Although Chicagoans will tout surviving blizzards and sub-zero cold snaps like a badge of honor, everyone lives for the season of rooftop happy hours, beach volleyball, and countless street and music festivals. Without a doubt, any local will agree that the best time to visit is in the summer (June-September). By now you can see that a trip to the Second City is really second to none. Between downtown and the lakefront you’ll find Grant Park comprised of 319 acres (1.3 sq km) of green space to enjoy.
Within minutes you can go from shopping designer brands on Michigan Avenue to enjoying some fun in the sun and sand. Speaking of accolades, the culture vulture will be thrilled to hear that in 2015 Trip Advisor named the Art Institute of Chicago the best museum in the world beating out the Louvre, the Met, and the British Museum.Ĭhicago is not only a metropolis of food, culture, and architecture, but there’s a beach – 18 miles (29 km) of lakefront in fact. In the May 2017 issue of Conde Nast Traveler, Chicago was named the “best restaurant city in America.” This is for good reason as it has become a foodie paradise boasting much more than deep dish pizza, hot dogs, and Italian beef sandwiches. Over the years, architect and urban designer, Daniel Burnham, who was also responsible for the famed Flatiron Building in NYC, reimagined this rough and tumbled industrial town to the modern city it is today.Įver since, Chicago has been renowned for world-class architecture, museums, and more recently, a thriving food scene. This extravagant event took place just two decades after the Great Chicago Fire that left a third of the population homeless. In 1893 Chicago was put in the world map as a destination of culture, architecture, and innovation as it hosted the World’s Fair: Columbian Exposition celebrating the 400 th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the New World.