Taking the "El" from O'Hare to Downtown
 

Please help me settle an ongoing debate on how we're getting to West Wacker from O'Hare Airport. DH says "It's vacation - let's take a cab" and I say, along with the kids "Let's save the money and take the El and have an adventure"

We're going to most likely take 3 wheeled suitcases, a carry-on and the kids will have backpacks - since we have never been on Chicago's transit system, we don't know if it is like the subway in NYC - and dragging suitcases on some of those lines is difficult.

Let me know what ya think! Thanks :)

Last December in Chicago, we were in a similar situation at Midway Airport with 2 adults, 3 kids, luggage and early morning 4 hour flight. We planned to take the "El", and by the time we picked up our luggage, we looked at each other - and decided to take a cab. It was wonderful to have the driver load it in a van...and take us directly to the hotel, and unload the luggage. Definitely worth it to us.

I just did this last week. Myself, my wife, and three kids. All of us had wheeled suitcases and everyone except for me had backpacks.

We took the El.

If was quick and cheap!

No need for cabs.

Kevin

Only takin it from Midway to Downtown but highly recommend the experience. It's not only inexpensive but the kids (mine anyway) loved the train ride.

The worst part of the trip is getting to the station at O'Hare. It's not a terribly interesting ride to the Loop. It you really want to take the El, why not take a more interesting trip up towards Wrigley Field and take a cab with all your luggage to the hotel.

We took the train from O 'Hare to hotel downtown in April and thought it was great. No traffic to worry about...just smooth sailing! I think there was an elevator at O'Hare and a little walking to train, but not a bad way to travel at all!

"The worst part of the trip is getting to the station at O'Hare."

MikeT: What kind of time are we talking about? Are their stairs? Did anyone actually use an elavator?

Any other comments? Thanks.

I'm just spoiled living in DC where you can get on the Metro fairly easily from National Airport. The station at O'Hare seemed to be a little bit of a hike, especially if you aren't on United. I guess it depends on how much luggage you have and how tired you are from your flight

We took the El downtown from O'Hare and found it very easy. It was a bit of a walk to get to the station but there are moving sidewalks and an escalator to get to train level. We had one rolling bag and one carry on so no problem there. When we got off though I think there were stairs so we had to carry the suitcase up. All in all, we found the experience very pleasant. We got an early chance to familiarize ourselves with street names and to see parts of the city we would not have seen otherwise. We arrived early on a Saturday morning and it was not crowded at all. When we went back to O'Hare for our return flight, we left Wednesday morning and it was kind of nice to be chugging along beside the highway and see all the traffic backed up in rush hour, feeling thankful we weren't sitting in a taxi racking up a massive cab fare. My husband never takes public transit at home but he became a huge fan of the El and even the Chicago buses. When we come back to Chicago, we will definitely use the El again, and get our transit passes at the airport when we arrive.