South of Chicago - striking distance to the Museum of Science and Industry

Before I leave St. Louis, I want to hit the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. I don’t want to go actually into the city; the museum is all I want to do.

I’d like to find a decent hotel area (Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn Express, that sort of thing) about 1/2 to 1 hour from the museum. The drive timing into the city will be for a Saturday; I’d leave St. Louis Friday, and return Sunday.

I’ll be coming up I-55, but don’t mind wandering east towards Indiana, but I do want to stay south of the city proper.

Any ideas?

I live a few blocks from the MSI. Based on your parameters, I’d probably stay at the Hampton Inn - Midway Airport. I say that based entirely on the fact that you could take the Cicero bus (or walk) a little over a mile to 55th Street, where there is a bus that takes you directly to the MSI. Chicago traffic is no joke, and for $2.50 you could sit back, read a book/listen to whatever/watch the scenery and not fight it.

Believe me, I know that. But neither is public transport. Some years ago I was at a hotel near O’Hare, and it took me about two hours to get to, and about two hours to get back from, the Field Museum.

Thanks for the thoughts, though, I appreciate it. (Is there an Al Capone museum on that route? :slight_smile: )

I was just about to say that most people visiting Hyde Park stay by Midway or downtown. Midway is obviously the cheaper option. And if you’re coming by car then you can stay ay any suburban hotel off of 55.

Traffic between Midway and Hyde Park is actually not that bad (I did this drive almost every day for the last 5 years). I-55 ends when it merges with Lake Shore Drive, which you take south pretty much right to the museum. It should be fine on a Saturday unless maybe the President is in town.

Ah, there’s the rub, and there is why I asked the question. Chicago is a far larger city than I’m used to, and I assumed that I could stop in a suburb of Chicago that would still leave me hours to drive into the city.

But you’re the second to say Midway, so I’ll look into that. Thanks.

Just kind of for what it’s worth (I know you didn’t ask), except for U-505 which is awesome, I don’t thing the museum is that good anymore.

Huh. What makes you say that?

Will you be meeting that “special someone” at the Museum?

There are a lot of hotels and motels along the I-55 corridor going into Chicago. The thing is, I-55 pretty much takes you downtown (not really, but pretty damn close). Either you take it to I-90/94 and head back south, or you take it to Lakeshore Drive and head back south. And traffic on I-55 can be pretty bad, even on the weekend.

Ideally you would take I-80 east to either I-57 or I-94 and go north. It’s been awhile since I took either of those expressways into the city, but I don’t remember much of any lodgings along those expressways. Those are also more the rougher towns with higher crime rates (in general) than the ones along I-55. If you want to go out for a meal, it might be uncomfortable.

On the other hand, I-57 ends where it meets up with I-94 and I-90 eventually merges with I-94. Coming from the South Side, most people take I-90/94 to Garfield Blvd and take that over to MSI.

So, you have options. You just need to figure out what your particular priorities are.

Many of the old ground-floor exhibits are gone now.