Inside Chicago Walking Tours

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TripAdvisor’s TOP-RANKED walking tour company in Chicago! A small, local, woman-owned business offering tours that delight visitors with the “second side of the Second City,” with gorgeous, fascinating, and often hidden details behind many doors.

Inside Chicago Walking Tours was founded by Hillary Marzec, an experienced tour guide and product development director for a major sightseeing company in Chicago. Given the freedom to research and construct her own tours, she used her years of experience as a teacher, writer, improv comedian, and tour guide to create tours that tell the story of Chicago in an engaging, educational, and always entertaining way. We know that the best way to get information to “stick” with people — and to be interesting to people — is to convey it like a story, with a logical beginning, middle, and end. Most architecture tours of Chicago — boats, walks, segways, etc. –present you the city like an overwhelming laundry list of information that you’ll likely forget. For us, there is a reason we are exploring a certain area, or following a certain path: the architecture that we explore is like the vocabulary of the larger story we are telling.

What makes us different? It’s our ability to find the hidden and fascinating details of buildings and areas that people pass through or pass by every day. We are the opposite of a scripted, big-company experience: we have a true, dedicated passion for showing visitors, whether they be out-of-towners or Chicagoans, a side of Chicago that they haven’t noticed before. We love to focus on the stunning interiors of buildings throughout downtown Chicago – including many of the buildings along the river – and we even provide you with an “insider’s scoop” on lots of the exterior architectural elements that most guides won’t show you. Your guides will delight you with a side of Chicago you’ve never seen.

General Information:

• Tours average between 2 and 2.5 hours, and cover 1.5 miles at a leisurely pace;
• Rotating list of tour routes each season, covering everything from history to science to folklore;
• Great for all ages, and very family-friendly;
• 20% off your tickets with promo code “CHOOSE” (for Choose Chicago);
• Public and private tours offered ALL YEAR, with more tours offered seasonally.