Free and Cheap Things to Do in Chicago

One of my favorite things about living in Chicago is that on any given week, you can usually find at least one free thing to do. You can live like a rock star here, and with the big museums charging $25 to $55 a head and a downtown hotel room carrying about 17.5% tax, it's easy to spend like one. But the lakefront, the zoo, the parks and a good share of the city's culture still cost nothing. Here's where to find them.

Lincoln Park, the zoo and the conservatory

Lincoln Park, on the North Side, runs along the lake and is one of the best places in the city to spend a free afternoon. The Lincoln Park Zoo is open 365 days a year and entry is always free. The gates open at 8am and the animal houses at 10am. Our zoo page has more.

Next door, the Lincoln Park Conservatory is free too, and it's warm and green inside even in January. It's open 10am to 5pm, with timed entry, so reserve a slot online before you go. Bring a picnic for the lawn in summer, and walk east to the beach afterward.

The beaches and the lakefront

Chicago's beaches are free, including Oak Street, Ohio Street, North Avenue and Montrose. So is the Lakefront Trail, which runs along the shore past most of them. A Divvy day pass costs $19.90 and is the cheapest way to cover a long stretch of it. Along the river, the Riverwalk is free to walk, and on the Near Northwest Side, The 606 is a 2.7-mile park on an old elevated rail line that opened in 2015, running along Bloomingdale Avenue through Wicker Park, Bucktown and Logan Square.

Grant Park and Millennium Park

Grant Park, "Chicago's front yard," is free to wander for hours. Take pictures of Buckingham Fountain and Cloud Gate (the Bean), then walk through the Lurie Garden. Millennium Park sits at its north end.

In summer, this is where the free concerts are. The Grant Park Music Festival, a free classical series that has run every summer since 1935, plays the Jay Pritzker Pavilion on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evenings, and the city's Millennium Park Summer Music Series and Summer Film Series run through July. Bring a blanket and a picnic for the lawn. Our list of free summer events in Millennium Park and Grant Park has more.

Free festivals

Chicago runs free festivals most of the year, and most of them from May to September. You pay for food and drinks, but the music is free. The Chicago Blues Festival takes over three days in early June, and the Chicago Jazz Festival is a free Labor Day weekend tradition in Millennium Park and the Chicago Cultural Center. Chicago SummerDance, the city's free outdoor dance series, runs through July and August. In Lincoln Square, Maifest fills the corner of Lincoln and Western Avenues with German food, music and dancing in late May.

Then there are the neighborhood street fests, which run almost every summer weekend. Most ask a suggested donation at the gate, and it's the main fundraiser for the neighborhood groups that run them. See our neighborhood festivals page, the holidays and events calendar, and the city's festival dates page for this year's schedule.

Farmers markets

Chicago's farmers markets run from spring into fall, and the best of them is still the Green City Market. The Lincoln Park market runs Wednesdays and Saturdays from 7am to 1pm at 1817 N. Clark St., at the south end of the park, until late November. There's also a Saturday market in the West Loop at 900 W. Monroe St. Even if you're only in town for a few days, go. The farmers come in from around the region, and the prepared food stands make a good cheap breakfast. See our Green City Market page and our list of farmers markets in Chicago.

Free museums and free days

Most of the big museums give Illinois residents free days through the year, and a few places are free for everyone, every day. We keep the dates on our free museum days page.

• The Chicago Cultural Center (78 E. Washington St.) is free and open daily, 10am to 5pm. Go up to Preston Bradley Hall to see the Tiffany dome, and check the calendar for free concerts and exhibitions.
• The National Museum of Mexican Art (1852 W. 19th St.) in Pilsen is always free.
• The Smart Museum of Art in Hyde Park and the Museum of Contemporary Photography in the South Loop are both free.
• The Garfield Park Conservatory is free for Chicago residents. Everyone else pays $10 for adults and $5 for kids 7 to 17, which is still a bargain for a few hours under glass on a cold day. Take the Green Line to the Conservatory stop.

If you'll pay for several of the big museums anyway, read our CityPASS and Go City comparison first, and see museums in Chicago for what each one costs.

The view without the ticket

For years the cheap trick was the Signature Lounge on the 96th floor of the John Hancock Center, where the price of a drink bought you the view. It closed in 2023, and the building is now called 875 North Michigan Avenue. The observation deck there, 360 CHICAGO, now starts at $30. For a free skyline view, walk out to the front steps of the Adler Planetarium at the tip of Northerly Island. It's one of the best views in the city, and it costs nothing.

Explore the neighborhoods

Chicago goes far beyond the Loop and the Magnificent Mile, and most tourists never see it. Browse the shops in Wicker Park and Bucktown, look at the street murals in Pilsen, wander Chinatown or walk the quiet side streets of Lincoln Park. A $5 CTA 1-Day pass covers all of it on the L and the buses (see our transportation page). As a bonus, the neighborhood restaurants cost much less than the ones downtown. See neighborhoods to visit on public transportation and Chicago's best cheap eats.

For a cheap river trip, skip the cruise and take the Chicago Water Taxi from Michigan Avenue to Chinatown. You'll pass many of the same buildings.

Free tours with a local

Chicago Greeter is still free and still one of the best deals in town. It's run by Choose Chicago, the city's tourism office, and it pairs you with a volunteer local for a two- to four-hour walk around a neighborhood of your choice. Register at least two weeks before you arrive. If you didn't plan that far ahead, the InstaGreeter walks need no booking. The Loop walk leaves from the Randolph Street entrance of the Chicago Cultural Center at 11:30am and 1:30pm on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. See our sightseeing tours page for paid options.

Cheap theater

Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, the Neo-Futurists' show where the ticket price came down to a roll of the dice, ended its Chicago run in 2016. The company now performs The Infinite Wrench on weekend nights at its theater at 5153 N. Ashland Ave. in Andersonville. It's a late-night show in the same spirit, built from the ensemble's own two-minute plays, and it premiered in 2017. Check the calendar for tickets. For the rest of the scene, see theatre in Chicago.

To keep the whole trip cheap, read how to save money on your trip to Chicago and how to budget for a trip to Chicago.

Photo by MPBecker