The thing about regional airports around O'Hare such as Madison, Champaign, South Bend, etc is that their take offs and landings are often under control of O'Hare's ATC. I've been on the ground for 45 minutes in a place like Champaign waiting for our landing slot to open, eventhough we hadn't taken off for our 40 minute flight.

It's moments like that when you think "I should have just driven to O'Hare".

Erm, maybe just over 2 hours then...may 2:10, 2:15...but I've done the drive several times. Why would I lie about it?

Madison is a great town! You are right winters can be harsh... but the rest of the seasons are quite nice. I grew up in Green Bay (2 hours-ish north east). Madison is indeed a college town... and also the capital. You do get a lot of the young college life style near the University but on a whole it's a pretty family oriented place. If you're looking for a place to 'settle down' which is ultimately moved back to the midwest especially with kids... having the a respected state cost effective college could be good for you!

I'm USBounds wife and we did indeed consider exactly where you're going... housing in Middleton can be quite expensive depending on what you're looking for BUT... there are LOTS of great places around if you're looking for a quieter country setting try Mazomanie(dirt cheap houses) ... Waunakee, Sun Prairie, McFarland & Fitchburg are very reasonable nicer residential areas!

As far as things to do Madison has a great free zoo, beautiful botanical gardens, great lakes with little beaches. You're only about an 1.5 hours from Milwaukee along Lake Michigan for some great fishing & more fresh water beaches. And summerfest which just finished up...

Chicago's about 2.5 hours where you can find EVERYTHING you could possibly want to do.

And if you're looking for a quiet getaway.. head north past green bay.... approximately 4 hours from you head into door county for charming b&bs, vineyards & artist colonies the bay to the west the lake to the east.

SORRY I KNOW THIS IS DRAGGING ON I SHOULD HAVE EMAILED YOU :-o

Airports... Madison's airport... not fantastic pretty small really .. consider Milwaukee (MKE)... larger/more airlines & options or Chicago (ORD or MDW)... especially for flights to and from the UK directs pretty inexpensive... only about 8 hour flights!

Anyway... if you have any other questions let us know I have lots of friends up in the Madison area!

It's 147 miles according to mapquest - 2 hours 44 minutes. That doesn't allow for traffic.

I drove to Madison in about 2 hours - and I am way northwest of Chicago.

I doubt you're lying, but you're either mistaken or have a heck of a lead foot.

All of the O'Hare hate... flying in and out of there for 20 years... had a single delayed flight because of a tornado. I fly out of there a minimum of 4 times a year right now... with 2 small children by myself.... It's really NOT THAT BAD. As far as weather related delays in the winter... not a lot that can be done with the snow... if you fly in winter that's just the way it is!

Hi,

We recently moved to Racine WI and one of the things that surprised us was how long it takes to get into Chicago. Public transport isn't great (got to drive for 40 minutes to catch the metra which runs once an hour and stops at 9.30pm) so we've driven it a few times and it's always taken us around 3hrs with traffic and roadworks (there's always been roadworks). It's listed as taking 1.5 hours on Googlemaps.
We haven't been to Madison yet but have heard good things about it. I see that some of the posters say it takes 2 hours to drive to Chicago. Not to dispute this and it's quite a different route to ours but our experience has been that driving to Chicago and back in one day can be a bit much. We tend to book a nice hotel room v cheaply on Hotwire when we can and make a weekend of it instead. So that might be an option you want to consider when planning a visit to the Windy City...

and you have a neat accent too!!!

That's what I was figuring, Portland JetPort is well expensive to fly into anyway, what with the dodgy short run way...shame, it's a really nice airport.

Boston to Portland ain't a bad drive, it's about 2.5 hours, but it's another two hours to the in-laws...$100 round trip after petrol and tolls these days, plus rental.

Of the five studios down there, you'd be on the mark

It's one place I'm talking to now, and I'd be really honest and say I'd be really gutted if it didn't pan out, there's only two places around here I'd want to stay for, 38 and R*NE and I'll be chatting with them in Aug/Sept, same for Harmonix, but tbh I'm not that pumped for that as I am for these other three studios.

Ask why. Maybe she's an alumni.

I'm heading up there for a long weekend in October so will have a look around inbetween watching the Ohio State v Wisconsin collage football game.

Everyone I speak to though who has been there does say it is great.

cheers

Though WI might be a stopper, I came in third choice for two positions in the big stable place down there, so a tad gutted, and the other place that was interested failed to secure the publishing deal right now so put hiring on hold, I'll hear back from in a couple months if that changes...still chasing up the other studios in the neighbourhood, but that first one would have been a nice gig to land.

Well let's hope the other two applicants turn them down!

Hoping you get something good soon

What Tracy said.

My husband and I just bought our first house half-way between Middleton and Madison (they merge into one). Middleton and Madison's westside have a much quieter, family-oriented/young professional feel to them compared to downtown which is home to a huge student population 8 months of the year. Middleton is safe, the schools are very good, there are quite a few decent places to eat here, people are polite to each other, etc etc. Think white middle-class America (something of a generalization I know). Some might love this, others might find it a bit dull... Overall, we've liked living in Madison for the past two years. It compares very well to other towns of a similar size that we've visited in the US. There's tons to do during the summer, neighbourhood festivals, farmers' market, sailing on the lakes. The winters are cold, but beautiful in their own way Chicago is an easy day-trip from Madison, depending on the traffic you hit the other end. I'm happy to answer more questions about the area if you have any.