It costs money to go up the Sears Tower. When I worked north of the Loop I used to go up the Hancock to the Signature lounge for overpriced nuts and a drink for free.
The view is great - if the sky is clear. If you’re downtown on a day like today - all clouds and fog - don’t bother. Buy a postcard and do something else.
It’s a $1.75 these days. Just to be pedantic.
Anyways, Idle Thoughts, I’m sorry to be pessimistic but I think you’re greatly underestimating the distances you’re envisioning here. Summit is a suburb and is at least 20 miles from anything of note downtown. A Cab from there to anything will be a bare minimum of $35 one-way. If you plan on taking a Cab from Midway to your hotel when you arrive and leave, you’re already going to be in the hole $30. Hopefully your friend is covering that trip, but it should put things in perspective.
You need to take a long look at the map, figure out where everything you want to see is and plan travel arrangements ahead of time. If you try and wing it when you arrive and are stuck without a ride at least to a Metra or Orange line you’ll be spending a big chunk of the week in your hotel room.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but on $100 for 4 days Taxis are totally out of the question. Simple as that. Maybe one from one location within the loop to another, but certainly not spanning different neighborhoods and suburbs.
When will you have access to rides and when won’t you? Do you expect to have rides to and from the city on weekdays? What timeframes are you expecting to be on your own and which sights do you want to see while alone instead of with your friend?
The Harold Washington Library is in the South Loop and is supposedly a impressive experience if you’re into that sort of think. Personally, I’d get lost in there, but it might be great for you.
Finding a way to Michigan Ave/Oak Street will be excellent way to be a lookie-lou. Endless stores and buildings to poke around in.
Be careful when comparing Chicago to San Fran. Certainly both are expensive when it comes to food and buying things, but SF is a very walkable city. Utterly minescule compared to Chicago. You can walk all the way across SF in about 2 hours or less, that wouldn’t even get you though Lincoln Park in Chicago. Also the weather makes walking more than a mile or so really unplesant. The upshot is that travelling (or Parking) in Chicago will eat up half your budget while in SF it’s a non-issue.
That brings me to another message of warning, parking is obscenely expensive anywhere downtown. So even if you’re able to get a ride to one of the sights downtown, the parking will cost as much as a cab would have if not more. So, be sure to discuss that with your friend.
All in all, I’m sure you’ll have a great time. Hopefully your friend has lots of suggestions and is familiar with the ins-and-outs of Chicago making some of these details easier. But if you really want to make the most of it, you’ll be well advised to plan ahead thoroughly.
OK Idle Thoughts Here’s the skinny.
From Summit, you can take the Heritage Corridor train. It will roll you from Summit, right to the Jackson/Van Buren station. Take it. It will save you MAJOR cash. From there, get your free museum days lined up, and hit the museums.
If you’re in the mood to just walk and see the sights, there’s no better place to do that than the Mag Mile (as has already been mentioned). It’s what to see while you’re here. In fact, if you can catch the double deckers, you can do the whole hop-on hop-off thing as you choose, and see most of the downtown stuff on one or two days.
The real Chicago though, is in the neighborhoods. Get a Bus schedule after you look at the map here and go. Neighborhoods like The Near South Side, Chinatown, University Village, Lincoln Park, Uptown, Lakeview, Roscoe Village, Bucktown and Wicker Park are the places where the REAL Chicago lives, and is still safe for a wide-eyed tourist such as yourself.
The bus goes everywhere, and is fairly cheap.
Go to Metromix for all of the neato stuff to do in these areas. You’d be suprised at how much you can actually DO on a tight budget.
So, if you’d like some precise recommendations, where to eat, what to see, just shoot me an e-mail, I’d be more than happy to give you some suggestions.
Wow. Looks like your Metra (train) options are failry limited from Summit/Chicago:
Chicago (Union St) 4:50 5:25 6:12
Summit 5:15 5:50 6:37
Looks like it’ll cost you $2.90 each way. Be forewarned, if you don’t get your ticket in advance coming from Union Station, they will charge you an extra 2 bucks on the train.
Maybe you could take the Metra in to downtown one morning so you get the ‘big train’ Chicago commuting experience, spend the day downtown sightseeing, and then take the Orange Line El train/subway to Midway on the way home in the evening and cab it from Midway back to Summit. Otherwise I agree with others here, cabs will blow your budget in no time.
I agree with buttonjockey308, Metromix is a great site for all the current events/things to see and do in Chicago. (It’s bookmarked as my home page, I like it so much). They also have a great Neighborood Guide on the site that tells you all about the different 'hoods in Chicago, how to get there, what to see/do/eat when you’re there, etc. Too bad you’re not coming during baseball season - you could catch a Cubs game! (Although that would blow your entire budget in about 3 hours :rolleyes: )
As mentioned before, the El and buses can get you anywhere in the city. The Chicago Transit Authority has special vistor passes that give you unlimited rides on all CTA trains and buses.
1-Day Visitor Pass for $5
2-Day Visitor Pass for $9
3-Day Visitor Pass for $12
5-Day Visitor Pass for $18
My two cents: All of the CTA train lines are safe if you exercise a little common sense (don’t pull out your wallet, try to act like you’re not reading the map posted in the car). However, as a native of Chicago even I am a little more cautious when on the Green line, or south of the Loop on the Red Line. The best and easiest way to avoid trouble is to position yourself in the first car, near the train operator’s area.
If you’re a shopper (window or otherwise), I would agree with the recommendations to hit Oak Street and the Mag Mile. Both of which are conveniently loacted near the Hancock Building.
Enjoy your visit!
If you buy a CTA visitor’s pass, BUY IT WHEN YOU’RE AT MIDWAY.
Can you see I can’t emphasize that enough?? 
You don’t have time to get one via the mail, and beyond the airports, they’re kind of hard to procure (in the sense that where they sell them is not very convenient for a first-time tourist).
If you plan on doing more than, say, ten minutes of walking between locations I’d suggest getting silk longjohns (like Cuddle Duds). Very light and very warm, yet won’t cause you to boil over once you reach your destination. Take a hat.
Another vote for using public transportation to get into the city. Beyond all the reasons mentioned above, it’s very often faster. You won’t have to sit and sit and sit in traffic if you’re on the train.
The Art Institue rocks and is essentially free. They request a $10.00 donation, but you can pay whatever you want.
A few points that have not been mentioned or fully detailed:
[ul]
[li]There is an underground walkway between City Hall (on LaSalle) and the Prudential Building/Randolph Street Metra Station that includes direct access to Marshell Fields. This is a godsend during the winter and can be useful. At either end take the escalators (either from lobby level at City Hall or Old Prudential Building) down to the lowest point and follow the signs for Pedestrian Walkway. You can also access Wabash and Michigan (at Grant/Millenium Park) Avenues from the walkway.[/li][li]IIRC, Tuesday is the free day at the Art Institute and you can go in without making a donation. Other days you will be required to buy a ticket. Also, I believe the Art Institute stays open until 8:00 PM on Tuesdays.[/li][li]While much attention has been focused on the Mag Mile, the lower stretches of Michigan Avenue from Randolph southward have some excellent architecture (Old Railway Exchange, the Auditorium and others). The Old Railway exchange (it’s the building that now has “Sante Fe” on the top of the exterior IIRC) has an incredible enclosed interior atrium. The whole skyline looking west from Grant Park is quite stunning though it will also be a tad breezy.[/li][li]The U of Chicago is worthwhile but do not stray too far away from the school in the surrounding neighborhoods.[/li][li]I’m not sure that you can get a tour, but the largest single water treatment plant in the world is located just north of Navy Pier (another great place to visit in the summer but a tad cold in winter to wandering around in the cold Lake Michigan breeze). The Jardine Water Treatment plant has a capacity to treat up to one billion gallons per day of drinking water. It’s a bitch to get to though from the loop during the winter. [/li][/ul]
Good luck and have fun.
Go the the Lincoln Park Zoo, then to the waterfront and follow it to The Shedd Aquarium, The Adler Planetarium, The Field Museum of Natural History, and The Museum of Science and Industry. Only then will you be able to appreciate Arizona in the summer time!
I liked the Museum of Broadcast Communications. It’s right downtown, in the first floor of some hotel if I recall. Looks like it’s in the Chicago Cultural center, which someone mentioned above. It’s free.
http://www.museum.tv/museumsection.php
Museum of Sci & Industry is pretty cool. I know Chicago sells a visitor pass where you can see 6 things for about $40 or so–Shedds Aquarium, etc… The planetarium is kinda boring though, only for hardcores. Certain places are free, but isn’t that only for Cook County residents??
I’m assuming that this is a joke, but even if so, it may not be obvious to an out-of-towner that this would be a 7-mile hike.
I’ve used this walkway thousands of times. Unfortunately, the heart of it closed about a month ago, and will remain closed for a long time. (Block 51 construction).
You can still get from City Hall (or even the State of Illinois Building) to the Daley Center, but you can’t get any further east. The pedway resumes at Fields, where you can go further east to the Randolph Street Metra station (which shouldn’t be confused with Union Station, which is the place where the OP’s Summit train would
go to/leave from).
Sorry about that and this minor hijack - I moved from the Chicago area almost 2 years ago.
Is the Pedway being repaired/upgraded/improved? From your description it sounds like the pedway is closed around the intersection with the CTA Red Line and State Street above it - is this the case?
End of hijack
Sorry about that and this minor hijack - I moved from the Chicago area almost 2 years ago.
Is the Pedway being repaired/upgraded/improved? From your description it sounds like the pedway is closed around the intersection with the CTA Red Line and State Street above it - is this the case?
End of hijack
Yes. It’s closed between Dearborn and State. I understand it will open when the Block 37 construction is completed.
From a CTA site:
http://www.chicago-l.org/stations/washington-dearborn.html
Note my error - it’s block 37, not 51.
Also, suggest eating lunch at the Berghoff while you still can.
Sigh. Another Chicago landmark bites the dust.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0512290167dec29,1,3428280.story?coll=chi-news-hed
I visited Chicago for 2 and a half weeks 5 years ago and had the best time. I would move there to live tomorrow if I could.
I second the Art Institute recommendation. In the time I was in Chicago, I went there on 3 separate days and still didn’t see everything. I’m not even into art really, either. Its just incredible.
Also second the Berghoff recommendation. I had a great meal there and I was sad to see at the Tribune site today (see, I love Chicago so much I still check the news there 5 years on) that its closing.
I also think you should get yourself a burger at this place at least once during your trip.
I had some good times seeing bands at the Empty Bottle and the Fireside Bowl. Don’t know if you’re into bands.
Ah, brings back vague memories of Daley’s fiasco, so what is being constructed on the Block 37 site?