THE BEST Sights and Attractions in Chicago

🏛️ Sights and Attractions in Chicago

• Millennium Park — Millennium Park is a public park in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States, operated by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE). The park, opened in July 2004, is a prominent civic center near the city's Lake Michigan shoreline that covers a 24.5-acre (9.9 ha) section of northwestern Grant Park. Featuring a variety of public art, outdoor spaces and venues, the park is bounded by Michigan Avenue, Randolph Street, Columbus Drive and East Monroe Drive. In 2017, Millennium Park was the top tourist destination in Chicago and in the Midwest, and placed among the top ten in the United States with 25 million annual visitors.
• Willis Tower Skydeck — The Willis Tower, formerly and still commonly referred to as the Sears Tower, is a 110-story, 1,451-foot (442.3 m) skyscraper in the Loop of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Designed by architect Bruce Graham and engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), it opened in 1973 as the world's tallest building, a title that it held for nearly 25 years. It is the third-tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, as well as the 26th-tallest in the world. Each year, more than 1.7 million people visit the Skydeck, the highest observation deck in the United States, making it one of Chicago's most popular tourist destinations. Due to its height and location, the tower is visible from a great distance. The building has appeared in numerous films and television shows set in Chicago.
• Navy Pier — Navy Pier is a 3,300-foot-long (1,010 m) pier on the shoreline of Lake Michigan, located in the Streeterville neighborhood of the Near North Side community area in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The pier encompasses over 50 acres (20 ha) of shops, restaurants, live theaters, family attractions, parks, gardens, and exhibition facilities. Navy Pier is one of the top destinations in the Midwestern United States, drawing over nine million visitors annually. It is one of the most visited attractions in the Midwestern United States, and is Chicago's second most visited tourist attraction.
• Art Institute of Chicago — The Art Institute of Chicago is a private, nonprofit art museum in Grant Park, Chicago, Illinois, United States.
• Cloud Gate — is a public sculpture by artist Anish Kapoor that is the centerpiece of Grainger Plaza at Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Constructed between 2004 and 2006, the sculpture is nicknamed "The Bean" because of its shape, a na
• Shedd Aquarium — Shedd Aquarium is a public aquarium in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is one of the oldest continually operating non-governmental aquariums in the U.S.
• Field Museum — The Field Museum of Natural History is a private–public natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational and scientific programs, as well as its extensive scientific specimen and artifact collections.
• Wrigley Field — is a ballpark on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago Whales of the Federal
• Lincoln Park Zoo — Lincoln Park Zoo, also known as Lincoln Park Zoological Gardens, is a 35-acre (14 ha) zoo in Lincoln Park in Chicago, Illinois. The zoo was founded in 1868 and is one of the oldest zoos in the United States. It is also one of a small number of zoos to offer free admission. The zoo is an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). In 2019 it also became an accredited arboretum.
• Museum of Science and Industry — The Museum of Science and Industry is the largest science museum in the Western Hemisphere, housed in the 1893 Palace of Fine Arts in Hyde Park. Interactive exhibits include a WWII submarine, a coal mine, a 40-foot tornado, and a Boeing 727.
• Magnificent Mile — The Magnificent Mile is the approximately one-mile-long stretch of Michigan Avenue from the Chicago River to Oak Street on the Near North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It divides the neighborhood of Streeterville, on its east, from River North, on its west.
• Buckingham Fountain — Buckingham Fountain is a Chicago Landmark in the center of Grant Park, between Queen's Landing and the end of Ida B. Wells Drive. Dedicated in 1927 and donated to the city by philanthropist Kate S. Buckingham, it is one of the largest fountains in the world. Built in a rococo wedding cake style and inspired by the Latona Fountain at the Palace of Versailles, its design allegorically represents nearby Lake Michigan. The fountain operates generally from mid-April to mid-October, with regular water-jet displays and evening colored-light shows. During the winter, the fountain is decorated with festival lights.
• Chicago Riverwalk — The Chicago Riverwalk is a multi-use public open space located on the south bank of the main branch of the Chicago River in Chicago, extending from Lake Michigan and the Outer Drive Bridge westward to the Wolf Point area and Lake Street. The Chicago Riverwalk contains restaurants, bars, cafes, small parks, boat and kayak rentals, a Vietnam War memorial, and other amenities.
• Garfield Park Conservatory — Garfield Park Conservatory, located in Garfield Park in Chicago, is one of the largest greenhouse conservatories in the United States. Often referred to as "landscape art under glass", the Garfield Park Conservatory occupies approximately 4.5 acres (18,000 m2) inside and out and contains a number of permanent plant exhibits incorporating specimens from around the world, including some cycads that are over 200 years old.
• Rookery Building — The Rookery Building is a historic office building at 209 South LaSalle Street in the Loop community area of downtown Chicago, Illinois, United States. Completed by architects Daniel Burnham and John Wellborn Root of Burnham and Root in 1888, it is considered one of their masterpiece buildings, and was once the location of their offices. The building is 181 feet (55 m) in height, twelve stories tall, and is considered the oldest standing high-rise in Chicago. It features exterior load-bearing walls and an interior steel frame. Inside is a light court, which illuminates a two-story atrium lobby with ornamental stairs. The building is designated a Chicago Landmark, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark.
• Chinatown — is a neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, along S. Wentworth Avenue between Cermak Road and W. 26th St. Over a third of Chicago's Chinese population resides in this ethnic enclave, making it one of the largest concentrations of Chinese-Americans in the United Stat
• Wicker Park — Wicker Park is a neighborhood in the West Town community area of the West Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States, west of the Kennedy Expressway, east of Humboldt Park, and south of the Bloomingdale Trail, known for its nightlife and food scene.
• Lakefront Trail — The Chicago Lakefront Trail (LFT) is a 18.5-mile-long (29.8 km) partial shared-use path for walking, jogging, skateboarding, and cycling, located along the western shore of Lake Michigan in Chicago, Illinois. The trail passes through and connects Chicago's four major lakefront parks along with various beaches and recreational amenities. It also serves as a route for bicycle, skateboard and personal transporter commuters. On busy summer days 70,000 people use the trail.
• Chicago Cultural Center — The Chicago Cultural Center, opened in 1897, is a national landmark operated by Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. The neoclassical building houses the city's official reception venue, where the Mayor of Chicago has welcomed presidents, royalty, diplomat