Birthplace of the skyscraper, suburbia, and modern air travel, sprawling lakeside Chicago is the most quintessentially American city, combining the best of the nation’s most innovative and playful traditions. From its world-class collection of museums, parks, beaches, and gardens to its internationally renowned theatres, sporting venues, restaurants, and clubs, “Paris on the Prairie” boasts some of the country’s most venerated institutions as well as several of its favorite teams, the Bears, the Blackhawks, the Bulls, the Cubs and the White Sox.
The city’s central Loop district, which is circled by the rattling “El” (or “elevated train”) that gives the downtown its name, is packed with some of the finest modern and post-modern architecture on the planet, including the Sears Tower, the tallest building in America. Cruises along the Chicago River point out architectural highlights of the city in season.
One of the city’s newest treasures is Millennium Park, with its video sculpture fountains and Anish Kapoor’s well-polished Cloud Gate sculpture, known affectionately as “The Bean.” Nearby, views from the city’s lakeside Museum Campus offer breathtaking glimpses of the glittering skyline and massive Lake Michigan. Here, next to the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum, the first planetarium in the Western Hemisphere, and the John G. Shedd Aquarium, the largest indoor aquarium in the world, the Field Museum of Natural History is home to Sue, the largest, most complete and best-preserved Tyrannosaurus Rex ever discovered. Further south, the Museum of Science and Industry traces the history of aviation and rail transportation, and is home to the U-505, an actual German submarine captured in World War II.
Art lovers will enjoy the city’s prestigious Art Institute, home to the largest collection of impressionist paintings outside Paris, as well as the Museum of Contemporary Art, one of the largest collections of its kind in the world. There are no shortage of galleries and shops in town, with a large concentration along Michigan Avenue, a splendid commercial boulevard to rival New York’s Fifth Avenue, known by locals as The Magnificent Mile.
United has operated at Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) since 1955. Currently, United offers more than 600 daily departures from O’Hare, making it the airlines’ largest hub. Book your next flight to or from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport on united.com and find out how to earn bonus miles when you stay at any Mileage Plus partner hotel or dine at any Mileage Plus partner restaurant in the city. For vacation packages to Chicago including air and accommodation, visit United Vacations.
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