<p>I’m traveling to Chicago with a roommate and maybe another friend for Spring Break, planning to arrive March 14 and leave March 18…we REALLY want to be there when they dye the river green and the St Patty’s celebration on the 17th. </p>
<p>My roommate is from the West Coast, I’m from Iowa, we attend Iowa State, and have both been to Chicago before. My family lived in Waukegan until I was six, and we go back regularly every year but always stay with friends in the Waukegan area. We know about the sites in the city–the bean thing, sears tower, window shopping, navy pier, etc., but are wondering about which suburb to get a hotel in. I’ve been looking on hotels.com and found several hotels available for $50-$60 a night (remember, we’re college kids ) and am looking for some input on the following places. </p>
<p>Are there things to do in these suburbs? Malls, theatres, etc. Traffic? Easy access to train to downtown Chicago? And last but not least…overall safety? Our parents are a little wary anyway, would love to tell them we’re staying in a decent hotel in a very safe suburb! :)</p>
<p>De Kalb
Willowbrook
Glen Ellyn
Elk Grove Village
Joliet
Naperville</p>
<p>Please rank if you could and thank you VERY much in advance! If you know of any better suburbs with fairly prices hotels, feel free to add! We’re looking to stay under $75/night at the max.</p>
<p>I used to live in Chicago… my 2-cents is, I’d look for hotels near the commuter train stations. You can look at the Metra site to see the different lines and stops.</p>
<p>You’d want to make sure that where you are staying is walking distance (and walking access) to the station. Generally, the further out you go, the more reasonable the hotels will be. However, DeKalb is too far out IMO, as is Joliet.</p>
<p>I lived near, and worked in Arlington Heights…that might be an option.</p>
<p>Also, you could go for one of the airport hotels, that provide shuttles to the airport, and then take the “L” into the city. Personally, I always preferred the commuter trains, but that’s just me. </p>
<p>As long as you stay smart, and use common sense, you should have fun. Have a great time! (we’re going back to visit this weekend…H and D are doing the “Hustle up the Hancock” event…walking up all 94? 96? flights of stairs to the top. I’ll be happily riding the elevator and meeting them at the top. Can’t wait to have some “real” pizza.</p>
<p>Enjoy!</p>
<p>poster corranged is at U of Chicago…you could pm her for tips, too.</p>
<p>Use [Google</a> Maps](<a href=“http://www.maps.google.com%5DGoogle”>http://www.maps.google.com) and check the distances on the suburbs you’ve mentioned. DeKalb is not a suburb of Chicago, and the others are pretty far out. Elk Grove Village is in back of the airport, and a nice suburb but some of the cheap hotels there are scary. You can check them on [Reviews</a> of vacations, hotels, resorts, vacation and travel packages - TripAdvisor](<a href=“http://www.tripadvisor.com%5DReviews”>http://www.tripadvisor.com)</p>
<p>Some suggestions from the suburbs would be:
Evanston - lots of ways to get downtown, great town for restaurants
Morton Grove - some very reasonable hotels on Waukegan Road and the Metra train to get to the city. You’ll need a car.
Skokie - Holiday Inn on Touhy is on a bus line that will take you to the Blue Line
Oak Park - there are only two hotels, but they are usually not expensive. You can walk to the CTA train.
Elmhurst - one or two inexpensive hotels, and a Metra train.
Staying by the airport can be expensive, and you usually have to pay for parking, but it’s worth checking out. Look at hotels in Rosemont and Des Plaines as well as Chicago.</p>
<p>DeKalb and Joliet are pretty far out. DeKalb is where NIU is, where the school shootings took place. </p>
<p>What other suburbs did your search come up with?</p>
<p>Also, what about hostels? Would you consider that? That way you could be in the city to eliminate transporation concerns, the cost would be very reasonable, and they are relatively safe.</p>
<p>Oh, I know nothing about the suburbs, except which ones my friends are from. I’m definitely not the right person for advice on this one, but thanks for thinking of me, Astrophysicsmom. </p>
<p>I don’t think Naperville is too far from downtown, so that may be worth looking into. I agree that you should choose a hotel based on its proximity to a Metra station.</p>
<p>Maybe you should post this on the Northwestern and University of Chicago boards. There seem to be lots of suburban Chicagoland kids participating in them; they probably know the stuff that interests you fairly well.</p>
<p>why not stay downtown? close to everything that way. there are many “safe” places to stay and many that would keep you within walking distance to shopping and dining.</p>
<p>We didn’t want to stay downtown because of the price of hotels, but I looked at some hostels downtown that are $25-$30 a night! Now that’s a great price for us…never been to a hostel though. Some had 7 or 8 beds in a room–will my luggage be safe? Are the safes or something available to prevent theft? I completely trust the girl I’m going with, but staying with 5 or 6 strangers, not too sure about that. Or we might go for the 2 beds/room place. And is there a place to park my car at hostels? Or fairly cheaply downtown in a safe area?</p>
<p>Parking is $27 a night, which would make your overall cost about $40/person/night. But you won’t need the car in the city, so you could just park it at one of your friends’ suburban homes, take the train to downtown, and pick the car up again after the trip.</p>
<p>^I agree that the idea of hanging out in the suburban malls while visiting in Chicago seems absurd. Don’t all malls look the same? ;)</p>
<p>Honestly, your stated budget is gonna give you a huge challenge for an enjoyable trip. Parking fees in downtown are outrageous; I was just there yesterday and we circled the downtown for like half hour and then decided to pay–12 bucks for just under 1 hour! The alternative is to take public transit from the “far-away” suburb which may be a huge pain or even impossible (since taking taxi would kill the point) if your hotel isn’t within a walking distance to any train/bus station. </p>
<p>I’d stay away from the hostel you talked about. I can’t imagine myself rooming with 5-6 strangers either; you may be on student budget but they may be on prostitute budget…lol! Find the kind of hostels where you share with others only the bath but not the room where you sleep and keep your belongings. Also, Chicago’s “downtown” is huge but the southern/western edge of it can be kinda shaky. You may want to be cautious about where exactly the “downtown” location is.</p>
<p>I just came back from Chicago yesterday and I stayed at Best Western in the neighborhood of Lakeview (~3 miles north of downtown and by the lake) and I absolutely love the location. It’s well-above your budget but the area is pretty safe and bustling with tons of restaurants/cafes and bars (mostly gay/lesbian though); as a frame of reference, there are at least 5 coffee shops and 5 thai restaurants (most people are whites, not thais…lol) within 10-min walk of my hotel); it’s only 20-min train ride to Michigan Ave, museums…etc.</p>
<p>We will be driving from Ames, Iowa to Chicago in our own car. Once we get to the city Friday night, we don’t plan on driving until we leave Tuesday morning. My family’s friends in Waukegan recently moved away, we know no one in the area where we can leave a car.</p>
<p>We have no problem walking a few miles to get somewhere–train station, shopping, events, etc.</p>
<p>We were looking more into the suburbs because it’s cheaper and trains run late enough that if we want to stay in the city for something we can and still make it back to the hotel. Both of us are 19 so we won’t be able to get into bars/clubs, but just want to have a good, fun, relaxed spring break. Right now a hostel is the frontrunner because it’s cheap and downtown, but parking is the question mark.</p>
<p>What about leaving your car in one of those parking structures by the airport. This is what a lot of people do all the time when they fly out. I imagine some of them must be reasonable (at least relative to the parking fees in downtown). Then you can take the blue line from the airport area to downtown. In LA (where I live), the parking is about $30/day for those that are within walking distance to the airport terminals and $10/day for those from which you need to take a short shuttle-ride (free) to airport terminals. </p>
<p>As far as hostel goes, like I said, I’d go for only the ones where you don’t share the sleeping room with others. That’s how mine worked when I visited Paris more than 10 years ago. I haven’t gone to another hostel since then so I am not an expert on it.</p>
<p>“the southern/western edge of it can be kinda shaky.”</p>
<p>I recommended this hostel because it is two blocks away from my office. I know the area very well. There’s nothing shaky about the South Loop in the last decade. The hostel itself is well managed. The rooms have lockers, and they also have out-of-room luggage storage. If you want to have fun in a city on an extremely restricted budget, hostels are the way to go. But thanks for suggesting that I would direct a teenager from Iowa to a place filled with prostitutes.</p>
<p>Hanna, that was a joke to exaggerate the point that I wouldn’t want to room with any stranger. Besides, I was talking about hostel that she said its $20/night and where you’d room with 5-6 strangers, not the one you recommended. Sorry for not being clear on that. Honestly, I don’t care if the person next room is a hooker or not since he/she is in the next room, not my room. Also, when i said western/southern edge, I was thinking of some very general area that may very well be just outside of the Loop already (some places like saying they are in downtown or whatever when they aren’t exactly), not exactly the location of your recommended hostel, which I concur is in a safe area and seems to be a very good deal.</p>
<p>Try bidding on downtown hotel rooms via Priceline. You can bid on hotels based on location. Michigan Ave, Loop, and Lincoln Park locations would all work for seeing downtown sites.</p>
<p>I just booked room at four star downtown hotel during the week you specified for $75/night using Priceline. We’ll definitely take train in from outer suburbs to save $30/day parking fees.</p>
<p>Also, when researching hotel sites, I found some than for a slightly higher price per night included entry to the Art Institute or the Field Museum. I think prices were running $130 for those offers.</p>
<p>Also, be sure to figure taxes into your budget. I think taxes on hotel rooms are close to 18%.</p>
<p>there’s a parking lot at Midway airport that I use regularly that charges $12/day and is less than a five minute walk to the Orange Line, which takes you right into the loop. PM me if you want details. It’s about a 30 minute ride from Midway into the loop.</p>
<p>Another major consideration if choosing a Metra station to park at. Be sure they allow parking for non-residents. Some stations only allow their own village residents, with a parking sticker to verify that, to park at their Metra stations. However, there are ways to get around it. In Libertyville, you can go to the police department and get a daily permit to park at their Metra station. Each Metra station is different, so check it out before assuming you can park there overnight, or if you’re not a village resident.</p>
<p>Hostels can be wonderful, even those with multiple strangers sharing bunk-style rooms. My son has traveled the world (and the US) staying in hostels and it has afforded him really lost cost lodging in otherwise very expensive cities. Check out the one Hanna recommended and also check out hostelusa.com and hiusa.com for information and reviews of Chicago area hostels. Look for lockable lockers and make sure to bring your own lock. His biggest problem across the board has been noise, so earplugs might be helpful!</p>
<p>Thanks again…we’re considering several options right now. Looks like there’s a 3rd person going for sure and possibly a 4th, which allows for slightly higher hotel costs while keeping per person costs close to the same as before.</p>
<p>A couple years ago, my mom, brother and I parked at a train station in Joliet (I think) for 7 days while we went to New Hampshire. Took the train into Union Station and took Amtrak out to New England. Paid for the parking beforehand–I think we had to leave a check or something in a locked box with the amount for the # of days the car would be there. Is this what you guys are talking about?</p>
) and am looking for some input on the following places. </p>