Surgery in Chicago. Where should I stay?

[marothisu]

There are always tradeoffs with this. It's kind of like when people say it's cheaper to rent in so and so suburb, and then you say "yes, but you need a car, so the prices after transit are not that much different." You need to factor this into your decision. If you are in Chicago in an area near public transit, you won't need to waste money on a car/gas/parking or a cab (which really rack up). Public transit is very cheap. If you're even closer, you can just walk and save even more money. There's always tradeoffs to this stuff that aren't apparent if you aren't accustomed to this type of environment.

So pretend you stay somewhere in the city for $110/night for 2 weeks versus a place in the burbs for $80/night. $1540 vs. $1120. Now pretend you have to visit the doctors office 5 times total in your 2 weeks after. If you take a cab at at least $30 each way from the burbs, then you are looking at $300 extra. Now your cost is $1540 versus $1420. Now pretend you are staying in an area of the burbs that isn't great, so you need a car for your daily life in this two weeks and you rent it at $20/day, or $280. Then you spend say $100 on gas the entire time. Now you are paying $1800 in the suburbs versus $1540 in the city.

If you stayed in the city, factor in some public transit, maybe a few trips per day on it, at $2.25 per trip (25 cents within 2 hours of using your original fare) would put you at say $40-$50. So about $1580-1590 versus $1800 in the above situation. You are still wasting money being in the burbs. Even if you didn't have to rent a car, you're paying less than $200 extra to stay in the city.

If you are to stay in the suburbs (yeah and again, Airbnb is sometimes even cheaper for in the city) then I really suggest you live near some sort of public transit that goes into the city, because in the end, if you take cabs, you aren't really saving that much money (or any) even if your hotel rate is cheaper.

[Drover]

Well, the dining options within easy walking access at Touhy & Manheim (where the two Des Plaines options are) are pretty extensive. There's a shopping complex on that corner with numerous chains like Panda Express, Culver's, Chipotle, Subway, Steak & Shake, Chili's, IHOP, Jimmy John's, Rosati's (local pizza chain), Buona Beef (local Italian beef sandwich chain), an Italian sit-down place, a Middle Eastern place, and some others I'm sure. There's a Longhorn Steakhouse that I think is literally on the same property as one of the hotels. And there's also a Target if you just want to get cold cuts and what-not to bring back to your hotel.

However, the Touhy & Manheim location is not very well connected to public transportation so you may be spending quite a bit of money on cabs. Minimum drive time once a cab picks you up is a bit over half an hour; during rush hour it can be up to two hours. You might want to contact the hotels out there and inquire if they have a shuttle that can bring you to and from the Rosemont Blue Line station. You can also save yourself a lot of cab fare by having them take you to the Rosemont Blue Line station instead of hauling you into town, and during the heaviest rush-hour times, that probably won't take any more time than just taking the cab all the way into town. Cabs can get there quickly after being dispatched since bunches of them hang out at the airport and the Rosemont Blue Line stop.

The Bedford Park location has the opposite balance of the Touhy/Manheim options: well-connected to public transportation but few dining options nearby except maybe some pizza/sandwich delivery places. The main benefit is it would be the shortest time-wise by public transportation or by car, and probably the cheapest if you're paying cab fares. Again, cab will be there quickly after the dispatch call is put in due to proximity to the (other) airport.

The Old Orchard location is somewhere in between: well-connected via public transportation, and there are decent dining options nearby, if you're willing to schlep all the way over to the upscale-ish outdoor mall on the other side of the expressway. It's a longer walk than it looks like on a map. The area may be nicer in general than the Bedford Park location, but there's still not a lot going on around there within walking distance other than the mall. And while it may look close to the lake on a map, you won't be close enough to the lake to even notice. Your best chance to see the lake when you're on the Northwestern campus, which is literally just across Lake Shore Drive from the lake. There's even a pedestrian underpass from the campus to the lakefront trail if you're interested. Public transportation times from there would run somewhere close to the two-hour range. Commute time by cab is similar as from the Des Plaines locations; you may want to inquire if the hotel can shuttle you to/from the Demster Yellow Line station. If not, again you can save yourself a lot of cab fare by having them drop you off/pick you up at the Demster Yellow Line station. Again, doing so may not actually take that much more time than trying to cab it during peak commute times.

[Drover]

Oh yeah, scrub the Westmont option.

[MikefromEu]

Thank you to everybody. I have already booked a hotel in Des Plaines. I still should save a lot of money. I will go downtown only 4 times, I will not need to use a cab from the airport since shuffle goes to my hotel for free and restaurants are also cheaper than in downtown. I also forgot to mention that I wanted to have kitchenete in my room so I can cook my meal because I will not be able to walk to restaurant every day because of surgery. And the cheapest hotel with kitchenette in downtown was around 170 dollars/day without tax. So I think it will still be worth it

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by MikefromEu

Thank you to everybody. I have already booked a hotel in Des Plaines. I still should save a lot of money. I will go downtown only 4 times, I will not need to use a cab from the airport since shuffle goes to my hotel for free and restaurants are also cheaper than in downtown. I also forgot to mention that I wanted to have kitchenete in my room so I can cook my meal because I will not be able to walk to restaurant every day because of surgery. And the cheapest hotel with kitchenette in downtown was around 170 dollars/day without tax. So I think it will still be worth it

That's good. I see you didn't check airbnb though, at least in non downtown neighborhoods. There's stuff for $80/night that's in the city and just a few miles from downtown. Actually there's a few for maybe $90 in the Loop.

[Drover]

See if that shuttle will take you to the Rosemont Blue Line station. If not, you can save a lot of cab fare by having them take you there instead of all the way downtown.