McCormick Place Lot B

We had a great experience staying in the truck marshaling lot south of McCormick Place. We found that the $35 per day fee covered 24 hours each day for us. We arrived around 5 PM on a Thursday and left just before 5 PM on Saturday. Noise level was certainly acceptable to us. The lot is situated between Lakeshore Drive and the metro line. Once we were asleep neither of those caused us any problem. There was a little traffic of which we were aware during the night in the lot itself. We were fortunate that the weather was nice enough that we did not require use of air conditioning. There were about a dozen RVs in the area when we were there. Many came in during the late evening and left the next day. About eight were there the entire time we were.

Who knew you could “camp” in Chicago!? This gets 5/5 for location, safety, and convenience. We were literally only here to sleep, as we spent the whole day exploring the city. We live in the Chicago suburbs; staying in the city rather than heading home after a long day was so awesome!
A few tips:

1. Take the metra train downtown from inside McCormick place. So cheap and convenient!
2. It’s loud (trains + helicopters) and bright at night. Put blankets on your windows and sleep with white noise.
3. Easy access to the bike path - it’s beautiful!
4. We walked to McCormick (3 minutes) for fast food breakfast.

No non-sense convenient boondocking to take in the city! We parked and got Uber everywhere. Close to everything but not really walkable — so we used Uber to take us to the train in the morning and then back in the late evening. We were able to put out our slides and it was great to come back and crash at the end of a long day in Chicago. It’s just a paid parking lot for semis and bus/trolleys that are out of service You are right in the city and just off I-55 so it is loud — if our windows were closed and we ran the air — you couldn’t really hear it. We used ear plugs and it was fine if we wanted to leave the windows open. It felt safe and secure and there was an attendant. We made reservations and paid in advance but think you can pay there also. Would do again!

We have stayed here in the past (we have a Class B RV) - it is nothing more than a parking lot - that said, you can not park in Chicago for $35 a day any where else, so it's a bargain. The last time we stayed, it was $35 for 24 hours (they started the clock when you pulled in), it seems that this has changed. NOW, It is $35 a day (so if you get there at 11:30 on a Friday night, you pay $35 for Friday). When making a reservation, you have to enter your arrival and departure time which puts one on a time schedule (we prefer fluid plans). The subway is close and so is the lake. We have family in Chicago, so staying in the McCormick lot is cost effective.

This is a loud, busy, pot-holed parking lot where tractor trailers congregate to do their load trade-offs and sleeping and business stuff and making a lot of truck noise like idling and braking and honking and dropping loads.

But damn, it is close to downtown. You can pop through the underpass of the convention center by bike or foot, cross under the highway, and find yourself on the LakeSide bike/ped trails that will lead you all the way up the shoreline of Chicago. If you don't carry a bike with you, you can rent one at a Divy Station on the trail.

Follow the truck route to get to the Truck Marshalling Yard and enter through the first entrance gate (on the left) - Truck Marshalling. We paid $35.00/night coming in with our towed attached to the mothership. Make sure to ask for an 'in-out' pass if you have a towed you want to be able to take in and out of the lot.

The two gates do not keep track of each other - neither knows what the other is doing or supposed to be doing so just go in the first one so you don't need to do weird turning radius moves when the second is closed (big rigs would have a hard time fitting through the second gate anyways).

Lot is pretty level, although a bit pot-holed in places. After the gate it's up to you to find a spot that works best for your needs.

If there is an event, expect the lot to fill with both trucks and cars pretty rapidly. Also expect a tow truck to spend the day randomly rearranging the cars for no apparent reason other than the tow truck driver must think it's funny. (We didn't personally have our towed or mothership rearranged). Basically, get here after 5pm if there is a day event.

Make sure to give yourself a bit of 'breathing room' when you park. After having a Tour Bus park stupidly close to us on the driver's side (we were worried our generator/water heating element exhausts might sully him!) and then taking out another RV's mirror when he pulled out to leave (he parked between us and the other RV - it was weird) and us having to emergency style back our rig up so he didn't also take out our nose, we decided to park our towed to the side of our rig rather than in a car parking space. Basically, protect your rig - no one else here will care to. We also watched an RV towing a small trailer get stuck trying to get out of the lot one morning and back into a pick-up truck. Ugh. It's one giant insurance claim waiting to happen.

But, the location of this place can't be beat. It's worth the noise and hub-bub if you're looking for easy access into the city.

We decided to park at the McCormick Place Lot B for our Chicago stay. We made our on-line reservations and followed everyone’s advice for getting into the lot…no problem! It’s very easy to get to and parked. However, the problem came at the entrance station when the gate attendant called his boss and charged us an extra $23 per day. Evidently, you are required to pay separately for your RV and your tow vehicle – therefore instead of the $35 per day we already paid with our reservation, we ended up paying an additional $23 per day at the gate. That is a grand total of $58 per day to boondock in parking lot between an expressway and a busy set of railroad tracks.

Groggy and dazed from our drive into the city and not wanting to forfeit the $35 per day we already paid, I proffered my credit card to pay the difference. Once we got parked in our assigned spot and I had time to think through the gate interaction, I started to get angry. After talking to some other RVers in the lot (Class A motorhomes with toads who paid only the $35), I was pretty hot and decided to make a phone call and ask some questions. After getting the run-around from the guy on the phone, I went to the office to talk to the manager.

Interrupting five employees from sitting on their butts and thumbing their cell phones, I stated my case and wanted to know if there was a mistake? No, there was not a mistake. Evidently, the policy is that a tow vehicle and trailer are counted as two separate vehicles and therefore require two charges. I mentioned that everyone we’ve ever talked to have only paid one fee for an RV (regardless of tow vehicle or toad). They responded that there must have been a mistake by the cashier at the gate. Some more back-and-forth with the Head Clown and I eventually gave up and I walked out unsatisfied and angry. We planned on adding days to the back-end of our reservation, but won’t now…we’ll move to a county park a little further out and except the commute.

Everyone else has already discussed the positives of this location and they are all true. We had no problem finding a level spot to park and it is an easy walk to the Metra Station at McCormick Place. Although, while this is a wonderfully convenient place to stay during your visit to Chicago (two Metra stops to the Museum Campus stop and three to Millennium Park), I’m not sure the $58 per night cost is worth it. May be we were just super-unlucky. Maybe they changed their policy the day we arrived. Maybe we just got ripped off…but this was our experience.

Bottom line: If you get the right cashier at the gate and they only charge the $35, then it’s a great place to stay when visiting Chicago--I would have given it 4-stars. But, if you don’t get lucky and get the guys we had, then I’m not sure $58 per night is worth the convenience...

You do not need reservations, but you can make them. They welcome us and was very nice. They route you to Interstate 55 from all interstate to Lake shore drive South which is a truck route.

Signs for the truck marshalling yard is right after you get on Lake Shore Drive South. Take the 31 Street exit then take the first right on Moe Road. Turn left at the truck marshalling yard sign which is at the stop sign. This place has a lot to offer for downtown activities. I would recommend bicycles for the easy to get around. I will make this my place when I camp downtown Chicago. Site quality a 3 because it's a parking lot. Nosie a 3 because it's downtown. None of this impacted our trip.

This is the truck marshalling lot for McCormick Place and is purely a parking lot. But it is so convenient to everything in downtown Chicago that it's worth the fee. The L train is on one side and Lake Shore Drive on the other, so it's not super quiet, but I wouldn't expect the middle of a city to be quiet.

We didn't make reservations although I did call to make sure there were no events happening. I also asked about the best way to come in from Indiana and they suggested 90/94 to 55 east to 41 south. You see the lot on the right as you get in 41. You take the first exit that curves you back into Moe Road and the lot will be on your left.

The first lot is the most level, but it also has a lot of dropped trailers. There is a sign before the next lot that says no overnights, but we asked at the front and they said it was fine to go back. This area seems to be more popular with RVs and your busses. You can really spread out. The pavement is very wavy in these back lots, but we leveled without too much trouble.

A Speedtest of Verizon showed up and down both in the mid twenties. Our AT&T worked well, too.

This is a giant parking lot for trucks between a highway and train track...that said it worked out great for us. Booking can be done online (https://www.truticket.com/buseventparking1.aspx) or call (312) 808-3161

There were other campers (particularly on weekends, when there is also less truck traffic). There is a bathroom in the driver lounge which we used and vending.

We biked from lot all over Chicago using the Lakefront Trail, which is a real treasure!! We also picked up an Uber ride right on street out front. Overall a good experience but definitely not a place you'd want to spend time, except to sleep.

The 18th street lot is on the north side near Soldier Field and is the least used location for overnight parking. It’s nice because you’re all alone, but for some that may be too scary. We didn’t feel like we were in danger but I will say it was odd being the only one there in the middle of such a large city.

The 31st street lot (also known as “lot B”) is on the south end of the Convention Center closer to the 31st Street Harbor. This is where the main office is and I’d say it’s a less desirable location for sleeping as there is consistent buzzing of trucks, trains and cars passing by. The good part about this lot is the security office is right there so it might help set those who worry at ease to know that people are there in the office 24/7.

This is dry camping, or boondocking if you prefer, so there is no electricity, no sewer and no fresh water. In fact the nearest dump station we found was a Travel Center about 35 miles away. We survived for 10 days no problem with our RV Solar Setup in the Excursion and we used approximately 80 gallons of freshwater (thanks to all of our Wild Camping Gadgets and Gear). There is a “driver center” at the 31st street lot so you can probably fill up jugs of water but I’d call and confirm before you assume anything.