10+ Things to do in Chicago for couples – Chicago attractions for adults

By Katie Sagal
Published: July 18, 2024
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Chicago is one of our favorite cities for couples. It's got everything from romantic adventures to exciting excursions, fine dining to fun snacks, and even great shopping. Whether you prefer museums or love the great outdoors (and frankly, anything and everything in between), there's something for both of you to love in Chicago.

If you’re looking for things to do in Chicago for couples, check out our list of the top attractions and activities, including...

  • 360 CHICAGO
  • Architecture River Cruise
  • Shedd Aquarium
  • Tall Ship WINDY
  • Art Institute of Chicago
  • Field Museum
  • Big Bus Chicago Tour
  • and more...

See Chicago from an observation deck

Chicago Skydeck view

Get a bird's eye view of the city at one of two fantastic observation decks: SkyDeck Chicago at Willis Tower or 360 CHICAGO at the John Hancock building. Take in a romantic sunset together or watch the skyscrapers sparkle at night.

Both offer amazing views of the city below, but each has unique strengths. You can see parts of four different states at 360 CHICAGO! Or, if you prefer better views of Navy Pier and Lake Michigan, SkyDeck Chicago and their exciting new TILT attraction is a hair-raising choice!

🎟️Getting in: Admission to both SkyDeck Chicago and 360 CHICAGO is available on all Go City® Chicago passes.

History & Natural History museums

Chicago Field museum

History fans, especially those with a taste for local history, will also get a lot out of a trip to Chicago. Visit the Chicago History Museum for a specific focus on the heritage and history of this marvelous city. Why not stop in at one of their fantastic temporary exhibitions and soak up some culture together?

With its convenient location in the south part of Lincoln Park, the Chicago History Museum is also right near Old Town, a trendy neighborhood with plenty of great food and drink options. We love Broken English (for tacos and margarita specials) or Old Town Pour House (for good craft beer, plus sports TV).

Or, head to the Field Museum for a fascinating perspective on the natural history around the globe. Here you'll find everything from SUE, the iconic T. Rex skeleton, to gorgeous gemstones of all varieties to Ancient Egyptian artifacts.

🎟️ Getting in: Chicago History Museum and Field Museum admission is available on all Go City® Chicago passes.

Shedd Aquarium

Shedd Aquarium

Do you both simply adore the sea? Then a visit to Shedd Aquarium is a must-do activity for almost any age. This world-class aquarium features hundreds of sea critters, great and small. Encounter animals from fresh and saltwater, creatures who live near the water but are primarily terrestrial, and even seabirds. From amusing penguins to intimidating sharks, you'll find it all here.

🎟️ Getting in: Shedd Aquarium admission is only available on the Go City® Explorer Pass.

Amazing architecture excursions

Chicago river

Chicago is famous for its eclectic and innovative architectural makeup -- with iconic buildings designed by everyone from Frank Lloyd Wright to Mies van der Rohe. If you're a couple who loves art and architecture or unique sightseeing in general, then an exploration of Chicago's architectural scene is perfect for you.

One popular option is a tour of the Chicago River and the many beautiful buildings visible from the water. This relaxing and informative cruise provides many opportunities for excellent photographs! If you want to see more of the city's architecture than can be seen from the shores of the Chicago River, embark on a themed architecture walking tour run by the city's more significant architectural organization.

🎟️ Getting in: Chicago Architecture Boat Tour admission is only available on the Go City® Explorer Pass.

Hop-on Hop-off Big Bus Chicago tour

Chicago Big bus

It can feel a little too touristy sometimes, but the trick to a good city tour is to find one that balances fun, information, and convenience, all in one great package. A hop-on-hop-off Chicago bus tour is a great option here, as it provides the flexibility of boarding and disembarking wherever you please for maximum customizability.

See all the best sights of the city, from major landmarks like the Willis Tower and the Wrigley Building to top local attractions like the institutions at the Museum Campus and beyond.

You can be your own guide, pick and choose which top sights are right for you, and get on and off as you please. Choose which sights you tick off, from the Magnificent Mile and Shedd Aquarium to the Field Museum, Millennium Park, and many more.

🎟️ Getting in: Hop On Hop Off Chicago Bus Tour admission is included on all Go City® Chicago passes.

Lake Michigan cruises

Lake Michigan cruise

If you are looking to get out on the water of Lake Michigan, we recommend taking a peaceful cruise offered by Shoreline Sightseeing — one of the best ways to see the city of Chicago. This classic lake tour showcases the major sights along the shore - like Navy Pier and the beaches — and also the wild marine life found on the lake.

Another excellent, more adrenaline-fueled option is Lakefront Speedboat Tour. Zoom along Lake Michigan and admire the Chicago skyline in a 2,000-horsepower boat. Your experienced guide will provide a detailed and entertaining narration of the city's history and architecture.

🎟️Getting in: The Lakefront Speedboat Tour is available on the Go City® All-Inclusive pass, while Classic Lake Tour admission is available on the Go City® Explorer pass.

Top art museums

Art Institute of Chicago

Artistic couples and friends will find much to love about Chicago's museum scene. The world-famous Art Institute of Chicago is the ideal artsy attraction and boasts unique and beautiful architecture of its own. From the Renzo Piano-designed Modern Wing to the classic original structure, you'll find a wide selection of pieces from Chagall's American Windows to Georgia O'Keeffe's Black Cross New Mexico.

The smaller Museum of Contemporary Art is no less fascinating with its focus on living artists and the most recent developments. They have funky rotating exhibits that feature everything from installation art to graphic art and sculpture.

🎟️Getting in: Museum of Contemporary Art admission is included on all Go City® Chicago passes.

Bike rides around Chicago

Bike rides in Chicago

Chicago is an extraordinarily bike-friendly city. From the many trails and pathways around the lakefront to the giant parks located throughout the city, there are plenty of low-stress places to pedal a bike. What's more, the city is completely flat! There is barely a hill to pedal up, so you won't get out of puff in a hurry.

If you're a local or a real bike expert, you can even use a bike as transportation to get around the heart of the city itself. So, rent a couple of bikes and head off on your outdoorsy couples' adventure in lovely downtown Chicago.

🎟️ Getting in: Bike and Roll Chicago bike rentals are available on all Go City® passes.

Chicago Theatre Tour

Chicago theater tour

For artsy couples or friends, the iconic Chicago Theatre is a must-visit attraction. Take a tour of this historic theater and go behind the scenes of one of the art world's most storied venues. The beautiful French Baroque architecture is another testament to how important Chicago is to the history of design and architecture in America.

Plus, you'll get to see the backstage walls autographed by the many, many celebrities who have performed on this stage, as well as a historic photo display. You'll even get a chance to walk across the stage!

🎟️ Getting in: Chicago Theatre Tour Experience admission is available on all Go City® Chicago passes.

Beautiful urban parks

Lincoln Park Chicago

One of the most stunning things about downtown Chicago is its selection of gorgeous parks. From the culture-filled Millennium Park to the festival-friendly Grant Park to the tiny but darling Lurie Garden, there is a park for couples to wander and photograph for hours. Don't forget to stop by the famous Cloud Gate sculpture, aka, the Bean.

Or, venture further out of the city center into Lincoln Park, which boasts a zoo and several beaches. It's a great place to explore, ride bikes, run, play frisbee, etc.

If you venture a little west of the city you'll come across Garfield Park and its beautiful conservatory. Garfield Park is a sanctuary for 120,000 tropical plants over 1.6 acres of glass-topped indoor space.

To the south of the city, Jackson Park occupies a stretch of the water's edge with beaches, lush green playing fields, marinas, and landscaped lagoons. It plays host to the impressive Museum of Science and Industry, a neo-classical building home to innovative hands-on exhibits about all things industrial.

Shopping, shopping, shopping

 

Magnificent Mile

Whether you both love a good bargain or one of you is patiently accompanying the other, there's oodles of shopping to be found in Chicago. The Magnificent Mile is a particularly popular destination, featuring everything from elite couture shops to fast fashion favorites.

Or, head to Water Tower Place Mall for an excellent selection on everything from LEGOs to loose tea. A stroll along either locale is also just great sightseeing. You'll also be able to find souvenirs and more at many of the top attractions, too - the Art Institute of Chicago in particular has a stellar gift shop.

Unique Chicago neighborhoods

Ukrainian Village, Chicago

There's more to Chicago than just the Mag Mile. In fact, some of the city's best dining options are found in outlying neighborhoods. Try the trendy neighborhood of Old Town for delicious cuisine and fun bars, or Wicker Park/Bucktown for boutique shopping.

If you're craving Italian, try Little Italy & University Village, or if you want to embrace Chicago's Polish heritage, scope out Portage Park. Another fun neighborhood with great food and drink is Ukrainian Village, featuring a fun brewery, a top sushi restaurant, and some wonderful indie shops.

Save on admission to top Chicago attractions with Go City®

Discover our full line-up of Chicago attractions for couples including the Chicago River Architecture walking tour, Chicago Theatre Experience, Skydeck Chicago, and more.

🤩 If you want to see and do as much as you can, our All-Inclusive Pass is for you.

😎 If you want to pick just a few attractions and visit at your own pace, our Explorer Pass is

the perfect option.

Katie Sagal
Go City Travel Expert

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Best Chicago Souvenirs

Taking a trip to Chicago soon? It’s likely you’ll want to take something back home with you that reminds you of your trip. It’s equally likely you’ll want to buy a small item for friends and family you left behind. If you want to find souvenirs made in Chicago rather than tacky plastic items that have no real link with the city, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve got some fantastic ideas for the best Chicago souvenirs below! Edible Chicago souvenirs The main problem with edible gifts from the windy city is having the willpower to avoid consuming them all before you’ve even left downtown. Don’t be put off by the long lines which often stretch down the street from the Garrett Popcorn shops on West Jackson Boulevard and Michigan Avenue. Dishing up their ‘Chicago Mix’, half cheese and half caramel, to the people of the city since 1949, they’re clearly doing something right. Small bags cost as little as $3, though the souvenir skyline tins make a great keepsake long after the popcorn itself is all gone. They also have outlets at O’Hare Airport. With a pedigree dating back even further is Fannie Mae chocolates, which have been Chicago based since first opening in 1920. Head to one of their city center stores and you’ve got the option of creating your own mix of pixies, mint meltaways and vanilla buttercreams. At the upper end of the chocolate market is the Chicago-only Vosges Haut-Chocolat. With each chocolate hand-finished, the company is particularly well-known for their truffles, with flavors as diverse as hazelnut and balsamic vinegar and ginger with wasabi. As some indication of price, a box of 16 truffles will set you back around $50. On the savory front, The Spice House on North Wells Street in the Lincoln Park neighborhood (close to Chicago History Museum) offers more than the usual cooking herbs and spices. Their team has created a range of Chicago-themed blends that will brighten up your home cooking for weeks to come. Drinkable Chicago souvenirs The same can be said for another much-loved Wells Street store, Old Town Oil. Specializing in small-batch olive oils and vinegars from farms across the globe, they have some very tasty-looking gift boxes, and can even produce custom bottle labels. Oils and vinegars won’t quench your thirst, but beers will, with Goose Island an award-winning craft brewery set up to bring good beers to the Chicago streets. Using 15 different yeasts to turn the sugars into alcohol before aging the beer in bourbon barrels for extra flavor, visitors are welcome to the brewery tap room on Fulton Street or its Clybourn brewhouse to sample their selection of seasonal and year-round beers. With over 100 international prizes to its name, the Koval Distillery has come a hell of a long way since starting up in 2008 as the first new distillery in the city since the 1800s. Their copper vats produce whiskeys, gins and specialty spirits using organic grains. Everything from soaking of the grain to bottling takes place in house so the dedicated team are able to keep track of every step to produce their signature clean flavors. Jewelry and curios The Field Museum is another great place to keep a lookout for souvenirs. Its store is awash with goodies, though we’ve chosen to focus our attention on their jewelry selection. Linking back to the museum’s incredible natural history collection, it ranges from T-Rex earrings to necklaces and pendants threaded with natural stones such as quartz and onyx. Echoing the form of Chicago’s favorite piece of public art – Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate – Tiffany & Co’s Chicago store sells sterling silver bean pendants designed by Elsa Peretti. If the price tag stops you stepping beyond the window displays, various other outlets do similar pieces in base metals. But if it’s a wall in your house you’re thinking of decorating, the store at the Museum of Contemporary Art has a variety of art-based items, from $10 fridge magnets to mobiles based on Bauhaus and surrealist principles which would provide a dash of color to any room. Wearable Chicago souvenirs A sports mad city with professional basketball, ice hockey, baseball and American football teams, getting tickets to a game is an unmissable Chicago experience. And to remember it, what could be better than your very own jersey? Each stadium and arena have their own store, but you can also find items linked to all Chicago’s teams at stores including Clark Street Sports. So whether it’s an oversized foam finger or an official wristband emblazoned with the Chicago Cubs logo, odds are you’ll find it here. Thanks to an array of nationwide and boutique local stores, fashionistas can also take something home that will forever remind them of their time in the windy city. Independent Wolfbait & B-Girls is a marketplace offering the wares of 250 local artisans, including clothing you won’t find anywhere else and an almost endless pick of potential gifts. Other quirky establishments include Optimo Fine Hats, offering custom headgear for men whatever the occasion. Grabbing a T-shirt with the Chicago skyline will help your little ones remember their trip to Chicago, or make them want to visit themselves one day if they weren’t with you. Other items linked to the city’s architecture include ever-popular snow globes containing representations of the Willis Tower and Skydeck amongst other landmark buildings. Spend on the things that count with the best Chicago souvenirs The best Chicago souvenirs are those which continuously remind you of all the good times you had at the city’s attractions. That good time will be made all the better if you’ve visited them with Go City. Explore the city in this way and you’ll be able to take advantage of substantial savings on entrance admission to many of the top attractions and things to do. So why not check out our pass options and join the thousands of visitors who have already done just this?
Ian Packham
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The ultimate Chicago shopping guide: boutiques, big brands and bargains

Pack an extra bag. From makers' markets to the Magnificent Mile, here’s where to shop in Chicago for fashion, gifts, vintage and small-batch treats, plus those all-important coffee stops between stores.
A couple capture the scene on a Chicago street
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Where to stay in Chicago

Made up of a long list of neighborhoods and districts each offering something different, deciding where to stay in Chicago can be a bit of a headache, especially if you’re a first-time visitor to the city. Whatever you’re looking for out of a leisure trip to the windy city, our pick of the best areas of Chicago to stay is sure to be a help! The Loop Enclosed by the Chicago River to one side and Grant Park to the other, the Loop is probably the best place to stay in Chicago for those new to the city since its streets include the central business district and many of the city’s top attractions, including the Willis Tower’s Skydeck observation level and the Art Institute of Chicago. It takes its name from the elevated railway which has looped around it since the Great Fire of 1871. Synonymous to most with the downtown area, it’s also one of the commercial hubs of the city. Being at the heart of the action (Route 66 starts here too), there’s no shortage of hotels either. Predominantly populated by luxury stays – the Hyatts and Radisson Blus of this world – budget travelers will likely find themselves looking at more affordable neighborhoods nearby, such as Lincoln Park. However, the Loop does it have a good quantity of backpacker hostels for those just looking for a central place to lay their head at the end of a long day of sightseeing. Streeterville Immediately north of the Loop on the shores of Lake Michigan, the Streeterville neighborhood is still close enough to downtown to be a worthwhile base and is a good pick for solo travelers and visiting couples. Known to be a very safe neighborhood in Chicago for visitors, it has some similarities to its southern counterpart. Gleaming tower blocks line the Magnificent Mile (a part of North Michigan Avenue), containing roughly 450 stores as well as the famed 875 North Michigan Avenue (John Hancock Center). Its southern extent stretches out into Lake Michigan thanks to the 50 acre Navy Pier. Its rides include Centennial Wheel, which replicates the world’s first Ferris Wheel, built in 1893 for the World’s Fair. Lincoln Park A little further out, but linked to the rest of the city by a number of metro stations and lines, Lincoln Park is one of the largest and most affluent districts in Chicago’s North Side. It is popular with young families and urban professionals, ensuring it feels fresh and ever changing. Named after the city’s largest park, which sits beside Lake Michigan for an uninterrupted seven mile run, the area is one of the best parts of Chicago for those on a budget. Attractions include the 32,000 creatures which call Lincoln Park Zoo their home, as well as Chicago History Museum, the first port of call for anyone interested in discovering how Chicago became one of the world’s leading cities. Lincoln Park also contains the northern half of Old Town, where buildings remain low to the ground – at least by Chicago standards – to create a homely feel. This is where you’ll find the Second City Theater, the previous stomping ground of everyone from Tina Fey to John Belushi. River North It may not have the lake shore, but River North does have a reputation as the coolest place to stay in Chicago. Separated from Streeterville by the Magnificent Mile, River North oozes stylishness and perhaps contradiction too – it has more galleries than anywhere outside of Manhattan, but is also known for its nightlife. For this, you should head to Hubbard Street. The banks of the Chicago River have to be the top place for a stroll in the area, whilst landmark buildings to look out for include the Wrigley Building and the monumental behemoth of a structure known as Merchandise Mart, whose exterior façade becomes the world’s largest projector screen for a few months of each year. A good range of restaurants, many with riverside terraces, means you’re unlikely to go hungry for long. West Loop That said, foodies should stake their claim to accommodation in West Loop, which – that’s right – is west of the Loop. Occasionally also known as the Near West Side, West Loop shines from a gastronomic perspective, with Greektown and Little Italy just two destinations you should be aware of thanks to the twentieth century’s influx of immigrants into this former industrial port area. Randolph Street is otherwise known as Restaurant Row for good reason, but for sumptuous food without any pretension head to the French Market tucked inside Ogilvie train station. Its 30+ independent vendors make it one of the best spots in the city for fresh ingredients as well as mouthwatering dishes from sushi to empanadas. Seating is available. Wicker Park Well-to-do Wicker Park is growing in confidence when it comes to where to stay in Chicago. Northwest of West Loop and centered around the Damen metro stop, this neighborhood has the sort of self-assurance which usually leads to great things. And Wicker Park is no exception to this rule. A charmingly informal blend of eclectically-stocked clothing stores, groundbreaking restaurants and we-just-have-to-stop-there bakeries, Wicker Park is also pretty hot when it comes to night spots, with a wealth of live music venues all vying to be the place to head. With median house prices of $550,000 it can never really be called hipster, but that’s certainly the vibe it gives off. Budgeting for trips to Chicago Finding where to stay in Chicago that’s right for you comes down to a balance of location, feel and price. The best neighborhoods in Chicago for visitors are generally those in and around the downtown area, although the closer you are to the Loop, the higher the per night cost you’re probably looking at. When it comes to attraction admission, you can make incredible savings simply by opting to travel with Go City. Our pre-pay passes take all the mystery out of budgeting for trips to Chicago whilst providing you with great savings on many of the city’s top attractions.
Ian Packham

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