Chicago CityPASS — Attraction in Chicago

Chicago as a Tourist

My brothers (19m and 21m) and I (26m) do an annual trip together. This year we chose Chicago as our destination. I went to Chicago for the first time in late 2021 and really fell in love with the city. I’ve been to other major cities in the U.S. but Chicago has a certain charm to it that is a little hard for me to pinpoint. It’s like a city environment that doesn’t have a feeling of being extremely overcrowded.

The purpose of this post is to share the things we did as tourists to maybe help future tourists gain some ideas for things to try. Also, if any locals want to share things for future Chicago visits, please let us know.

To start, we stayed from Friday 8/25 to Sunday 8/27. We flew in and out of Midway. We purchased the 3 day CTA pass for $15 per person when we arrived at Midway. During the trip we almost exclusively used CTA and had no negative experiences. The CTA was extremely user-friendly and we did not encounter any situations where we felt unsafe. We used 3 Ubers throughout our time there, but we only used them  because we needed to cut down the travel time to our next destination slightly or it was too late for CTA. We also used Metra once. I’ve seen it in this sub before, but if you’re planning a trip here, there is no reason to rent a car. The public transit is a bargain and very effective.

We stayed at The Freehand Chicago at 19 E Ohio St.

Places we ate:

Wildberry Pancakes and Café at 130 E Randolph St.

Frontera Grill at 445 N Clark St.

Goddess and the Baker at 44 E Grand Ave.

Ja’ Grill Hyde Park at 1510 E Harper Ct

Pequod’s Pizza 2207 N Clybourn Ave.

RAMEN-SAN at 59 W Hubbard St #2.

Al’s #1 Italian Beef at 548 N Wells St.

I'm not going to go in depth on each place, but I will say that we did not have a bad meal while we were there. When I come back, I would definitely go back to any of these spots.

Activities we did:

Walked along the Lake Shore

Explored Millennium Park

Shopped at Exile in Bookville (book store)

The Chicago Music Exchange

Chicago River Architecture Tour through Shoreline Sightseeing

Skydeck Chicago in the Willis Tower

The Museum of Science and Industry

A stand-up comedy show at the Laugh Factory

The Art Institute of Chicago

Now that I’m writing it out, the list of activities doesn't seem like much, but we had a lot of fun and had virtually zero downtime. I feel like we really took advantage of our time and got the most we could out of a weekend trip.

A tip to other tourists planning a trip, locals looking to suggest an option to visiting family members or even to use themselves. We used an online service called “CityPass.” CityPASS services multiple cities, with Chicago being one of them. The Chicago CityPass was $136 per person with tax and gave us access to 5 different attractions from a designated list. The Shedd Aquarium and Skydeck Chicago were required and then we were able to choose 3 more activities from this list; The Field Museum, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Science and Industry, The Adler Planetarium, 360 Chicago Observation Deck, and Shoreline Sightseeing Architecture River Tour.

I assumed when purchasing the CityPASS tickets that they would just be base level tickets with no extra perks. To my surprise, the tickets gave us expedited entry to Skydeck Chicago and a free 30 minute movie at the Museum of Science and Industry. I will definitely use this service again in the future. Due to time constraints, we didn't get a chance to check out Shedd Aquarium.

To close, we walked approximately 60,000 steps over these 3 days. A lot of those steps occurred on the public streets, through CTA stations and inside of the attractions we visited. Minus one homeless guy at the base of the Willis Tower (an outlier in my opinion), not once did we feel unsafe. We had a great experience and left knowing that there is so much more to explore and learn about the city.

Thank you to anybody who took the time to read through this and thank you Chicagoans for sharing your...

I’ve visited Chicago—my favorite American city—many times, but I hadn’t done the classic tourist attractions in over a decade. Last weekend, I brought my family from overseas and wanted to show them the best of the city. Planning was a bit overwhelming, especially since so much has changed in the past 10–20 years, not to mention how smartphones have transformed everything.

ChatGPT suggested CityPASS, and after some research, I decided to try the Chicago C3 pass. It turned out to be a total lifesaver and time-saver! We visited the Shedd Aquarium, 360 Chicago, and the Shoreline Architecture River Cruise.

I was nervous about traffic and crowds, so I made reservations only when we were close to each destination. For the Shedd Aquarium, when I went to book around 12:30 p.m. using the PASS app, the only remaining time slots were 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.—wow! I felt so lucky to snag a 3 p.m. entry after a 5-hour drive, especially since I didn’t want to disappoint my guests, including two kids. We arrived early and the staff kindly let us in at 2:30, just in time to catch the last dolphin and penguin shows of the day!

Same story with the river cruise—when we reached the dock, I was able to book in the app a boat departing just 20 minutes later. Perfect timing for a group of six with kids! No waiting time!

I’m so grateful for CityPASS Chicago C3. It made the whole experience smooth, flexible, and fun. Highly recommended for anyone visiting Chicago—whether it’s your first time or...

Our family was very excited to visit Chicago in late March. We purchased the CityPass in advance and immediately tried to book each place that we wanted to visit in our five days. (A couple of attractions were not open yet, which was disappointing.) MSI was easy to book. Every other place? Horrid! The other places did not let you use your CityPass to book on their websites. I called each one multiple times, over multiple days. Not one person could tell me how to use the Pass to book tickets in advance. Workers at the Shedd Aquarium AND the Field Museum both told me to just get in line when we arrived. I questioned them, expressed my doubts about that, and reminded them that their own websites said tickets MUST be booked ahead. We NEVER could reach anyone at the Art Museum. As I was afraid, the information we were given was not true. Apparently there is some different website that I was supposed to be told to go to in order to book tickets for other activities??? I really thought I read and printed each email that was sent to me, so I am baffled. I still can't find a way to do it when I look it over again. I wish I could get...