Location Transport

How tourist - user friendly is the Public Transportation from Chicago Airport Area?

We are coming in for a quick weekend trip to see a few hockey games. I found a "Suite" Hotel near the Airport for cheap. How easy will it be to take trains/bus back and forth to Hockey games? Costs? Time frames? In general how is the Airport area for food, mall, entertainment, nightlife? Thank you

Public Comments

1. Public transportation is pretty friendly in Chicago. However, I would suggest to take the Metra Train, as it is faster and will probably drop you off at the front door to your destination. In addition, you should try the hotel, as they may have some sort of shuttle service from and to the airport. Good luck!
2. Staying near the airport....we have 2. I will presume O'Hare...ORD. The CTA Blue line is there! It is one of the rapid transit lines ...locals call these trains subways if the go underground and "el" if it is elevated.The Blue line connectes to all other rapid tranist lines. A question to remember when calling your airport hotel is, "How far is the "el" station from the hotel?" Possibly, your suite hotel is in Rosemont, which is next to the airport. It also has a station for the Blue line. I would take the Blue line through the Loop and continue to Damen AV. Exit and walk north about 3 blocks to the United Center. This area is questionable but because of the hockey game, you will not be alone on your walk and the intersections will be full of cops. If you look at a CTA map you will see that the new Pink line passes next to the stadium...there is no nearby station. Also the walk from the Ashland Green line station is longer and could be dangerous. CTA fare is $1.75. each way. Buy a fare card at the Rosemont station for all of your trips. Save it and reuse it each time. Expect a 40 min trip??? http://www.transitchicago.com/maps/rail/Rail.html There is no mall near the airport, but you can take another "el" ride to the Loop and shop til you drop. There are several restaurants in Rosemont...maybe a good one in the hotel or a short cab ride away. Two excellent restaurants in Rosemont are listed. They have their main locations in the loop also. Do a search for exact Loop addresses. Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse 5464 N. River Rd. Rosemont Morton's, The Steakhouse 9525 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. Rosemont Use the sie below to search for places to eat and be merry: http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/search/dispatcher.front?target=entertainment&Query=rosemont Chicago has hundreds of excellent restaurants with any kind of food you want....pizza, hot dogs, prime rib, exotic seafoods, or a wide variety of ethnic dishes. You name it...it's here. Take some time before your trip to do some planning. I am sure that CTA and some short taxi rides will take you where you want. Just bring your plastic and cash.
3. It depends. If you're talking about O'hare (and I assume you are) there is one train that heads back and forth from the airport area - the Blue line. Depending on where near the airport you're staying, you can either take the Blue line and walk to your hotel, or you'll have to take the train, get off and then take a suburban bus line (known as a Pace bus). Some Pace buses don't run all night long, meaning if you go into downtown Chicago on the train and come back, you might have to get off the train and then find a cab. The train costs $2 for each ride. Not sure of the cost of the Pace bus lines now. Cabs vary too. as for what to do out there, good luck with that. The suburban areas is kinda spaced out. You might have a mall over here, a nightclub over here and have to take a cab to get back and forth. It's not like Chicago where you can find all of that in one block. You'd have to ask someone out there where all the nightlife, mall places are. Ask the hotel desk clerk.
4. 1. Public transportation from O'Hare Airport is excellent, super convenient. The Blue Line subway runs right into the airport - i.e. you do not have to take a shuttle to the train. You just take the escalators down from the airline gate to the subway platform. My experience with that subway line was always pretty good, it seemed clean, pretty safe, newish, etc. 2. Midway Airport is closer into town, but my recollection is that the public transportation from Midway is not convenient. Take a cab esp. if you have much luggage or kids. 2. Why stay by the airport?! There is nothing to do out there in the northwest suburbs by O'Hare, or down by Midway where it's quite gritty. The train from O'Hare will take you directly into the Loop via a kind of diagonal route from the northwest. There's tons to do in the Loop and the Near North area - restaurants, nightlife, shopping, parks, museums, theater, whatever.