# The best family hotels in Chicago

Written 2026-09-28 by Play Day. Eleven Chicago hotels that work with kids, from the Magnificent Mile to the Museum Campus and Hyde Park. See which ones have cribs, connecting rooms, a kitchen or an indoor pool before you book.

Here's the thing about a Chicago hotel with kids: for half the year, the pool has to be indoors. So picture February, a gray afternoon, two kids who've been very good at the Field Museum and need to burn off the rest. The best family hotels in Chicago are the ones that have an answer for that afternoon. The InterContinental has a 1929 pool with Spanish tiles fourteen floors up, the Four Seasons has an indoor pool and a free kids' clubroom, and the Hilton in the South Loop has a heated pool a walk from the museums.

Every hotel on the Magnificent Mile says it welcomes kids, which doesn't tell you much. So this page checks eleven of them on what decides the booking: cribs, connecting rooms, a fridge or a kitchen, a pool, breakfast. Each one says which room to ask for, what you can walk to and what to watch out for.

It's sorted by neighborhood, because in Chicago where you sleep decides which half of the trip is a walk and which half is a bus. The Magnificent Mile and Streeterville are for Navy Pier and the river. The Loop is for Millennium Park and Maggie Daley. The South Loop is for the Museum Campus. And Lincoln Park and Hyde Park are for the zoo and MSI.

Short on time? A pool kids will talk about: the InterContinental. A splurge that thinks about kids: the Four Seasons. A kitchen and free breakfast: Homewood Suites. Two rooms that open into each other: the Loews. The museums on foot: the Hilton Chicago or, for less, the Hilton Garden Inn South Loop.

## How we picked

These are hotels we'd send a friend with two kids to. The facts under each hotel come from its own site and its brand's page for that property, and its Play Day listing. Where a hotel's own pages wouldn't load for us, we went by what those official pages say in search. If a fact is missing, we couldn't confirm it (not that the answer is no).

We left out hotels we couldn't find anything family-specific about, however nice they are, and a few where the pool or the room setup couldn't be confirmed on the hotel's own pages.

## The Magnificent Mile and Streeterville

Stay here if the trip is Navy Pier, the Children's Museum, the river and the shops, because they're all a walk away. Lincoln Park is a short bus ride north and the Museum Campus a longer one south. What you give up: parking is expensive and almost always valet, and most of these hotels add a nightly fee on top of the rate.

### [Four Seasons Hotel Chicago](https://ourplayday.com/places/four-seasons-hotel-chicago)

Neighborhood: Magnificent Mile

The splurge, and one that actually plans for kids. The Kids Clubroom is free for guests and open from morning to evening, with video games, foosball, board games, crafts and a movie corner (a grown-up has to stay, but you get to sit down). Kids get an Adventure Passport scavenger hunt around the hotel, and under-fives eat free.

The pool is a 44-foot indoor infinity-edge pool in the spa, full of daylight, and it's pretty much the best place in the city to be on a January afternoon.

With two kids, look at the Deluxe One-Bedroom Suite, which the hotel sets up with a king, two rollaways and a crib. It's on Delaware Place, just off the top of the Magnificent Mile, so Oak Street Beach is a short walk.

- Connecting rooms: Yes
- Fridge: Yes
- Pool: Yes, indoor

### [InterContinental Chicago Magnificent Mile](https://ourplayday.com/places/intercontinental-chicago-magnificent-mile)

Neighborhood: Magnificent Mile

Book it for the pool. It's a junior Olympic pool built in 1929 for the old Medinah Athletic Club, up on the 14th floor, covered in Spanish majolica tiles with a terra cotta Neptune fountain at one end. Johnny Weissmuller (Tarzan, if your kids ask) trained in it. There's nothing else like it in Chicago.

The hotel runs dive-in movie nights at the pool with big floats and snacks, and its family package includes breakfast with kids 12 and under eating free.

It's on Michigan Avenue just north of the river, so the Riverwalk, the boat tours and Millennium Park are all a walk.

- Connecting rooms: Yes
- Fridge: Yes
- Pool: Yes, indoor

### [Loews Chicago Hotel](https://ourplayday.com/places/loews-chicago-hotel)

Neighborhood: Streeterville

The one for two rooms that open into each other. Loews guarantees connecting rooms, which most hotels will only promise to try for, and that's the whole difference with a family of five. Cribs are free, and kids get a bedtime story program and the Loews Little Legends activities.

The pool is a 20-meter heated indoor lap pool on the third floor.

Navy Pier and the Children's Museum are a short walk east, and the river is a block south.

- Cribs: Yes
- Connecting rooms: Yes
- Fridge: Yes
- Pool: Yes, indoor
- Free breakfast: No

### [Homewood Suites by Hilton Chicago Downtown/Magnificent Mile](https://ourplayday.com/places/homewood-suites-magnificent-mile)

Neighborhood: Streeterville

The kitchen pick. Every suite has a full kitchen with a full-size fridge, a dishwasher and a two-burner stove, so the milk, the leftovers and the 6am cereal are all handled. Breakfast is free and hot, and the hotel will do a grocery run for you.

It's on Huron, a block off Michigan Avenue. The pool is outdoors, so think of it as a summer bonus rather than the reason to book.

- Cribs: Yes
- Fridge: Yes
- Pool: Yes
- Free breakfast: Yes

### [Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk](https://ourplayday.com/places/sheraton-grand-chicago-riverwalk)

Neighborhood: Streeterville

A big hotel right on the river, and the view is the payoff: river, lake and skyline, and on summer nights, the Navy Pier fireworks from the right room. Ask for a lake or river view when you book.

There's a heated indoor pool with floor-to-ceiling windows, good for an evening swim after a long day. The river is out the door, and Navy Pier is a walk east.

- Pool: Yes

## The Loop

Millennium Park, Maggie Daley Park and the Art Institute are across the street or close to it, and every L line comes through here. Quieter at night than you'd think, since it's mostly offices.

### [Chicago Athletic Association](https://ourplayday.com/places/chicago-athletic-association)

Neighborhood: Loop

The location is the payoff: an 1893 athletic club on Michigan Avenue directly across from Millennium Park, so the Bean and Crown Fountain are a crosswalk away and Maggie Daley Park is just beyond. There's a Shake Shack in the building, which makes dinner with a tired kid very easy.

The hotel's family package adds an hour in a private Topgolf Swing Suite bay and a Shake Shack credit through room service. Know that the hotel doesn't list a pool.

- Cribs: Yes
- Connecting rooms: Yes
- Pool: No

### [JW Marriott Chicago](https://ourplayday.com/places/jw-marriott-chicago)

Neighborhood: Loop

A grand old bank building on Adams Street, with rooms big enough for four and deep soaking tubs, which is bath time sorted. There's an indoor pool with a whirlpool.

It's on the west side of the Loop, so Millennium Park is about a 20-minute walk, and the Willis Tower is around the corner. Breakfast isn't included.

- Connecting rooms: Yes
- Fridge: Yes
- Pool: Yes, indoor
- Free breakfast: No

## The South Loop, for the Museum Campus

If the trip is the Field, the Shedd and the Adler, stay here and walk. Grant Park is at the door, and Maggie Daley Park is a mile north.

### [Hilton Chicago](https://ourplayday.com/places/hilton-chicago-michigan-ave)

Neighborhood: South Loop

The classic Museum Campus base: a huge old hotel on Michigan Avenue looking over Grant Park and the lake, and the Field Museum, the Shedd and the Adler are a walk from the lobby.

The Athletic Club has a heated indoor pool and hot tub, plus a sundeck in summer. The hotel lists cribs and connecting rooms, so ask for both when you book.

- Pool: Yes

### [Hilton Garden Inn Chicago Downtown South Loop](https://ourplayday.com/places/hilton-garden-inn-south-loop)

Neighborhood: South Loop

Easy on the budget, and the same walk to the museums. The hotel puts the Museum Campus about ten minutes away on foot, and there's an indoor saltwater pool.

It's a plain, practical hotel on 11th Street, a block from Grant Park. You're paying for the location and the pool, and on those it does fine.

- Pool: Yes

## Lincoln Park and Hyde Park

Two neighborhoods for two different trips: Lincoln Park for the zoo and the beach, Hyde Park for MSI. Both are quieter than downtown, and both are a bus or train ride from the Loop.

### [Hotel Lincoln](https://ourplayday.com/places/hotel-lincoln-chicago)

Neighborhood: Old Town

Across the street from Lincoln Park, a walk from the zoo and less than a mile from North Avenue Beach, with the lake in view from the upper floors. For a north-side trip, nothing downtown beats waking up next to the park.

Ask for a one-bedroom suite, which has a separate living area and a sofa sleeper, so the kids can go down while you stay up.

- Cribs: Yes
- Fridge: Yes
- Pool: No
- Free breakfast: No

### [The Study at University of Chicago](https://ourplayday.com/places/the-study-at-university-of-chicago)

Neighborhood: Hyde Park

The only hotel on this list in Hyde Park, on the university campus facing the Midway Plaisance and about a mile from MSI. Stay here if MSI is a whole day (it usually is) and you'd rather not do the ride back downtown with a sleeping kid.

The Double University View rooms have two beds and look over the campus, which is the room for a family of four. The suites add more room to spread out.

- Cribs: Yes
- Fridge: No
- Pool: No
- Free breakfast: No

## Winter pools

From about October to May, an outdoor pool is decoration. The indoor ones on this page are at the InterContinental, the Four Seasons, the Sheraton Grand, the JW Marriott, the Hilton Chicago and the Hilton Garden Inn South Loop and the Loews. Homewood Suites' pool is outdoors, and the Chicago Athletic Association, Hotel Lincoln and the Study don't list one.

## Parking and fees

Downtown parking is mostly valet and charged by the night, and over a long weekend it really adds up. Most of the downtown hotels also add a nightly destination fee to the rate. If you're flying in, skip the car: the Blue Line runs from O'Hare and the Orange Line from Midway into the Loop, and the buses cover the museums and the zoo.

## Questions

### Which Chicago hotels have an indoor pool for kids?

The InterContinental on the Magnificent Mile has the famous 1929 junior Olympic pool, and the Four Seasons has a 44-foot indoor pool in its spa. The Sheraton Grand Riverwalk, the JW Marriott, the Hilton Chicago and the Hilton Garden Inn South Loop all have indoor pools too. So does the Loews.

### Which Chicago hotels have kitchens?

Homewood Suites on the Magnificent Mile puts a full kitchen in every suite, with a full-size fridge, a dishwasher and a stove, and breakfast is free.

### Which Chicago hotels have connecting rooms?

The Loews guarantees them, which is rare. The Hilton Chicago lists connecting rooms too, so ask when you book.

### What is the best area to stay in Chicago with kids?

The South Loop, if the trip is the Field, the Shedd and the Adler, since you can walk to all three. The Magnificent Mile and Streeterville, for Navy Pier, the Children's Museum and the river. Old Town, at Hotel Lincoln, for the zoo and North Avenue Beach. Hyde Park, at the Study, if MSI is the point.

### Which Chicago hotel is best for a splurge with kids?

The Four Seasons, with a free Kids Clubroom, an indoor pool and suites the hotel sets up with rollaways and a crib. Under-fives eat free there too.

Page: https://ourplayday.com/guides/chicago/family-hotels