Few pastimes combine relaxation and education quite as enjoyably as a well-orchestrated tour. Guided by informed narrators, tour-takers get to savor both sights and insights from aboard their motor coaches, cruise vessels or rail cars. And if the tour selected is of the walking variety, the mix of benefits even includes a little exercise.
Chicago being the world-class city it is, there are Windy City tours to match interests from shopping to shipping. Intrigued by the city’s history and architecture? Bus, boat, rail and walking tours await. Want to learn more about Chicago’s legacy of ghosts and gangsters? Tour guides will escort you to the sites of the most fabled hauntings and hideouts.
What’s more, touring the big city doesn’t demand big bucks. The wide range of tours and tour prices available means there’s a package to fit just about any budget.
Of course, the Chicago area serves up far too many tours to recap in just one article. But here, in alphabetical order, are a few to get you started this summer:
– Black Heritage Tours. Offered by Homewood’s Flamingo Travel since 1991, these motor coach tours run every other Saturday, starting from the Art Institute at 1 p.m. “We cover different black communities and drive by various black landmarks and the homes of black celebrities and politicians,” said company president Ralph Landry.
The price of the three-hour tour is $19 for adults and $10 for children 12 and under. Call 708-799-8032 to reserve a space.
– Chicago Architecture Foundation Tours. The 25-year-old foundation offers 65 tours by foot, bus and boat. The most popular is the “Architecture River Cruise,” a 1 1/2-hour Chicago River tour that explains the river’s role in Chicago’s evolution and examines the many landmarks along the river. The cruises depart from the southwest corner of the Michigan Avenue Bridge three times daily and four times on weekends. Thw cost is $18 and reservations are required.
“Frank Lloyd Wright by Bus” is another popular tour, one that incorporates three walking tours and a bus ride. The 3 1/2-hour tour looks at 25 Wright buildings in Oak Park, said tour manager Will Johnstone. “It covers the range of his works, his whole career from 1892 to about 1913,” he said. “It’s not just the Frank Lloyd Wright home and studio and Forest Avenue homes.”
The tour departs from the foundation’s Shop and Tour center in the John Hancock Center and is offered the first Saturday of every month through October, starting at 10 a.m. The cost is $25. Call 312-922-3432, ext. 240 for reservations for the above tours.
Also popular is the foundation’s “Loop Tour Train.” The 40-minute tour takes riders around the Loop’s “L” tracks three times for an elevated perspective on nearby architecture.
Tours start Saturdays at 12:15, 12:55, 1:35 and 2:15 p.m., leaving from the station at Randolph and Adams Streets, said Jennifer Rivera, sales associate at the foundation’s Shop and Tour center in the Santa Fe Building. Pick up free admission tickets for the tours at the Chicago Cultural Center’s Visitor Information Center.
– Chicago from the Lake. This 15-year-old tour operator schedules architecture tours on the river and history tours on the lake, said manager Dan Karrow. Both tours take customers on 200-passenger, two-level open-air boats. The tours are 1 1/2-hours long, leave from North Pier and cost $18.50 for adults, $16.50 for seniors and $12 for children 7 to 18. The architecture tours feature Japanese, German and French interpreters on the weekends. Call 312-527-1977 for times and tickets.
– Chicago Supernatural Ghost Tours. Hosted by ghost-hunter Richard Crowe, these tours have been leaving customers spooked since 1979. Popular this summer is the “Supernatural Cruise,” a two-hour narrated cruise of the river and lake featuring, said Crowe, “ghost stories, weird tales, unsolved mysteries and folklore from Chicago’s maritime past.”
The cruises begin at 11 p.m. each Saturday night, and start from the Mercury boat dock at Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive. The cost is $18; reservations are strongly recommended.
The rest of the year, Crowe offers day and night “Supernatural Bus Tours,” and a new “Supernatural Chinatown” lunch, lecture and walking tour. Call 708-499-0300 for reservations.
– Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio Foundation Tours. The foundation offers 45-minute tours of the Robie House on South Woodlawn Avenue in Chicago and the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in Oak Park, said spokeswoman Jean Guarino. Both feature identical times: 11 a.m., 1 and 3 p.m. weekdays and 11 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. on weekends. The cost of both tours is $8 for adults and $6 for senior citizens and children. Reservations are required only for groups of 10 or more. Call the foundation at 708-848-1976 for more information.
– Gray Line and American Sightseeing Tours. Both owned by the Ferrone family, which has been offering local tours since 1907, the companies feature about 30 tours of Chicago and nearby suburbs. The most popular are American Sightseeing’s $26 “Grand Tour,” a four-hour tour of downtown and the North and South Sides, and Gray Line’s $24 “Inside Chicago,” a three-hour tour of Chicago from the Museum of Science and Industry up to the Drake Hotel.
Both take tour-goers around in comfort on air-conditioned motor coaches. Call American Sightseeing at 312-251-3100, Gray Line at 312-251-3107, or visit the companies’ ticket office in the Palmer House for more information.
– Shoreline Sightseeing. Some of the most convenient tour times are offered by this company, which presents lecture tours aboard double-deck steel boats from three downtown locations, said Matt Collopy, vice president of the 58-year-old tour company.
The 30-minute tours depart from the Shedd Aquarium at 15 and 45 minutes after each hour from 10:15 a.m. to 6:15 p.m. The same tours are offered from Buckingham Fountain at 15 and 45 after the hour from 7:15 to 11:15 p.m.
Another half-hour tour takes off from Navy Pier on the half-hour from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. The cost is $9 for adults, $8 for senior citizens and $4 for children. No reservations are necessary. Call 312-222-9328 for exact locations or more information.
– Tours at the Mart. With 4.6 million square feet, the Merchandise Mart is “a city within a city,” said Deanna Bertoncini, who with partner Jeanne Klauber offers tours of the building.
The “Noon Tour” is a 1 1/2-hour walking tour of the 67-year-old Mart, focusing on its history and architectural significance.
“We go to floors accessible only to interior designers, architects and large wholesalers,” said Bertoncini. “It’s the largest design center in the world, and they have showrooms set up to look like homes, giving people a sense of design trends. If (tourgoers are) interested in ordering furnishings, I link them up with one of our designers. It’s a buyers service.”
Those on the tour also visit gift emporiums and kitchen and bath showrooms within the Mart in the two-mile visit. No reservations are necessary, and the tour steps off from the South Lobby concierge stand at noon. The cost is $10 for adults, $9 for seniors and full-time students.
There’s also a two-hour “Shopping Tour” in which tourgoers can buy samples at wholesale or lower prices from gift and apparel showrooms in the Mart and Apparel Center. The price is $15 per person, and reservations must be made by calling 312-644-4664.
– University of Chicago tour. This one-hour, 10-block walking tour of the Hyde Park campus focuses on the university’s architecture and history.
“We cover the main quadrangle of the campus and also look at the exterior of Rockefeller Chapel, the Regenstein Library and the science quadrangle,” said the university’s senior coordinator of special events Judith Spurgin.
Given by trained student guides, the free tours start from Ida Noyes Hall at 1212 E. 59th St. at 10 a.m. on Saturdays. Groups of 10 or more should call ahead for reservations. Those interested in taking tours at other times may do so by calling ahead to schedule their visit and paying a charge of $15 per group. Call 773-702-8374.
– Untouchable Tour. This two-hour motor coach tour takes tourgoers past “hotspots and hit spots,” including the sites of speakeasies, gangsters’ homes, the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre and famous shootouts, said spokeswoman Grace Kuikman.
“Our guides all are dressed up as gangsters, and they all have their own gangster personalities,” she added. “They make it a memorable visit.” The cost is $20 for adults, $15 for children. Call for schedule of tours and required reservations at 773-881-1195.
