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🇺🇸 State · United States
Illinois: skyscrapers and great lakes
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Illinois is experienced first through Chicago, one of America's great metropolises, set on the shores of Lake Michigan. Its skyline of pioneering skyscrapers, world-class museums and bold architecture make it an inexhaustible urban playground. Along the Magnificent Mile you stroll between shops and landmarks; at Millennium Park you see yourself mirrored in the Cloud Gate sculpture. But the state is more than its economic capital. To the south, Shawnee National Forest surprises with sandstone cliffs and rock formations, terrain spared by the Ice Age glaciers. Closer to Chicago, Starved Rock State Park hides canyons and waterfalls. Between metropolitan buzz and preserved wilderness, Illinois offers a striking contrast that rewards anyone who ventures beyond the big city and into the quieter corners.
The Dark Knight's (2008) opening bank heist was filmed inside Chicago's Old Post Office at 404 West Harrison Street.
The world's first skyscraper rose in Chicago in 1885: the nine-story Home Insurance Building, the first carried by an iron frame.
Retrace Ferris Bueller's day at the Art Institute of Chicago, then ride up Willis Tower for the Skydeck's glass-floor ledge.
From late April to June and September to early November the weather is mild and activities plentiful; Chicago is pleasant then, with festivals and manageable crowds. Winter, November to March, brings biting cold but attractive hotel rates. Chicago has one of the best public transit systems in the country: the elevated L train links most neighborhoods and both airports, making a car unnecessary in the city. Exploring Shawnee or Starved Rock to the south, however, calls for a vehicle. Network coverage is excellent across the metropolis and along the interstates, though somewhat patchier in the remote forested areas of the far south.