Illinois Travel Guide
The Chicago skyline from Lake Michigan. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
Illinois is Chicago plus the prairie that made it. Chicago is America's great architecture city: the first skyscrapers, Frank Lloyd Wright's Oak Park, the riverwalk, Millennium Park's Bean, and a blues and jazz scene that shaped modern music.
Downstate: Springfield's Lincoln sites (the presidential library and his home), the start of Route 66, Starved Rock's canyons, and the college towns of Champaign-Urbana. The Great River Road follows the Mississippi along the state's western edge.
Destinations in Illinois
Architecture river cruiseThe First Lady cruise: 90 minutes through 130 years of skyscrapers.
Art Institute of ChicagoThe Impressionist collection and the Chagall windows; a world top-ten museum.
Millennium Park and the BeanCloud Gate, the Crown Fountain and the Jay Pritzker Pavilion.- Blues clubsKingston Mines, Buddy Guy's Legends: the living Chicago blues scene.
- Lincoln sites, SpringfieldThe presidential library and museum plus Lincoln's home.
- Starved Rock State ParkSandstone canyons and waterfalls 90 minutes southwest of Chicago.
- Navy Pier and the lakefrontThe 18-mile Lakefront Trail and the pier's Centennial Wheel.
- Route 66The Mother Road begins at Adams and Michigan in Chicago.
Hover a state to explore it. Click a city pin to open its guide.
Top Cities & towns in Illinois
Regional food
- Chicago deep-dish pizza (the buttery, caramelized-crust pie)
- Chicago-style hot dog (dragged through the garden, never ketchup)
- Italian beef (dipped, with giardiniera)
Getting there
Chicago O'Hare (ORD) is a global hub; Midway (MDW) handles domestic. The L connects the airports to downtown. Amtrak radiates to Springfield, St. Louis and Milwaukee.