okay so here's the thing about being a digital nomad - you end up in weird places sometimes. like, really weird places. i was supposed to be in chicago proper but my hostel booking got messed up and suddenly i found myself in wheaton, illinois with a working visa for a co-working space and absolutely no idea what i was doing. the weather data said it was gonna be around 7 degrees celsius and honestly? that felt generous because when i stepped outside it hit different. literally. my fingers went numb within minutes and i regretted every life choice that led me to not packing gloves.

Quick Answers

q: is this place worth visiting?
a: if you're into quiet suburban life with decent coffee shops and don't mind driving 45 minutes to actually see anything exciting, sure. it's fine. not life-changing but not terrible either.

q: is it expensive?
a: cheaper than downtown chicago by a lot. you can get a solid meal for under 15 bucks most places. rent is way more reasonable too if you're thinking about staying longer.

q: who would hate it here?
a: anyone who needs nightlife or wants to walk everywhere. this is very much a car-dependent experience and the most exciting thing happening after 9pm is probably someone getting taco bell.

q: best time to visit?
a: summer, no question. the winters here are brutal and i say that as someone who's lived in colder places. at least in minnesota there's snow activities. here it's just grey and sad.

q: is it safe?
a: yeah, pretty safe actually. very suburban, very quiet. i felt fine walking around at night which is more than i can say for some places i've stayed.

---

so the weather. let me tell you about the weather. it was 7.45 degrees celsius but felt like 7.45 which basically means it was exactly as cold as it looked. the humidity was at 67% which made it feel worse than it actually was - that damp cold that gets into your bones and just stays there. the pressure was sitting at 1017 which apparently means clear skies but honestly it looked overcast to me. maybe i'm just bad at reading weather data. someone told me that pressure systems work differently here because of lake michigan proximity and honestly i stopped listening after "lake effect" because i was too busy trying to find a coffee shop that had actual wifi, not just "we have wifi" which always means terrible password-protected internet that kicks you off every fifteen minutes.

i found this place called bennett's which was fine. not amazing, not terrible. the coffee was decent, the muffins were maybe a day old but that's fine, and they didn't look at me weird when i set up my laptop and stayed for three hours. that's really all i need as a digital nomad honestly. good coffee, working wifi, and an outlet that doesn't make me sit on the floor next to a trash can. bennett's hit two out of three so i kept coming back.

local tip: most coffee shops in the wheaton/naperville area are pretty nomad-friendly but call ahead if you need to guarantee a seat. the good ones fill up by 10am on weekends.

the town itself is... fine. there's a downtown area with some cute shops. i found a vintage record store that had some actually good stuff - not the usual overpriced garbage you find in tourist areas. the guy working there was super helpful and didn't make that weird face that record store employees sometimes make when you don't know about their obscure bands. i bought a pressings of some 70s soul album for eight bucks which felt like a win.

one thing that surprised me - there's actually a pretty solid food scene here? i wasn't expecting much but i had this incredible taco place called los burritos that someone recommended on a local reddit thread. the carnitas were incredible and the horchata actually tasted like horchata and not just sweet milk. i know that's a low bar but you'd be surprised how many places fail at horchata. i left a review on yelp about it because i feel like people need to know.

the co-working space i used was called workspace 331 and it was actually really nice. fast internet, comfortable seating, not too expensive. i got a day pass for 25 bucks which is cheaper than what they'd charge in the city. the vibe was pretty chill - some people doing actual work, some people just pretending to work while watching netflix, the usual. i managed to get three articles written and a podcast edited which was more productive than i'd been in weeks. sometimes you just need a change of scenery to get stuff done.

i did take a train into chicago one day because i was going insane from the quiet. the metra ride was about an hour and cost like 10 bucks which is honestly a great deal. i spent the day in logan square eating at a restaurant that someone on a travel forum had recommended, wandered around some record shops (because i have a problem), and got dinner at this incredible thai place that i found through a tripadvisor list. the contrast was pretty stark - chicago is loud and chaotic and overwhelming in the best way, and wheaton is... not that. but there's something to be said for having a quiet base to come back to.

the temperature that day in chicago was probably similar but it felt different because i was moving more. walking around downtown versus sitting in a coffee shop in the suburbs - the cold hits different when you're standing still. i kept checking the weather app on my phone and it kept saying feels like 7 degrees which was accurate but also useless information because i couldn't do anything about it except suffer.

a bunch of flowers that are in the grass

here's the thing nobody talks about with digital nomad life - sometimes you end up in places that aren't cool or trendy or instagram-worthy and that's okay. wheaton, illinois is not gonna be on any list of top destinations. nobody is making TikToks about their life-changing trip to the chicago suburbs. but i got work done, i ate good food, i found some good records, and i didn't spend a fortune. sometimes that's enough.

i met this other digital nomad at the coffee shop on my third day - she was from brazil and had been working remotely for a tech company for two years. she told me she preferred the suburbs because the cost of living was lower and she could actually save money. she had a whole system - she would work in the suburbs during the week and take the train into the city on weekends to get her "culture fix" as she called it. i thought that was pretty smart honestly. not everyone needs to be in the most expensive neighborhood to be productive.

honest take: the suburbs aren't glamorous but they're practical. if you're remote working and need to stretch your budget, the chicago suburbs are a solid choice.

the pressure was pretty stable while i was there - someone who knows more about meteorology than i do could tell you what that means but i think it just means no big weather changes coming. the humidity stayed around 67% which made everything feel slightly damp constantly. my jacket never really dried out completely. i started to smell like coffee and damp jacket which is not a great scent profile but you do what you have to do.

i did some research about the area because that's the nerd i am. apparently wheaton has this whole history related to the chicago theological seminary and there's some architecture that's supposed to be significant. a history nerd i met at a bar tried to explain it to me but i was three beers in at that point so most of it went over my head. basically there are some old buildings and some famous people used to live here. you can do a walking tour if you're into that kind of thing. i am not into that kind of thing but i respect that other people are.

would i come back? maybe. i think it would be a good base if i needed to be in chicago for a while but wanted to save money. the train access makes it totally viable. the coffee shop situation is good enough. the food options exceeded my expectations. the weather in winter is not great but that's true of everywhere in the midwest.

if you're thinking about visiting the chicago suburbs as a digital nomad, here's what i'd say: it's not exciting but it's functional. the cost savings are real, the internet is reliable, and you can always head into the city when you need to feel like a real person again. just bring warm clothes. seriously. i cannot stress this enough. the 7 degrees celsius sounds mild but with that humidity and the wind off the lake? it's brutal. i had to buy a hat from a gas station because i forgot mine and i refuse to be the person who complains about being cold when they chose to not pack properly.

final thoughts: wheaton, illinois - it's fine. it's fine! that's the most accurate thing i can say about it. not every place has to be amazing. sometimes fine is enough.

---

links i found useful:
- tripadvisor has some good restaurant lists for the area
- the reddit thread r/chicagosuburbs had actual local recommendations that were better than tourist stuff
- yelp reviews for coffee shops were pretty accurate
- the metra schedule website is actually functional which surprised me
- bennett's coffee has a website with their menu if you want to check it before going
- workspace 331 has day passes if you need a proper office setup

Cold Fingers, Warm Coffee: A Digital Nomad's Accidental Weekend in the Chicago Suburbs

Quick Answers

You might also be interested in:

About the author: Topiclo Admin

Comments (0)

Join the conversation

Comments (0)

Join the conversation