Travel
Madison is located in south-central Wisconsin. It is about an hour drive to the Illinois border (near Rockford), about 2.5 hours to Chicago and O'Hare airport, and about 1.5 hours to Milwaukee, Wisconsin's largest city.
Travel by plane:
Madison has a very nice, regional airport known as Dane County Regional Airport. The airport code is MSN. It compares roughly in size and accessibility to Santa Ana/John Wayne/Orange County airport. Direct flights to Madison are commonly from St. Louis, Dallas and Cincinnati on American Airlines and from Chicago and Minneapolis on United Airlines. If a traveler is willing to endure a longer trip and see the countryside it is sometimes possible to save a bit of money by terminating a flight in Milwaukee (General Mitchell Airport - airport code MKE) and renting a car or by terminating in Chicago (O'Hare Airport - airport code ORD) and taking a shuttle bus to Madison. (Van Galder Bus Company).
Travel by car:
Interstate 90 passes by the east side of Madison. It intersects with highway 12, 18 commonly known as the Beltline. See some travel times and a map above.
Travel by Train:
Amtrak's cross-country train from Chicago to Seattle (the Empire Builder) has a stop in Columbus, WI, about 40 minutes from Madison on highway 151.
