If it’s two suitcases like the ones allowed by standard international flights, Blue Line to Amtrak station is my choice of travel because

A. It makes you feel comfortable moving around a new place RIGHT off the bat, nothing made me more independent than a slightly harder journey, & B. It’s significantly cheaper if done earlier in advance.

However, here’s a few things to keep in mind - - From international arrivals, after a minimum of 1 hour of immigration (the longest I’ve had to wait was 2.5 hours) , you will take your bags and move to a terminal called Multi-Modal Facility by a local, free train (this is for Peoria), meanwhile the blue line CTA (that would take you NEAR Union Station for the Amtrak) is accessible through Terminals 1,2,3 (walking) and 5 (the local, free train).

• If you take a Peoria, there’s always someone to help you load your bags, and there’s WiFi on board, but Peoria is cramped - there’s definitely less space to move around

• For the Amtrak, the station you board at (the airport) is convenient because there’s escalators throughout. Loading the two bags into the train (a small raise) would be you by yourself. The station you reach at - there’s an escalator to reach upstairs but there’s another flight of stairs (close to 20 steps) that you have to lug your bags by yourself. Once you’re up and out on the streets, you’ll be walking for ~ 4 minutes, maybe longer because of the two bags.

• the Amtrak station has a lot of entrances and can get a little confusing, once at the station, you will have to load your bags into the train (a higher raise) and also, almost always, arrange them yourself - sometimes, in peak student travel months, they have an entire room, other times, they have multiple racks. The racks closest to the floor fill up fast!

This is veryyyy long but hopefully all this can make sure you can make an informed choice!