495 AIRPORT ROAD
ELGIN, IL 60123
GRAND VICTORIA CASINO-GOLF PKG
The Crowne Plaza Elgin is a first class hotel located 20 miles from O'Hare International Airport and 3 miles from downtown Elgin. The hotel guest rooms are designed with features for the business or leisure traveler to provide comfort and convenience for overnight or ex- tended stays. They are the only full sevice hotel in Elgin. Guests will appreciate the fresh, contemporary decor and comfortable standard and king rooms with its thoughtful amenities. Go, relax and enjoy the the comforts of their newly constructed high rise hotel. The Crowne Plaza Elgin is convenient to many area dining, shopping and entertainment venues. Hotel is just minutes away from the Grand Victoria Casino, offering free shuttle to the casino.
Downtown Chicago puts on what is perhaps the finest display of modern architecture in the world, from the prototype skyscrapers of the 1890s to Mies van der Rohe's modernist masterpieces, and the second tallest building in the world, the quarter-mile-high Sears Tower. The compact heart of Chicago is known as the Loop, because it's circled by the elevated tracks of the CTA "El" trains. For a first impression of downtown, start your explorations by seeing the energy, drive and unmasked greed exposed in the trading pits of the various commodity marketplaces. Half the world's wheat and corn (and pork belly futures) are bought and sold amid the cacophonic roar of the Chicago Board of Trade, housed in a gorgeous Art Deco tower. From the entrance at 141 W Jackson St, where it intersects with LaSalle Street, take the elevator to the fifth-floor visitor gallery (Mon-Fri 8am-1.15pm; free), where displays trace the evolution of the various frantic shouts and signals by which trade is actually carried out. A similarly energetic ballet goes on from the early hours on Chicago's stock options exchange, the largest in the US. At the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, three blocks away at 30 S Wacker Drive (Mon-Fri 7.30am-3.15pm; free), precious metals, currencies and commodities are bought and sold to the tune of some $50 billion a day. The best time to visit the exchanges is just before the close of trade, when the pressure is at its peak and tempers are most frayed.
