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Illinois Getaway & Hotel Guide |
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Travelwithall Illinois destination, getaway, and travel guide is where you can make hotel reservations and find information and tips on travel to Illinois. This hotel guide will help our readers find the perfect lodging accommodations in Illinois, where you can shop and compare rates. Whether you are traveling with your family on a leisure holiday vacation or visiting for corporate business, our Illinois hotels guide will help you find a hotel room that suits your specific needs. Free searchable list of available resorts, hotels, motels, inns, lodges, vacation rentals and other accommodations by city in Illinois. This is where you can find available luxury five star resorts, comfortable four star hotels, clean three star lodges, convenient two star inns, and budget one star motels in IL.
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Nearly everything in Illinois revolves around Chicago, the largest and most exciting of the Great Lakes cities. At the state's northeastern corner, on the shores of Lake Michigan, Chicago has a skyline to rival any city's, plus a gamut of top-rated museums, restaurants and cafés, and innumerable bars and nightclubs paying homage to the city's strong jazz and blues heritage. Seventy-five percent of the state's twelve million population live within commuting distance of Chicago's energetic center, which controls the bulk of the state economy - Illinois is the third largest agricultural producer in the US. The sole exception to the endless flat prairies elsewhere is far to the south, where the forested Shawnee Hills rise between the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. |
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The contrast between the quiet rural hinterlands and the buzzing urban center could hardly be greater. That said, Illinois does hold a few places to head for, though, apart from a couple of mildly exciting college towns, most are of historic rather than current interest. First explored and settled by the French, in 1763 the area that's now Illinois was sold to the English. Granted statehood in 1818, Illinois remained a distant frontier until the mid-1830s when, after a series of uprisings, the native Sauk were subjugated and settlers began to arrive in sizable numbers. Among these were the first followers of Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon Church, who established a large colony along the Mississippi at Nauvoo. The Mormons met with suspicion and persecution and, after Smith was murdered by a lynch mob in 1844, fled west to Utah. Other early immigrants included the young Abraham Lincoln, who practiced law from 1837 onward in Springfield, the state capital and home of a wide range of Lincolniana, including his restored home, his law offices and various other period buildings and artifacts, as well as his monumental tomb. Indeed, Illinois' self-proclaimed nickname - emblazoned on its car license plates - is "Land of Lincoln," and many other central Illinois towns claim important roles in the making of the sixteenth US president.
Chicago is in many ways the nation's last great city. Sarah Bernhardt called it "the pulse of America" and, though long eclipsed by Los Angeles as the nation's second most populous city after New York, Chicago really does have it all, with less of the hassle and infrastructural problems of its coastal rivals. Founded in the early 1800s, Chicago grew up with the country, serving as the main connection between the established east coast cities and the wide open Wild West frontier. This position on the sharp edge between civilization and wilderness made the city into a crucible of innovation. Many aspects of modern life, from skyscrapers to suburbia, had their start, and perhaps their finest expression, here on the shores of Lake Michigan.
Because Chicago is the site of O'Hare Airport (the world's busiest), as well as the hub of the national Amtrak train network, you're likely at least to pass through it. If you plan to spend time in the rest of Illinois, Amtrak, numerous commuter railroads and, to a lesser extent, Greyhound, make getting around on public transportation feasible, and cycling is generally easy on these endless flat plains. Half a dozen interstates fan out across the country from Chicago. The famous Chicago-to-LA Route 66 has been defunct since the 1960s, though I-55 southwest to St Louis, followed by I-44 and I-40, follow its general route.
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This article was derived fully or in part from the Illinois article from Travelnow.™ Fullfillment services by Hotels.com.™
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