Can You Walk From Mag Mile to Art Institute?
Along the Magnificent Mile is a one-solar day and dark sightseeing bout of Chicago.
Understand [edit]
Most of Chicago lives in apartments, bungalows, condos, and houses on the North Side or the Southward Side, simply this is where they all come together: to work amid the skyscrapers of the Loop, to relax in the parks and beaches along the lake, and to blow their hard-earned greenbacks in the section stores on the Magnificent Mile. In this itinerary, you'll follow Michigan Avenue as information technology evolves from shopping district to recreation space, and then you'll take a turn into the canyons of the commerce-oriented Loop earlier heading off for a terrific dinner.
Prepare [edit]
Yous're walking for nigh of this itinerary, and then wear comfortable shoes, and clothes for the weather condition (and the climate). If information technology's a warm day in the spring, summer, or early autumn, bring a small towel for splashing in the fountains at Millennium Park. This route starts in the Virtually Due north, proceeds to the Loop, veers off to the Near Westward Side, and returns to the Near North. Although the route is very straightforward and easy to follow, you may wish to impress out the manufactures for those districts, if only for a few alternate recommendations and farther analogy of what you'll see along the way.
If you lot skip the shopping and stick with your feet, the day won't toll very much. Merely dinner, the Art Institute, and the Hancock/Sears Belfry will put any kind of crimp in your wallet. To cutting out the taxi fares, get the verbal addresses from the Near North, Loop, and Near West Side guides, and plot public transit routes using the CTA Trip Planner.
Morn [edit]
Start early! On your manner out of the hotel, enquire the concierge whether the h2o is flowing at Buckingham Fountain nevertheless; this will exist important after. Grab a quick pastry and cup of coffee or juice to tide yous over for the next couple of hours.
If you're starting on the CTA, have the Red Line subway to the Chicago stop, and walk three blocks due east, toward the lake. Skip a couple paragraphs ahead and brainstorm there, as you'll be walking right by the Water Tower.
Otherwise, take a taxi from your hotel to the Hancock Middle. This is only the 3rd-tallest edifice in Chicago (fifth-tallest in the Usa), but it'due south better-liked and better-looking than the other two, and it definitely has the best view. Have an elevator up to the 360 Chicago Observatory on the 94th floor. Admission is $22 adult, $xv child (or get the Sun and Stars ticket to return in the evening for $26.50). Survey the urban center and the lake, and be sure to look south, for in that location lies the day'due south conquest. There's a bar with expensive drinks one floor up. Don't booze it up at present, but you might come back for drinks later on.
All the way upwards, John Hancock Eye
I cake southward, at Michigan and Chicago, have a wait at the old Water Tower. This is a Chicago icon, and the virtually famous survivor of the 1871 Chicago Fire, along with the less-historic Pumping Station on the other side of Michigan Avenue. Street performers may exist in the small foursquare backside the H2o Tower. (Don't bother tours of the interior, though — it's been scrubbed of any historical traces, and is occasionally used as a gallery space now.) Behind the pumping station on Chicago Ave is a turn-of-the-century firehouse; non quite as old as the other two, but it's still in employ, and you'll encounter members of the Chicago Fire Department (homo and canine) relaxing out front end if they're not abroad on a call.
Now, y'all take 2 options. If y'all're in the mood for sand, caput east downward Chicago Avenue. You might check to see if the Museum of Contemporary Art has whatever interesting public art outside its building at Mies van der Rohe Way. When you lot've reach the terminate of Chicago Avenue, turn left and walk a few blocks north. Utilise the pedestrian tunnel to cross under Lake Shore Drive. You are at Oak Street Embankment. You should have a dainty view of Lincoln Park and the North Side. When you lot're done, walk back the fashion you lot came, or take a taxi directly to the Tribune Tower — dorsum-tracking will make it kind of a long walk.
Alternatively, skip the beach and stroll downwards Michigan Avenue. This is the heart of the Magnificent Mile, with block after block of stylish department stores. Pop into as many as you like, simply this is expensive territory — and call up, you'll be conveying whatever y'all buy for the rest of the twenty-four hour period. (That said, if cost is not a business organisation, stores will be more than than happy to take packages wrapped and sent to your hotel while y'all acquit on.) You'll desire to backtrack to 900 N Michigan and Water Tower Place, and then go on heading south on Michigan.
Angkor rocks, Tribune Belfry
When you lot've almost reached the river, end. On your left is the Tribune Belfry. Walk along its n and south walls; embedded in them are stones from famous sites across the country and effectually the earth. Bore your family with your knowledge of history.
Now, cross over to the west side of the street and look for a curious opening in the sidewalk. There might fifty-fifty be a placard advertising a eatery down there. Descend to lower Michigan Ave. At this bespeak, your middle volition exist racing and you will fear for family unit'due south condom. Perhaps a scene from Adventures in Babysitting volition play in your listen. Fight these feelings; there is zero to fear.
Walk to the corner, towards the river, and you will see the Billy Caprine animal Tavern. This legendary haunt for Chicago newspapermen was made famous by John Belushi's "cheeseburger-cheeseburger-not-Coke-Pepsi" sketch on Saturday Nighttime Alive. Go in and take a quick, cheap lunch.
Afternoon [edit]
When y'all are finished eating, caput back upstairs and cross the river. If you are lucky, the bridge will be temporarily raised for some water traffic. Regardless, take in the views both east to the lake and westward inland.
Millennium Park begins at Michigan and Randolph, although most of the action is a piddling further southward, closer to Madison. If it'due south warm, this place will exist hopping. Don't miss The Bean (you'll know it when you see it) or the giant project fountains. Get your feet wet — you lot've washed enough of walking already, and there's enough more than alee of y'all. (If you lot were hoping to have your kids burn off whatsoever excess energy, let them go buckwild in the fountain.)
Faces in the snow, Millennium Park
So proceed downwardly Michigan to Adams, where two lions baby-sit the entrance of the earth-renowned Art Institute of Chicago. (Admission is $25 for adults, $19 for teens, students, and seniors, free for younger children.) Choose a couple areas of involvement and bank check those out; perusing the whole collection would take you the amend part of the day. In that location are some iconic American paintings (Wood'southward "American Gothic" and Hopper'south "Nighthawks") and a number of seminal European paintings (nearly notably Seurat's "A Sunday Afternoon at La Grande Jatte").
Once you're finished browsing, keep due south on Michigan to Congress Parkway. At the corner are the jumbo stone walls of The Auditorium Theatre, designed by the great Louis Sullivan (with Frank Lloyd Wright toiling as his apprentice), in one case the tallest building in Chicago. A tour or a evidence here is well worth the price, if y'all tin adjust it. Have a wait within the grand lobby and the staircase if it's open, and leave before someone kicks you out.
Plow around and caput back north for two blocks to Jackson, then turn left. In the sky are the looming black metal blocks of the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower). Until 1998, it was the tallest edifice in the earth, and until 2014 in Due north America. If you didn't get to the Hancock Observatory before, you can have a look from the SkyDeck at the Willis Belfry instead ($25 adult, $17 kid). It'south probably late in the afternoon by at present, and most Chicagoans are beginning their commute home. The streets of the Loop volition be full of the rumble of elevated trains and the air of people who are tired from a total day'south work.
This is Chicago.
Evening [edit]
If you're a railroad train geek and you have some fourth dimension left earlier dinner, it might be worth your while to continue west on Jackson, cantankerous the river, and so plough left on Canal St. to check out Union Station. Once, all the railroads in America ran through Chicago, and you lot tin can still catch traces of that in this monumental neoclassical building. It will as well be total of people on their mode dwelling from work, catching Metra trains for the suburbs. Join the march between the giant marble columns and down the grand steps, and where the falling baby-wagon climax of The Untouchables was filmed. (Please remove actual babies from carriages before attempting to re-enact the scene, though). Bank check out the enormous atrium and its long, stately wooden benches. Hang out for a few minutes if yous're not in a hurry — this is a great spot for people-watching — or head back out to the street.
The Pumping Station and Michigan Artery by night
Time to make up one's mind: what exercise you desire for dinner? Armed with your guide for the Nigh Westward Side, grab a cab and tell the commuter to have you lot to Little Italia or Greektown, only west of the Loop. (If the weather condition's favorable, you tin can walk to Greektown in a few minutes). Have a prissy, long, leisurely dinner at a family-run restaurant. You lot'll be spoiled for pick. If yous'd adopt to stay closer to the Loop, try Bella Bacino's for the best blimp pizza in Chicago — and, by definition, anywhere.
If the concierge told you that Buckingham Fountain is on, and if it's nearly 8PM, catch a cab to Grant Park, and head to the fountain. When night falls, the water dances and soars and is illuminated by lights. Gloat a successful day in Chicago with an water ice cream cone from the Bobtail stand about the fountain.
Otherwise, have the cabbie take you to Michigan and Randolph, and walk due north on Michigan, back towards the river. On the bridge, have another look east and west. Cross the river; the building on your left is the Wrigley Edifice. (It will exist impossible to miss.) Look downwardly Michigan at the lights and the people for a memorable view. If you're a fan of coming full circle, you lot might take a taxi dorsum to the Hancock Center for drinks on the 95th floor, and see how the night view compares to the one you saw at the kickoff of the twenty-four hours.
Stay safe [edit]
In one case once again, Chicago's climate is not to be underestimated. Parcel up in winter and keep hydrated in the height of the summer. You're unlikely to come across any condom concerns during the mean solar day, salve for the remote possibility of selection-pockets in crowded areas. After dark, don't stray more than a couple of blocks from Union Station and Little Italia/Greektown. Both are safe for tourists, but in that location are some rough areas within walking distance.
Source: https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Along_the_Magnificent_Mile
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