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Attractions

The best way to savor Chicago is by foot, but the city's extensive and efficient public transportation system – which carries around 1.5 million passengers a day on subways, buses, and elevated trains (known simply as "the El") – provides easy access between multiple points downtown, outlying neighborhoods, and the suburbs.

During the summer, the City of Chicago Department of Transportation offers free trolley rides (daily departures every 20 min; 312/744-5000) around downtown Chicago. Keep in mind that the trolleys don't have air conditioning, so humid summer days can be taxing.

Visitors looking for a local's perspective can participate in the city's new Chicago Greeter program (www.chicagogreeter.com). These volunteer guides can escort groups of up to six people, free of charge, for two to four-hour tours of specific neighborhoods and themes (everything from Irish American heritage sites to famous locations in literature). Reservations for specific tours should be made at least a week in advance, but "Instagreeters," tour guides who lead visitors on an hour-long visit of the Loop and North Michigan Avenue, are available Friday through Sunday at the Chicago Cultural Center (77 E. Randolph St.) on a first come, first served basis.

For discounts on museums, restaurants, shopping centers, performing arts venues, and other attractions throughout the city, along with a list of free events and attractions, get the Chicago Guidebook of Special Values. Just print the online voucher available at www.gochicago.com and redeem it at one of two Chicago Visitor Information Centers (Chicago Cultural Center, 77 E. Randolph St. at Michigan Ave.; or Chicago Water Works, 163 E. Pearson at Michigan Ave). These centers are open daily and provide knowledgeable ambassadors who are ready to answer all of your questions and help plan your itinerary.

For an introduction to many of the city's most notable buildings, we highly recommend the popular ninety-minute river cruise offered by the Chicago Architecture Foundation (Chicago River at Michigan Ave. and lower Wacker Dr.; various daily departures; $25-$27; www.architecture.org). The CAF also offers around 85 other tours by boat, bus, bike, and on foot.

Main Sights
The Chicago River, which runs through the city's downtown financial district (The Loop) divides the city into three geographic areas: North Side, South Side, and West Side. On the east, the shoreline of Lake Michigan provides 29 miles of mostly uninterrupted public green space and parkland.

Kick off your visit with a lakefront cruise to orient yourself with the city's layout. Shoreline Sightseeing Company offers thirty-minute skyline boat tours from multiple locations (daily June-Aug every 30 mins 10am–10pm; daily May & Sept hourly 11am–5pm; Apr, Oct, & Nov Sat & Sun hourly 11am–5pm; $12; www.shorelinesightseeing.com).

Back on land, The Loop is also a logical place to begin exploring America's third-largest city. Home of the city's most famous skyscrapers, an assortment of cultural institutions, and a high concentration of outdoor public sculptures, you could easily spend one full day—indeed, an entire weekend—in and around this bustling area.

Start off with a trip to the Skydeck (daily May-Sept 10am–10pm; Oct-Apr 10am–8pm; $11.95; www.the-skydeck.com) on the 103rd floor of the 110-storey Sears Tower, currently the tallest building in the United States. On a clear day, you'll be rewarded with spectacular views reaching as far out as Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin. A recent $4 million renovation has added historical exhibits, high-powered telescopes, and interactive kiosks that point out Chicago landmarks. The best time to visit is after 4pm when most of the crowds will have dissipated.

Another landmark building with jaw-dropping views is the 100-storey John Hancock Center (daily 9am–11pm; $9.95; www.hancock-observatory.com), which features Chicago's only open-air observation deck on the 94th floor – step out here and you'll see why they call it the windy city.

After soaring to the stratosphere inside these modern marvels, step back in time at the city's earlier architectural landmarks. The 34-storey gothic style Tribune Tower (1925) and the 30-storey Spanish revival style Wrigley Building (built in stages between 1920 and 1931) are located in the southern end of the high-end shopping district known as the Magnificent Mile, which runs along Michigan Avenue from the Chicago River to Lake Michigan. The walls of the Tribune Tower, home of the Chicago Tribune newspaper, are embedded with authentic pieces of famous buildings including the Parthenon, the Great Pyramid, the Taj Mahal, and Westminster Abbey. While the tower has all of the traditional elements of a skyscraper, it also includes classical elements such as flying buttresses and spires. The triangular Wrigley Building, home to the namesake chewing gum company, is covered with 250,000 terracotta tiles, giving it a gleaming white appearance. You can get a great view of both from the Michigan Avenue Bridge.

Though frequently upstaged by the skyscrapers, Chicago's numerous public sculptures are worth noting as well. The city is a veritable open-air museum, with outdoor public art by 20th-century art stars like Calder, Chagall, Miró, and, most famously, Picasso. Standing in front of Daley Plaza, in the heart of the Loop, is the 162-ton steel sculpture known simply as The Picasso, a face rendered in the artist's primitive style. It was unveiled in 1967 to much public scorn, but has since become one of the city's most recognizable icons.

If you're traveling with kids, don't miss Navy Pier, located east of downtown, along Lake Michigan. Designed as a shipping and recreational facility in 1916, the pier now encompasses over 50 acres of parks, gardens, attractions, restaurants, and shops. Take a ride on the famous 150-foot Ferris Wheel (Sun–Thurs 10am–10pm; Fri & Sat 10am–midnight; $5; www.navypier.com), modeled after the very first Ferris Wheel built for Chicago's 1893 World Colombian Exposition.

Whether cheering for "da Bears" or "da Cubs," Chicagoans are die-hard sports fans – and, depending on the season, you can join in the raucous fun. Home of The Bears football team, Soldier Field(www.soldierfield.net) was recently renovated with an ultra-modern glass facade that incorporates the original Doric colonnades built between 1922 and 1928. The second-oldest baseball stadium in the majors, Wrigley Field, is home to the Chicago Cubs (www.cubs.com) and dates from 1914. The 2005 World Series Champions, the White Sox (www.whitesox.com), play at U.S. Cellular Field (formerly Comiskey Park) on the city's south side.

If you're more interested in the rousing sport of daytime TV, try your luck at becoming a studio-audience member at The Oprah Winfrey Show (www.oprah.com), which tapes at Harpo Studios (1058 W. Washington St.), ten-minutes west of The Loop, in the near west side of Chicago. Reservations are available almost exclusively by phone, but you can request last-minute reservations by e-mailing the Audience Department. Keep in mind that demand far exceeds supply (and even if you do get in, there's no guarantee you'll catch celebrities jumping on couches or Oprah taking swings at the latest author to scorn her).

Museums & Galleries
If the weather doesn't cooperate with your well-laid vacation plans, you can duck into one of the city's many museums. Most museums offer free admission one day per week (for a full schedule, visit www.gochicago.com).

Facing Michigan Avenue, and part of Museum Campus in Grant Park, The Art Institute of Chicago (daily Mon–Wed 10.30am–5pm, Thurs & Fri 10.30am–9pm, Sat & Sun 10am–5pm; $12; www.artic.edu) houses over 2000 paintings and sculptures in its collection of European art, including the largest collection of Impressionist art outside the Louvre; the most famous of these works is George Seurat's pointillist masterpiece, La Grande Jatte. Other major collections include sculpture, photography, decorative arts, and Asian, African, and American art. The museum is currently constructing a modern $200-million wing – designed by architect Renzo Piano – that will increase gallery space by 33% when it opens adjacent to Millennium Park in 2009.

Other Museum Campus attractions include the Adler Planetarium (daily Memorial Day to Labor Day 9.30am–6pm; Sept–May 9.30am–4.30pm; $16; www.adlerplanetarium.org), which has three floors of exhibits on astronomy, space exploration, telescopes, and navigation. StarRider, its 60,000-square-foot domed theater, can faithfully reproduce every aspect and movement of the night sky. Sue, the world's largest known Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil, can be found at the Field Museum (daily Memorial Day to Labor Day 8am–5pm; Sept–May 9am–5pm; $12; www.fieldmuseum.org), while over 650 species of aquatic animals live at the Shedd Aquarium (Memorial Day to Labor Day 9am–6pm; Sept–May 9am–5pm; $23; www.sheddaquarium.org), including over 24 sharks at Wild Reef, a 400,000 gallon tank with 20 different habitats.

Located just off Michigan Avenue, the Museum of Contemporary Art (Tues 10am–8pm; Wed–Sun 10am–5pm; $10; free Tues; www.mcachicago.org) contains over 6000 paintings, sculpture, photography, video, film, and installations from 1945 to the present, including work by Andy Warhol, Chuck Close, Francis Bacon, Jeff Koons, and many more. The museum cafe, Puck's, features a great seasonal lunch menu created by famed chef Wolfgang Puck.

Tired of looking at art and not being able to take it off the wall? Just north of the Chicago River, the River North Gallery District is home to nearly 70 world-class art and antiques galleries, the largest concentration of art galleries outside of Manhattan. A neglected urban wasteland in the mid-'70s, the area is now one of the most vibrant neighborhoods in Chicago, with modern condo buildings, vintage loft buildings, innovative restaurants, and chic home decor shops.

Parks & Gardens
With over 7300 acres of parkland comprising 552 parks and 33 public beaches, it stands to reason that Chicago's official motto is Urbs in Horto (City in a Garden). The most stunning new public space in Chicago, if not the entire nation, is Millennium Park (www.millenniumpark.org) located along Michigan Avenue between Randolph and Monroe streets. Opened in 2004, the centerpiece of the 24.5-acre park, the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, is a band shell designed with Frank Gehry's signature billowing metal facade. Don't miss a photo op at Cloud Gate (known locally as "The Bean" for its jelly-bean shape), an enormous elliptical blob of highly polished stainless steel that reflects the city's skyline – and the amused expressions of all those who gaze in it. The park's Bike Station (www.chicagobikestation.com), located in the park's northeast corner, offers bikes for rental by the hour, day, or week and provides secure bicycle parking, lockers, showers, towel service, and free bicycle valet parking during summer performances at Millennium Park and Grant Park festivals. If you do rent a bike, head out along the Lakefront Trail, a paved path that stretches 18 miles along Lake Michigan, providing cool lake breezes and stunning skyline views.

From Millennium Park, visitors can walk to one of the city's more established public spaces, Grant Park, via a new serpentine, stainless steel footbridge (also designed by Frank Gehry). Dubbed "Chicago's Front Yard," Grant Park, is situated on the Lake Michigan waterfront. The park's main focal point is the 1927-built Buckingham Fountain (instantly recognizable from the opening of the television series Married with Children), which shoots a stream of water 150 feet into the air, accompanied by lights and music (hourly dusk–10pm), spring through early fall. The park is also home to what is known collectively as the Museum Campus – which includes the Art Institute of Chicago, the Field Museum of Natural History, the Shedd Aquarium, and the Adler Planetarium (see Museums & Galleries, above).

Located on Chicago's north side, the 1208-acre Lincoln Park stretches from Ardmore Avenue south to North Avenue. Its biggest attraction is the Lincoln Park Zoo (daily 9am–6pm; free; www.lpzoo.com), one of the only zoos in the country open free of charge. Take a spin on the Endangered Species Carousel ($2), which features a handcrafted menagerie of 48 rare and endangered animals, or cruise in a swan-shaped boat around the South Lagoon, with the John Hancock tower looming above (June–Sept daily 10am–dusk; $16).

During the summer, there's no sexier (nor more crowded) place to see and be seen than Oak Street Beach, a lakeside oasis with volleyball courts, paths for bikers and in-line skaters, and plenty of sand for bikini-clad sunbathers. Located just north of the Magnificent Mile, the wide beach's main points of access are from underground tunnels at Oak Street, Division Street, and Chicago Avenue.

DAY TRIPS
If you have some extra time to wander beyond the main attractions of downtown, head seven miles south of the Loop to Hyde Park, which became Chicago's first suburb when it was settled in 1850. This south side neighborhood is home to the University of Chicago, Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House, and the popular Museum of Science and Industry (Mon–Sat 9.30am–5:30pm; Sun 11am–5:30pm; $11; www.msichicago.org). Explore the college campus, take a walk down Lake Shore Drive and marvel at the impressive apartment houses, or just sit at an outdoor cafe and soak in the energy of this cosmopolitan melting pot.

Nine miles west of the Chicago Loop, leafy Oak Park (another one of Chicago's first suburbs) is where you'll find the birthplace of Ernest Hemingway, the first home and studio of Frank Lloyd Wright, and the largest concentration of Wright homes in the world. The homes in this neighborhood span the early Victorian period, through the Prairie School of Architecture, and on to the Art Deco period. First, tour the Victorian Hemingway Birthplace Home (339 N. Oak Park Ave.; Mon–Fri & Sun 1pm-5pm, Sat 10am–5pm; $7; www.hemingway.org), where the author was born in 1899, to learn about his early family life, then visit the Ernest Hemingway Museum (200 N. Oak Park Ave.; same hours) to view rare photos, his childhood diary, letters, early writings, and other memorabilia. Before you leave the area be sure to tour the one-of-a-kind Frank Lloyd Wright Home & Studio (leaves from the Ginkgo Tree Bookshop, 951 Chicago Ave.; Mon–Fri 11am, 1pm & 3pm; Sat–Sun every 20 minutes 11am–3.30pm; $12; www.wrightplus.org), which served as Wright's private residence for the first 20 years of his career (1889 to 1909). Constantly tinkering with the walls, ceilings, and rooms, Wright would experiment with design concepts here before sharing them with his clients; the guided tour lasts 45 to 60 minutes.

A three-hour drive from Chicago, Springfield is the capital of Illinois. Criticized by some as a theme-park simplification of history, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (212 North Sixth St.; Mon–Tue & Thur–Sun 9am–5pm, Wed 9am–8.30pm; $7.50; www.alplm.org) provides an entertaining and educational look at the life and times of the 16th president. Interactive exhibits and theatrical special effects, including an "odometer of death" that calculates the mounting casualties on both sides of the four-year Civil War and a reproduction of the White House Kitchen are big draws here, as is the signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation in the library.

See Chicago Travel Guide