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American Airlines Flights from Richmond (RIC) to Chicago (ORD)
Orbitz is pleased to offer airline tickets on American Airlines, which operates 3 regularly scheduled daily non-stop flights from Richmond (RIC) to Chicago (ORD), departing between 6:05am and 5:35pm, and one additional non-stop flight regularly scheduled to depart at 10:40am and arrive at 11:50am, everyday except Saturday. Usually an Embraer RJ145 Amazon or Embraer RJ140 is flown for this route. The average travel time from Richmond, VA to Chicago, IL is 2 hours and 18 minutes.
During your Chicago vacation, don't miss these great establishments and attractions:
Lincoln Park Conservatory
Just beyond the zoo's northeast border is a lovely botanical garden housed in a soaring glass-domed structure. Inside are four great halls filled with thousands of plants. If you're visiting Chicago in the wintertime, I can't think of a better prescription for mood elevation than the conservatory's lush haven of greenery. The Palm House features giant palms and rubber trees (including a 50-ft. fiddle-leaf rubber tree dating from 1891), the Fernery nurtures plants that grow close to the forest floor, and the Tropical House is a shiny symphony of flowering trees, vines, and bamboo. The fourth environment is the Show House, where seasonal flower shows are held.Even better than the plants inside, however, might be what lies outside the front doors. The expansive lawn with its French garden and lovely fountain on the conservatory's south side is one of the best places in town for an informal picnic (especially nice if you're visiting the zoo and want to avoid the congestion at its food concession venues).The Lincoln Park Conservatory has a sister facility on the city's West Side, in Garfield Park, that is much more remarkable. In fact, the 2-acre Garfield Park Conservatory, 300 N. Central Park Ave. (tel. 312/746-5100), designed by the great landscape architect Jens Jensen in 1907, is one of the largest gardens under glass in the world. It's open 365 days a year from 9am to 5pm. Unfortunately, a rather blighted neighborhood with a high crime rate surrounds the conservatory. If you want to see it, I recommend driving rather than public transportation.Allow a half-hour for the Lincoln Park Conservatory.
Oriental Institute Museum
Near the midpoint of the campus, a few blocks from Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, is the Oriental Institute, housing one of the world's major collections of Near Eastern art. Although most of the galleries have been renovated within the last few years, this is still a very traditional museum: lots of glass cases, very few interactive exhibits (in other words, there's not much to interest young children). It won't take you long to see the highlights here -- but a few impressive pieces make it worth a stop for history and art buffs.Your first stop should be the Egyptian Gallery, which showcases the finest objects among the 35,000 artifacts from the Nile Valley held by the museum. At the center stands a monumental 17-foot solid-quartzite statue of King Tutankhamen, the boy king who ruled Egypt from about 1335 to 1324 B.C. The largest Egyptian sculpture in the Western Hemisphere (tipping the scales at 6 tons), the Oriental Institute excavated it in 1930. The surrounding exhibits, which document the life and beliefs of Egyptians from 5000 B.C. to the 8th century A.D., have a wonderfully accessible approach that emphasizes themes, not chronology. Among them are: mummification (there are 14 mummies on display -- five people and nine animals, including hawks, an ibis, a shrew, and a baby crocodile), kingship, society, and writing (including a deed for the sale of a house, a copy of the Book of the Dead, and a schoolboy's homework).The Oriental Institute also houses important collections of artifacts from civilizations that once flourished in what are now Iran and Iraq. The highlight of the Mesopotamium Gallery is a massive, 16-foot-tall sculpture of a winged bull with a human head, which once stood in the palace of Assyrian king Sargon II. The gallery also contains some of the earliest man-made tools ever excavated, along with many other pieces that have become one-of-a-kind since the destruction and looting of the National Museum in Baghdad in 2003. The Persian Gallery displays approximately 1,000 objects dating from the Archaic Susiana Period (ca. 6800 B.C.) to the Islamic Period (ca. A.D. 1000). Other galleries are filled with artifacts from Sumer, ancient Palestine, Israel, Anatolia, and Nubia.The small but eclectic gift shop, called the Suq, stocks many one-of-a-kind items, including reproductions of pieces in the museum's collection. Allow 1 hour.
Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum
Chicago's vibrant Pilsen neighborhood, just southwest of the Loop, is home to one of the nation's largest Mexican-American communities. Ethnic pride emanates from every doorstep, taqueria, and bakery, and the multitude of colorful murals splashed across building exteriors and alleyways. But this building, the largest Latino cultural institution in the country, may be the neighborhood's most prized possession. That's quite an accomplishment, given that the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum was founded in 1987 by a passel of public schoolteachers who pooled $900 to get it started.This is truly a living museum. There are wonderful exhibits to be sure, showcasing Mexican and Mexican-American visual and performing artists, and often drawing on the museum's permanent collection of more than 2,400 works. But it's the visiting artists, festival programming, and community participation that make the museum really shine. Its Day of the Dead celebration, which runs for about 8 weeks beginning in September, is one of the most ambitious in the country. The Del Corazon Mexican Performing Arts Festival, held in the spring, features programs by local and international artists here and around town. And the Sor Juana Festival, presented in the fall, honors Mexican writer and pioneering feminist Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz with photography and painting exhibits, music and theater performances, and poetry readings by Latino women.The museum is very family oriented, offering a deluge of educational workshops for kids and parents. It also has a splendid gift shop, and it stages a holiday market, featuring items from Mexico, on the first weekend in December. Allow 1 hour.
Make your reservations for discount hotel rooms in the
Chicago area, including:
Hyatt Regency McCormick Place
The Hyatt Regency rises 33 stories from Chicago's ever-sprawling convention center. While the hotel is often solidly booked during trade shows and meetings, it has plenty of rooms to spare during winter and late summer, so vacationers might find bargains if they're willing to sacrifice the convenience of staying downtown. Although the hotel is only minutes from the Museum Campus, the lakefront, and the Loop, getting around is a little tricky without a car or a cab, although the hotel does offer a complimentary shuttle to downtown shopping areas, the main museums, and Navy Pier. The average-size rooms are freshened up with upbeat, contemporary furnishings. Bathrooms are smallish, with the sink and vanity outside the bathroom. Business-plan rooms ($20 extra) include a workstation with a fax/copier/printer machine and complimentary continental breakfast. Most north-facing rooms feature scenic views of the city skyline and lakefront.
Palmer House Hilton
Chicago's oldest hotel, the namesake of legendary State Street merchant prince Potter Palmer, is decidedly from another era -- and the massive complex feels somewhat lost in time. The elegance of the grand lobby isn't matched in the rooms (decorated in an anonymous midlevel hotel style) or the clientele (which tends heavily toward conventioneers). And don't expect grand views of surrounding skyscrapers, because most rooms look out into offices across the street. All the rooms are in the process of being renovated, but upgrades at the palatial Palmer House take place, understandably, on a staggered basis; be sure to ask for a refurbished room when making reservations. Bathrooms are on the smallish size (some rooms come with two bathrooms, a plus for families). Kids might appreciate the sheer size of the place, with plenty of room to wander, and the location is good for access to the Museum Campus, but the Palmer House's days as one of Chicago's top hotels are gone.Facilities: 4 restaurants (including the legendary but dated Trader Vic's, a Cajun restaurant, and 2 American bar and grills); 2 lounges; indoor pool; health club; Jacuzzi; sauna; children's programs; concierge; business center; shopping arcade; room service until 2am; babysitting referrals; laundry service; overnight dry cleaning; executive rooms.
Millennium Knickerbocker Hotel
Another historic hotel that has undergone a major face-lift, the Knickerbocker looks spiffy from the lobby but still retains a shabby-chic feel on the guest floors. The epitome of Jazz Age indulgence when built in 1927, the hotel was rumored to have shady underworld connections during the Capone era. In the 1970s, Hugh Hefner turned it into the gaudy Playboy Towers and invited the leisure-suit set to a perpetual disco inferno on the hotel's famed illuminated ballroom floor. By the time the 1980s rolled around, the Knickerbocker had been through the ringer.But thanks to a $20-million renovation, the Knickerbocker once more exudes vintage charm. It has a superb location, a block from Oak Street Beach and across the street from The Drake. While the rooms aren't especially spacious, they are warm and comfortable (with new, comfy beds). Bathrooms are small but nicely done. One caveat: Views are often rather dismal, but you can catch a glimpse of the lake in all rooms ending in 18, and corner rooms (ending in 17, 28, or 35) look onto Michigan Avenue. Club-level guests are served complimentary breakfast, coffee, and munchies in a second-floor lounge.
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