I would recommend taking the 4 hour city tour. Tour bus picked us up at our downtown hotel. We toured the North and South side areas. Very complete tour. We had two stops one at a conservatory and another by the lake to take photos of the city-skyscapers. We also went by where Mohammed Ali lived, Joe Louis and a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, all of the Sports stadiums, museums and along the lake shore. Very good way to see Chicago landmarks.

I agree with Ginger. The 4 hour tour is the best way to see this great city. I highly recommend that visitors do this the day they arrive or the second day they're here. Once you take the tour you'll know where you do and do not want to go back to visit.

BTW: Due to budget crunches and our political leaders inability to stop revenue shortfalls, the Free Trolley Cars that ran all around the loop and the lakefront are being discontinued in January of 09.
Sad, because it was a great way for visitors to jump from place to place quickly and efficiently. Why they chose to curtail a revenue stream for multiple venues, an attraction that actually delivered tourists and their money to stores and museums is beyond me. Maybe they should think about cutting the # of city patronage workers they cram into an almost always idle Water Department trucks.

Avoid the "Untouchables" tour.

If you like visiting empty lots, sitting on unconfortable seats on an old school bus, and having as your tour guides a bunch of idiots dressed in costumes from a 1976 high school production of "Guys & Dolls", speaking in Brooklyn accents, then this may be the tour for you.

Your tour guides will give you re-encatments of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, complete with dialogue.... but there's one problem: no one, and I mean absolutely no one, knows what was said inside that garage (which no loger exists), or know the exact chain of events. The police never caught the killers, and the police found only two live witnesses in the garage. One was a gangster who refused to say anything and soon died after the attack, and the other was the garage owner's Alsatian sheppard dog. As Tim Samuelson, the Cultural Historian for the City of Chicago, says of the survivors "One wouldn't talk, and the other couldn't talk."

The life and crimes of Al Capone have become overblown and turned into myth, thanks to horrible Hollywood movies and bad TV shows.


Instead, take any of the great architectual tours - either walking, by bus or by boat. The Chicago History Museum used to offer history tours riding on the various CTA El lines. There are several places, including CHM, that offer historical cemetary tours. Don't miss the Tiffany glass domes and tiled ceilings at the Chicago Cultural Center (former main library) or the beautiful stained glass windows at the Archbishop Quigley chapel (Rush Street). The Tribune Tower facade is festooned with embedded stones and architectural pieces from across the world.