Experience The Magic Of Autumn: Top 11 Things To Do In Chicago

For travelers looking for a unique Thanksgiving experience, travel booking experts recommend setting your sights abroad. 

Look up and it will be hard to miss the towering, slightly undulating, 101-story St. Regis Chicago. Designed by the female architect Jeanne Gang and perched on the easternmost edge of Chicago’s Downtown Loop area, the gleaming structure, the city’s third tallest building is making a splash in the hotel world.

United Airlines is reintroducing a boarding procedure for economy passengers that it had previously implemented several years ago, and if all goes according to plan, it should speed up an often-loathed process. According to an internal memo reviewed by AFAR, starting later this month, United will begin to designate most economy boarding groups by a passenger’s precise seat location. That is, those at window seats get on first, followed by middle seat sitters, and then those on the aisle.

Auckland has enough to fill even the most demanding traveler’s itinerary – but New Zealand’s largest city isn’t the cheapest place to visit. Dining out and cultural activities are often on the pricier side, yet Auckland has a wealth of natural beauty including parks, beaches and native forests that are all free to visit.

There are many reasons to love Chicago, the nation’s third largest city sitting on Lake Michigan and beloved for its iconic skyline, deep dish pizza, Italian beef and top-notch museums. These days however, with more travelers feeling stressed, lonely, and anxious (a recent World Travel Protection survey noted only one third of business travelers are happy traveling for work), finding relaxing activities and sleeping well has never been more important.

Of all the U.S. airlines, United Airlines has perhaps the most impressive customer-facing technology.

Spirit Airlines is turning Friday the 13th into a day of luck with a new sale that has flights starting at just $44.

The city of Chicago has had a great summer! Choose Chicago recently released summer 2023 performance data showing that for the months of June, July and August, the hotel revenue totaled $825 million, and hotel taxes totaled $46 million, both all-time records for summer months. Also, over one million room nights were filled each month this summer, totaling 3.24 million hotel room nights. That is 4% higher than last year and represents a 92% recovery share compared to 2019 numbers. Leisure visitors in particular came to Chicago in droves this summer – buoyed by a packed calendar of concerts, events and festivals, total leisure hotel room demand increased by 8% compared to summer 2022. International visitation increased by 13% compared to summer 2022.

On a recent trip to the Caribbean island of Antigua, Melissa Middlestadt, a writer from the Toronto area, was charged a $12-a-night resort fee by the all-inclusive Jolly Beach. She was told it covered the use of nonmotorized water-sports equipment and Wi-Fi.

Bacalar has a seven-tone lagoon of blue that is one of the most extraordinary places to practice snorkeling and scuba diving. (Photo Credit: Ministry of Tourism of Mexico, Sectur)

Imagine waking up to gorgeous lake views surrounded by misty mountains and trees lining the horizon as far as the eye can see. That’s the magic of Jasper National Park, the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies, where I recently spent a cozy retreat to welcome the fall season. Coming from the scorching heat of Phoenix, Arizona, my lungs craved the crisp morning air, while the desert girl in me relished and autumnal mountain hues — and I soaked it all in from the private balcony of an alpine lodge on the shores of Pyramid Lake.

It’s never too soon to start making those holiday travel plans or even decide on a winter vacation to escape the cold. If you’ve been saving up points and miles to make the trip easier, now is the time to put them to work for you.