St. Charles and its twin neighbor, Geneva, are wonderful river towns well worth checking out, with no shortage of good dining options. However, depending on the location of your hotel, you may not be able to see/do much even locally without a car or frequent cab rides.

Even getting to the Metra station in Geneva is going to require a round-trip cab fare, unless your hotel offers a shuttle. Not to mention that cab/shuttle fare from ORD to St. Charles is going to be hefty. So you may be better off just renting a car...but even so it still might be better to take the train into Chicago...it's cheap and they run frequently. (Don't bother with PACE, the suburban bus system...it's confusing and infrequent...not really designed for visitors)