This post will cover the practical issues concerning the trip.
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- Flights: We flew with American Airlines from London Heathrow to Chicago O’Hare. We chose that route because there are no direct flights to Chicago from Manchester, our nearest long-haul airport. We could have chosen other routes:
- Aer Lingus have a direct flight to Chicago from Dublin and we could have taken an Aer Lingus shuttle from Manchester to Dublin first. That would even have let us enter the USA in Dublin! – there’s a US Customs & Border Protect post at Dublin airport and you are processed there. But that would have required a very early start at Manchester with a short transfer window so we opted against it;
- Or we could have flown from Manchester to New York JFK or possibly Newark Liberty International and then taken a US domestic flight to Chicago. But again there were uncertainties about the transfer time, especially as we did not know how long it would take to clear immigration – that would have to be done in New York, our port of entry in this case – or perhaps our flight from Manchester would be delayed, or perhaps we might have to get across New York to a different airport.
- So in the end we felt it was simply easier to drive to Heathrow the day before and stay at an airport hotel. In fact we booked a ‘Sleep and Park’ stay in which we had a night at the hotel and then left the car there until we returned. That turned out to be cheaper than booking a hotel and parking separately.
- For the flight from Chicago to Memphis there were many choices with several airlines, both direct and with connections. However we were strongly advised to book direct flights and that led us to Southwest Airlines out of Midway.
- Hotels: we stayed four nights at a hotel in downtown Chicago. This was made up of 3 nights at the beginning and 1 more night at the end (o/r from Memphis). These were booked in advance but with flexible bookings, and with payment on departure, not in advance. This turned out to be handy: when we booked the trip that final night was about $100 more expensive than the earlier three nights. While we were in Mississippi I noticed that the price of the final night had dropped, so I cancelled the previous booking and immediately re-booked at the lower rate.
- Eating out: As ever, US prices were a shock, especially as what you’ll actually pay will be 25% to 30% more than the price on the menu. The extra covers sales tax (generally around 10%) and a tip, which these days will be at least 15% and possibly 20%. We spent more than we had expected to, in Chicago especially.
- Getting around Chicago: We used the L a couple of times. However, we realised that other than the connections to the airports, it’s not especially useful as it doesn’t seem to go very close to some of the major tourist attractions. We had a bit of a walk from and back to the L when we visited Lincoln Park, and looking at the map it seems that several of the other major museums (the Field Museum which we didn’t get to, and the Museum of Science and Industry which we did) are nowhere near an L station. City buses go to both but we hadn’t researched them. In the event we used Uber to get to the Museum of Science and Industry which was easy but not cheap. The L was very easy to use, however, and certainly saved us a lot of money with the trips to and from Midway airport, and the final trip to O’Hare. It didn’t seem very busy, however – certainly nowhere near as busy as the London Underground.
- An extra night on return to London: Our return flight from O’Hare was overnight, landing at Heathrow at just after 10am. We had decided that we would be too tired to safely drive back to Sheffield after that so we had booked an additional night in a hotel near to Heathrow (no driving required). In the event we were unable to check in until 2:30pm which, given that we had arrived at the hotel before midday, meant that we were just sitting around for over two hours. We were indeed very tired, too tired to do anything that afternoon, so we just sat in the hotel and our room, trying to stay awake until some not-too-unreasonable bed time. All in all, that day really dragged – the experience was a strong argument in favour of flying from Manchester, barely an hour’s drive from home. (We felt that we could have safely managed a drive of that length after the overnight flight.) So I doubt if we’d do it again.
- Flights: We flew with American Airlines from London Heathrow to Chicago O’Hare. We chose that route because there are no direct flights to Chicago from Manchester, our nearest long-haul airport. We could have chosen other routes: