Frommer's Irreverent Guide to Chicago (Irreverent Guides)
Elizabeth Canning Blackwell | 2004-10-29 00:00:00 | Frommers | 254 | North America
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.
Reviews
Like all Irreverent Guides, this title showcases all the highlights the city and surrounding area have to offer. Compact, easy to use and highly informative.
Reviews
What I love most about the irreverent guides (I own the ones for Boston and for SF) is that they're straight forward, quick-witted, and give you very interesting tidbits about local history. It's like getting the inside scoop from your best friend vs the information kiosk.
So the fact that the sharp wit is missing from the Chicago guide is a nuisance. In fact, I really can't say it's irreverent or funny at all. Almost as if someone from Frommer's traditional guide staff -- or perhaps, an attendant at the information kiosk -- wrote it. The recommendations are good enough, but if you're looking for humor to go along with it, you won't find it here.
Reviews
disappointing to say the least - much of the book looked as if it had been recopied at kinko's. the maps were extremely hard to read - no color at all. i can't quite figure what's supposed to be irreverent in the book unless it's the fact that every so often the author says something less than favorable about a site or restaurant. save your money.
Reviews
I spent my first 18 years around and in Chicago, so I was very curious to see what the Irreverent people suggested about my hometown of sorts. A word of warning... there is the usual quibble that applies to all of the irreverent books: they are more designed for reading a whole section at once, as the organization scatters litle info-nuggets about one particular place across a number of different sections. With that being said, the index in the back can guide you to the relevant pages for a specific place you are looking for.
All in all, I found this an incredibly fun and informative book that covers a large range of establishments and attractions in the few hundred pages it was given. It seems aimed at the younger or more adventurous traveler. Let's face it, almost everyone knows the Field Museum, the Art Institute, Brookfield Zoo, Sears Tower, etc. What this guide will help you do is find a great nightclub buried in the industrial district (Crobar), the surreal summer sports customs (16-inch softball!), the famous Frank Lloyd Wright architecture that is spattered around the city (Roble House), alternative shopping complexes (Belmont and Clark), where to grab a drink before a Cubs game (Cubby Bear), and famous local theater (Steppenwolf).
So if you are traveling to Chicago, and want to get a feel for the city that isn't completely upper-middle class and whitewashed (which the traditional Frommer's and such can fall prey to quite often), this book would be a great travel guide to help you out. It's even an interesting read for people living *in* Chicago, as there were a number of places in the book I was not familiar with which sound like quite a good time.
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