Chicago Visitors Tour

Imagine sitting in your favorite chair playing the guitar, watching the game and all of a sudden your wife tells you that her family or friend is coming in town. Not a big deal right. Then she tells you that the two of you are responsible for showing them around Chicago. Now you start to rack your brains on how you can show your guest this beautiful city. You know that there are tons of great things to do (check this site out if you find yourself in this situation) so you spend the rest of the night surfing the web planning out your guest weekend/week(s).

Since my wife is from Colombia, we get frequent visits from family and friends. We have become experts on showing people around this city, and giving them a feel of true Chicago. I wanted to share with you a great "first impression" drive that I have created and use all the time. As soon as our guest arrive they immediately want to start seeing the city. So I put them in the car and take them on about an hour drive that shows them a lot of what this city has to offer. Now this drive is not intended to show them everything, but gives them a good idea of what they can do while they are visiting our city.

We start out in Lincoln Square. I explain the history of the neighborhood and it's cultural roots. I point out a view of the coffee shops and pubs that we may frequent during their time with ups. From the cobblestone road of the square we merge onto Lincoln Ave. heading southeast. I point out the many restaurants, boutiques and bars, and a couple of our favorite places to go to. We follow Lincoln Ave. southeast until Addison. We then head east on Addison until we reach Clark St. Now we should all now what is at the corner of Clark and Addison. The most beautiful baseball field in the world Wrigley Field.

Depending on who our guest is, I will give them some history of Wrigley Field and the Cubs. I will drive them around Wrigley Field giving them the history of te neighborhood. I will point out the classic differences that make this place such a fixture in Chicago. I will point out the manual scoreboard, the rooftop bleachers, the newly remolded bleachers, the opening in the right field wall, Harry Carry's Statute.

We continue our tour heading southeast on Clark explaining to them that the area is driven by the massive amounts of Cubs fans. We stay on Clark until we reach Belmont Ave, turn left heading east. We are on our way to Lake Shore Drive(LSD).

Once on LSD heading south straight towards downtown. I point out Belmont harbour on the left and Lincoln Park on the right. Straight ahead of us is what I consider one of the best views of Chicago. You see theSears tower off in the distant, and the Hancock dead ahead. As you get closer the buildings seem to climb towards the sky, and are right on top of you. We stay on LSD so we can show our guest Navy Pier. We go past Grant Park and point out Buckingham Fountain. We go by all the museums and point out each one. We continue until we reach Soldier field. At 18th St. we turn around and head back north of LSD. Once we get to Jackson we turn left heading West. We go to Michigan Ave and turn right heading north again. I like to point out the Art Institute and take them down the magnificent mile. Then we are back on to LSD heading back to Lincoln Square.

This trip is quick and easy, and always gets our guest excited about the city. They have seen some many different shops and boutiques on Lincoln Ave, they have seen the museums and can decide which ones to visit. They have seen all the shopping on Michigan Ave. Also, they have seen some picture perfect views of this geat city. If you ever have guest in town, and want to show them as much as possible in a short amount of time. I highly suggest taking this tour. You and your guest will not be disappointed.