What Are the Top Tours to Take in Chicago?

Hey there, fellow adventurers and culture vultures! 🌟

Cuz you know that Chicago is more than deep-dish pizza (not that that’s not on the agenda). Architecture, food, jazz: the Windy City has it all, but Chicago’s best tours are sure to plunge you deeper into that mind-warping mixture of creativity and meat that’s Chicago’s style. You’ll laugh, you’ll learn, you’ll eat. Buckle up, Chicago’s in town.

Architectural Boat Tour

First, strap on your life jacket (haha, no you don’t) and climb aboard the Architectural Boat Tour! Cruise around on the Chicago River and gaze up at the city’s spectacular skyline, with guides on board telling you all what to look at, from the Willis Tower to the Tribune Tower to the Wrigley Building.

As long as Chicago’s weather cooperates, breeze at your back, a hundred pics of downtown Chicago’s most iconic architecture – snapped through windows, for that Insta-worthy angle – will fly off your camera, and leave you a downtown architecture history geek, akin to your cruise’s knowledgeable guide-slash-purser. Or, hell, just a regular person on a boat. In any case, you’ll never look at a building the same way again.

Food Tasting Experience

Time to unbuckle that belt because we are stuffing our faces in Chicago’s finest restaurants on a Food Tasting Experience! This isn’t just a tour – it’s a gastronomical adventure! Get ready to try the best of Chicago’s classic dishes, like deep-dish pizza, Chicago hot dogs, and Italian beef. Oh yeah.

Taste the treats you won’t find in the tourist brochures and then savour what has become of the city’s cooking traditions. You’re not just eating here (although that’s a big part of it). You’re learning what Chicago’s rich ethnic fabric has done for its food. You’ll leave full and maybe just a little wiser about this foodie mecca.

Historic Walking Tour

Time to sue for time travelling? Get into your walking shoes, leave your SLR camera at home, and join the Historic Walking Tour of Chicago’s icons and mysteries, led by a dynamic orator that follows the caharted avenues past the Tribune Tower, the Wrigley Building, the old Water Tower.

Hear the story of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and how it altered the city’s architecture. Explore Millennium Park and get up close to the Cloud Gate (aka ‘The Bean’). Walk in the footsteps of the city’s gang history, visiting the site of the St Valentine’s Day Massacre. This is a tour steeped in history and intrigue, but also a glimpse into the soul of Chicago, past and present.

Art and Culture Excursion

For art and culture buffs, the Art and Culture Excursion is your ticket to a veritable cultural smorgasbord: start at The Art Institute of Chicago, home to Grant Wood’s colossally canned American Gothic, as well as to Georges Seurat’s expansive, pointillist A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (1884).

Go to the Museum of Contemporary Art to see the latest installations and watch artists in action. Check out the murals in Pilsen, with their bursts of colour and Mexican heritage. See the vibrant streets of Bronzeville where the great jazz musicians of the Depression-era, such as Nat King Cole and Earl Hines, found their roots.

See a performance at the Chicago Theatre or at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. A ‘skyscraper tour’ of many of the tallest buildings built in the 19th century is another sensory extravaganza that can’t fail to inspire and delight.

When you are ready, pick up your luggage, charge your phone battery and camera, and let’s venture to Chicago. There is a tour for you, no matter what you are here for – architecture, food, history or art. Let’s go creating memories. 🌟