parking outside downtown Chicago
 

We are planning a long weekend in Chicago. We won't need a car. Where can we leave our car for 3 days to avoid hotel parking charges?

Try one of the airports and see what they charge for parking. May not be much of a savings though. There have been threads on this quite a bit so try using the search feature.

You can go to the web site www.chicagoparking.com which is interactive. You type in your address or site and it helps you locate parking.

Sorry, that should be http://www.chicagoparkingmap.com/

Here is the website for CTA park and ride. Only on some lines is overnight parking allowed and where it is about $12 per day but there are phone numbers on this website for the operators of the parking lots if you want to confirm. http://www.transitchicago.com/riding....aspx#blueline

And here is a thread from tripadvisor on cheap Chicago parking. It's not on the outskirts but rather central and seems to be only on the weekend, but it is very cheap ($8 per day). http://chicago-hotels.tripadvisor.co..._Illinois.html. There is company Sterling with a phone number in that thread.

Why not street park in one of the neighborhoods along an el line? There is ample street parking near many brown line el stops...Addison, Paulina, Montrose, Irving to name a few. Just don't park in a meter or in an area that requires permits. It's easy to find. Also want to watch for street cleaning.

This way you can also experience whichever neighborhood you end up parking in.

Then just take the el back downtown.

Please don't do that. You may find a spot during the day while people are away at work, but later they will come home and want to park near their residence. Also, I grew up in that area and don't recall that street parking was all that plentiful. And, check on what the laws are there. Here in the LA area, a car must be moved after 72 hours (and not just a few yards), or it can be towed if someone complains.

I agree that long-term parking in a neighborhood is risky. Even in areas that don't require permits, there are street cleaning days where parking isn't permitted from around 9 am until 3 or 4 pm. Some of the signs are only posted a couple days in advance, so if you leave the car for 3 days, the sign could go up after you park and you'd return to find a hefty ticket or that your vehicle has been towed.

Secondly, there is a great deal of road and sidewalk construction throughout the city right now which is restricting parking everywhere.

The Millennium Garage is among the least expensive in the central city at around $25 for 24-hours and is convenient for hotels in the loop or near Michigan Ave. The Sterling Garage at LaSalle and Kinzie is convenient for hotels in river north.

There are some lots near greektown that are fairly cheap and then you can either take public transport or a $8-10 cab ride into the loop area.

illnative, that's good information, but the original request is 4 years old and was topped for an advertisement.

bummer I hate it when that happens - I usually try to pay attention to those things. sorry....

My daughter parked at the airport in the cheapest lot. A few years ago that was $5/day versus $30 the hotel wanted. They just got on the train into town from there. It worked very well.

Connie, if it was a few years ago, maybe your daughter parked next to the person who asked this question, which is also a few years old:)