Chicago is known for its incredible architecture and towering skyscrapers, but that doesn’t mean the Windy City lacks green space.
When the city was incorporated in 1837, it adopted the Latin motto, “Urbs in Horto,” meaning “City in the Garden.” With more than 8,000 acres of city-maintained parks, there are plenty of outdoor spaces to explore when you visit.
Here’s our list of the best parks in Chicago.
Millennium Park
The best park for artworks
Millennium Park, Chicago’s showpiece, is a treasure trove of free and artistic sights. This includes the Pritzker Pavilion, Frank Gehry’s silver band shell, which hosts free weekly concerts in the summer. Anish Kapoor’s adorable silver sculpture Cloud Gate aka “The Bean” and Geom Plansa’s Crown Fountain, a de facto water park that features gargoyle-style video images of locals spitting into the water.
The McCormick Tribune Ice Rink fills with skaters during the winter (and alfresco diners in the summer). The Hidden Lowry Garden blooms with prairie flowers and serenity. The Gehry-designed BP Bridge spans Columbus Drive and offers spectacular skyline views, while Nichols Bridgeway Park arches to the roof of the Art Institute of Chicago’s small, third-floor sculpture, which overlooks is free for
Free yoga and Pilates classes are held on the Great Lawn on Saturday mornings in the summer, while the Family Fun Tent offers daily activities for children in the summer.
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Lincoln Park
The best park for the beach
Lincoln Park gives the neighborhood its name, and is the largest park in Chicago. Its 1,200 acres stretch six miles from North Avenue to Diversey Parkway, where it narrows along the lake to the end of Lake Shore Drive.
On sunny days, locals head outside to take advantage of the pools, ponds, trails and playgrounds or visit the Lincoln Park Zoo, Lincoln Park Conservatory and beaches. It’s a great place to while away the morning or afternoon (or both).
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North Island
Best park for bird watching
North Island, a hilly, prairie-grass park, has a walking and biking trail, an outdoor venue for big-name concerts and offers excellent bird-watching and fishing opportunities. It’s actually a peninsula, not an island, but the views of the Chicago skyline are awesome no matter what you call it.
Stop by the Field House, open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., for tour information. Bicycles are available at the Divvy bike share station at the Adler Planetarium.
Maggie Daly Park
Great park for families
Families love Maggie Daly Park’s wonderful, free playgrounds in all their magical forest and pirate-themed glory. There’s a rock-climbing wall, an 18-hole mini-golf course, a winding, in-line skating track known as the “skating ribbon” (used for ice skating in the winter) and tennis courts; Check out the park website Numerous picnic tables for a fee make the park a great place to relax. It is connected to Millennium Park by a pedestrian BP bridge.
Garfield Park Conservatory
Great park to admire plants and flowers
Built in 1907, the Garfield Park Conservatory is a lovely place to spend a few hours wandering around two acres of glass-covered rooms filled with flowers, ferns, palms and orchids.
The 10-acre outdoor grounds are open between May and October, including the Lily Pool, a carnivorous plant bog and the Monet Garden, based on the Impressionist painter’s flower patch in Giverny, France.
The demonstration garden shows citizens how to grow vegetables, bees and compost in city plots. Children can get dirty with roots and seeds in the indoor children’s garden. The new halls display seasonal plants that are particularly spectacular in the weeks leading up to Easter.
Jackson Park
Great park for a walk
The 550-acre lakefront Jackson Park is a gem. Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the famed creator of New York City’s Central Park, it features bird-rich lakes, busy boat harbors, fragrant meadows, a phoenix garden, 63rd Street Beach and a golf course. Included.
It’s where the city hosted the 1893 World’s Expo, when Chicago introduced the world to wonders like the Ferris wheel, moving pictures and the zipper.
The Museum of Science and Industry is located in the northern part of Jackson Park. If you’re looking for a nice walk, Jackson Park connects to Washington Park via a mile-long boulevard called the Midway Place. The Plaisance itself is a park, with snow plows and college students kicking around soccer balls on the grass.
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Humboldt Park
Best park for cultural events
The 207-acre Humboldt Park, which gives its name to the neighborhood around it, comes out of nowhere and inspires you with Mother Nature. The lake, cleared of native vegetation, takes over most of the green space, and birdsong wafts through the air.
The 1907 Prairie School Boathouse is the center of the park, home to a café and free cultural events. Other highlights include a floral formal garden, the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture, and Chicago’s only inland beach.
For more in-depth exploration, including the park’s small waterfall, wind turbine and picnic island, Download the free audio tour.. Street vendors and food trucks line the edges of the park selling fried plantains, pastelillos de carne (meat fritters) and other Puerto Rican specialties.
Palmisano Park
Great park for fishing
It was once an old limestone quarry. Today, Palmisano Park features an urban prairie with spectacular views of the Chicago skyline. Locals come here to fish for bluegill in the lake in the summer and sled the hills in the winter. Winding paths made of recycled construction debris make for a fun stroll through the city.
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Promontory Point
The perfect park for a wedding
Runners, cyclists, swimmers, dog walkers, and Hyde Park residents of all stripes rub shoulders at Promontory Point, a 12-acre man-made peninsula jutting into Lake Michigan.
Stone steps and fortified fieldhouses are favorite hangouts. Wedding receptions are often held later because it is so beautiful. Renowned landscape architect Alfred Caldwell designed the green space. The view of the Chicago skyline from here is spectacular.
Grant Park
The perfect park for festivals
Grant Park hosts Chicago’s mega-events, such as Taste of Chicago, Bluesfest, and Lollapalooza. Buckingham Fountain is the centerpiece of the park. The skateboard park in the southwest corner draws a cool cat crowd. Other features include a rose garden and several baseball diamonds.
Ping Tom Memorial Park
The best park for sky views
Ping Tom Memorial Park stretches along the Chicago River and offers dramatic, bridge-spanning skyline views. Rent a kayak from the boathouse, or pack a picnic to eat under the willow trees. in summer, Chicago Water Taxi A groovy boat runs to/from Michigan Avenue. The dock is next to the Wrigley Building on the northwest side of the bridge.
606
Best park for bike riding
Chicago’s 606 is an urban cool elevated route along an old train track. Bike or stroll the 2.7 miles between Wicker Park and Logan Square past factories, smokestacks, rumbling L trains, and locals’ backyard affairs.
It’s a fascinating trek through Chicago’s vibrant Northwest neighborhoods. The trail parallels Bloomingdale Avenue (the border between Wicker Park and Bucktown), with access points every quarter mile.
The entrance to Churchill Field is an easy, sculpture-laden place to climb. A few blocks from the east end of the trail at the corner of Marshfield Avenue and Cortland Street is a Divvy bike share station for those who want to bike the trail.
South Shore Cultural Center Park
Great park for community events
Once upon a time, this vibrant cultural center was a private country club. Today, the park’s Mediterranean Revival Fieldhouse, located on a picturesque stretch of Lake Michigan, houses two dance studios, a theater, a fine arts gallery, music practice rooms and a visual arts studio.
A golf course, beach, gardens and nature center are open to the public. The former Country Club horse stables are now occupied by the mounted unit of the Chicago Police Department.
Wells Park
The perfect park for fitness fanatics
In the heart of the charming North of Lincoln Square neighborhood, Wells Park is a hub of outdoor cultural events during the summer.
Its wrought-iron gazebo often doubles as the main stage for plays and concerts. It’s also a year-round sports and fitness destination, thanks to its running track and baseball fields and Wells Park Fieldhouse’s indoor swimming pool and fitness center.
The Nature Playspace invites kids to get messy as they build, dig, and climb on many playful elements of nature, including wide tree trunks, tall logs, and splash-worthy puddles in spring.