American Airlines Flights from Cancun, Mexico (CUN) to Chicago (ORD)
As part of booking roundtrip flights which depart from US airports,
Orbitz is pleased to offer airline tickets on American Airlines, which operates a daily non-stop flight from Cancun, Mexico (CUN) to Chicago (ORD) regularly scheduled to depart at 1:40pm and arrive at 5:25pm. Usually a Boeing 757 is flown for this route, with in-seat power sources available. Generally, a movie is offered on this route, as well as audio programming. The average travel time from Cancun, Mexico to Chicago, IL is 3 hours and 45 minutes.
During your Chicago vacation, don't miss these great establishments and attractions:
The Spirit of Chicago
This luxury yacht offers a variety of wining-and-dining harbor cruises, from a lunch buffet to the "Moonlight Dance Party." This can be a fairly pricey night out if you go for the whole dinner package; the late-night moonlight cruises are a more affordable option for insomniacs.
Newberry Library
The Newberry Library is a bibliophile's dream. Established in 1887 at the bequest of the Chicago merchant and financier Walter Loomis Newberry, the noncirculating research library today contains many rare books and manuscripts (such as Shakespeare's first folio and Jefferson's copy of The Federalist Papers), housed in a comely five-story granite building. The library is also a major destination for genealogists digging at their roots, with holdings that are open free to the public (over the age of 16 with a photo ID). The collections include more than 1.5 million volumes and 75,000 maps, many of which are displayed during an ongoing series of public exhibitions. For an overview, take a free 1-hour tour Thursday at 3pm or Saturday at 10:30am. The Newberry also sponsors a series of concerts (including those by its resident early-music ensemble, the Newberry Consort), lectures, and children's story hours throughout the year, and operates a fine bookstore. One popular annual event is the Bughouse Square debates. Held across the street in Washington Square Park, the debates re-create the fiery soapbox orations of the left-wing agitators in the 1930s and 1940s. Chicago's favorite son Studs Terkel, the Pulitzer Prize-winning oral historian, often emcees the hullabaloo. Allow a half-hour.
Art Institute of Chicago
You can't (and shouldn't) miss the Art Institute: The signature pair of bronze lions that flank the museum's main entrance are perfect rendezvous points, and there is always a throng of people sitting on the steps on nice days. Finding the museum is easy -- it's deciding what to see that is hard. Choose a medium and a century and the Art Institute has the works in its collection to captivate you: Japanese ukiyo-e prints, ancient Egyptian bronzes and Greek vases, 19th-century British photography, masterpieces by most of the greatest names in 20th-century sculpture, or modern American textiles. For a good general overview of the museum's collection, take the free "Highlights of the Art Institute" tour, offered at 2pm on Saturdays, Sundays, and Tuesdays.If you've got limited time, you'll want to head straight to the museum's renowned collection of Impressionist art (including one of the world's largest collections of Monet paintings); this is one of the most popular areas of the museum, so arriving early pays off. Among the treasures, you'll find Seurat's pointillist masterpiece Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Your second must-see areas are the galleries of European and American contemporary art, ranging from paintings, sculptures, and mixed-media works from Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Salvador Dalí through Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Andy Warhol. Visitors are sometimes surprised when they discover many of the icons that hang here. (Grant Wood's American Gothic and Edward Hopper's Nighthawks are two that bring double takes from many visitors.)Other recommended exhibits are the collection of delicate mid-19th-century glass paperweights in the museum's famous Arthur Rubloff collection and the great hall of European arms and armor dating from the 15th to 19th centuries. Composed of more than 1,500 objects, including armor, horse equipment, swords and daggers, polearms, and maces, the collection is one of the most important assemblages of its kind in the country. (If you do head down here, don't miss Marc Chagall's stunning stained-glass windows at the end of the gallery.)The Art Institute goes the extra mile to entertain kids. The Kraft Education Center on the lower level features interactive exhibits for children and has a list of "gallery games" to make visiting the museum more fun. When I was a kid, I was entranced by the Thorne Miniature Rooms, filled with tiny reproductions of furnished interiors from European and American history (heaven for a dollhouse fanatic).The museum also has a cafeteria and an elegant full-service restaurant, a picturesque courtyard cafe (open June-Sept), and a large shop. There is a busy schedule of lectures, films, and other special presentations, as well as guided tours, to enhance your viewing of the art. The museum also has a research library. Allow 3 hours.If you want to enjoy your favorite masterpieces in something resembling peace and quiet, put some thought into the timing of your visit to the Art Institute, a museum so popular that it draws as much traffic as our jammed expressways.Some tips for avoiding the rush hour: Many people don't realize the museum is open on Mondays; so keep this secret to yourself, and visit when the galleries are relatively subdued. Wednesdays are a close second. Tuesdays tend to draw the masses because the Art Institute is free that day and open late (until 8pm). Try to arrive when the doors open in the morning or else during the lunchtime lull. Another tip: If the Michigan Avenue entrance is crowded, head around to the entrance on the Columbus Drive side, which is usually less congested and is more convenient to the Grant Park underground parking garage. There's a small gift shop near the Columbus Drive entrance, too, if the main shop is too bustling.
City Suites Hotel
A few doors down from the elevated-train stop on Belmont Avenue, this former transient dive has been transformed into a charming small hotel. Most rooms are suites, with separate sitting rooms and bedrooms, all furnished with first-rate pieces and decorated in a homey and comfortable style. The amenities are excellent for a hotel in this price range, including local limousine service, plush robes, and complimentary continental breakfast. A bonus -- or drawback, depending on your point of view -- is the hotel's neighborhood setting. Most rooms can be fairly noisy; those facing north overlook Belmont Avenue, where the nightlife continues into the early morning hours, and those facing west look right out over the rumbling El tracks. On your way in and out of the hotel you'll mingle with plenty of locals, everybody from young professional families to gay couples to punks in full regalia. Blues bars, nightclubs, and restaurants abound hereabouts, making the City Suites a find for the bargain-minded and adventuresome. Suites have fridges and microwaves on request. Room service is available from Ann Sather, a Swedish diner and neighborhood institution.
W Chicago City Center
One of two Chicago properties in the hip W hotel chain (the other is the W Chicago Lakeshore), this is an oasis of cool in the button-down Loop. Unfortunately, the rooms tend toward the small and dark (most look out into a central courtyard). The W color scheme -- dark purple and gray -- doesn't do much to brighten the spaces; don't stay here if you crave lots of natural light. All W properties pride themselves on their "whatever, whenever" service: whatever you want, whenever you want it (the modern version of a 24-hr. on-call concierge). The bar, designed by nightlife wunderkind Rande Gerber (Mr. Cindy Crawford), gives hotel guests a stylish spot to sit and pose amid dance music and cocktail waitresses who look like models. Given its location, this W is foremost a business hotel -- although one that's definitely geared toward younger workers rather than crusty old executives.
Windy City Urban Inn
This grand 1886 home is located on a tranquil side street just blocks from busy Clark Street and Lincoln Avenue -- both chock-full of shops, restaurants, and bars. While the inn is charming enough, the true selling point is hosts Andy and Mary Shaw. He's a well-known local television reporter, while she has 20 years of experience in the Chicago bed-and-breakfast business. Together, they are excellent resources for anyone who wants to get beyond the usual tourist sites. Plus, their subtle touches give guests a distinctive, Chicago experience: Blues and jazz play during the buffet breakfast, and local food favorites offered to guests include the famous cinnamon buns from Ann Sather's restaurant and beer from Goose Island Brewery.The more-open-than-typical remodeled Victorian home has five rooms in the main house and three apartment suites in a coach house; all are named after Chicago writers. Lovebirds should request the Nelson Algren and Simone De Beauvoir Suite, which has a large bathroom with a Jacuzzi tub and a view of the Sears Tower. Two of the coach house apartments can sleep four: two in an upstairs bedroom and two on a bed that folds up against the wall (custom-made for the Shaws, these feature top-quality mattresses, making them much more comfortable than the Murphy beds of old). In good weather, guests are invited to eat breakfast on the back porch or in the garden between the main house and the coach house.
