Must see attractions in Chicago

The Art Institute is the second-largest art museum in the USA. Its collection of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings rivals those in France, and the number of surrealist works is tremendous. Download...

Built in 1914 and named for the chewing-gum guy, Wrigley Field is the second-oldest baseball park in the major leagues. It's known for its hand-turned scoreboard, ivy-covered outfield walls and neon sign over the...

Geek out at the largest science museum in the Western Hemisphere. Highlights include a WWII German U-boat nestled in an underground display (adult/child $18/14 extra to tour it) and the Science Storms exhibit...

The Field Museum houses some 30 million artifacts and includes everything but the kitchen sink – beetles, mummies, gemstones, Bushman the stuffed ape – all tended by a slew of PhD-wielding scientists, as the...

This exquisite, beaux-arts building began its life as the Chicago Public Library in 1897. Today the block-long structure houses terrific art exhibitions (especially the 4th-floor Yates Gallery), as well as...

The city's showpiece is a trove of free and arty sights. It includes Pritzker Pavilion, Frank Gehry’s swooping silver band shell, which hosts free weekly concerts in summer (6:30pm; bring a picnic and bottle of...

This hilly, prairie-grassed park has a walking and cycling trail, bird-watching, fishing and an outdoor venue for big-name concerts. It's actually a peninsula, not an island, but the Chicago skyline views are...

Consider it the Art Institute’s brash, rebellious sibling, with especially strong minimalist, surrealist and conceptual photography collections, and permanent works by René Magritte, Cindy Sherman and Andy...

The Newberry's public galleries are a treat for bibliophiles: those who swoon over original Thomas Paine pamphlets about the French Revolution, or get weak-kneed seeing Thomas Jefferson's copy of the History of...

Half-mile-long Navy Pier is one of Chicago's most-visited attractions, sporting a 196ft Ferris wheel and other carnival rides ($9 to $18 each), an IMAX theater, a beer garden and lots of chain restaurants. A...

Artist-activist Theaster Gates bought a tumbledown bank building for $1 in Chicago's neglected South Shore neighborhood, and transformed it into a fascinating African American cultural center and gallery. Staff...

The famed firm of Burnham and Root built the Rookery – named for the site's previous building, a temporary city hall that was popular with roosting pigeons – in 1888; Frank Lloyd Wright remodeled the two-story...

The CAC is the premier keeper of Chicago’s architectural flame. Pop in to explore its excellent galleries, which feature an interactive 3-D model of Chicago and displays on the city's architectural history, as...

Founded in 1982, this vibrant museum – the largest Latinx arts institution in the US – has become one of the city’s best. The vivid permanent collection sums up 1000 years of Mexican art and culture through...

It's Chicago's tallest building, and the 103rd-floor Skydeck puts you high into the heavens. Take the ear-popping, 70-second elevator ride to the top and then step onto one of the glass-floored ledges jutting out...

Take a close look when passing by this 1925 neo-Gothic edifice. Colonel Robert McCormick, eccentric owner of the Chicago Tribune in the early 1900s, collected – and asked his reporters to send – rocks from famous...

This small museum in the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago is fun for a quick browse. The best exhibits include a giant glass cube stuffed with one million $1 bills (they weigh 2000lb) and a counterfeit display...

Designed to challenge the imaginations of toddlers to 10-year-olds, this colorful museum near Navy Pier's main entrance gives young visitors enough hands-on exhibits to keep them climbing and creating for hours....

Of the numerous buildings that Frank Lloyd Wright designed around Chicago, none is more famous or influential than Robie House. Because its horizontal lines resembled the flat landscape of the Midwestern prairie,...

Pablo Picasso's abstract work, which everyone just calls 'the Picasso,' is the granddaddy of Chicago's public art. The artist was 82 when the work was commissioned. The US Steel Works in Gary, IN, made it to...