Give me a break: Chicago on pounds 300

City to city: Charing Cross, Friday. You have pounds 300 to spend on a weekend break from the centre of London. Thanks to tumbling transatlantic airfares, says Simon Calder, an 8,000-mile round trip is quite feasible

Down payment

The return tube fare to Heathrow is pounds 6.60, which works out at about 25p a mile. The return air fare to Chicago through Lunn Poly, and some other agents using Air India's Friday flight to the city, is pounds 159 including all taxes. This works out at 2p a mile. Absurd.

Instant briefing

The tourist office at the airport will provide you with free maps. From O'Hare Airport (the world's busiest) a train downtown will cost $1.50 - less than pounds 1.

Orientation is easy. The main streets run north-south, parallel with the lake shore; the most important are Michigan Avenue and State Street. The latter slices through the Loop, a rectangle covering about a square mile, defined by the elevated railway familiar from every film ever shot in Chicago. Most visitors spend most of their time within or close to the Loop. Before you head significantly south of it, take local advice on safety.

A good place to touch base is the 100-year-old public library that has been brilliantly transformed into a people's palace.

The Chicago Cultural Centre allows you to roam around four floors heavy with civic pride - and visit the Museum of Broadcast Communications, a fascinating place to glimpse scenes from the American love affair with television.

Rest assured

For a two-night stay (the flight home on Sunday is overnight), the tourist office is able to recommend a weekend special at one of the many hotels in the city centre. Otherwise, a reliable alternative is Days Inn, in the "Near North" at 2400 North Clark Street (001 312 525 7010), which charges $65 (pounds 42) including breakfast. This will leave you about pounds 60 spending money for the weekend, which is enough if you can resist the temptation to shop till your credit card drops.

Must see

Must buy

Must eat

Later, pay your respects at the place that claims to have invented the Chicago deep-dish pizza. Pizzeria Uno (29 East Ohio Street) serves up meals the size of a small Midwestern town, and will box the leftovers for your journey home.

Night moves

Cultural life in Chicago is as energetic as you would expect from the nation's third city - and less financially demanding than its two rivals, New York and Los Angeles. Comedy and jazz are its strongest suits; for these, and for the best range of restaurants and bars, head north of the Loop. About 15 years ago the River North area was near-derelict, the sort of decaying, despair-laden neighbourhood that gives inner cities a bad name. But then the food industry started to move in, and nowadays - according to one manager - "Every time you throw a stone, you hit a restaurant".