One of the great cities in America, Chicago was towards the top of our list for places to visit when traveling in the states. Nicknamed “The Windy City” due to the high winds that swoop across the city. Chicago has lots of museums, sports, experiences, and much more in store for you. We will share our experience with you that way you can make the most of your time in Chicago!
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Transportation
Chicago is a big city with two major airports and a union station with trains that take you all over the state. Chicago has many different options for anyone looking to go explore. The two airports, Midway and O’Hare are both very busy with lots of traffic as far as passengers so make sure you arrive early if you plan to fly out.
- Midway International Airport: This airport is towards the southwest side of the city. Midway has grown a lot in the past years and has become one of the major airports in the country. You will most likely fly Southwest Airlines out of Midway as they are the main competitor. Midway is conveniently close to Central Chicago known as “The Loop”. Just take the Orange Line from Midway and you will be in downtown in no time!
- Chicago O’Hare International Airport: This airport is located in the northwest part of the city. O’Hare is the largest airport in Chicago and one of the biggest airports in the country. This is the airport that we choose to fly into on our trip to Chicago since it was convenient as far as a last minute trip. O’Hare has lots of flights in and out going all over the world! The main airlines are United Airlines and American Airlines. You will also be able to take the Blue Line to “The Loop” (Plan about 45 minutes between O’Hare and Central Chicago).
- Amtrak: If planes are not your thing you can take this train into Union Station, located in downtown Chicago. With rail options all over the United States you can see so much taking this route. Chicago Union Station is the 3rd busiest rail station in America. Also if you plan on going to Milwaukee after your Chicago trip this would be a great quick way to make your trip up north! We have not taken this option but we do someday plan to take a rail trip across America on the California Zephyr between Chicago-San Fransisco.
- CTA (Chicago Transit Authority): Since we are a big fan of using public transportation, we used this when visiting to get around. No one in Chicago calls it by it’s actual name though, they refer to it as the “L”-short for elevated since it runs above ground as well as underneath (most subway systems run completely underground). The L is the second busiest rail mass transit system and it runs 24 hours on some of it’s routes. There are a few choices for passes: getting single passes or a day pass. We purchased a 3-day pass which was $20 per person. It was well worth the price considering it got us pretty much everywhere we needed to go. We did not have to take an Uber or taxi once.
Accommodations
- Quality Inn O’Hare Airport: This hotel was very reasonably priced compared to other hotels in the area ($89 a night) and included a complimentary airport shuttle, continental breakfast, and Wi-Fi. They were also kind enough to let us check in at 11am, when the normal check in time is not until 2pm. The rooms were decent, you probably wouldn’t want to walk around barefoot (the carpets desperately needed to be changed) but the bed spreads, sheets, and bathroom were all clean.
To-Do
There are so many things to do in Chicago, that we could end up spending a week here and still not run out of things to do. We were trying to keep things as low cost as possible and we did not have a terribly large amount of time.
- Wrigley Field: Since Jonah is a big sports fanatic, we had to catch a game at this famous baseball park. It is one of the oldest ones in the U.S. (opened in 1914) and it is such a neat experience! We went to see the Marlins vs. Cubs. There are a lot of dates that Wrigley Field gives out something for free so we planned the day we went on that. We went on a day they were giving out a free jersey to the first 30,000 people, so we got there extra early to make sure we got one of them. The atmosphere of the baseball park was absolutely electric, the Cubs fans are so loyal and enthusiastic about their team. As with any sporting event, we were prepared to pay a pretty penny for any food or drinks.
Travel Tip: Be aware when buying tickets in any of the Terrace sections, your seat may be obstructed by one of the poles they have holding up the other seating sections. See picture below.
- Navy Pier: Something that we definitely wanted to see while in Chicago is the Navy Pier. There are loads of things to do along the boardwalk including all kinds of shops and restaurants. All of this and a great view of Lake Michigan and the city skyline made for some great pictures.
The Pier is open 10am-10pm Sunday-Thursday and stays open until midnight on Friday and Saturday. There is a children’s museum, the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, an AMC theater, and they have the Centennial Wheel (tickets are $15).
There are also a lot of local events, such as concerts or art competitions so make sure to check the Pier’s website to see what’s going on. There was some kind of chalk art festival when we were there so that was super cool to see!
- Shoreline Sightseeing: Located right on the Pier, this taxi boat took us around the area on 2 routes: the River Route-the Pier to Union Station/Willis Tower or the Lake Route-the Pier to the Museum Campus (Shedd Aquarium/Oceanarium, Field Museum of Natural History and Adler Planetarium). Tickets are $8 on weekdays and $10 on the weekend. We took the River Route to get from the Pier to Willis Tower. The route was beautiful and we got some really great views of the city.
- The Willis Tower: Ppreviously known as Sears Tower, this tower is the 2nd tallest building in the United States, with 108 floors. This may not be on your list if you are afraid of heights, although this is one of Jonah’s fears and he overcame it! Tickets were $23 per person and that includes admission to the museum exhibits, elevator ride to the Skydeck, the Ledge (a glass box that extends off the side of the Skydeck by 4.3 feet.
- “The Bean”: Before we left Chicago, we wanted to make sure we got a picture with the famous sculpture. The actual name of this stainless steel plated sculpture is the Cloud Gate. It created a lot of great photo opportunities for us since we could see Chicago’s skyline in it’s reflection. Another great thing is that it is free to admire!
Travel Tip: There was someone that came up to us wearing a volunteer badge and asked us if we wanted our picture taken. We took her up on her offer since she looked liked she worked for the city. Afterwards, she hassled us for money to support battered women and the homeless. It seemed fishy to us so we did not give into her request.
Food
- Giordano’s: Chicago is well known for their deep dish pizzas and what better place to go than The pizza is amazing and it’s not too pricey. There are many different locations of this chain all over Chicago and they are the official pizza of the Chicago Cubs. Our favorite deep dish pizza is the Meat & More Meat, that has pepperoni, sausage, salami, and bacon. We also made sure to get an appetizer (the mozzarella sticks are delicious) because the deep dish pizzas took around 45 minutes to cook.
- Luke’s Italian Beef: Not to be confused with Luke’s of Chicago, this restaurant is located in downtown Chicago and they have not only amazing Chicago dogs, but also Italian beef sandwiches. There are some things that we knew we had to eat while in Chicago.
A Chicago dog consists of a Vienna hot dog in a poppy seed bun with mustard, onion, relish, tomatoes, hot peppers, and a kosher pickle.
Make sure when ordering the beef sandwich that you tell them if you want any toppings as what is on the menu is just beef. You can add spicy peppers and onions, cheese, marinara sauce, etc. It is all very reasonably priced, the sandwich was $5 and the hotdog was $3.
We finished off the meal with some of their watermelon Italian ice. It was very refreshing and had some watermelon chunks and seeds in it so you know it is not artificially flavored!
- Nuts on Clark: We were looking to grab a tasty snack before heading home so we stopped at this little stand at the airport. Thankfully they have locations at both the airports in Chicago. They have 2 kinds of delicious popcorn: cheese corn and caramel corn that is fused with either pecans, almonds, or cashews. We tried both the cheese corn and caramel corn with almonds and they were both delicious-so hard to stop eating them!
So what do you think? Ready to take an adventure to the Windy City? You will not be sorry, we promise!
Great overview of Chicago. Very positive. Keep up the good reports.
We are glad you enjoyed the post!! We will!