Field Museum or Museum of Science and Industry? (Chicago, Bridgeview: how much, hotel)

[mrstsh2004]

We've got one day in Chicago tagged onto a business trip. We'll be staying at a hotel near MDW airport. Approximately how much will a cab cost to get into the city? We're not familiar with the train system.

If we could only get to one of these musuems, which museum would you recommend and why?

Also - any "must dine" restaurants? I know of Uno's but DH is not a fan of deep dish pizza.

Thank you!

[richrf]

Originally Posted by mrstsh2004

We've got one day in Chicago tagged onto a business trip. We'll be staying at a hotel near MDW airport. Approximately how much will a cab cost to get into the city? We're not familiar with the train system.

If we could only get to one of these musuems, which museum would you recommend and why?

Also - any "must dine" restaurants? I know of Uno's but DH is not a fan of deep dish pizza.

Thank you!

Here are your approx. taxi costs Midway to Downtown, it will be a bit cheaper to the Field Museum:

http://www.transitchicago.com/riding_cta/airports.aspx
The Orange line is 20 - 25 min. direct to Downtown for a fraction of the price (same link provides info).

From there you can go to the Museum Campus (Field, Adler Planetarium, and Aquarium), which would be a very nice day. Tons of restaurants. If you give us some idea of the type of food you like. Downtown, Berghoff German food is a classic (though much different from its heyday). You might also want to stop off in Chinatown which is basically on your way back to Midway or eat in Printer's Row or on Michigan Ave. somewhere, or even the South Loop. The possibilities are endless.

[chirack]

Science and Industry. Much more interactive, larger. Feild is nice, but it is just a bunch of stuffed animals. Shedd is also a good spot if you are into fish and sea creatures.

[Gehrs]

Originally Posted by chirack

Science and Industry. Much more interactive, larger. Feild is nice, but it is just a bunch of stuffed animals. Shedd is also a good spot if you are into fish and sea creatures.

Agree!

[Thepreacherswife]

I would vote Science and Industry too, but it's in Hyde Park (basically due east from Midway), nowhere near downtown. No "must eat" restaurants there that I know of, but it's easy to get a cab from MSI to go to River North or West Loop (Randolph St) and hit any number of great places.

Deep dish is overrated, IMO. The only time we eat it is when we have guests from out of town. There are any number of cuisines you could try in Chicago and have a more satisfying meal. Nuevo Leon in Pilsen, Lao Sze Chuan in Chinatown, Mexican restaurants specializing in goat or seafood along Pulaski between 47th and 63rd, Mediterranean in Bridgeview, etc.

[Drover]

Deep dish is not overrated though it is assumed by most tourists that Chicagoans eat it far more often than we actually do.

Nuevo Leon, now that place easily qualifies as "overrated."

I would recommend the MSI for the reasons outlined above by others. If you want to experience deep dish pizza, there are two local chains in the same neighborhood as the museum, Giordano's and Edwardo's. I much prefer Edwardo's, most others seem to favor Giordano's. To me, Giordano's is overkill, even by Chicago stuffed-pizza standards.

If the husband vetos the deep dish, other restaurants in the neighborhood looked upon favorably are Rajun Cajun (which, despite what its name implies, is an Indo-Pak restaurant), The Nile (Middle Eastern), and Seoul Corea (self-evident). I haven't eaten at these places so I can't vouch for them personally; but they are well rated by others and Rajun Cajun in particular is a neighborhood institution.

[Alacran]

Museum of Science for sure.

But the Field museum isn't as boring as the other guys make it out to be.

If you want close, then go to Field. If you're gonna travel around, go to the Field.

I was there pretty much till closing time. Fun.

[richrf]

Museum of Science is nice (I am not blown away by it and only visited it once), but the big question is why lug yourself out to the Museum of Science where there is nothing much else going on, when you can take a quick train ride down to the loop, see all the museums you want (including the Art Institute which is in the heart of Downtown not far from Museum Campus) and tons of other sites, as well as having access to all the great restaurants you want? Just look at a map. The M of S is a dead-end (Hyde Park and the University of Chicago not withstanding) unless you take another expensive taxi into the downtown area, where you could be from the beginning. If you want to have a great day, I strongly recommend that you avail yourself of the great downtown areas and the surrounding museums.

[Attrill]

I prefer the Field to the Museum of Science and Industry (although both are great). Unless you have hyperactive kids with you I'm not sure if there is a real benefit to the interactivity of exhibits. I'd check out the websites for both museums and take a look at their exhibits and just go with what you prefer. The Field has a really good exhibit on Genghis Kahn right now, and the MSI has a Mythbuster exhibit going that is supposed to be really great. My daughter is on vacation next week and I'll definitely be taking her to both the Field and MSI. My favorite permanent exhibit in Chicago is the Northwest Coastal Collection at the Field. There are loads of surreal carvings in that collection that I really connect with. It's one of my favorite exhibits in the world. Anyways, that's just what I'm into, but there is most certainly a lot more at the Field than stuffed animals. My daughter likes the dinosaur and Egyptian exhibits.

As others have mentioned the Field has the huge benefit of being downtown, and you can combine the Field with a wide variety of other activities much more easily - checking out restaurants, downtown architecture, other museums, etc. are much easier from the Field. I wouldn't worry too much about getting a Chicago dog or pizza while here. The pizzas freeze pretty well and you can get them mailed to you by Malnati's or Gino's East. They aren't perfect, but the certainly get you 90% of the way there. Hot dogs are pretty much the same, if you can get Vienna dogs and decent poppy seed buns you can make your own Chicago dog at home pretty easily. There are a number of places downtown that are much more worth visiting than the hot dog places downtown. Some places that are unique and more reflective of current Chicago food include Frontera, Slurping Turtle, Xoco, The Gage, The Publican, and Purple Pig (all are either walkable or a short cab ride from the Field).

[55degrees]

I'd pick the Field Museum over Science and Industry. Unless you're from a city that has better museums than Chicago (like NYC), the Field will probably be pretty interesting. I'd also pick Shedd or Art Institute over the Science and Industry as well.