Lonely Planet Best Road Trips Midwest & The Great Lakes by Lonely Planet

Author:Lonely Planet
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781837581252
Publisher: Lonely Planet Global Limited
Published: 2023-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

1 The Loop

Art Institute of ChicagoMuseum

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(312-443-3600; www.artic.edu; 111 S Michigan Ave; adult/child $25/free; by reservation 10:30am-5pm Fri-Wed, to 8pm Thu; ; Brown, Orange, Green, Purple, Pink Line to Adams) The Art Institute is the second-largest art museum in the USA. Its collection of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings rivals those in France, and the number of surrealist works is tremendous. Download the free app for DIY audio tours; it offers several quick-hit jaunts, from highlights (including Georges Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte and Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks) to architecture and pop-art tours. Allow two hours to browse the must-sees; art buffs should allocate much longer.

Millennium ParkPark

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(312-742-1168; www.millenniumpark.org; 201 E Randolph St; 6am-11pm; ; Brown, Orange, Green, Purple, Pink Line to Washington/Wabash) The city’s showpiece is a trove of free and arty sights. It includes Pritzker Pavilion (map Google map), Frank Gehry’s swooping silver band shell, which hosts free weekly concerts in summer (6:30pm; bring a picnic and bottle of wine); Anish Kapoor’s beloved silvery sculpture Cloud Gate (map Google map), aka the ‘Bean’; and Jaume Plensa’s Crown Fountain (map Google map), a de facto water park that projects video images of locals spitting water, gargoyle-style.

Willis TowerTower

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(312-875-9696; www.theskydeck.com; 233 S Wacker Dr; adult/child $24/16; 9am-10pm Mar-Sep, 10am-8pm Oct-Feb, last entry 30min prior; Brown, Orange, Purple, Pink Line to Quincy) It’s Chicago’s tallest building, and the 103rd-floor Skydeck puts you high into the heavens. Take the ear-popping, 70-second elevator ride to the top and then step onto one of the glass-floored ledges jutting out into mid-air for a knee-buckling perspective straight down. On clear days the view sweeps over four states. The entrance is on Jackson Blvd. Queues can take up to an hour on busy days (peak times are in summer, between 11am and 4pm Friday through Sunday).

Route 66 SignHistoric Site

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(E Adams St, btwn S Michigan & Wabash Aves; Brown, Orange, Green, Purple, Pink Line to Adams) Attention Route 66 buffs: the Mother Road begins in downtown Chicago. Look for the ‘Historic 66 Begin’ sign at the northwestern corner of Adams St and Michigan Ave, across from the Art Institute. (There’s another sign at the end of the block, but this one is a replica of the original.) From Chicago the route traverses 2400 miles to Los Angeles, past neon signs, mom-and-pop motels and pie-and-coffee diners…but it all starts here.

Route 66 sign

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