Flying in for Boot Camp Graduation (Chicago: airport, commute, best)

[Karenvd]

Just discovered this message board and I thought it would be a great place to get some questions answered. My daughter is graduating from Navy Boot Camp in Great Lakes in January. I was wondering if it would be better to fly into O'Hare or Midway. Midway looks farther away from GL. What is the drive like from either airport? I'm from So. California so arriving and driving in Chicago in Jan. doesn't thrill me. What is the weather like during that time of year? Do I want to know? Ha ha. I'm open to any suggestions and thank you in advance for your answers.

[Drover]

Between the two, O'Hare is definitely the better choice. Depending on traffic conditions, the drive from O'Hare to Great Lakes can be anywhere from 40 to 80+ minutes. In the absolute best circumstances, it would be at least an hour from Midway, and standard rush-hour traffic snarls could push that to well over 2 hours.

Another alternative to consider would be to fly to General Mitchell Airport (Milwaukee's big airport). Traffic is consistently better on the I-94 corridor south out of Milwaukee than north out of Chicago; the drive would take you about 50 minutes. Unfortunately, it may be difficult finding non-stop rates to Milwaukee that are competitive to non-stop rates to O'Hare.

[KevK]

If you can, I would fly into Milwaukee Mitchell. It is less congested and almost as close to GLNB as Chicago and the commute would be easier. Unless you just wish to see Chicago, it is best to avoid it.

[Chicago60614]

Hard to tell January temps.....

It COULD be -25F or it COULD be 50F

most likely around 32 degrees. Winters here shoot up and down, so it's usually not dead on 32 degrees, but kinda swings all over with that the "average". I'd put my bet on 20F to 40F