Thai Airways International Flights from Tokyo, Japan (NRT) to Chicago (ORD)
As part of booking roundtrip flights which depart from US airports,
Orbitz is pleased to offer airline tickets on Thai Airways International, which operates 2 regularly scheduled daily non-stop flights from Tokyo, Japan (NRT) to Chicago (ORD), departing between 11:10am and 5:55pm. Usually a Boeing 777 is flown for this route. The average travel time from Tokyo, Japan to Chicago, IL is 11 hours and 28 minutes.*
* Some flights must connect with additional service on this airline.
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.
Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio
For the first 20 years of Wright's career, this remarkable complex served first and foremost as the sanctuary from which Wright was to design and execute more than 130 of an extraordinary output of 430 completed buildings. The home began as a simple shingled cottage that Wright built for his bride in 1889 at the age of 22, but it became a work in progress, as Wright remodeled it constantly until 1911 (he left there in 1909). During this highly fertile period, the house was Wright's showcase and laboratory, but it also embraces many idiosyncratic features molded to his own needs rather than those of a client. With many add-ons -- including a barrel-vaulted children's playroom and a studio with an octagonal balcony suspended by chains -- the place has a certain whimsy that others might have found less livable. This, however, was not an architect's masterpiece, but the master's home, and every room in it can be savored for the view it reflects of the workings of a remarkable mind. The Home and Studio Foundation has restored the residence and studio to its 1909 vintage. Allow 1 hour for the tour, more time if you want to browse in the bookshop.
Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum
Built into the rise of an ancient sand dune -- once the shoreline of Lake Michigan -- Chicago's newest museum bills itself as "an environmental museum for the 21st century." While that might sound fairly dull, most of the exhibits here are very hands-on, making this a good stop for active kids. Shaded by huge cottonwoods and maples, the sand-colored exterior with its horizontal lines composed of interlocking trapezoids itself resembles a sand dune. Rooftop-level walkways give strollers a view of birds and other urban wildlife below. Paths wind through gardens planted with native Midwestern wildflowers and grasses, and trace the shore of the newly restored North Pond.Inside, large windows create a dialogue between the outdoor environment and the indoor exhibits designed to illuminate it. Don't miss the Butterfly Haven, a greenhouse habitat where about 25 Midwestern species of butterflies and moths carry on their complex life cycles (wander through as a riot of color flutters all around you). Another top exhibit is City Science, a 3,000-square-foot, two-story "house" with functional rooms where visitors can view the pipes and ducts that connect our homes with power sources miles away. Water Lab is a model river system demonstrating the uses and abuses that a waterway undergoes as it meanders from rural to urban environments. It's probably safe to say that the Children's Gallery is the only place in town where kids can clamber in and out of a model ground-squirrel town or explore a beaver lodge from the inside.The sunny Butterfly Cafe offers fresh, healthy meals cafeteria-style. In summer, get there early to enjoy coffee and a muffin -- and the lovely surroundings -- with joggers and other locals.Allow 1 hour.
Red Roof Inn
This is your best bet for the lowest-priced lodgings in downtown Chicago. The location is the main selling point: right off the Magnificent Mile (and within blocks of the Ritz-Carlton and Peninsula, where rooms will cost you at least three times as much). The guest rooms are stark and small (much like the off-the-highway Red Roof Inns), but all have new linens and carpeting. Ask for a room facing Ontario Street, where at least you'll get western exposure and some natural light (rooms in other parts of the hotel look right into neighboring office buildings). The bathrooms are tiny but newly renovated and spotless. You're not going to find much in the way of style or amenities here -- but then you don't stay at a place like this to hang out in the lobby (where, by the way, free coffee is available every morning).
Le Méridien
Tucked into the Westfield North Bridge mall, Le Méridien is a fairly recent addition to the competitive high-end Chicago hotel market, and it seems that the general public has yet to discover it. Le Méridien touts its design philosophy as "European with a French accent," which, in this case, means marble floors, vaguely 18th-century-inspired furniture, and some whimsical artwork (a large painting of a Napoleonic figure with the head of a dog hangs in the lobby). A terrace offers outdoor seating, and a casual bistro is hidden away in the back of the lobby (depending on your perspective, it's either pleasantly secluded or isolated). Rooms are a bit small (especially the least expensive ones on the north side), but the amenities are top of the line: The safes come with chargers for cellphones and laptop computers, and the in-room phones are cordless. High rollers will want to book one of the suites overlooking Michigan Avenue; a few even come with private terraces, something few hotels in this city offer. Le Méridien can't compete with the Park Hyatt or the Peninsula in the glamour department, but its cozy style should appeal to travelers looking for some place a little more personal. It also makes a good base for anyone visiting during frigid winter weather; with a whole mall just a few steps away, you can get out without even putting on your coat.
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.
