The Peninsula Chicago ★★★★★

A Gold Coast Corner With Its Best Rooms in the Air

The corner of Superior and Michigan is the quiet end of the Magnificent Mile, where the shopping begins to thin and the Gold Coast takes over. The Peninsula holds it with a tower that gives very little away at street level and then arranges everything worth having on the floors above: a terrace restaurant with a planted balcony, a bar on the roof, and a spa and pool on the nineteenth and twentieth floors looking out across the city. The group brought its Hong Kong habits with it and they survive the translation intact. The result behaves like an institution, and the city treats it as one.

Why It Works

Two things decided it. The first is the vertical plan: in a city where most hotel life ends at the pavement, this one keeps its terrace, its bar, its pool and its spa high enough that the skyline becomes part of the stay. The second is the size of the ordinary room, which starts above five hundred square feet and arrives with a dressing area and a bathroom built to match. Add four separate kitchens under one roof, from Cantonese cooking to a European café on the street, and a Forbes five star rating that covers the spa as well as the house.

Why This Location

Superior Street sits one block from the lakefront park and at the top of the Magnificent Mile, so the shopping runs south from the door while the residential Gold Coast begins immediately north. Ten minutes on foot brings the Museum of Contemporary Art and Oak Street Beach; twenty brings Millennium Park and the Loop. The river, the Riverwalk and the architecture tour boats lie south across the bridge, and Navy Pier is a straight walk east. The Red Line runs beneath State Street a few blocks over, and both airports connect to it.

Fast Facts

• Price: Luxe

• Vibe: Grand, vertical, Pacific service codes, Gold Coast

• Rooms: Three hundred and thirty nine rooms and suites, standards from over five hundred square feet, with junior, deluxe, grand and peninsula suites above

• Best For: Couples, families who want floor area, travellers who treat the hotel as part of the trip

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: The planted balcony at Shanghai Terrace, the best outdoor table on this stretch of Michigan Avenue

• Dining: Shanghai Terrace for Shanghai and Cantonese cooking, Z Bar on the roof, The Lobby from breakfast through dinner and afternoon tea, Pierrot Gourmet for pastries and sourdough tartines

• Amenities: Spa and health club on the nineteenth and twentieth floors, half Olympic indoor pool with skyline views, sun terrace, private winter ice rink, Krigler fragrance boutique

• Attractions: Magnificent Mile, Museum of Contemporary Art, Oak Street Beach, Millennium Park, Navy Pier

Four Kitchens Under One Roof

Shanghai Terrace is the one to book: a dark lacquered room that opens onto its planted balcony over Michigan Avenue when the weather allows, serving Shanghai and Cantonese cooking rather than a hotel version of it. Z Bar sits higher up on the roof, with small plates and a crowd that is not only staying in the building. The Lobby runs from breakfast through dinner and holds the afternoon tea service. Pierrot Gourmet, on the street beside the entrance, handles pastries and sourdough tartines for anyone who wants a café rather than a dining room.

The Nineteenth Floor and Everything on It

The spa and health club take the upper two floors of the hotel, which is where the half Olympic pool sits, glazed toward the skyline so that lengths come with a view of the towers. Treatments follow Asian protocols, and the sun terrace beside the pool is the part regulars talk about first. In winter the house lays a private ice rink overlooking the Magnificent Mile, a piece of theatre that works because the address earns it. A weekly chocolate bar appears downstairs for anyone after a different sort of restorative.

Rooms, Suites and What to Ask For

Standard rooms begin above five hundred square feet, finished in neutral tones with warm gold accents, and the bathrooms are among the more generous in the city. Suites climb through junior, deluxe and grand to the Peninsula suites at the top. Ask high and east if the lake matters to you, south if you want the skyline instead. Families do well here on floor area rather than any programme, and connecting rooms are straightforward to request.