Chicago with Kids: A Weekend Built Around Walking

I arrived on a Friday in September with two children and a hotel near the loop, and the weekend had to work on foot, in light rain and without a single queue over thirty minutes. Six picks made the cut, chosen on the walk from the hotel, the cost per person and whether the place holds a child past the first hour.

Every price below was paid in September, and the timings assume an eight o clock start. The hotel sat near the loop, which is why the list is built around the two train lines that matter and a bus route that runs along the lake.

Rain was in the forecast for half of Saturday, so one pick on this list has to be indoors and warm, and one of the outdoor picks has a time limit. That constraint did more to shape the weekend than the budget did.

Lincoln Park Zoo, free and worth the early start

The zoo is free every day, opens at ten and sits a fifteen minute bus ride north of the loop. The building my children return to is the small farm yard, where the goats work the crowd, and the primate house is the right size for a wet morning.

• Free entry, parking about 25 dollars if you drive.
• The north exit puts you on the lakefront path for the walk back.

The whole loop of the zoo takes about two hours at a child pace, and the warming house near the south end is the place to sit down with a coffee for nothing. In September the light comes across the savannah around eleven, which is when the animals come out to the fence.

The Cultural Center and the river in one hour

The Cultural Center is free, holds the largest Tiffany dome I have stood under and keeps a guard on the stairs who will tell you which floor has the quiet room. Two blocks east, Millennium Park gives the polished bean, a fountain that runs in summer and a lawn for lunch.

Both sit within ten minutes of the loop hotels, which is why this pair covers the hour before lunch without any transport planning. The Cultural Center also has the cleanest public toilets on this list, which is a detail that decides the next stop more often than any map does.

Museum of Science and Industry: the submarine

U505 is the reason I crossed the city: a real submarine you walk through in single file, with a guide counting the bunks and the torpedo room. Admission plus the submarine tour runs about 30 dollars an adult, and it is worth the thirty minute ride on the green line from the loop.

Go at open on a weekday if you can, because the tour groups arrive at eleven and the corridors are narrow. The submarine tour runs on a timed ticket, so collect it at the desk on the way in rather than at the exhibit, and the rest of the museum is strong enough to fill two hours after it.

North Avenue Beach if the weather holds

The lakefront path runs unbroken from the zoo down to the museums, and the stretch at North Avenue has a beach, a boat house cafe and a skyline that photographs better than any rooftop deck. In September the water is cold enough to make swimming a decision rather than an automatic.

I took bikes for an hour at about 12 dollars each and turned back at the point. The path is shared with runners and the busiest stretch is between two and four, so a morning ride avoids the whole argument. There is a water fountain at the beach house and nowhere else for a kilometre either side.

Garfield Park Conservatory for the rain

The conservatory is free, indoors, warm and twenty minutes west of the loop on the green line, which makes it the answer when the forecast turns. The desert house and the fern room hold children far longer than the pictures suggest, and there is space to sit down without buying anything.

The donation box at the door is the only one I have seen staffed all day, and nobody minds if you walk past it. The junior gardeners table runs on weekend afternoons and is free, which gave me an extra forty minutes without any planning at all.

A deep dish lunch that beats the dinner queue

The queues for deep dish start at half past five in the evening and run past an hour, while the same kitchens serve lunch with almost nobody waiting. I ate at one in the afternoon for about 16 dollars a head, which turned the famous pizza into a normal meal instead of a two hour event.

Order the thin crust if the children are hungry now, because the deep dish takes 45 minutes by design. I put the order in as soon as I sat down and walked to the river while it baked, then came back to a table that had been held for me without anyone asking my name.

The weekend at a glance

Start at the zoo on Saturday morning, when the light comes across the lake and the crowds are still on the bus, then let the Sunday weather choose between the conservatory and the submarine. The two days fit on foot and one train ride, which is the whole point of the list.