Your guide to getting to Miami to cheer on the Bears in person

BY KARA SPAK
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Tuesday, January 23, 2007

"Bienvenido a Miami," Will Smith famously sang.

If you're going to the Super Bowl there Feb. 4, you may also be crooning hasta la vista to your dinero.

Ticketless Bears fans aren't completely without hope for scoring a seat to the big game, a hotel room for Super Bowl weekend and a seat on a plane leaving from Chicago. Unless, that is, they are totally broke.

The best deals in town are not really deals in the bargain sense.They are all-inclusive packages, like the Official Chicago Bears Super Bowl Fan Travel package, which gets fans a seat on a round-trip chartered flight to Miami or Ft. Lauderdale, three nights at the Wyndham Miami Airport, an upper-level end zone ticket, round-trip transportation to the stadium on game day and an official Super Bowl lanyard.

All this - lanyard included - is $5,845 per person, double occupancy.

Advertising promotes the Super Bowl in downtown Miami -- and the demand is there, so the prices for ... everything will be high. (Associated Press)

"The prices are absolutely obnoxious," said Nat Shapiro, who owns Arlington Heights-based Associated Travel Inc., with his wife. Shapiro plans on watching the Super Bowl on television at home, where "I go to the bathroom when I want to."

Don't want to buy the package deal? Or join Shapiro as a fan screaming only at the television set? Here's a guide to traveling to Miami on both sides of the budget divide.

And if you don't have tickets? Good luck and expect to pay.

A lot.

RICH FAN

Getting there (leave Chicago Feb. 2, return Feb. 5)

That $3,492.60 first-class ticket available Monday on United Airlines includes a layover in Charlotte. You're rich enough to know time is money, so a few hours in the Charlotte airport just won't do. Consider chartering a private plane for you and nine of your closest friends through SkyJet at a cost of $44,085.67. That price includes nuts, crackers and a mini-bar, said Jamie Tredway, SkyJet account specialist. “We do cater at an additional cost,” she said. “If you want a full-out lunch beyond sandwiches, you're looking at $150 per person.”

Staying in Miami

With cost as no object, you've already booked yourself into the Four Seasons Miami Presidential Suite. (OK, maybe you haven't. But someone has. It's taken.) The 29th floor three-bedroom, five-bathroom suite features a private phone line, a separate entrance for hotel staff, a dining room that seats eight people, an enormous home theater system and the ability to do pretty much whatever you want while you are in town. Want a chauffeured Ferrari? They'd love to get it for you. How about doing some shopping? A Neiman Marcus representative will arrive in your room with clothes for you to choose from. “Pretty much whatever you want, we can get,” said Eveliny Bastos-Klein, the hotel's spokeswoman.

Partying in Miami

Those in the know and with major cash flow can get hooked up with SobeVIPs.com, a premium party planner for Super Bowl weekend. “We provide most of the arrangements once you get to South Beach,” Jesse Wachs of SobeVIPs.com said. “That means a limo, we'll take you to dinner, go to a hotel bar to pre-party and then get you a VIP table at a club.” The service is selling tickets to two Super Bowl weekend parties, including the “Goin' Deep” Super Party featuring Snoop Dogg. General admission tickets cost $1,000. Yes, that's per person. A mere $1,500 each will get you into Beach Bowl weekend at Nikki Beach, but that's only general admission. If you want a see-and-be-seen table, expect to pay $10,000, Wachs said. That includes three bottles of top shelf liquor and all-you-can-drink mixers. If you want to spend more money, Wachs is happy to help. “If you want Cristal or Dom P, it's going to be a lot more,” he said.

POOR FAN

Tickets from Chicago to Ft. Lauderdale on Southwest are sold out. So are cheap flights on AirTran. Budget travelers, looks like you're not flying to Miami. But that doesn't mean you can't get there. Consider riding the Greyhound, a bus trip that includes two transfers and which leaves Chicago at 3 a.m. Friday, Feb. 2, and arrives in Miami at 3:05 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 3. The 35 hour and 5 minute trip will surely provide memories to last a lifetime. A round-trip ticket purchased seven days in advance will set you back $188.

If you have just $100 more, drive to the Super Bowl. It's a 1,402 mile trip from Naperville to Miami, a trip that will take you about 21 hours, 30 minutes. Budget about $300 for gas. And brace yourself for a country music onslaught. This drive takes you through Nashville, Atlanta and almost the entire state of Florida. Yee haw!

The four Motel 6's in the Miami area may be leaving the light on, but it's not for you. Hotels throughout Miami and Ft. Lauderdale are either totally sold out or so expensive you can't afford it. Don't even consider sleeping on the beach, said officer Bobby Hernandez, spokesman for the Miami Beach Police Department. “We have ordinances against camping on the beach,” he said. “Before you even get that tent erected we'll tell you to get out of here.” Hernandez said that police won't be out searching for scofflaws sleeping in their cars, however. “It's hard to enforce,” he said. “On the priority side we've got bigger and better things to do.” So sleep in your car and bathe in the ocean. It might be another 21 years before the Bears are in the Super Bowl again.

Without a lot of money, you haven't got a lot of options. There are four Publix supermarkets in the Miami area that sell alcohol. Find them. There are three Waffle Houses in the Ft. Lauderdale area, and countless others on the trip down. Fill up for cheap. Finally, splurge one night in the name of the Bears at Shorty's BBQ, named online as the place for Miami's best cheap eats. Half a chicken, fries, slaw and garlic bread will set you back a mere $8.