Teenager from London to Illinois! (Chicago, Naperville: good schools, living in, shop)

[lisaurart]

:

We have a possible move to IL with my husband working in Des Planies.
We have been living in London with all that it has to offer, good and bad, but certainly not short on activities for teens.
Prior to London we lived in the South.
I am interested in the Western Burbs, would Naperville be the best chioce for good schools and activities for a 16 year old boy??
Help!
Lisa

[jluyka]

Naperville is fine for a 16 yr. old, but so is Des Plaines and many other suburbs in the Chicagoland area. These websites may help: schoolmatters.com, Moderator cut: linking to competitors sites is not allowed. Good Luck!

[Frank the Tank]

I live in Naperville and have nothing but great things to say about the schools, park district, downtown dining and shopping, and access to Chicago. The one concern for your husband, though, is that it would be lengthy commute to Des Plaines. Places such as Arlington Heights and Park Ridge are great suburbs that would provide a shorter commute to Des Plaines.

[laney28]

Naperville to Desplaines(depending on what exit off of 294N you take) is at least an hour commute in the AM.

[lisaurart]

Thanks everyone for the info. I certainly know from living in London that number of miles does not translate into number of minutes/hours. I was hoping that it would not be as bad here. So if the AM commute is an hour, can we expect the PM commute to be worse?
It is such a balance, as everytime I look closer in the already expensive housing market is even worse...

[Frank the Tank]

Originally Posted by lisaurart

Thanks everyone for the info. I certainly know from living in London that number of miles does not translate into number of minutes/hours. I was hoping that it would not be as bad here. So if the AM commute is an hour, can we expect the PM commute to be worse?
It is such a balance, as everytime I look closer in the already expensive housing market is even worse...

Driving around the city of London proper is awful with all of those restrictions, but in terms of the suburbs, Chicago traffic is every bit as bad as London if not worse because there's a lot more sprawl. The PM commute is "worse" in the sense that the "rush hour" is more like a "rush 3 hours". In the AM, you can at least choose to leave early enough to avoid the worst traffic. In the PM, though, unless you leave from work really early (3 pm) or really late (after 7 pm), you're going to hit a lot of gridlock.

[Steve-o]

I agree with Frank although Ive never been to London (would LOVE to go though!). Chicagoland suburbs are notorious for bad traffic. Rush hour lasts from 4:30 up until 7:30 sometimes. Its pretty bad.

[laney28]

London rush generally starts (that i noticed) around 330 -4, and lasted until around 7. Same here. And its worse at night, yes.

[apuppy999]

Try Elk Grove Area