Navy Pier
600 East Grand Avenue, Chicago
Cost: Free
Hours: November to May, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; May to October, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 10 a.m. to 12 a.m. Friday-Saturday.
Stretching more than a half-mile into Lake Michigan, the Navy Pier is a popular attraction for guests and locals alike. The pier area welcomes more than 5 million visitors who come to ride its 150-foot Ferris wheel and old-fashioned carousel, see an IMAX movie, take sightseeing and dinner cruises or simply stroll its lovely lakefront location. Its concert dome, Skyline Stage, seats 1,500 and presents performances from May through October. The 170,000-square foot festival hall hosts several distinguished annual events, and a six-story glass atrium contains Crystal Gardens, the pier's one-acre enclosed botanical garden. More info

Art Institute of Chicago
111 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago
312-443-3600
Hours: 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday; 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday
Cost: $8 adults, $5 seniors and children
Masterpieces from Monet and Degas are housed in a vast, world-class collection that also features African, American-Indian and Asian works, decorative arts and sculpture, photography, prints, textiles, and contemporary American painting. Free lectures are open to the public on Tuesday evenings.

The Field Museum
1400 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago
312-922-9410
Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily
Cost: $7 adults, $3 children aged 3-17 and students with ID
The Field is Chicago's crowning museum of natural history, with exhibits on everything from dinosaurs to African culture to gems and minerals. Visitors can observe as geologists work on a million-year-old fossilized dinosaur, painstakingly removing its bones from the rock and assembling them for display. The "Life Over Time" display documents the changing weather patterns that contributed to the formation of the earth's environment, and other exhibits explore the various cultures of the world's population.

Lincoln Park Zoo
2001 N. Clark Street, Chicago
312-742-2000
Cost: Free; $7 per car to park
Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily
The oldest zoo in the country, Lincoln Park Zoo is still free to visitors. But its greatest asset is its vast collection - 1,200 animals - and its dedication to teaching conservation and protection of wildlife. The zoo's Lester E. Fisher Great Ape House is considered one of the finest gorilla exhibits in the world. Other visitor favorites include the Sea Lion Pool, the Bird House (where feathered friends surround their homo sapiens visitors) and the Penguin and Seabird House. And of course, there are plenty of elephants, giraffes and rhinos. More info

Sears Tower
233 S. Wacker Drive, Chicago
312-875-9447
Cost: $8.50 adults, $6.50 seniors, $5.50 children aged 5-12
Hours: October-February, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m daily; March-September, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily
The tallest building in North America and still one of the tallest in the world, the Sears Tower soars 110 stories to 1,454 feet. Completed in 1973, the tower was built by 12,000 workers in fierce Chicago winds, which became a more significant challenge the higher the structure rose. The newly opened Skydeck on the 103rd floor, offers 80-mile views on a clear day. It also presents a number of educational exhibits on Chicago history, the Great Chicago Fire and the city's founding fathers and mothers. More info

The Hancock Observatory
875 N. Michigan Avenue
John Hancock Center, Chicago
888-875-8439
Cost: $8.50 adults, $6 seniors and children aged 5-12
Hours: 9 a.m. to 12 a.m. daily
It's not the tallest building in Chicago, but the 100-story Hancock Tower is worth a visit for its magnificent cityscapes and the interesting interactive exhibits on its 94th floor. Visitors take a speedy elevator ride to the observation level, where "Soundscope" viewers give a narrated account (in one of four languages) of what you're seeing through the telescope. Adults will enjoy the Signature Lounge, a 96th-floor watering hole with a lakeside view. More info

John G. Shedd Aquarium
1200 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago
312-939-2438
Hours: June-August, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily; September through May, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily
Cost: $11 adults, $9 seniors and children aged 3-11
Visitors to the Shedd Aquarium should be sure to stop by around feeding time to watch divers distribute dinner to the various eels, rays, sea turtles and fish that make its Tropical Coral Reef home. Nearly 8,000 aquatic animals - fresh and salt-water alike - are part of the Shedd's collection, and nearly 2 million visitors make the journey to the world's largest indoor aquarium each year. More info

Magnificent Mile
North Michigan Avenue, Chicago
800-232-5558
A mecca for shoppers, Magnificent Mile runs along North Michigan Avenue to Lincoln Park and rivals Rodeo Drive and Worth Avenue for world-class shopping and restaurants. Comforting names like The Gap accompany upscale Armani and FAO Schwatrz on the list of 60 well-known retail establishments to line this spending paradise. Three shopping malls are also nearby, and each is worthy of the Magnificent Mile's high-class shopping reputation, and magnificent restaurants and five-star hotels are happy to serve weary shoppers.

Hull House Museum
800 S. Halsted Street, Chicago
312-413-5353
Cost: Free
Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday; 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday
Honored with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931, Jane Addams did what no one before her had thought to do. She moved into one of Chicago's tenement neighborhoods and opened a "settlement house" to help meet the economic and social needs of her neighbors and to encourage their involvement in improving their own community. During the height of its activity, Hull House included a library, gymnasium, theater and an art gallery. The museum, snuggled in the heart of the University of Illinois-Chicago, consists of two of the original 13 buildings, one an Arts and Crafts-style dining hall built in 1905.

Chicago Botanical Gardens
100 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe
847-835-5440
Cost: Free; $7 per car to park, $5 for seniors
Hours: 8 a.m. to sunset daily
Whatever your taste in gardens, you will find it here. The 385-acre property includes a suitably romantic English Garden, a thoughtful Japanese paradise, and indoor greenhouses the duplicate the atmosphere of the desert as well as the rainforest. A 45-foot waterfall cascades through the Waterfall Garden and the pools in quiet areas that enhance reflection and relaxation. A visit to the Chicago Botanical Gardens is a learning experience as well; courses and lectures are almost always available, and a walk through the Endangered Species Garden teaches about preservation of plant species hovering on the edge of existence.