Chicago is personal. It’s dear to my heart because it was my first real experience abroad, I lived here for a year, I have friends here and therefore it will always feel like home. They were right when they said: ‘Home is where your heart is’. I could write a million things about this city, but then this would be the world’s longest blog post and we all don’t really want that. Instead, I will try to purely focus on the highlights of my last visit and add some extras that you should be doing, while staying in Chicago. So, here we go – my big city blues.

Chicago – My kind of City

First up, just a few things when thinking about traveling to Chicago. Chicago has four seasons, however the most dominant ones are summer and winter. Fall is relatively short and the weather can be a little difficult sometimes. In my opinion, the best time to visit the city is between May and September. Spring and summers in Chicago are absolutely amazing: Lake Michigan, festivals, downtown, Millennium Park, Zoo and much more. Visiting during Winter and Fall is, as I said, a little more tricky: you can either have really nice or really shitty days and it will, for sure, be cold. BUT, no matter what time of year, the city has a lot to offer, indoors and outdoors, and never disappoints (at least in my opinion).

As I said before in my prepping post, this year was a completely new experience for me as I brought my sister to the US with me. She has never been before and I was excited and a little anxious to show her my favorite city. Of course, whenever you are showing people something that you love, you kinda hope that they will enjoy it just as much as you do (she loved it). Also, I’ve never stayed downtown but always lived with my friends during my visits, so this was new and kinda cool as well.

We flew into Chicago from New York City on Tuesday and stayed at the Hampton Inn Downtown/N Look/Michigan Ave right around the corner from Michigan Ave, next to the HardRock Cafe and 5 minutes walking distance from Millennium Park. Really, the location couldn’t have been better. It’s a hotel that cooperates with the Hilton hotel, the lobby is relatively old school but cute, the rooms were very comfy and the service was excellent. The only downer was breakfast (between 6-10), which was very basic with plastic forks and knives, and our view, as we faced another office building. I would totally recommend staying there, employees are super friendly and the location makes it perfect to discover downtown.

On our first day, the first thing we did was, of course, eat. And not just anything, but when in Chicago you need to eat Deep Dish pizza. We went to Pizano’s Pizza & Pasta on Madison Ave, which is pretty good, but you can really go to so many other places in Chicago, it’s just a must do. After lunch, we started walking around from Millennium Park, the bean, over to Buckingham Fountain and then all the way along Lake Michigan to Navy Pier. It’s such a beautiful walk and you have the perfect view to see the skyline without being on a boat (which you can also do, but summer time is way nicer to do so). Navy Pier is fun to just walk through, have something to eat and drink and enjoy the amazing view over the skyline. I feel, however, that it is a little overrated when it comes to things to do there. It’s just really touristy and you have loads of shops (where you can buy overpriced Bulls, Blackhawks, Cubs or Bears shirts), but besides that, it’s really not that exciting. I rather like to walk up to the Ohio Street beach (way smaller than North Michigan beach, but still pretty nice) from Navy Pier, where you can just chill, sit at the bar and enjoy the sun during summer time.

Other things that you could, should, would do when in Chicago, is go visit one of the numerous museums there (Museum of Science & Industry, Natural History, Chicago Children’s Museum at Navy Pier, Art Institute of Chicago, Contemporary Art and so on and on and on), the library, climb Willis or Hancock tower, see the aquarium or visit the Adler-planetarium (of course many more, but these are the most likely ones that everybody will visit).

Afterwards, we walked all the way to Watertower place, which is a big mall right up on Michigan Ave, and from there all the way back to the hotel. Michigan Ave is the main street Chicago downtown when it comes to shopping. If you want to have more peace and quiet to shop, you can also check out suburbs around Chicago. We usually went to Westfield Old Orchard and I also liked visiting shops and little boutiques in and around Evanston. There are also a bunch of bigger outlet malls, like Gurnee Mills, which are a little further away, but you can definitely reach them by car. I feel like you either love or hate outlet malls. I am more on the hate side, messy shops and hysteric shopper make me extremely uncomfortable. But if you love it and are looking for the ultimate deal, its definitely your place to be.

On Wednesday, we visited Kenilworth, which is a tiny suburb of Chicago where I used to live during my time as an AuPair, approximately 20 minutes by Metra. All you can see there are big houses and the beach front, however, the beaches there are private, so you can only enter if you live there (if you want to go to the beach, you can do so in Evanston in the summer, or just do it downtown at North Michigan beach, its more fun there anyways). My host family still lives there, so for me its natural to go there every time I visit. It doesn’t have any big touristy attractions, however a really nice thing to see close by is the Bahá’i Tempel in Wilmette (the suburb next to Kenilworth). Its architecture is beautiful and it is the last temple of this kind in the USA. What I can also recommend you is to check out the Walker Bros Pancake house on Green Bay Rd. in Wilmette or Le Peep in Evanston downtown – they are the bomb. Also, if you want to go for a little snack and happen to be in Kenilworth, go to Homers (also on Green Bay Rd). They have the best milkshakes (but that’s just my opinion).

In the afternoon, we drove back downtown to meet my friend from university at P.F. Chang’s on N Wabash (really good place if you want Chinese/American fusion food) and went a little shopping afterwards. As the Chicago Cubs made it to the World Series for the first time in over a hundred years, we met my best friend in Evanston at the Tommy Nevin’s bar for drinks and food (if you can, go watch a Cubs game during summer time. The game itself takes forever, but Wrigleyville is worth a visit – also for partying).

Watching games in the US is so much fun, people are totally into it and the atmosphere is amazing. I personally love the bars in Evanston, lots of students from Northwester University come there, they have pub quizzes and are always fun. Another great bar in Evanston is also World of Beer, in case you, well, love beer. Of course, there are a million other places to go to when you want to have a good night out: Wrigleyville is one of my favorites, especially after a game. They have a bunch of bars and clubs, I’ve been there a couple of times and there are so many good clubs and bars, its perfect to do club/bar hopping with your friends, watching games or dancing the night away. If you are looking for super fancy nightlife, you should also check out the bars and clubs downtown (there are SO many, you will most definitely find the right one for you). And don’t forget to visit House of Blues, they have a bar downstairs where they play very chill live music and the drinks are pretty good.

If you want to do more activity like stuff, one place to go is Rosemont. We went there, as two of my friends lived close by. We went out for bowling there last year at Kings and had drinks after, I did indoor skydiving there at iFLY  and you can also just walk around and pick any bar or restaurant to sit down and chill.

Last day in Chicago, we had a quick breakfast at freshii  on Washington Ave and went to Willis tower afterwards to see the city from up top. Entrance here is 22$. Tip: you can have a similar view for cheaper if you just go to Hancock towner (check out the bathroom view) and get some drinks there. Afterwards, we went to have lunch at Lukes to have Chicago style Hotdogs. The Hotdogs there are really good, the services however, is not the best and it’s always pretty crowded around noon. If you wan to have a fun experience, you can also go to the hotdog place, where they will yell at you all the time as part of their service – the Wieners circle at Lincoln Park.

In the afternoon, we met my best Chicago friend Brian, got a drink at the hotel bar (Top Margarita) and made our way to United Center to see the first game of the season against the Boston Celtics (never ever try to catch an Uber or Cap during rush hour). Again, if you are in Chicago, or any US city for that matter, go to see any kind of games. Cubs, Blackhawks and Bulls are always fun, unfortunately I have never been to a Bears game, but its on my list. The Bulls game was amazing as always, the light show before is fun to watch, so make sure you are on time. Seats vary between 45$ – 250$, depending on where you want to sit. Tip: If the teams are not playing during your stay or you think this is too expensive for you, you can also look at the schedules of university games. I’ve been to a basketball game of Northwestern University in Evanston and it was just as fun as going to a normal game. It always depends on what you want.

So, this years visit in a few paragraphs. I will eventually write another, longer post about all the other different things I used to love and do in Chicago, but for today this should be enough. I can only tell you again, if you get the change, please take your time and visit this incredible city, it truly is an amazing one. Until next time Chicago, love you always!