I'm driving the family south to Florida for a week in February, and we're planning on stopping in Chicago for a 2-3 days on the way down. What advice do you Illobners have for visiting Chicago in the winter?

We've got a wide range of ages (4-17) so I'm trying to find activities for everyone. I'd like to culture them up sufficiently, before we get to the soul-numbing Florida tourist parks.

List priorities so far:
Field Museum
Art Institute
Children's Museum (on navy pier, correct?)
Adler planetarium
museum of science & industry

It would also be great to see some kid-friendly theater, but I've been striking out online so far.

How difficult is it getting around in Feb? Is it still worth planning on wandering through Millennium park, or Lincoln Park Zoo?

Field Museum -- might be a little boring for some of the little ones, but if they are patient and enjoy quietly walking around, looking at old stuff and diaoramas, they'll dig it. The dinosaurs will only take you about 1/2-hour to an hour to see.

Art Institute -- Again, if they dig art; it is a great museum. But it's a lot of walking around and looking at paintings and other stuff the little ones can't touch.

Children's Museum (on navy pier, correct?) -- correct. If you go there, plan on either taking a bus or cab, or on paying $20-25 for parking.

Adler planetarium -- Embarrased to say that I have not been. But my kids went with their school and loved it.

museum of science & industry -- The greatest museum in the world. We have been 10-plus times with the kids and they still get excited whenever we go. There's a TON of stuff to see and do there. For the grownups too.

As to children's theater: Where are you staying? Downtown, near downtown or out in the 'burbs somewhere?

This theater has a pretty good Children's programing, but the only thing that I can see running there during Feb. is this:
http://www.marriotttheatre.com/show.aspx?show=36

Hope this helped.

I'd skip the planetarium.
The museum of science and industry will take you 2 days to see everything. The aquarium is pretty cool.

They used to have city passes, so look into that. The passes got you admission to a bunch of museums.

I'd avoid going to the museums on Saturday, because you will spend much of you time in long lines.

If you are going up to the Sears tower or Hancock, do it at night since they are open later (like 10:00) than the museums. This way you can cram one more tourist thing in and the city looks cool at night. I prefer the Hancock, because you can see both the lake and sears tower, and the neighborhood of the magnificent mile is much cooler.

If you can ditch the kids, get to Schuba's for a show. They always have excellent bands on Fri and Sat nights.

i want to take my son there soon but im afraid it will be too cold around that time. ive frozen my ass off more than a few times in chicago

Shed Aquarium is pretty cool. It’s one of the world’s largest indoor aquariums, containing more than 2100 species.

I was actually let down a little by the Field museum, for what it's worth. It seemed like it was overly kid-geared. I wanted more details, and I got cartoons and stuff instead. I wish we'd gone to that aquarium.

i'll echo statements about skipping the planetarium in favor of the aquarium. (they're basically right next to each other.) kids will like the aquarium way more. also, i believe that the aquarium has free general admission (and discounts on the other exhibits) mondays and tuesdays during the winter.


this just depends on how well you can cope with the weather. my office overlooks millennium park and i see decent crowds there around the year, whether it's to gawk at the bean or go ice skating. if you're tackling downtown in an afternoon, there's actually a bus that goes from state street (like a block and a half from millennium park) straight over to the field museum and shedd aquarium.

gonna be cold as a motherfucker

Especially if today is any indication. Is it just me or does it look like it's going to snow out there right now?? There was such an odd chill that picked up rather sudden.

I've never been Adler and I once vomited after being at S&I due to an exhibit(though in hindsight I WAS pregnant at the time so who knows).

I'm a HUGE fan of the Field, and I also love the Shedd and Art Institute. Unless you want to shell out big time at the Shedd you can get through it rather quickly, the general admission parts will have you in and out in about an hour. The dolphin show is worth the extra.

Walking around Millenium, well yeah Ryan's right-you're going to freeze your ass off in february.

Navy Pier is just a lot of shops and the children's museum. When we lived down there I started to downright hate that place. In winter all there is to do is shop, eat and go to the Children's museum. All my oldest ever wanted to do was shop there. And if you drive there yeah parking is mighty expensive. Children's museum is fun though.

Navy Pier also has the Chicago Shakespeare Repertory theater which has a good docent program that's entertaining for students...

besides, seeing it is way more fun than reading it.

Thanks for the info so far!

I know it'll be cold, but since Chicago is 8 hours due south from home, its gotta be better than here, right?

I like the aquarium idea, but since we're planning on doing Seaworld once we get down to Florida, I didn't want to over fish the fam. Although now that I think about it, the two places probably don't have a lot of overlap.

My eldest is a huge astronomy buff, so the planeterium is high on his list. Maybe the wife would rather take the younger ones somewhere else and just he and I would go.

We'll be staying right downtown, and I'm hoping to just park the van and take the ell and buses during the stay.

well then, that might be all right. but i should warn you i have never been satisfied with their shows in the theaters. science & industry has way better shows on the imax.