Unless you're an acrophobe, no visit to Navy Pier is complete without taking in the views as you ride the 196ft-tall Ferris wheel. The spin lasts about 15 minutes. Buy tickets online to save a few dollars.
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
4.62 MILES
Built in 1914, Wrigley Field – aka the Friendly Confines – is the second-oldest baseball park in the major leagues. It’s home to the Chicago Cubs and…
7.09 MILES
The MSI is the largest science museum in the Western hemisphere and a place to completely geek out. Highlights include a WWII German U-boat nestled in an…
1.17 MILES
The second-largest art museum in the country, the Art Institute houses a treasure trove from around the globe. The collection of impressionist and…
0.97 MILES
There's free admission to Millennium Park, the playful heart of the city. It shines with whimsical public art, both permanent and temporary exhibits, and…
1.71 MILES
Willis Tower is Chicago's tallest building (and one of the world's loftiest). Breathe deeply during the ear-popping, 70-second elevator ride to the 103rd…
Field Museum of Natural History
1.81 MILES
The Field Museum houses some 30 million artifacts and includes everything but the kitchen sink – beetles, mummies, gemstones, Bushman the stuffed ape –…
0.11 MILES
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…
National Museum of Mexican Art
4.16 MILES
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…
Nearby Chicago attractions
0.08 MILES
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…
0.11 MILES
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…
0.55 MILES
Centennial Fountain shoots a massive arc of water across the Chicago River. It spurts for five minutes straight every hour on the hour, from 10am to…
0.75 MILES
Aqua made waves when it appeared in 2009. Local architect Jeanne Gang designed the 86-story tower (set to be surpassed in 2020, when her 93-story Vista…
0.77 MILES
It sounds stuffy: a club for patrons of the arts, and it looks the part as men in fancy suits and women in furs drop by for lunch in the members-only…
0.82 MILES
Consider it the Art Institute’s brash, rebellious sibling, with especially strong minimalist, surrealist and conceptual photography collections, and…
0.84 MILES
Families love this park’s fanciful, free playgrounds in all their enchanted-forest and pirate-themed glory. There’s also a rock-climbing wall, an 18-hole…