Chicago isn’t just a friendly city – it’s a family-friendly city, with attractions the entire family will enjoy. Navy Pier is a wonderful place for the family – especially for teenagers. At Millennium Park, parents and kids alike have fun making faces in the polished steel surface of the “Cloud Gate” sculpture. In the shadow of skyscrapers, you can see some of nature’s fiercest beasts at the free admission Lincoln Park Zoo. And the Sears Tower Skydeck and the Hancock Observatory will provide your family with birds-eye views from more than 1,000 feet in the air and provide interactive exhibits that teach visitors about the history of this great city.
Navy Pier is the number one tourist and leisure destination in the Midwest, attracting more than eight million visitors each year. The signature landmark -- the 150-foot-high Ferris wheel – plus a variety of dining options, including everything from fast food to fine dining, boat tours, shopping and free performances attract couples, families, out-of-towners and locals alike. In the summer, weekly fireworks illuminate the sky each Wednesday and Saturday nights. Special attractions include Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Chicago Children's Museum, Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows, IMAX Theater, and Skyline Stage.
Located in downtown Chicago on Michigan Avenue between Randolph and Monroe Streets., Millennium Park is an extraordinary showplace for world-class art, music, architecture, and landscape design.
The 24.5 acre Millennium Park showcases Chicago as one of the most culturally sophisticated and diverse cities in the world. Its centerpiece is the dazzling Jay Pritzker Pavilion designed by Frank Gehry, one of the world's greatest living architects. The Park is also home to several astonishing works of art, among them Cloud Gate, the mammoth-sized stainless steel sculpture by British artist, Anish Kapoor; the Crown Fountain designed by Spanish artist, Jaume Plensa; and the precedent-setting Lurie Garden created by the team of Kathryn Gustafson, Piet Oudolf and Robert Israel.
Millennium Park is Chicago's latest world-class attraction - a place where you can enjoy awe-inspiring public works of art and architecture, as well as ice skating in the winter and alfresco dining from spring to fall.
Conveniently situated in scenic space along Chicago's lakefront, Lincoln Park Zoo is one of the last free zoos in the country and home to more than 1,000 mammals, reptiles and birds. Siberian tigers, African lions, leopards, and other big cats are housed in the newly-expanded Kovler Lion House. Winding paths lead to exhibits, including the Regenstein African Journey, where giraffes, elephants, and other animals live in large, lush habitats. In the Regenstein Small Mammal-Reptile House, view more than 200 creatures from South America, Africa, Asia and Australia. The Farm-in-the-Zoo, features domesticated cows and horses and a working replica of a Midwestern farm.
Once the world’s tallest building, the Sears Tower was pushed to third tallest when Taiwan's 1,667-foot-tall Taipei 101 was completed in October 2003. At 1,454 feet high, it's still the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere and even has its own zip code. From the 103rd-floor, at 1,353 feet, the Skydeck is the highest observatory in Chicago. On a clear day, you can see Chicago area landmarks, as well as Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. "The Sights and Soul of Chicago" interactive display celebrates the city's history in photos, graphics, video, murals and kiosks that provide online information in six different languages.
Entry to the Hancock Observatory begins at the concourse level, where a re-creation of the building’s 1965 construction site includes blueprints and exposed steel beams. Then, take the 39-second ride on the fastest elevator in North America 1,000 feet above the Magnificent Mile. On the 94th-floor observatory of Chicago’s third-tallest building, visitors not only get a spectacular view of the city (and on a clear day, Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan), but Soundscope 3-D "talking" telescopes that “speak” in four languages, and the city’s only open-air Skywalk -- a patio-like enclosure with industrial-strength screens.