Hints and tips to save money in my chicago trip (Warren: rental car, hotel)

[Chicago60614]

I would go to the Indiana Dunes in Indiana - not too far east of Gary. Don't really bother with Gary, unless you're going to investigate how depressed the downtown area is. It's a pretty poor representation of Indiana.

Besides, the Dunes and Mt. Baldy are really pretty cool.

Mount Baldy Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore
Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore - Mt Baldy (U.S. National Park Service)

As for Michigan, you should go to New Buffalo and eat on the waterfront, it's pretty nice and it's right across the border. I liked the Stray Dog when I was there, and it's near the water:

The Stray Dog Bar & Grill - New Buffalo, MI

If you drive a few miles up the road, you could stop at the casino in New Buffalo for even just 20 minutes and check it out, throw in a few dollars. It's literally 5 minutes from the town, just look it up on a map. It's a very new casino and a good time, something different.

Four Winds Casino Resort - New Buffalo, MI

As for Wisconsin, if you're going to Kenosha, would you have any interest in just going another 30 minutes to Milwaukee? It's a pretty large city with a nice downtown right on Lake Michigan. It might be more memorable than Kenosha, and more to look at. It has around 1,500,000 people in the metro area. It would be around 90 minutes from downtown Chicago without traffic.



I agree with maybe just taking the train into downtown, and going to your hotel from there. Plan to rent a car on the day you do Indiana and Michigan and it will save you the issues of parking and paying. You can go up in the Hancock Tower to the Signature Room/Lounge and take pictures and enjoy a drink. It's free to go up (drinks maybe $7 if you don't do something fancy), but it's still cheaper than actually going up to the Observation Deck with all the tourists, which is like $10 and is actually one floor LOWER than the signature lounge.

Walk Michigan Ave, check out the bean/Millenium Park, walk over to Navy Pier. Walk down State Street. For the boat tours, you can find a lot of them that go out on the lake at Navy Pier, just all along the waterfront. Otherwise you can find some boats that do down the river (and maybe the lake too) right at Michigan Avenue and the river downtown.

Where are you staying?

[spaniard]

Thank you sooooo much!... I am printing this right now! hehe..

I am staying at O'hare inn suites in Schiller Park. I know is not five star hotel but we only need a bed because we will be out all day and it was farily cheap (180 3 nights). We are arriving friday 10pm so we will call shuttle to drive us to hotel. Spend night there and ... what should we do first? :@

[Chicago60614]

There's a free shuttle to anywhere within 2 miles of the hotel - so they could just drop you off at the Blue Line at Rosemont. That's the metro that will take you into downtown. It runs every 6-9 minutes normally, and runs 24 hours a day (not as often in the middle of the night of course).

I would just throw $10 into the machine and that will get you downtown and then back out near your hotel. It's $2.25 each for a train ride. You could do a daily pass, but I don't know how much you'd actually need to use it if you're staying downtown the entire day. You and your wife can both just use the same ticket and pass it back once the first of you enters through the gate.

I'd just take the train downtown early on Saturday and get off at Washington. From there you can walk up and start around State Street and work your way east to Millenium Park, check out Buckingham Fountain and walk around the Art Institute.

Then go north to North Michigan Ave, Navy Pier, boat ride, etc.

The fireworks are actually on Navy Pier at 21:00 on Saturday night - not 22:30 or whatever was in your initial post.

Again, if you're coming from that area by the airport and can get to/from the train station, I would advise NOT bringing a car with you into the city. You certainly won't want to be driving from place to place in the center of the city, and you can walk it without much trouble anyway. Only use the car to go to Indiana/Michigan/Wisconsin, which works out well because the parking at your hotel is free of charge.

This is Milwaukee in Wisconsin:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee

It's actually one of the largest cities in the country, but since it's so close to Chicago, and Chicago has 10 million people compared to Milwaukee's 1.5 million, it tends to get over-looked quite easily. It's a very nice place though, and worth just a walk around and a bit to eat downtown. Try Water Street area if you go there. It's only 90 minutes there and 90 minutes back, so it's not really going to eat your entire day. If you leave at 9am you could be back by 2pm, and then you can mark your state off the map! Watch for traffic through on Interstate 94 up in Northern Illinois, it might get messy. I'd take I-294 from your hotel up to I-94 and then into Wisconsin.

[spaniard]

Ok. So is better to see chicago on saturday i guess. On sunday will go to Dunes and Mi and at night chicago suburbs by car and monday if we have time will go to Wi (I want to avoid going to Chicago on Monday because of traffic).

Are there any congestion charges when you get into downtown with private car? like in london where a camera will register number plate...

Is it cold up there now?

[nikitakolata]

It's not too cold here right now... in the 70s. It's certainly not hot though. Chicago doesn't have congestion charges for driving downtown.

[skipcromer]

Just curious, why is the OP so interested in seeing Gary?

[Chicago60614]

^ Well he's from Spain and probably just heard about the city and that Jackson was from there. He just mentioned it as an idea, I don't think it was a dealbreaker.

[spaniard]

we it is not exactly Gary as city but "2300 Jackson St Gary, IN 46407" I am sure is a beautiful place but we dont have enough time to visit everything so it will be a 5 minute visit couple of photos and leave to dunes.

Originally Posted by nikitakolata

It's not too cold here right now... in the 70s. It's certainly not hot though. Chicago doesn't have congestion charges for driving downtown.

sorry for being so repetitive can we park in chicago if we - find a spaces - after 7 pm everywhere or we still need to pay?

[spaniard]

.

[Chicago60614]

Originally Posted by spaniard

Ok. So is better to see chicago on saturday i guess. On sunday will go to Dunes and Mi and at night chicago suburbs by car and monday if we have time will go to Wi (I want to avoid going to Chicago on Monday because of traffic).

Are there any congestion charges when you get into downtown with private car? like in london where a camera will register number plate...

Is it cold up there now?

It's around 26C-27C right now, but it's suppose to be a fairly cool weekend around 21-22C.

As the previous person said, no congestion charge in Chicago. I'd even look at exploring the north side of the city on Sunday night if you want to check things out, as opposed to the suburbs. Nothing against the suburbs, but they're seriously sprawl forever, and it's not very dense. It would probably be more like Houston (I think you said you're there now).

Is there a reason why you want to take a private car into downtown Chicago? The city has a very large metro/commuter rail system for the United States, it makes much more sense to use that than fuss with traffic and parking.