Before writing about the Chicago, I would like to add a disclaimer that, this post about Chicago will be very different from any of my other posts. Not only because Chicago is a wonderful city, but also because Chicago had been my home for two years. To me, it's not just a trip experience but it’s a very special and integral part of my life which I would definitely cherish for rest of my life.

Chicago Skyline

About Chicago: Chicago is the third-most populous city in the United States and the fifth-most-populous city in North America. Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837, near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed, and grew rapidly in the mid-nineteenth century. The city is an international hub for finance, commerce, industry, technology, telecommunications, and transportation.
The city has many nicknames, the best-known being the Windy City.

Duration of the Trip: As I have already mentioned, I have been staying in the city of Chicago, so, I have visited all the places through out the year and during multiple days. Some of those places, I have visited multiple times. But in a best case, the main tourist attractions can be covered in three days. I have tried to put up the plan which will help you cover the places in three days.

Best time to visit Chicago: The best season to visit Chicago is during the end of May to starting of Sept unless you love the chili, windy or snowy weather.

Transportation: On any fine day, if the weather is good, Chicago can be traveled by feet and that’s definitely the best way to explore Chicago as there are lots of architectural excellence at every corner of the city. But if that’s the not the case, the most economic mode of conveyance in Chicago is CTA buses. Uber and local taxis are also very easily available and economic. I had experienced rides in few of the real high-end cars in Uber.

Details of the Trip: For accommodation in Chicago, the best place is the hotels around Loop Area or Michigan Avenue. But as those hotels are in the heart of the city, they are pretty expensive. One can stay in any nearby suburbs and can communicate to the city using car or Metra trains.
Day 1: The places can be visited on day one are, Chicago Art Institute:
The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879 and located in South Michigan, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 million guests annually. Its collection—stewarded by 11 curatorial departments— African Art and Indian Art of the Americas, American Art, Ancient and Byzantine, Architecture and Design, Asian Art, European Decorative Arts, European Painting and Sculpture, Modern and Contemporary Art, Photography, Prints and Drawings, and Textiles.
Its permanent collection of nearly 300,000 works of art is augmented by more than 30 special exhibitions mounted yearly that illuminate aspects of the collection and present cutting-edge curatorial and scientific research.

Indian Art in Art Institute of Chicago

Islamic Art in Art Institute of Chicago

Some of the collections of Art Institute of Chicago

Greek in Art Institute of Chicago

Tribal Collection in Art Institute of Chicago

Miniature of current days Chicago Street Arts

Apart from being one of the most diverse Art Museum, this place had witnessed the first ever Parliament of the World's Religions in the year of 1893. On Sept 11th, 1983, Swami Vivekananda delivered his speech in the hall of Art Institute while representing Hindutva in the parliament.
While visiting the hall, where he delivered the speech, it was a real moment for goosebumps for me. It was just like living the moment which I have read, heard about numerous times since childhood.

Entrance of the Hall where Swamiji delivered his speech

Auditorium where Swamiji delivered his speech

The walkway in front of Art Institute of Chicago is also known has the Swami Vivekananda way.


One can also witness the old Chicago Stock Exchange hall inside Art Institute of Chicago.

Chicago Stock Exchange Gate behind Art Institue

Chicago Stock Exchange Hall

Art Institute of Chicago operates between morning 10:30 am to 4:00 pm. Admission fee for Adult is $27.00, Senior citizen, students and Youth (Ages 14 to 17) is $21.00 and below 13 the entry is free. Also, there are some special discounts for Chicago and Illinois residents.To explore the entire Art Institute, it will take easily 4-5 hours.
Willi’s Tower, formerly known as Sears’ Tower is one of the biggest tourist attraction in Chicago. Construction of 1,450-foot Sear’s tower started on during 1970 and got completed by 1973. Since the time the tower got opened, it was the tallest tower in the world till 1998. In the year 2009, the name of Sear’s Tower got changed to Willi’s Tower followed by their new leaseholders.

Willi's Tower

The major attraction of Willi’s Tower is, it's Ledge or Sky Deck, a balcony completely made with glass on the 103rd floor of the tower. While you are at the Ledge, you will definitely get a feel of walking in the sky. It takes some real guts to looks down while you are at the glass balcony. On any clear day, 4 states Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan are visible from the Skydeck.

View from Willi's tower facing north

Before and After Sunset view from Willi's Tower

View from Willi's Towe

At the SkyDeck

Skydeck opens daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. But the best time to visit Skydeck is an hour before sunset. This will provide you the best day view, view of the sunset and the view of Chicago at dark. Admission fee for adult (Ages 12 and up) is $23.00 and youth (Ages 3 to 11) is $15.00.
While you visit Willi’s Tower, just at the corner of the road, you will find Giordano's Pizzeria. While at Chicago one must try Chicago style deep dish pizza and no one makes that better than Giordano.
Assuming it is already dark by the time you finish your visit to Willi’s Tower, the next place you should head to is Buckingham Fountain, built in 192, is one of the largest fountains in the world, built in a rococo wedding cake style and inspired by the Latona Fountain at the Palace of Versailles.
The fountain is considered Chicago's front door since it resides in Grant Park, the city's front yard near the intersection of Columbus Drive and Congress Parkway. The fountain itself represents Lake Michigan, with four sets of sea horses (two per set) symbolizing the four states—Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana—that border the lake.

Buckingham Fountain

It operates from April to October, with regular water shows and evening color-light shows. There is no entry fee.

Day 2: If you are an early riser, then start the day with sunrise at Museum Campus. First ray of the sun on Lake Michigan creates a magical environment. One day I reached there at 5:30 am and spent until 8:30 a.m.


In case you are going for sunrise or not, an early morning trip to Millennium Park would be a great way to start your day. The park will be very calm because of less crowd and one will definitely enjoy the same. The Bean, Chicago’s iconic landmark is situated at the entrance of millennium park.

The Bean(first pic) and other parts of Millenium Park

If you have watched Dhoom 3, you will be able to identify many of the places from the song Tu Hi Junoon at millennium park.
This is another free attraction of Chicago town.
Once you finish your visit to Millennium park and come out, you can have your breakfast at any of the food joints on Michigan Street just opposite to the park. Potbelly is one of the famous and delicious one in Chicago.
All the museums of Museum Campus open by 9:30 a.m. So after breakfast again head back to museum campus to witness some of the world class museums.
The Field Museum was founded in 1893 as the Columbian Museum of Chicago. This three level museum in houses multiple permeant exhibitions like SUE the T. rex, Inside Ancient Egypt, Grainger hall of gems, Hall of Jades, Cyrus Tang Hall of China and much more.

World's largest, most complete T-Rex kept at Field Museum

African Elephants kept at Field Museum

Field museum has a huge collection of different types of dinosaur. During childhood after watching Jurassic Park, I became obsessed about visiting Jurassic Park until I grow up and came to know that can only be a dream, however, that dream partly came true after visiting Field :) 


The Cyrus Tang Hall of China exhibits a unique collection of Chinese warriors, art, and sculptures of China



The ship presented in the last image was a sunken ship which used to be the export trade good and ideas from China.

Grainger hall of gems

Field Museum has a unique collection of stones, gems, and jewelry across the world. The variety of stones and pearls they have will definitely have you awestruck. You name it, they have it. Not to mention the gold neckless in the image is from India.

You might have already found out my personal favorites were SUE the T. rex, Grainger hall of gems, and Cyrus Tang Hall of China.
One can spend an entire day at The Field Museum but 2-3 hours is enough for visiting the museum. The entry fee for an adult is $36, students are $31, children (ages 3 - 11) are $25 and a senior citizen are $31. Sometimes there are free entries for everyone or the Illinois residents.
This is the place which was used was as the “Great Indian Circus” in Dhoom 3. Well, I am not obsessed with Dhoom3 but I am definitely obsessed with Chicago and Bollywood. ☺

The Shedd Aquarium is an indoor public aquarium in Chicago, Illinois in the United States that o.pened on May 30, 1930. The aquarium contains 32,000 animals and was the largest indoor aquarium in the world in the past. Shedd Aquarium was the first inland aquarium with a permanent saltwater fish collection.
Shedd aquarium has multiple excitations like Waters of the World, Caribbean Reef, Amazon Rising, Wild Reef, Stingray Touch, Oceanarium, Fantasea, One World, 4D Theater.

The first picture is blue Lobster is also called American Lobster

Many places of the aquarium have a fishy smell, so if someone is not really comfortable with the smell, should not visit field aquarium. Entry fee for adults is $39.95 and $30.95 for children.
Another place worth visiting in museum campus is Adler Planetarium. But I never visited this place as all the three times I went to museum campus, Adler Planetarium had some private events there and the entry was not allowed.
As visiting museums are a bit tiring, it will be good to head back to the hotel and take some rest. During the evening it would be a great idea to take a stroll at the River Walk or visit Magnificent Mile and State Street, some great shopping places in Chicago. While you are at State Street, you can also witness the iconic Chicago Theater.


Day 3: This day can little relax as most of the visiting places are covered. After waking up and having breakfast, visit
John Hancock Observation Deck, situated on 94th floor of John Hancock Centre in Michigan Avenue. This place is situated at 1000ft above the ground and provides a 360-degree view of Chicago, hence often known as 360 degree Chicago. One can find multiple interactive panoramic touchscreens in seven languages available in John Hancock Observation Deck which will guide which place are you currently in and what are you seeing in front of you.

John Hancock Tower

View of Lake Michigan and Lake Shore Drive from 360 Chicago

View of Trump Tower and Willi's Tower from 360 Chicago

When you are in John Hancock Observation Deck, never ever miss the experience of the Tilt. The tilt is a box window which tilts up to 30 degree. I guess this was built as a competition to the Skydeck in the Willi’s Tower but this place is not as crowded as the Skydeck. Photography in the Tilt is not allowed as they take your pics and you can buy it from them. If you take my suggestion, the photographs are not worth.
Admission fee to the observation deck is $18.45 for adults and $12.15 for children. Tilt tickets cost $6.30 if you book it online and $7 if you book it at the counter. Operating hours for 360 degree Chicago is 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.
If you are interested, then you can visit the Lincoln Park Zoo situated near north Avenue. This place is another free attraction of Chicago.
The must not miss place of Chicago is the Navy Pier, a 3,300-foot-long pier on the Chicago shoreline of Lake Michigan. It is one of the most visited attractions in the entire Midwestern United States and is Chicago's number one tourist attraction. There are multiple attractions available in Navy pier like the Ferry Wheel, Musical carousel, A water park with Lake Michigan Theme, Shakespeare Theater All year long ice skating, Crystal Garden and numerous types of cruises.

View of Navy Pier from 360 degree Chicago

New Ferry Wheel @ Navy Pier

Old Ferry Wheel @ Navy Pier

Musical Carasoul

I doubt there is any photographer who hasn't shot this lighthouse from Navy Pier

The Architectural Tour is definitely a must do if you visit Chicago. The Architectural Tour start at Navy Pier and takes you through the Chicago river flowing between the City and brings back to Navy Pier. They explain history and architecture of the all the famous building in Chicago, a city known as their architectural value most. I promise you will fall in love with this city if you are already not. Some interesting facts I have learned from this tour are

The tower from the right is the highest tower design by a woman. No two floor of the tower has the same balcony

Do I need any introduction?

Marina City or the Twin-Corn headed tower is the first building in the USA to be constructed with Tower Crane

• The Merchandise Mart is so big that the building once had their own Zip code.

Merchandise Mart

• The statue on top of the Chicago Board of Trade building doesn’t have any head as the founders decided the head is quite expensive and one can’t make from the ground that it doesn’t have any head. They were correct indeed ☺ 
And much more which I will let you figure out. 

Even if you are not willing to any of the rides or cruises, Navy Pier is a good place to sit back and relax. There is no entry fee to Navy Pier but each ride and Cruise cost separately.
From Memorial Day (Monday of May) to Labor Day (First Monday of September) Navy Pier holds firework show every Wednesday and Saturday. I have witnessed fireworks at many places in the USA but nothing is comparable to the fireworks show Navy Pier puts together.



Navy pier remains open early morning to late night. Again many scenes of Dhoom 3, especially the one in the fair are shot at Navy Pier.

Special Attraction: If you are visiting Chicago during following times, don't miss

•  Chicago Bridge Lift: There are 27 bridges in the loop area of Chicago. Every year during spring (typically mid-April to mid-June) and Fall (typically from mid-Sept to mid-November) the bridges are life twice a week (Wednesday: 9:30 am and Saturday: 9 a.m.)  The bridge opening schedule can be found in the link.
The best place to witness bridge life is Wacker Drive in front of Merchandise Mart.  

• St. Patricks Day River Dyeing: Every year during 2nd Saturday of March, Chicago celebrates St. Patricks Day in a very unique way. The Chicago river is dyed in the blend of emerald green using 45 pounds of vegetable color and it is a unique way celebrate St. Patricks day in the entire world. River dyeing is followed by a parade started at Buckingham Fountain.
The best place to witness river dye is Columbus and Michigan.

• Chicago Air & Water Show: The Chicago Air & Water Show is an annual air show held on the shore of Lake Michigan in Chicago during third Saturday and Sunday. The show has been held each year since 1959 and is Chicago's second most popular festival after Taste of Chicago.
The best place to witness Air and Water show is North Avenue Beach.

Disclaimer: I was in Chicago during 2015 and 2016. There are changes of rates and timings getting changed with time. I tried to provide as much as details are possible for the trip. For any further clarification please feel free to contact me @ dutshilpi@gmail.com.