Museum Campus and South Loop

Chicago, on the southwest shore of Lake Michigan, is where the skyscraper was born. After the Great Fire of 1871 the city rebuilt fast, and the Home Insurance Building of 1885 is generally counted as the first modern high-rise. Architecture is still the main draw, along with the lakefront museums and a food scene built on deep-dish pizza and Italian beef.Downtown is the Loop, named for the elevated tracks that circle the business district. Millennium Park and Cloud Gate, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Riverwalk are all within a few blocks. The best introduction is the Chicago Architecture Center's 90-minute river cruise, which passes more than 50 buildings. It runs from mid-March into the fall; book ahead for summer weekends.For the view from the top you have two choices: the Skydeck on the 103rd floor of Willis Tower, with the glass boxes of The Ledge, or 360 Chicago on the 94th floor on the Magnificent Mile, closer to the lake. From O'Hare, the Blue Line runs 24 hours a day and reaches downtown in 40 to 45 minutes; from Midway, the Orange Line takes 20 to 25 minutes.The neighborhoodsThe Loop and Millennium Park: downtown, with Chicago School skyscrapers, plaza art and the lakefront parks.River North, Magnificent Mile and Streeterville: just north of the river, with the big shopping strip, galleries, steakhouses and most of the hotels.Museum Campus and South Loop: the aquarium and planetarium on the lake, Printers Row and jazz clubs.Wicker Park and Logan Square: residential neighborhoods on the Blue Line with record stores, restaurants, cocktail bars and The 606 trail.

The Loop is Chicago's downtown, wedged between the Chicago River and Lake Michigan and named for the elevated tracks that circle it. Come for more than a century of skyscraper architecture, public art on every other plaza, and the lakefront parks.The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 leveled nearly everything here, and the rebuild gave rise to the Chicago School of architecture. Within a few blocks, 1880s office towers stand next to Mies van der Rohe glass boxes. To the east, Grant Park, Millennium Park and Maggie Daley Park run along the lake.Millennium Park and Cloud Gate, the Art Institute, Willis Tower and the Riverwalk are covered on the main Chicago page. On weekdays the Loop is packed with office workers; evenings and weekends the side streets go quiet, except for the theater district around State Street.

River North, the Magnificent Mile and Streeterville sit just north of the Chicago River, between the river, the lake and Chicago Avenue. This is where most visitors stay, and where you'll find the big shopping streets, hotels, restaurants and galleries.The Magnificent Mile is the stretch of North Michigan Avenue from the river up to Oak Street, lined with department stores and flagship shops. To the west, River North is a former warehouse district now full of galleries, steakhouses and bars. East toward the lake, Streeterville is high-rise apartments, the hospital district and Northwestern's downtown campus.Navy Pier and 360 Chicago are covered on the main Chicago page. If you're picking one area for your hotel, this is the most practical: the Loop, the lakefront and the Red Line are all within walking distance.

Wicker Park and Logan Square sit northwest of downtown on the Blue Line, 15 to 25 minutes from the Loop. Come for the record stores, bookshops and vintage boutiques, restaurants locals cross town for, and bars that often stay open until 2 a.m.Wicker Park centers on Six Corners, where Milwaukee, Damen and North avenues meet, with Bucktown just to the north. Farther northwest, Logan Square has wide boulevards, greystone two-flats and the Illinois Centennial Monument. The 606, an elevated trail, ties the two together.Both are residential neighborhoods without big-ticket sights. The draw is browsing, eating and going out, so come in the late afternoon and stay into the evening.

Illinois runs from Lake Michigan in the northeast to the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in the south and west. Once you leave Chicago, the highlights are Abraham Lincoln's Springfield, the Mississippian earthworks across the river from St. Louis, and the sandstone canyons along the Illinois River.Springfield, the state capital, is the place for Lincoln: his home, his tomb and the Presidential Museum are all close together, and one full day covers the essentials. It sits on old Route 66, about a 3.5-hour drive from Chicago.Cahokia Mounds, near Collinsville and about 15 minutes from downtown St. Louis, was the largest city north of Mexico around 1100. You can climb the roughly 100-foot Monks Mound by a staircase. The grounds and parking are free and open daily from dawn to dusk.Starved Rock State Park, about 100 miles southwest of Chicago, has 18 sandstone canyons, eight with waterfalls that run best from March through June. In the northwest, the old lead-mining town of Galena has Ulysses S. Grant's home; down south, the hills of Shawnee National Forest are a different Illinois altogether.