jimnyo

hi all,

just read on another post that the musical wicked is 3 hours long! we will be staying in hoffman estates, which i think is an hour west of o'hare. anyway, we're trying to catch the 7:30pm show on thursday 11/3 and we fly out of o'hare the next morning, 11/4, at 10am. it just occurred to me--should we check out of our hotel in hoffman estates and check into one closer to the airport or theater? if so, do you have any recommendations? thanks so much!

patg

Do you have your own car or are you renting/borrowing?

Patrick

We went directly from O'Hare (delayed flight arrival) to Wicked and even checked our luggage at the coat check there when we arrived. What about staying at a hotel near Wicked and spending the night right there, then hop on the Blue Line and go to O'Hare in the morning for your flight?

What's the name of the small hotel where Atwood Cafe is? Burnham, maybe?

jimnyo

we have our own car that we're renting and need to return at o'hare. right now, i'm leaning towards driving out from hoffman estates and checking in at a hotel downtown, going to the show that night and then checking out in the morning and driving to o'hare. if our flight is at 10am, what time do we need to leave town in order to get to o'hare in time to return the car and check-in? is the traffic pretty bad, even going out of the city?

tuckerdc

Hello Jimnyo -Unfortunately, Chicago is one of those towns where the outbound rush hour has become as bad, and maybe worse, than the inbound.

What about skipping the car, staying at an O'Hare area hotel that is near the River Rd. stop for the el into the city? Not the most glamourous way of travel, but you'd have a hotel that provided shuttle service from/to the airport and next-to-no worries about traffic.

Patrick

Have you checked on the possibility of turning the car in downtown a day early? I wouldn't be surprised if that would also save you money as it often costs more to return it to the airport. I always hate having to turn a car in the morning of a flight, and would welcome the chance to ditch the car downtown and just take the train directly to the terminal, check in, and take off.

exiledprincess

Do you need a rental car for purposes other than getting to/from the hotel in Hoffman Estates? Can't tell from your post. Assume you do, but just in case...

If not, I would first check with your Hoffman Estates hotel to see if they have complimentary shuttle service to O'Hare *or* hire Airport Express or one of the other services. If you can get by without the rental car, it would save the expense and time.

If you do indeed need the rental, I would return it the day of the show and then take the Blue Line into Chicago. That way you don't have to worry about returning the car extra early in the morning to get through check-in at the airport for your 10 AM.

Take the Blue Line downtown, stay at the Hotel Burnham, which 1 block from the Washington/Dearborn stop and 1 block from the Ford Center for the Performing Arts (Oriental) where Wicked is playing.

The trip between Chicago/O'Hare on the Blue Line is 45 minutes, whereas the travel time between O'Hare and Hoffman Estates is ??? (fill in the blank taking into account traffic).

Maybe this would be an option worth considering.

patg

To echo exiled princess, its eems like you could return the car on Thursday (you did say it needs to be returned at O'Hare) and take the Blue Line from the airport or the River Road stop into the city. Get a hotel room downtown: Burnham, Renaissance, Hotel 71, Monaco, Club QUarters on Wacker, Hard Rock, Allegro, Palmer House, Silversmith and others are convenient to the theatre and the subway. Stay over Thursday night and take the subway to the airport, departing at 7:30 A.M. for a 10 A.M. flight. This saves you commuting to your hotel in the late hours, and is much easier and predictable returning to O'Hare. Drivng in Friday morning rush hour traffic can often take longer than the train.

jimnyo

Well, I just got back from Chicago and wanted to say thank you to you all. We didn't end up getting to catch the show b/c we were too exhausted from the conference and wanted to at least see part of the city, so we walked around a little and had dinner.

I thought it sounded like too much work initially, but in the end we followed your recommendation to ditch the car in the city (GENIUS!! that never even occurred to me) and taking the blue line in the morning. Man, am I glad I did! Traffic into the city was heavy, but even so, I'm glad we didn't have to stop at the airport and then drag all our luggage to the el and then to the hotel. So we checked in at the Hyatt (which I got for a FANTASTIC price at Hotwire), dropped off our stuff, returned the car in the heart of downtown and walked around.

The Hyatt was so close I had no problem walking to the el station at Clark & Lake, even with my luggage (although it almost got stuck in the turnstile--lol!), and boy, was I happy to go whizzing by all those cars stuck in traffic on the way to the airport. Thanks again, you guys, for all your help--this board rocks!