Things to do at Navy Pier

Navy Pier is one of Chicago's biggest tourist traps, and on a July Saturday it's wall-to-wall strollers and souvenir bags. Plenty of locals won't set foot on it between Memorial Day and Labor Day. That's their loss, because behind the kitsch there are a handful of attractions that are good by any standard. This page goes through what's on the pier and which parts are worth paying for. For hours, getting there, parking, fireworks and a bit of history, see our main Navy Pier page.

Chicago Children's Museum

If you have kids under about 10, the Chicago Children's Museum (700 E. Grand Ave.) is the best thing on the pier. It's built for touching and climbing. Kids can dig for bones in Dinosaur Expedition, climb through Treehouse Trails and the Kovler Family Climbing Schooner, play with water at Water City, and make things in the Tinkering Lab and Art Studio.

Check the hours before you go, because they're short. The museum is open 10am to 2pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, 10am to 5pm Friday through Sunday, and closed Tuesdays, with last entry an hour before closing. Admission is $21 for Illinois residents and $25 for everyone else, for adults and kids alike, and babies under 1 get in free. Every group needs at least one adult and one child. Families with an EBT or WIC card pay $5 a person, and veterans and active military get in free. The museum also holds occasional Kids Free Days, when everyone 17 and under gets in free.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater

Don't let the address put you off. Chicago Shakespeare Theater (800 E. Grand Ave.) is one of the best theaters in the city, and it won the Regional Theatre Tony Award in 2008. The company started in 1986 on the roof of the Red Lion Pub in Lincoln Park and moved into its own building on the pier in 1999. It now has three stages: the Courtyard Theater, which seats about 500 around a thrust stage, a 200-seat studio upstairs, and The Yard, added in 2017, which can be set up for anywhere from 150 to 850 people.

Shakespeare is still the core of the season, but the company also stages musicals and new work, and the Tony-winning Illinoise, built on Sufjan Stevens' album, has played there. If you're under 30, look at the $30 Under 30 tickets. Our theatre in Chicago page covers the rest of the city's stages.

The Centennial Wheel and Pier Park

The old version of this page said the pier's Ferris wheel dated from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. It didn't. The pier's first wheel went up in 1995, and in 2015 it was sold to Branson, Missouri, to make way for the Centennial Wheel. The new wheel opened in 2016. It's 196 feet tall, 46 feet taller than the old one, and a ride goes around three times in about 12 minutes. The gondolas are enclosed, air-conditioned in summer and heated in winter, so it runs all year. A VIP gondola with a glass floor and plush seats can be booked for up to four people. It's the one ride on the pier I'd tell an adult to pay for, ideally at sunset.

The rest of Pier Park is a small, seasonal fairground, open from late spring to early fall when the weather allows. There's a carousel (the current one ran at Dorney Park in Pennsylvania for 30 years before it came here in 2019), Tea Cups, a Wave Swinger, the Light Tower, a Drop Tower and a mini-golf course. If your kids want to do everything, look for the seasonal Play the Park deal, which bundles one wheel ride with unlimited same-day rides and mini golf. Indoors, Amazing Chicago's Funhouse Maze is 4,000 square feet of tunnels and mazes.

Flyover and The Butterfly House

Flyover is a flying-theater ride. You sit in a motion seat while film, mist, scents and music give you the feeling of flying over Chicago and other places. It's a good rainy-day option, and it keeps the pier's regular hours.

The Butterfly House is a walk-through habitat with more than 70 species of butterflies and moths and over 500 in the air at any time. A few may land on you. The butterflies come as chrysalises from farms in places like Costa Rica, and the house supports rainforest conservation there. It's calmer than anything else on the pier, which after an hour of Pier Park may be the point.

Getting out on the water

Between them, the boat companies at the pier cover almost every kind of cruise.

• Shoreline Sightseeing runs architecture tours on the river, a Skyline Lake Tour and, on summer Wednesdays and Saturdays, tours that end with a view of the fireworks. It also runs the water taxi between the pier, Michigan Avenue, Union Station and the Museum Campus.
• Tall Ship Windy, a 148-foot, four-masted schooner, has been sailing from the pier for about three decades. Its skyline sails are the slowest and most relaxed way onto the lake.
• Seadog speedboats are the opposite, fast and splashy. City Cruises, which runs Seadog, also does brunch, lunch and dinner cruises from the pier.

Our sightseeing tours page compares them with the Chicago Architecture Center cruise, which leaves from the river rather than the pier, and 5 ways to get out on the water has other ideas.

Free things to do

You can spend a good afternoon here without buying a ticket. Walk the Wellness Way, a 1.5-mile loop around the pier with distance markers and fitness stations at the far end, and at the east end you get the best free skyline view in town. Along the way you'll pass the public art, which includes a bronze of Bob Newhart at his desk from The Bob Newhart Show and the anchor of the USS Chicago. Near the entrance, Polk Bros Park has a lawn and a fountain, and it hosts concerts and film screenings.

The pier is also now the ceremonial starting point of Route 66. There's a Route 66 sign for the photo, a store selling the official Route 66 passport, and a passport stamp at Harry Caray's. If you're driving the whole thing, see start your Route 66 road trip in Chicago. Navy Pier says it runs more than 245 free public programs a year, and the events calendar has what's on while you're in town.

Bike & Roll rents bikes from a shop on the pier, and the Lakefront Trail runs right past (see sightseeing tours for its guided rides).

Where to eat and drink

The pier has cleaned up its food since the days when this page listed Bubba Gump and a giant McDonald's. The McDonald's is still there, but a lot of the counters now carry Chicago names: Billy Goat Tavern, Giordano's, Garrett Popcorn, The Original Rainbow Cone and Beat Kitchen Cantina among them. The full list is long.

For a sit-down meal, Harry Caray's, Chef Art Smith's Reunion, Lirica, Bar Sol Mariscos and Margaritaville are all on the pier. The one we'd pick for a drink is Offshore (1000 E. Grand Ave.), which bills itself as the world's largest rooftop and has a Mediterranean-leaning menu. The view back at the skyline from out over the lake is the reason to go (more in Chicago rooftop bars). The Navy Pier Beer Garden is the more casual outdoor option.

In winter

The pier doesn't close for the cold. The wheel keeps turning, the museum and theater keep their schedules, and from late November into early January Wintrust Winter WonderFest fills Festival Hall with holiday decorations, seasonal attractions and ice skating, which is included in the ticket. Buy online at least a day ahead, since it costs more at the door. See Christmas events in Chicago for more.

What's gone

The Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows, which this page used to recommend, closed in 2014. It was the first museum in the US devoted only to stained glass, and the Tiffany windows in the gallery next door came out in 2017. Before it closed, the museum worked with Macy's to install 22 of its windows in the Chicago Pedway downtown, and they're still on display there. The AeroBalloon ride from the old version of this page is also gone from the pier's attraction list.

Photo by nouQraz