Historic Hotel Tours | Luxury Escapes in Chicago: Palmer House, The Drake, Hilton Chicago 

I grew up in the Midwest and Chicago is my absolute favorite big city in the U.S. We share some common ground as I too live in Florida, in the Orlando area, and have for 26 years now. But I get back to Chicago at least once every year. Usually in October for the marathon, as I’m a very avid distance runner running it every year. Also a huge Cubs fan. But I’ve tried to make my way around staying at many of Chicago’s great hotels over the years. I stayed in the Palmer House way back in 2003, and the main Hilton on Michigan Avenue in 2007. I’ll finally be staying at The Drake later this year in October. Just made a reservation and I’m very excited. But the city has so many cool venues to stay at. The Intercontinental is also very historic and beautiful. The Club Quarters by the river in the historic Mather Tower is another, albeit with smaller rooms. As more modern hotels go, I love the Swissotel by the river and the Fairmont. I could go on and on. These 3 though are definitely at the top of the list.

The Cape Cod Room was fashionable for lunch when I was a kid. The Playboy Building was the building between The Drake and the Hancock Center. The shopping arcade at the Palmer House was fun. They had Peacock's jewelers, Trader Vics, a good coffee shop, a Pendleton shop and a store that sold British goods. Brownies were invented there. The Boulevard Room at the Conrad Hilton was a fancy nightclub at one time. I was born at South Shore Hospital! Chicago was nice a long time ago.

Great tour, thank you. I stayed at The Drake when we had a series of meetings for a week and spent a winter at LondonHouse on the river. I booked a room at the Hilton Chicago later this year for the Phillies at Cubs and the NASCAR race both within a few days apart. I had to cancel, though, since I can't make it work. Thank you for these great tours. I really enjoyed it.

Thank you for the hotel tour! The Palmer House was my favorite with the peacock doors!

This was absolutely fun. Spontaneous. Genuine. Informative. I thought about moving to Chicago but, dude, those winters. What a challenge, to be the Director of Engineering for a very large building built over 100 years ago. Keeping everything up to contemporary code/standards…yikes! Did you relocate to Celebration, Florida? Best of all, no state income tax!

Hey 👋 Mark thank you for sharing with us 😊❤Magical family travel 😊❤

I thoroughly enjoyed this video. Loved learning about the history of these three absolutely amazing hotels in Chicago. Such great history. So glad these hotels have survived and hope they continue to survive and will be cared for and maintained. So many cities tear down these building old hotels and other historic buildings to replace them with new buildings/highways/whatever, not realizing that so many people truly love history!

Thank you for the tours! Great to see the inside of places I'll never get to go to.

When were you working at The Drake? I was a bellman there from '93 to '07. So many memories and stories!

I'd like to stay here for week in July 2025 for holiday go sightseeing see Major league baseball ⚾️

Went to the drake in December for afternoon tea and it wasn’t good at all and the service was terrible.

Why does Drake have a hotel in Chicago when he's from Toronto? 😅😅😅