Chicago is no longer just a convention city. With a terrific dining scene and legendary nightlife, Chicago is making its mark as a major tourist destination. This brand-new edition of Frommer's Chicago offers candid, thorough reviews of every major hotel and a complete insider's guide to the best shopping in town. We'll take you to an astounding collection of important American architectural landmarks, let you in on our favorite sports bars and blues clubs, and make sure you know how to navigate the El. With its free full-color fold-out map, Frommer's Chicago makes it a snap to get to know the Windy City.

"Like being taken around by a savvy local." —The New York Times "Little fluff and lots of fun." —Boston Globe Are you tired of cliché-ridden guidebooks packed with promotional fluff? Then move over to the Irreverent Guides—the travel series that no tourist board would dare to recommend. Look inside for the lowdown on: Great hotels for retromaniacs—and which ones to avoid if you hate conventioneers Pizza that locals line up for in the dead of winter The top sights for techno-heads, talk-show junkies, pork-belly enthusiasts, and Wrightophiles Target zones for unrepentant shopaholics Where to hang out with raging Bulls fans and listen to blues with the locals And much more! Frommer's. The Name You Can Trust. Find us online at www.frommers.com

The club is run-down and dimly lit. Onstage, a black singer croons and weeps of heartbreak, fighting back the tears. Wisps of smoke curl through the beam of a single spotlight illuminating the performer. For any music lover, that image captures the essence of an authentic experience of the blues. In Blue Chicago, David Grazian takes us inside the world of contemporary urban blues clubs to uncover how such images are manufactured and sold to music fans and audiences. Drawing on countless nights in dozens of blues clubs throughout Chicago, Grazian shows how this quest for authenticity has transformed the very shape of the blues experience. He explores the ways in which professional and amateur musicians, club owners, and city boosters define authenticity and dish it out to tourists and bar regulars. He also tracks the changing relations between race and the blues over the past several decades, including the increased frustrations of black musicians forced to slog through the same set of overplayed blues standards for mainly white audiences night after night. In the end, Grazian finds that authenticity lies in the eye of the beholder: a nocturnal fantasy to some, an essential way of life to others, and a frustrating burden to the rest. From B.L.U.E.S. and the Checkerboard Lounge to the Chicago Blues Festival itself, Grazian's gritty and often sobering tour in Blue Chicago shows us not what the blues is all about, but why we care so much about that question.

You'll never fall into the tourist traps when you travel with Frommer's. It's like having a friend show you around, taking you to the places locals like best. Our expert authors have already gone everywhere you might go-they've done the legwork for you, and they're not afraid to tell it like it is, saving you time and money. No other series offers candid reviews of so many hotels and restaurants in all price ranges. Every Frommer's Travel Guide is up-to-date, with exact prices for everything, dozens of color maps, and exciting coverage of sports, shopping, and nightlife. You'd be lost without us! Completely updated every year (unlike most of the competition), Frommer's Chicago features gorgeous color photos of the sights and experiences that await you. Written and personally researched by a lifelong resident, it covers all the traditional tourist favorites but also lets you in on local finds, neighborhood hangouts, and little-known gems. Our author has inspected every hotel, and knows the city intimately. There's something for every taste and budget, from world-class dining at Charlie Trotter's to killer barbecue at the most authentic rib shacks in town. With Frommer's in hand, you'll have tons of fun: shopping along the Magnificent Mile, cheering on homers at Wrigley, admiring the groundbreaking architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, taking in the masterpieces at the Art Institute, dancing at a down-and-dirty blues club, and strolling the gorgeous lakefront. You'll even get a free color fold-out map and an online directory that makes trip-planning a snap!

You'll never fall into the tourist traps when you travel with Frommer's. It's like having a friend show you around, taking you to the places locals like best. Our expert authors have already gone everywhere you might go -- they've done the legwork for you, and they're not afraid to tell it like it is, saving you time and money. No other series offers candid reviews of so many hotels and restaurants in all price ranges. Every Frommer's Travel Guide is up-to-date, with exact prices for everything, dozens of color maps, and exciting coverage of sports, shopping, and nightlife. You'd be lost without us! Completely updated every year (unlike most of the competition), Frommer's Chicago features gorgeous color photos of the sights and experiences that await you. Written and personally researched by a lifelong resident, it covers all the traditional tourist favorites but also lets you in on local finds, neighborhood hangouts, and little-known gems. Our author has inspected every hotel, and knows the city intimately. There's something for every taste and budget, from world-class dining at Charlie Trotter's to killer barbecue at the most authentic rib shacks in town. With Frommer's in hand, you'll have tons of fun: shopping along the Magnificent Mile, watching Sammy slug homers at Wrigley, admiring the groundbreaking architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, taking in the masterpieces at the Art Institute, dancing at a down-and-dirty blues club, and strolling the gorgeous lakefront. You'll even get a free color fold-out map and an online directory that makes trip-planning a snap! Another helpful guide for your trip is Frommer's Irreverent Guide to Chicago.

Looking for a travel guide that goes where other guides fear to tread? One that rides roughshod over ad-copy puffery to smartly deliver the real scoop on a destination's sites and attractions? One that dares to be honest, hip, and fun? Look no more. Frommer's Irreverent Travel Guides are wickedly irreverent, unabashedly honest, and downright hilarious, and provide an insider's perspective on which attractions are overrated tourist traps and which are the secret gems that locals love. You'll get the lowdown on restaurants, lodging, and shopping, and even find out what the locals think of you. Like being taken around by a savvy local," said the New York Times. "Hipper and savvier than other guides," concurred Diversion magazine. Never shy about confronting the issues, the Irreverents are guides to real travel in the real world. Chi-town has never seemed as vibrantly alive as it does in the pages of Frommer's Irreverent Guide to Chicago, a book that tells the story of the real Chicago, from an insider's standpoint. With its muscular past and its bustling present, Chicago is a workable city of serendipitous surprises: the glorious vastness of Lake Michigan, the smooth jazz vibe, and the self-effacing Midwestern sensibility--it may be more Big Easy than the Big Easy. In Frommer's Irreverent Guide to Chicago you get the straight scoop on all the places the locals love."

Wrigley Field and Greek Town, Old Town and the Miracle Mile--it's all here in this comprehensive guide to Chicago nights. Includes witty, insightful, and brutally honest editorial with special interest categories for "singles", "gays and lesbians", and "50-somethings" and the like.