Layover and connection guides

What you can do with the time between flights at ORD: how long a connection really needs, how to move between concourses without leaving security, what a long layover can hold, and what to do when the connection is tight. Each guide answers one of those questions.

Looking for the listings themselves? They are on the Connecting flights page.

• A two-hour layover at O'Hare: what you can do

  Two hours at O'Hare: Terminals 1, 2 and 3 connect behind security, Terminal 5 needs a bus or train. Where to eat near your gate, by concourse.

  • Read your two gate letters first
  • Inside Terminals 1, 2 and 3: find the gate, then eat
  • Where to eat by concourse
  • A lounge only helps if you can get in
  • Terminal 5 changes the math
  • Quick stops that cost little time
  • Sources
• Can you leave O'Hare on a layover?

  Leaving O'Hare mid-layover: the Blue Line takes 40 to 45 minutes to downtown, checkpoint hours set your return, and O'Hare lists no left-luggage service.

  • How long does it take to get downtown?
  • How do you get to the train?
  • How do you get back through security?
  • Carry your bags and have the boarding pass ready
  • Landing from abroad: getting through CBP
  • Sources
• How long do you need to connect at O'Hare?

  O'Hare publishes no minimum connection time. Terminals 1 to 3 connect behind security. Terminal 5 takes the train, or the bus 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.

  • Start with your two gate letters
  • Terminals 1, 2 and 3: follow the signs
  • Getting to and from Terminal 5
  • Checkpoint hours when the bus isn’t running
  • Landing from outside the U.S.
  • Help along the way
  • Sources
• How to spend four hours at O'Hare

  Four hours at O'Hare: Chicago food by gate, who gets into the lounges, and the few minutes the airport publishes between terminals.

  • The minutes the airport does publish
  • Start with the meal
  • Pick one longer stop
  • Where to charge a phone or get online
  • Which lounges you can use
  • When the next flight is in Terminal 5
  • Sources
• Quiet places at O'Hare without a lounge: what the airport lists

  O'Hare lists no quiet zone open to everyone. Find its Interfaith Room, Yoga Room, chapel and sensory-map Calm Spots, with hours and house rules.

  • The only room called a quiet room is the USO’s
  • The three rooms and what each one asks of you
  • Where the sensory maps mark a Calm Spot
  • Rooms that look quiet but have another job
  • If you’ll pay or leave the gates
  • Sources
• Showers, spa and yoga at O'Hare: what the airport lists

  O'Hare lists no general-use shower rooms. It lists a Yoga Room (6 a.m. to 10 p.m.) and Terminal Getaway Spas at Gates B12 and H1 (7 a.m. to 8 p.m.).

  • The Yoga Room asks for shoes off and a quiet phone
  • What the Terminal Getaway Spas sell, and what the airport doesn’t post
  • Showers: none for general use, and three places with strings attached
  • Reaching them from your terminal
  • Sources
• Six hours or more in Chicago from O'Hare

  Six hours from O'Hare: the Blue Line takes 40 to 45 minutes to downtown. The last checkpoint closes at 11 p.m. in Terminals 1 and 2, 10:30 p.m. in Terminal 3.

  • What six hours leaves you
  • Working out your latest return
  • The train runs all night
  • A taxi or rideshare instead
  • What the airport publishes about getting back in
  • Sources
• Things to do at O'Hare

  What O'Hare lists besides food: Barbara's Bookstore in Terminals 1 to 3, a Yoga Room, a spa, a Family Lounge and public art, with gates and hours.

  • Read, browse, buy
  • Where can you stretch or get a massage?
  • Kids get a Family Lounge in Terminal 2
  • The airport keeps a public art collection
  • Quiet rooms and traveler services
  • Sources