A lot of tourists seem to think Chicago is basically shopping on Michigan Ave and wandering around Navy Pier. It's an option, but there's a lot more.
It'd take forever to string together everything you could do in a day in Chicago, but here's a few helpful links and some of my personal favs.
The Chicago folks on reddit have already done a great job at putting together a great list:
https://www.reddit.com/r/chicago/wiki/activities
You can also search for the 26th on Metromix.com to see 22 pages of possible things/activities, which I did for this link:
http://chicago.metromix.com/browse/events/dates:2016-03-26-to-2016-03-26
Here are some of my favorites, from the perspective of a late 20s guy:
-Lincoln Park Zoo -- free, close to downtown and yay animals
-Second City shows -- sketch comedy, where SNL mines all their talent. Still tickets available for Saturday night, and they will sell out. Highly recommended.
-Gorilla Tango Burlesque shows -- see a Star Wars themed burlesque show
-Headquarters Barcade -- this one has two locations, and overall we have a lot of arcade bars full of old school arcade games
-Architectural Tour -- Ride the Chicago river and learn about the buildings/Chicago history
-Tons of smaller comedy shows / improv / stand up / drinking shows (see Metromix)
-The museums/aquarium are great for families, and I like them in general, but if you're not with kids I wouldn't say they're must see, just a good option
-Escape Rooms -- These are tons of fun. Format is, they usually lock you up in a room with an hour-ish to escape, and you race as a team to solve the real world puzzle. We have a lot of different versions, you'll just have to google "Escape Room Chicago" and find something that isn't sold out
Too hard to go through all the food recos (I mean, everything is so good), but if you find yourself wanting to try Chicago deep dish pizza, going early will save you lots of time (wait list really picks up around 6:30, by 7 it's over an hour everywhere, and I imagine basketball games on won't help with that). My favorites are Pequod's > Lou Malnatis (try "The Lou" even if you think you had vegetarian dishes) >> Gino's East >>>> Uno / Duo >>>>>>>>>>> Giordano's. Most of those have several locations to choose from depending on where you're staying/going.
Anyway just wanted to give people here for the weekend a place to start!
It'd take forever to string together everything you could do in a day in Chicago, but here's a few helpful links and some of my personal favs.
The Chicago folks on reddit have already done a great job at putting together a great list:
https://www.reddit.com/r/chicago/wiki/activities
You can also search for the 26th on Metromix.com to see 22 pages of possible things/activities, which I did for this link:
http://chicago.metromix.com/browse/events/dates:2016-03-26-to-2016-03-26
Here are some of my favorites, from the perspective of a late 20s guy:
-Lincoln Park Zoo -- free, close to downtown and yay animals
-Second City shows -- sketch comedy, where SNL mines all their talent. Still tickets available for Saturday night, and they will sell out. Highly recommended.
-Gorilla Tango Burlesque shows -- see a Star Wars themed burlesque show
-Headquarters Barcade -- this one has two locations, and overall we have a lot of arcade bars full of old school arcade games
-Architectural Tour -- Ride the Chicago river and learn about the buildings/Chicago history
-Tons of smaller comedy shows / improv / stand up / drinking shows (see Metromix)
-The museums/aquarium are great for families, and I like them in general, but if you're not with kids I wouldn't say they're must see, just a good option
-Escape Rooms -- These are tons of fun. Format is, they usually lock you up in a room with an hour-ish to escape, and you race as a team to solve the real world puzzle. We have a lot of different versions, you'll just have to google "Escape Room Chicago" and find something that isn't sold out
Too hard to go through all the food recos (I mean, everything is so good), but if you find yourself wanting to try Chicago deep dish pizza, going early will save you lots of time (wait list really picks up around 6:30, by 7 it's over an hour everywhere, and I imagine basketball games on won't help with that). My favorites are Pequod's > Lou Malnatis (try "The Lou" even if you think you had vegetarian dishes) >> Gino's East >>>> Uno / Duo >>>>>>>>>>> Giordano's. Most of those have several locations to choose from depending on where you're staying/going.
Anyway just wanted to give people here for the weekend a place to start!
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