I think I%26#39;ve finally finished our itinerary. Please let me know what you think. Our party: 2 adults (37), 2 boys (11 %26amp; 7) and a girl (2.5, but very good to keep up with 2 older brothers and will have a stroller). Our dates 07/14-07/19.
07/14 Arrive O%26#39;Hare at 1:00 am (actually it%26#39;s 1:00 am of 07/15 yikes!!). Hopefully the kids will have some sleep on the plane. Staying at the Hilton O%26#39;Hare for the ';night';.
7/15 Take cab downtown as early as we possibly can. Early check-in if possible at Embassy Suites Lakefront or store bags. Walk to Chicago Marriot Downtown to buy Visitor Passes for bus. Take bus #10 to Museum of Science and Industry and buy Citypass there. See main highlights for 2-3 hours. Bus back to hotel. Depending on how we%26#39;re doing we may go to Michigan Avenue for a while or just call off the day.
7/16 Take bus 146 to Shedd Aquarium close to 9:00 am opening. Highlights for 2-3 hours. Lunch in the Museum? Walk through Grant Park to see Buckingham Fountain and Millenium Park. Back to hotel for a break (bus or river taxi from Madison and Wacker?). Evening at Michigan Avenue and Hancock Observatory (walk, bus or free trolley?).
7/17 Take bus 146 to Adler Planetarium close to 9:30 am opening. Highlights for 2-3 hours. Lunch in the Planetarium? Bus back to hotel for a break. Bus 151 to Lincoln Park Zoo.
7/18 Take bus 146 to Field Museum close to 9:00 am opening. Highlights for 2-3 hours. Lunch in the Museum? Back to hotel for a break. Evening at Navy Pier and stay for fireworks at 9:30 pm. (bus or free trolley?)
7/19 DH takes the train to O%26#39;Hare, rents a car, goes back to the Embassy to pick us up and we drive to Cincinnati.
7/19-7/23 Cincinnati.
7/24 Drive from Cincinnati to Chicago, leaving Cincinnati around 6:00-6:30 am. Arrive O%26#39;Hare and return car. Enought time if flight departs at 2:25 pm?
Somewhere in there I would like to squeeze some of Chicago%26#39;s famous food: Deep Dish Pizza (Uno/Due?), Hot-Dogs (Portillo%26#39;s?) and Italian Beef (Portillo%26#39;s?). Breakfast is included in the hotel, so that%26#39;s definitely going to be there. Lunch will likely be in the Museums. So I guess dinner is what it%26#39;s left .
I%26#39;ve left out some things that I%26#39;ve read that would be fun for kids, but don%26#39;t know where to fit them, if possible at all: train ride on the L around the loop, Oak beach or North Avenue beach, water taxi ride and Children%26#39;s Museum (we%26#39;ve been to others).
I need all the advice I can get.
Thanks.
Please check our detailed itinerary with kids
I think you%26#39;ve got a pretty good plan there. It%26#39;s good you are factoring some breaks, especially since you are staying at Embassy Suites and the kids can go for a swim. When we were there a couple years ago, my kids were older teens and even they got pretty tired after several hours of museums, etc.
Just a couple suggetions:
1. Since you will have a Visitor%26#39;s Pass for the buses, use it instead of riding any of the free trolleys. We rode the free trolley on our first night in Chicago down to the Navy Pier since we had not yet purchased our bus passes. What a mistake! The trolley was jam-packed with people and I felt so sorry for the families with small kids. There weren%26#39;t enough seats for everyone they picked up, so we were all standing cheek-to-jowl in the aisle and I imagine the smaller kids get smushed. Also, the trolley stopped at each stop to pick up people and since it took a long time to squeeze everyone on, it seemed to take forever to get to the Navy Pier. (BTW, we were staying on E.Grand Avenue and often saw the Navy Pier trolley and it was always packed with people, so our trip was not an exception.) The next time we went to the Navy Pier, we had our bus pass and we breezed down there in air conditioned splendor with plenty of seating for all.
2. Unless your kids are really, really interested in astronomy, I%26#39;d give a pass to the Adler Planetarium. Our teens have a fairly good knowledge of and interest in astronomy (as do my spouse and I), but we found the Adler pretty boring. On the other hand, we loved the Lincoln Park Zoo, so I think your kids would have a much better time there for most of the day. If you%26#39;d like to include a museum this day in lieu of the planetarium, head over to the Art Institute (included in the City Pass, I believe.) There%26#39;s a great exhibit of arms and armor which your boys should enjoy (my teenage son did) and perhaps your daughter would like to see the Thorne Miniature Rooms--kind of like dollhouse rooms without the dolls. This would only take about an hour, leaving you plenty of time for the zoo.
Please check our detailed itinerary with kids
Right now I%26#39;m a little concerned about your drive from Cincinnati to Chicago on the day of your flight. Do you have a noon drop off time for your rental car or have to be at the airport 2 hours ahead of time? If so, that might be pushing it.
According to mapquest, Cincinnati to O%26#39;Hare should be about 5 hours, which should theoretically leave you enough time. However, I have gotten STOPPED on the freeway in southern Chicago traffic/construction for well over an hour. (Sometimes it%26#39;s okay. It just depends.)
Also, where are you staying in Cincinnati? If you%26#39;ll be in the northern suburbs, you should be fine. If you happen to be on the far side, that will add quite a bit of time to your trip. You%26#39;ll be leaving during rush hour too.
If traffic the whole way is good, your plan is fine. However, since it often isn%26#39;t, if it were me, instead of staying that last night in Cincinnati, I%26#39;d drive part way to Chicago that night, and then drive the rest of the way in the morning. Maybe drive to a hotel north of Indianapolis. That way you wouldn%26#39;t have to mess with morning rush hour in Cincinnati and most of Indianapolis.
If you do choose to do this, there are a lot of good hotels in northern Indianapolis. I stayed in the Residence Inn in Carmel (a northern suburb) and really liked it. That is off 465 a bit, so if you prefer to stay right on the interstate, I%26#39;m sure you%26#39;ll be able to find something else.
Good luck!
BTW: Are you staying with friends or family in Cincy? If not, and you need suggestions let me know. I lived there for a long time.
Lily318: we%26#39;re staying in West Chester with family. Looks like it%26#39;s in the North burbs, but never been there. From Map Quest it says 5 hours from the house to O%26#39;Hare, plus maybe 1 hour more in case of traffic? We do have a noon car drop off. We%26#39;ll only have 4 full days in Cincinnati, so we wanted to spend them to full time, that%26#39;s why we thought of leaving the day of our flight. And since we got a non-refundable, no-changes airfare, when I realized this, it was too late to make changes.
Okay, well I%26#39;m glad to hear that you%26#39;ll be in West Chester! That is definitely in the north and you%26#39;ll avoid a lot of the congestion that way. There is still some in that area, but it%26#39;s not as if you have to go from a southeastern suburb to the northwest or even from downtown, so that%26#39;s good news!
You%26#39;d be getting into Indianapolis during rush hour too, but I think that should be okay. I haven%26#39;t driven in from that direction in a long time, so I don%26#39;t know if taking the loop around the city is best or going through downtown. (I don%26#39;t know about the current state of construction projects in that area, so you might want to post that question in the Indianapolis forum.) I assume you%26#39;ll be taking 74 from Cincinnati to Indianapolis. That is good because I-70 has A LOT of construction.
You should be heading into Chicago when it isn%26#39;t rush hour so that should really help too!
I definitely understand making the most of your time with family! As I said before, as long as traffic is okay, you could definitely make this work. I hope it will be smooth sailing for you!
Lily318: According to Mapquest:
1) Merge onto I-74 W toward INDIANAPOLIS (83.9 miles)
2) Merge onto I-465 N via EXIT 94 (23.8 miles)
3) Take the I-865 W exit- EXIT 25- on the LEFT toward I-65 N / CHICAGO (0.1 miles)
4) Merge onto US-52 W (16.8 miles)
5) Stay STRAIGHT to go onto I-65 N (120.1 miles)
6) Take the TOLL ROAD / I-90 exit- EXIT 262- toward ILLINOIS / OHIO (0.5 miles)
7) Merge onto I-90 W toward CHICAGO (Portions toll) (25 miles)
8) Merge onto I-90 EXPRESS W / I-94 EXPRESS W / DAN RYAN EXP W via the exit on the LEFT (4.2 miles)
9) I-90 EXPRESS W / I-94 EXPRESS W / DAN RYAN EXP W becomes I-90 W / I-94 W (10.6 miles)
10) Keep LEFT to take I-90 W / KENNEDY EXPY W via EXIT 43B toward O%26#39;HARE / ROCKFORD (5.8 miles)
11) Keep RIGHT to take I-190 W via EXIT 78 toward O%26#39;HARE INT%26#39;L AIRPORT / I-294 S / INDIANA (3 miles)
I have no idea if this is the best way to go.
That looks like a good way to go to me. That is definitely the way that I%26#39;ve gotten from Cincinnati to Indianapolis and from Indianapolis to Chicago. I haven%26#39;t driven to O%26#39;Hare myself, so I can only assume that their directions to it are fine. Usually I am very happy with Mapquest%26#39;s directions.
For awhile a couple of years ago an area in southeastern Indianapolis around 465 was under a lot of construction, so I just got in the habit of avoiding it since I didn%26#39;t have to go that way. It%26#39;s been so long that I%26#39;m sure that%26#39;s been fixed for awhile!
I can%26#39;t see my earlier post to see if I said this already, but driving through Indianapolis during rush hour is much easier than driving from one end of Cincinnati to the other during rush hour, so now that I know that you don%26#39;t have to do that, I%26#39;m not nearly as concerned about the time factor.
Since you%26#39;ll be driving from Chicago to Cincinnati a few days before that, you%26#39;ll be able to see if there are areas of heavy construction where you%26#39;ll want to take an alternate route and exactly how long it takes you, so I wouldn%26#39;t worry about it.
Oh! There is also a time change of one hour, so I think that will work in your favor when you%26#39;re driving from Cincinnati to Chicago. So, if you leave at 6 am Ohio time, you should definitely be able to make it to Chicago by noon Chicago time, even with traffic.
What?!?! Didn%26#39;t know about the time change. I live out of the U.S., so I have no idea of this things. That%26#39;s REALLY good to know. Thanks for telling me this. Now I%26#39;m even more certain that this will work.
Just a few minor suggestions:
On the first day, for your cab ride downtown, leave your hotel after 9 or 10 A.M. to avoid the punishing traffic on the Kennedy Expressway.
You might want to shift the Museum of Science and Industry to a later day if the kids are not up for a long visit; it takes over 4 hours to see the MSI, longer if you go to the IMAX theater, etc. Get a map of the museum from the website and check off which exhibits interest you the most. It%26#39;s laid out like an octopus - long hallways off of a main area, so it%26#39;s easy to waste a lot of time if you don%26#39;t have a plan. A good family place for early dinner is Piccolo Mondo, across 57th street in Windermere House, a classic apartment building. Cross at the parking lot stoplight and walk to the left, through the nice park area.
If you really want to see the Adler. go after your time at the Shedd or Field; it won%26#39;t take that long. On the our zoo day, you might want to substitute the Notebaert Museum for the Adler; it%26#39;s just north of the Lincoln Park Zoo, and has environmentally-oriented exhibits for kids of all ages.
In general, if the weather is pleasant, go for the outdoor activities. About half of the days in mid-July will be hot, humid and/or rainy. Check the forecast daily, and adjust your plans.
Good! I hope you have a wonderful trip!
FYI: Here%26#39;s a site with the U.S. time zones just in case you want to see it.
http://www.time.gov/
If anybody has more input, I will really appreciate it.
Thanks.
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