Hitting all the best attractions of a city in one day can seem like quite the undertaking, especially when it’s the third largest city in the United States. There are hundreds of attractions in the city, but with so little time it’s best to search for the staple attractions. This article is about how a friend and me experienced the best of the windy city in less than 24 hours.

PLANNING

A few months prior to our trip, we purchased our tickets for the Amtrak online at around $30 a person each way, so $60 round trip. We also found a ticket book online called CityPASS, which saved us a ton on admission to several attractions. The CityPASS cost us $100 and included admission to The Shedd Aquarium, Skydeck Chicago, and The Field Museum. It also included two more ticket options of either the Museum of Science and Industry or 360 Chicago, and The Adler Planetarium or The Art Institute of Chicago. Five admission tickets to these major attractions for $100 saves a ton compared to purchasing these tickets individually.

MapQuest played a major role in the time management and cost aspect of the trip. I planned the order of the attractions we visited by their distance from each other. If a destination was around a mile from the attraction we visited, we walked, if it was any further we took a taxi to save time. It also helped to have the addresses of each stop at our fingertips.

ARRIVAL

We arrived to Union Station in Chicago at 10:00 am Chicago time, almost an hour late due to Amtrak delays. No worries, I planned ahead and made a second schedule in case of delays, since delays are not unusual for Amtrak. We hailed a cab and arrived at our first attraction, the Field Museum, within 15 minutes. We spent an hour and a half checking out all the awesome exhibits that ranged from dinosaurs, to Egyptian artifacts, to a fashion exhibit. The museum had a food court where we had a quick lunch.

Right behind the Field Museum sits Shedd Aquarium, our next stop. Our tickets allowed us to skip the general admission line so we got in much faster. We spent an hour and half checking out the thousands of species of aquatic life at the largest aquarium in the world. Once we finished exploring the endless tanks of fish, we were ready to catch a taxi to the Art Institute of Chicago – if only it was that easy.

After an hour of wondering around that area of Chicago, we finally got a taxi and made it to the Art Institute of Chicago around 3pm. The Art Institute had rooms upon rooms of beautiful artwork by artists I’ve never heard of and also had some pieces I had seen only in textbooks or movies, which was awesome to see them in person. We spent around an hour there, and we could probably have stayed another hour or two given more time, but we had enough time to admire a majority of the art.

In the backyard of the Art Institute is one of Chicago’s most well known free attractions, The Bean sculpture. We walked under it, touched it and snapped a bunch of photos for about half an hour, then moved on because you can only admire a sculpture for so long.

After a 20 minute walk we made it to the Willis Tower where we skipped the lines with our VIP pass tickets and rode the elevator 110 stories up to the top. The view from the Skydeck rises above all others in Chicago, as it is the tallest building in the city, and was at one point the tallest in the world. They also have glass boxes that jut out above the city called “The Ledge” which is included with you ticket, and lets you stand more than 100 stories above the streets below – a crazy experience.

An hour and a half later our hunger took over and it was time for dinner, so in true Chicago tourist fashion we got a cab to the nearest Giordano’s Chicago style pizza restaurant. Giordano’s is one of Chicago’s most popular chain restaurants and it showed; we waited an hour for just the two of us to be seated. The wait was well worth it though once the beautiful cheesy pizza arrived. We still had a few slices left, so we took them to go.

Our final attraction was the third tallest building in Chicago at an attraction called 360 Chicago, located in the John Hancock building. We hopped out of the taxi and rode up 1000 feet to a 360-degree view of the city around us. I had never experienced Chicago at night, but it was beautiful seeing all of the buildings lit up against the night sky. We paid an extra $7 to experience the “Tilt”, which is an observation ride that leans visitors out over the streets below, much like the ledge in the Willis Tower but moving.

We admired the nighttime Chicago skyline for about an hour before we had to grab our last taxi to Union Station for our 9:30pm Amtrak. After spending only twelve hours in the windy city we had successfully visited several of the most popular attractions.

THOUGHTS & TIPS

The total cost per person was around $250 for the trip, which included our CityPASS admission tickets, Amtrak tickets, lunch and dinner costs, taxi fares and other miscellaneous purchases. Although the cost seems a little pricey at first glance, we saved almost $110 compared to singular regular admission tickets for the attractions, and saved around $200 if we were to buy the Fast Pass and VIP tickets individually. The Amtrak and taxis cost us more than if we were to drive, but Chicago’s streets are a nightmare to navigate and parking would have been a disaster, so we averted that crisis for a little more money.

Next time I go to Chicago I would definitely get the CityPASS again because of the amount of things you get to experience with the pass and the expedience the VIP and Fast Passes for each attraction provides. The CityPASS tickets can be used over time as well, so if you don’t make it to any of the attractions you can always come back within a few months and use those tickets. However, I think next time I might consider taking the Megabus if I were to plan early enough instead of the Amtrak, they have fares for as low as $1 to many locations, which could save a decent amount on travel. It is also important to dress appropriately for the weather and carry a small drawstring bag with possible necessities.

By the time we made it to the Amtrak that night, we were exhausted, but it was beyond worth it because of the experience. If you have been considering on taking on Chicago in a day, I would definitely recommend it, it’s a strong concentrated dose of the windy city served in a short-but-sweet timespan.

HELPFUL LINKS TO PLAN YOUR TRIP:

CityPASS Chicago: http://www.citypass.com/chicago

MapQuest: https://www.mapquest.com/directions

Amtrak: https://www.amtrak.com/home

Megabus: http://us.megabus.com