Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum

The Adler Planetarium - America's First Planetarium - was founded in 1930 by Chicago business leader Max Adler. The museum is home to three full-size theaters, extensive space science exhibitions, and one of the world's most important antique astronomical instrument collections on display.

Art Institute of Chicago

The Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) is an encyclopedic fine art museum. The Art Institute has one of the world's most notable collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art in its permanent collection. Its diverse holdings also include significant Old Master works, American art, European and American decorative arts, Asian art and modern and contemporary art.

Chicago Children's Museum

The mission of Chicago Children's Museum is to create a community where play and learning connect.The museum was founded in 1982 by a coalition led by The Junior League of Chicago in response to program cutbacks in the city's public schools. Located on Navy Pier since 1995, Chicago Children's Museum is now one of the city's top cultural attractions and the second most-visited children's museum in the country. CCM serves more than 700,000 annually, both on-site and in communities throughout Chicago, particularly in areas with limited access to the museum's rich array of resources.

Chicago Cultural Center

Drawn by its beauty and the fabulous free public events, hundreds of thousands of visitors come to the Chicago Cultural Center every year, making it one of the most visited attractions in Chicago. The stunning landmark building is home to two magnificent stained-glass domes, as well as free music, dance and theater events, films, lectures, art exhibitions and family events.

DuSable Museum of African American History

The DuSable Museum of African American History, the first and oldest institution of its kind in the country, has been dedicated to the collection, preservation, interpretation and dissemination of the history and culture of Africans and Americans of African descent for more than 46 years.

Field Museum of Natural History

Muse-see exhibits in the Field Museum include:
* Sue, the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus currently known
* A comprehensive set of human cultural anthropology exhibits, including artifacts from ancient Egypt, the Pacific Northwest and Tibet
* A large and diverse taxidermy collection, featuring many large animals, including two prized African elephants and the infamous Lions of Tsavo, featured in the 1996 movie "The Ghost and the Darkness"
* A large collection of dinosaurs in the Evolving Planet exhibit
* A large collection of Native American artifacts

Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio

More than one hundred years ago, Frank Lloyd Wright sparked an architectural revolution with the opening of his studio in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois. Every year thousands of tourists visit the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in Oak Park, and Wright's Robie House on the University of Chicago campus. Both sites are National Historic Landmarks, managed by the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust as accredited museums. The Home and Studio is a fully restored historic site that can be experienced via guided tours.

Chicago History Museum

The Chicago History Museum stands at the crossroads of America's past and its future. If you live in Chicago or visit here and are curious about the city's past, present, and future, the Museum should be your first stop. The Chicago History Museum cares for, showcases, and interprets millions of authentic pieces of Chicago and U.S. history. Its ability to illuminate the past is a reminder of what really happened once upon a time, sheds light on the present, and compellingly informs the future.

Garfield Park Conservatory

The Garfield Park Conservatory is home to the Garfield Park Conservatory, one of the largest and most impressive conservatories in the United States. Often referred to as "landscape art under glass," the Garfield Park Conservatory occupies approximately 4.5 acres (18,000) inside and out and contains a number of permanent plant exhibits incorporating specimens from around the world (including some ferns that are over 300 years old). Additionally, thousands of plants are grown there each year for displays in Chicago parks and public spaces.

Illinois Holocaust Museum ghj_amp Education Center

The Illinois Holocaust Museum ghj_amp Education Center is a project of the Holocaust Memorial Foundation of Illinois. This new world-class museum is dedicated to preserving the memories of those lost in the Holocaust and teaching current generations about the need to fight hatred, indifference and genocide in today's world.

Museum of Science ghj_amp Industry

Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, mone of the largest science museums in the world, is home to more than 35,000 artifacts and nearly 14 acres of hands-on exhibits designed to spark scientific inquiry and creativity. Among its diverse and expansive exhibits, the Museum features a working coal mine, a German submarine (U-505) captured during World War II, a 3,500-square-foot (330 m2) model railroad, the first diesel-powered streamlined stainless-steel passenger train (Pioneer Zephyr), and a NASA spacecraft used on the Apollo 8 mission.

International Museum of Surgical Science

The International Museum of Surgical Science is a museum located in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. It is operated by the International College of Surgeons and features exhibits dealing with various aspects of Eastern and Western medicine. It was founded by Dr. Max Thorek in 1954.

Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum

The museum's exhibits include displays about the ecological history of the Illinois region, a live butterfly house, and a green home demonstration. The butterfly house features more than 200 species of exotic butterflies. The museum also offers more than 100 educational programs for adults and children.

Lincoln Park Zoo

Lincoln Park Zoo is dedicated to connecting people with nature by providing a free, family-oriented wildlife experience in the heart of Chicago, and by exhibiting leadership and advancing the highest quality of animal care, education, science and conservation.

Shedd Aquarium

The John G. Shedd Aquarium is an indoor public aquarium that opened on May 30, 1930. The aquarium contains over 25,000 fish, and was for some time the largest indoor aquarium in the world with 5,000,000 US gallons (19,000,000) of water. The Shedd Aquarium was the first inland aquarium with a permanent saltwater fish collection. It is surrounded by Museum Campus Chicago, which it shares with the Adler Planetarium and the Field Museum of Natural History. It contains 1500 species including fish, marine mammals, birds, snakes, amphibians, and insects.

Broadway in Chicago

The easiest way to see the Best of Broadway! Broadway theater will ignite your night on the town and put you in the middle of the excitement of Chicago tourism. Broadway In Chicago is the source for terrific seats to the most exciting shows in Chicago's bustling Downtown Theater District. On the stages of the Ford Center for the Performing Arts/Oriental Theatre, the Cadillac Palace Theatre, the Bank of America Theatre, the Auditorium Theatre and the Broadway Playhouse, you will discover theater productions direct from Broadway and world premieres of productions destined for Broadway.

Chicago Theatre

The legendary Chicago Theatre, whose famous C-H-I-C-A-G-O marquee lights up State Street, plays host to concerts, comedians, special events, and theatrical productions,and more recently the brand new production from Cirque du Soleil, Banana Shpeel. You can also take a peek behind-the-scenes on the venue's Marquee Tour, which highlights the history of the building from its landmark opening in 1921 to today.

Harris Theater for Performance and Dance

The Harris Theater for Performance and Dance features world-renowned dance and music institutions and hosts acclaimed national and international companies in its state-of-the-art setting at the north end of Millennium Park.

MetroWalkz Self-Guided Walking Tours

Discover Chicago at your pace, on your schedule! MetroWalkz.com's numerous self-guided walking tours with easy-to-use maps and insider narratives make sightseeing a breeze. Current tours include Loop Architecture, Millennium Park, Grant Park / Art Institute, Magnificent Mile, Navy Pier, Museum Campus, Chinatown, Gold Coast and Near North / Old Town.

Millennium Park

Millennium Park is an award-winning center for art, music, architecture and landscape design. The result of a unique partnership between the City of Chicago and the philanthropic community, the 24.5-acre Park features the work of world-renowned architects, planners, artists and designers. Among Millennium Park's prominent features are the Frank Gehry-designed Jay Pritzker Pavilion, the most sophisticated outdoor concert venue of its kind in the United States; the interactive Crown Fountain by Jaume Plensa; the contemporary Lurie Garden designed by the team of Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd, Piet Oudolf and Robert Israel; and Anish Kapoor's hugely popular Cloud Gate sculpture.

Navy Pier

Historic Navy Pier