Travelling to Chicago in October
Just hoped they'd be a couple of you who might have some advice as I'm planning a trip by myself to Chicago in October. The main reason is to run the marathon there and then spend the rest of the time there to holiday it out. Also, after I've arrived and run the marathon, after the days rest I was hoping to hire a car and drive to New York in one day (stopping at Cleveland which is half way for a break). I don't mind doing this trip by myself as most of my friends who'd I'd like to go with can't commit to the whole thing and I'm quite independent. Then fly back to London from New York. Got a few questions really spinning around in my head...
1) Is it best to book the outbound and inbound flights as single tickets? I can see returns only work if you're going to and from the same airport. Cheapest so far is £350 out (via Aer Lingus) and £250 back (via Icelandair).
2) Any tips on the public transport in both Chicago/New York and driving too. Was hoping to get a nice car (4x4 or soft-top) to hire for my driving trip.
3) Any major things to go watch or do in both cities? Looked up sports, but basketball, american football, baseball are all out of season. Ice hocket might be still on, but obviously I need to the make the most of my time while out there.
4) Essential items? Or general advice before I got out.
Any help would be amazing as I'll be registering for the marathon next week.
1) Is it best to book the outbound and inbound flights as single tickets? I can see returns only work if you're going to and from the same airport. Cheapest so far is £350 out (via Aer Lingus) and £250 back (via Icelandair).
2) Any tips on the public transport in both Chicago/New York and driving too. Was hoping to get a nice car (4x4 or soft-top) to hire for my driving trip.
3) Any major things to go watch or do in both cities? Looked up sports, but basketball, american football, baseball are all out of season. Ice hocket might be still on, but obviously I need to the make the most of my time while out there.
4) Essential items? Or general advice before I got out.
Any help would be amazing as I'll be registering for the marathon next week.
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How about St Louis which is about 300 miles? You could visit the Gateway Arch there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_arch
http://www.nps.gov/jeff/index.htm
Flying back from St.Louis would cost £200 more. So need to balance everything out. Once I checkout of the hotel in Chicago before leaving to New York, I'd be happy to stay in hostels to make things a bit cheaper.
I haven't done a comparison but Motel 6 prices might be comparable with hostels.
EDIT: Have you checked whether there's a one-way rental charge for the car hire?
October is smack in the middle of the American Football season (Aug-Jan), so you might catch a game on a Sunday or on Monday night.
Technically possible in a day, but it will probably make you feel worse than running the marathon does.
I should of said post-marathon, I'm happy to do whatever to make the most of my trip. Especially being the first time to the states.
You'll have no issue entering the USA on a one way ticket provided you can show them a return ticket which gets you out of there within 90 days. I do this most times as I often us different airlines to get better prices.
You should be able to book a multi-leg ticket with some airlines. Not sure about the ones you've mentioned, but with me I booked London-Chicago and then Tampa-London on BA last summer all at the same time with 2 weeks between arriving in Chicago and departing from Tampa. I also used Frontier airlines to book internal flights and on one ticket booked Chicago to Denver and then 3 days later Denver to Tampa.
Public transport in both cities is very good and pretty cheap.The "EL" train in Chicago is very cool to ride around on as it's all elevated lines (hence EL) which goes in a loop between the sky scrapers. The loop is the nickname for the downtown area of Chicago. I spent 5 days there in May, so it was very warm. I imagine you'll have pretty cold weather in October.
I visited both the WIllis Tower and John Hancock centre, but either of them will give you a good view of the surrounding area and the city below. Take an architectural tour of the city from the river and you'll see that Chicago is very different to most American cities. The Magnificent Mile is where you'll find all the upmarket shops (much like Regent Street or 5th Avenue). I was able to catch a Cubs vs Sox baseball game when I was there, so got to see Wrigley Field. Even if you don't manage to see a game, it's worth visiting the stadium anyway as it's a nice icon of the city.
Have you considered taking the train between Chicago and New York? The AMTRAK service takes about 20 hours direct and travels overnight, leaving Chicago around 9:30pm, arriving at 6:30pm the next day. There's also a few options via Washington DC or Pittsburgh which would break up the journey by offering 3 or 4 hours in one of those cities between trains. That'd be more relaxing than taking the car and would probably work out cheaper in the long run.
When looking at Skyscanner, it offers the flights in one package. I just need to make sure it's not all separate journeys. I think the Irish airline do the via route packages at quite good prices! £350 out to Chicago and £200 back from New York.
I love public transport, so getting the EL train will probably get me to and from the hotel if I stay just further out. Will probably decide on that later on depending on budgets! I think October in Chicago is similar to her in end of March/April. Perfect running conditions
Ace stuff! I will try and do similar stuff in New York as I'll want to spend my time post-marathon visiting a friend of mine in Chicago who I used to work with in an old job.
The more I look at car hire, the better a train would be. Especially as I'd be really tired post marathon. Last thing I want to do is cause chaos on their roads.
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Des Moines, Iowa
Detroit, Michigan
Indianapolis, Indiana
Kansas City, Missouri
Memphis, Tennessee
Minnapolis, Minnesota
Nashville, Tennessee
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
That way when you arrive in Chicago you simply walk off, get your bag and you're in the outside world as if you were flying on a domestic flight.
This may be something to keep in mind as Chicago O'Hare airport is notorious for long waits for non-US passport holders and rude staff. I experienced both last year. After my 7 hour flight from London I waited almost 2 hours to get my passport looked at, the woman was extremely rude and patronising to me even though I answered all of her questions and was perfectly polite to her. I was then pulled over for a customs check which took another hour. Again, I was doing everything the man wanted, but he still found reasons to be rude to me and almost tried to confiscate my shortbread for whatever reason. I unpacked my whole case for him but In the end the guy didn't even look through my things and just said I was good to go and then just walked off and told me to repack my own bag.
It may just have been me but it's the worst treatment I've ever had entering another country, including other US airports! I did visit during the NATO summit, so perhaps they were on higher alert. Having said that, I have a German friend who now lives in Chicago (she's married to a former US Marine). She still travels on her German passport with her Greencard, but she still gets rude treatment even though she passes through several times a year! She says it's worse if she's flown in from somewhere other than Germany!
Anyway, just something to consider!
I would highly recommend them, it's a guided tour on push bikes. You get to see parts of the city that you would never see otherwise and they where great fun.