Navy Pier

Navy Pier is Chicago's most-visited attraction — over 9 million people a year walk the 3,300-foot pier that extends into Lake Michigan from the mouth of the Chicago River. Originally built in 1916 as a shipping and entertainment facility, the pier has been through several identity crises — naval training centre during both World Wars, a University of Illinois campus in the 1950s, near-dereliction in the 1970s — before its current incarnation as the city's primary tourist attraction.

The centrepiece is the Centennial Wheel, a 196-foot Ferris wheel that replaced the previous wheel in 2016 and offers enclosed, climate-controlled gondolas with views across the city and the lake. The pier also houses the Chicago Children's Museum, a Shakespeare theater, an IMAX cinema, beer gardens, restaurants, and enough shops to occupy a dedicated consumer for an afternoon. The east end of the pier — beyond the commercial section — is worth walking to for the views back toward the skyline, particularly at sunset.

Locals tend to avoid Navy Pier in the same way New Yorkers avoid Times Square, but dismissing it entirely is a mistake. The summer fireworks displays (Wednesday and Saturday nights) are spectacular, the beer garden is genuinely pleasant on a warm evening, and the lakefront location means you're never far from the breeze that makes Chicago's summers bearable. It's touristy, yes, but it's also a pier extending a third of a mile into one of the Great Lakes, and that's an experience worth having.