neighborhood vs. running around?

We%26#39;re coming to Chicago for four days/3 nights. I%26#39;m wondering how long it takes to get places...should I try to plan out what we want to do by concentrating on one neighborhood at a time, or is it easy enough to get around and try to see everything we want to (in different areas of the city)? We%26#39;re staying at the Fairmont. Thanks!

neighborhood vs. running around?

You should try to plan on particular areas in the same day so you%26#39;re not running all over the place. www.explorechicago.org is a good place to do some research.

www.transitchicago.com for public transit information. There%26#39;s a trip planner function on the home page. A CTA visitor pass might come in handy for your visit.

neighborhood vs. running around?

As a rule, it really is best to try and concentrate on one neighborhood at a time. But it just depends on what neighborhoods you will be exploring and where in the neighborhoods you are going. And it depends on whether you are taking an express or local bus or the El.

For example, Lincoln Park and Lakeview on the north side of Chicago are very large neighborhoods. If you wanted to go from someplace in the Gold Coast to, say, the Lincoln Park Zoo, it%26#39;s less time than going from the Gold Coast to the Clybourn Corridor or DePaul University areas in Lincoln Park.

Or, for another example, Diversey is the northern boundary of Lincoln Park and the southern boundary of Lakeview. So it%26#39;s possible that going from a place in Lincoln Park to another in Lakeview is only a matter of a block or two.

Or, in the Lakeview neighborhood, if you were going from Boystown (aka East Lakeview) to Wrigleyville, it could be only a couple of streets away. But if you were going to Roscoe Village from Boystown, then it%26#39;s a much more of a trek.

One thing to keep in mind is not to pack your itinerary too full. You should include additional time for waiting on a bus or the El for each time you use it (IMHO, usually an additional 15-20 minutes for each bus and 10 minutes for the El). If you are taking a local bus (such as the #151, #22, #36, etc.) during the busiest times (i.e., weekends, rush hours, lunch hours, etc.), you%26#39;ll need to include additional time on the bus, because when they are full, they tend to stop at just about every bus stop along the line.

If you are coming at a time when there is a major festival or event, and you are using a bus which travels in the vicinity of that event, you%26#39;ll have to include additional time for rerouting and the additional crowds. For example, during the Gay Pride Parade (last Sunday of June), quite a few of the major thoroughfares on the north side from Fullerton all the way north to Addison are closed to vehicular traffic all afternoon. The remaining streets get the traffic which cannot travel on those closed streets. Literally, traffic is at a standstill in many areas and it takes a long, long time to get anywhere. Same thing with the fireworks on 3rd of July, when S. Michigan Avenue and many surrounding streets are closed to traffic for hours.

Unless you are doing something extraordinary, the usual tourist spots are not far from each other. So from Fairmont hotel to lincoln park by cab is 10 minutes north. If you want to go to the Hyde Park area for the musuem of science and industry, it%26#39;s 10 minutes south by cab.