Embracing the Crowds at Navy Pier

Every city has one, the spot at the top of every visitor's list that locals only go to when relatives are in town. New York has Times Square. Chicago has Navy Pier. The pier would argue with that. Its own research says more than 60 percent of its roughly nine million visitors a year live in Chicago or the suburbs. Some of those locals are the relatives' hosts, of course, but the place has more going for it than its reputation suggests.

A short history

The pier opened in 1916 as Municipal Pier, a dock for freighters and passenger ships with room for expositions and recreation. It was renamed in 1927 for the Navy veterans of World War I, and during World War II the Navy took it over as a training center. About 10,000 people worked, trained and lived on the pier, and 18,000 naval aviators qualified on two training carriers based there, the USS Wolverine and USS Sable. The hotel on the pier today is named after the Sable. After the war the University of Illinois held classes on the pier, and for most of the next few decades it was badly underused.

It reopened as an entertainment pier in 1995, and a round of redevelopment around its 2016 centennial replaced the Ferris wheel, redesigned the public spaces and added Polk Bros Park, the lawn and fountain at the entrance. The pier is 3,300 feet long, covers more than 50 acres, and is run by Navy Pier, Inc., a nonprofit set up in 2011.

What's there now

The chain restaurants and souvenir shops haven't gone anywhere, and there's still a McDonald's. But the things worth your time are good ones:

• The Centennial Wheel, which replaced the 1995 Ferris wheel in 2016. It's 196 feet tall, its gondolas are enclosed and heated, and it runs year-round.
• The Chicago Children's Museum, still one of the best places in the city to take kids under 10.
• Chicago Shakespeare Theater, which won the Regional Theatre Tony Award in 2008 and is the best reason for an adult to come out here at night.
• Boats. Architecture cruises, lake cruises, speedboats, dinner cruises and the tall ship Windy all leave from the pier.
• The view. Walk the full length to the east end and turn around, and you get the whole skyline across the water. It costs nothing, and it's the best thing on the pier.

Our things to do at Navy Pier page goes through all of it in detail, including the rides, the boats and where to eat.

Fireworks

The free summer fireworks run from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend, on Wednesdays at 9pm and Saturdays at 10pm. The pier itself is packed on those nights. For more elbow room, watch from a boat, since several cruises time their trips to the show, or from 94 floors up at 360 Chicago, which sells fireworks-night tickets. There's also a midnight show on New Year's Eve (see New Year's in Chicago), and the pier sometimes adds shows at other times of year.

When to go

Summer afternoons and weekends are when the pier earns its reputation. Get there when it opens at 11am, or come near sunset and stay for the lights. Fall and winter are much quieter, and the wheel keeps running. From late November into early January, Festival Hall hosts Wintrust Winter WonderFest, an indoor holiday fair with ice skating included in the ticket. Dress for wind whenever you go. The end of the pier is more than half a mile out in the lake and nearly always feels colder than downtown.

If you have teenagers with you, note the pier's youth escort policy. After 5pm on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, anyone under 18 needs an escort.

The basics

Admission: Free to walk on. The wheel, rides, museum, theater and boats each charge separately. Ride tickets are sold at the Pier Park box office and online.

Hours: The pier opens at 11am daily, and closing time changes with the season. In fall, for example, it closes at 8pm Sunday through Thursday and 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays. It's closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Restaurants, boats and the theater keep their own hours.

Where: 600 E. Grand Ave., at the east end of Grand Avenue in Streeterville.

Getting there: There's no L stop nearby, so the bus is the easy way. Five CTA routes go to the pier. The #29 State, #65 Grand and #66 Chicago connect with the Red Line, and the #124 Navy Pier runs from Union and Ogilvie stations and Millennium Station. The #2 runs only at weekday rush hours. In season, Shoreline's water taxi links the pier with Michigan Avenue, Union Station and the Museum Campus, which is the most fun way to get between Navy Pier and the Shedd. Divvy bikes are another option.

Parking: The pier's two garages hold about 1,500 cars, and self-parking runs from $21 for under an hour to $65 for a full day. Pre-booking online is cheaper, and a few garages farther west cost about $15 with a validation from the pier's Guest Services desk. The West Garage has only 6'3" clearance, so vans should use the East Garage.

For more on the neighborhood, see the Gold Coast, the Magnificent Mile and Streeterville.

Photo by nouQraz