenue and north of the river. From what I found, it’s a mixed-use commercial and residential building, and it’s very modern. The lowest level is a dock that leads out to the Chicago River. Above that, there are many levels of parking decks spiraling upward layer by layer, and higher up are luxury apartments and various commercial spaces. It feels a bit like a futuristic city, which is pretty fun.
Since I still had to work the next day, I didn’t dare linger too long even though the night views were beautiful. Maybe I’ll come back next time if another voucher is about to expire. The next day I also wanted to stay in the hotel a little longer, so I called the front desk to ask whether I could get a late checkout, and the hotel extended it to 1 p.m. Then I took the subway back to work...
For the last photo, here’s One Chicago, which I saw on the way to the subway station the next morning. I looked up information about this building online and there isn’t much, and it’s a pretty new tower that was only completed in recent years. It seems to be mainly luxury apartments, and the price points look pretty reasonable too, even better than some of the little shoeboxes in bigger cities. This is my fourth year living in the Midwest, and I still really like it. Our neck of the woods really is a big city with very strong value for money.
Summary
This stay didn’t really leave me with any particularly stunning impression. After all, it was a Ritz-Carlton, so the good parts weren’t shocking, and the shortcomings were instead the kind that make you think: look, with such an expensive retail rate, how can you still not get this and that right? I’m someone with a very thick skin, so I just take things as they come. Even when service isn’t quite up to par, I don’t really mind. On the day I checked in, I was a little disappointed to find there was no Asprey Purple Water bath amenity I’d been looking forward to. When I used the Marriott app to request an extra set of toiletries, though, they did bring Asprey products. But the staff member just grabbed things randomly and only gave me shampoo, conditioner, and a small bar of soap, not the body wash I wanted. Still, getting a few small Asprey toiletry bottles was enough for me — what more could I ask for? And being able to come into the city after work to see the night views really was nice too, just a way to clear my head. This Ritz-Carlton doesn’t have a resort fee, and public transit nearby is relatively convenient, which also saved me parking costs, so I don’t have much to complain about. I feel like this voucher was truly worth it.