Exploring Chicago On A Budget: 31 Free Activities

Look up and it will be hard to miss the towering, slightly undulating, 101-story St. Regis Chicago. Designed by the female architect Jeanne Gang and perched on the easternmost edge of Chicago’s Downtown Loop area, the gleaming structure, the city’s third tallest building is making a splash in the hotel world.

Accidentally leaving your phone behind is a traveler’s worst nightmare. But what if you purposely left it behind? Would you have a better trip if you weren’t glued to your phone, snapping selfies and choosing where to eat based on Yelp reviews?

There are many reasons to love Chicago, the nation’s third largest city sitting on Lake Michigan and beloved for its iconic skyline, deep dish pizza, Italian beef and top-notch museums. These days however, with more travelers feeling stressed, lonely, and anxious (a recent World Travel Protection survey noted only one third of business travelers are happy traveling for work), finding relaxing activities and sleeping well has never been more important.

Of all the U.S. airlines, United Airlines has perhaps the most impressive customer-facing technology.

Traveling in Taiwan is generally a joy for the budget-conscious, but the capital city of Taipei can test your ability to tour cheaply if you don’t know where to look.

The sun-drenched party capital of Mexico, Cancún is synonymous with high-end hotels, glamorous clubs and spring breakers lining those dazzling beaches.

The city of Chicago has had a great summer! Choose Chicago recently released summer 2023 performance data showing that for the months of June, July and August, the hotel revenue totaled $825 million, and hotel taxes totaled $46 million, both all-time records for summer months. Also, over one million room nights were filled each month this summer, totaling 3.24 million hotel room nights. That is 4% higher than last year and represents a 92% recovery share compared to 2019 numbers. Leisure visitors in particular came to Chicago in droves this summer – buoyed by a packed calendar of concerts, events and festivals, total leisure hotel room demand increased by 8% compared to summer 2022. International visitation increased by 13% compared to summer 2022.

It's too early to say what the conflict in Israel will mean for the cruise industry, said Vicki Freed, Royal Caribbean International's senior vice president of sales, trade support and service.

Active travel, meaning biking, hiking and multi-sport vacations, have been skyrocketing in popularity since the pandemic. The major tour operators specializing in this field are reporting record traffic and bookings for 2023 and 2024, and this makes a lot of sense, as the pandemic caused a lasting spike in participation in many outdoor sports. Additionally, there are many benefits to active travel - exercise, guilt free indulgence, and seeing the world more deeply at a slower, immersive pace. But within this red-hot category, one niche in particular has been attracting more and more active travelers, both veterans and first timers, and that’s active cruises.

Since Illinois legalized cannabis for recreational and medical use in 2020, there’s been a boom in marijuana tourism in Chicago. While you can’t light up in public spaces you can satiate your cannabis curiosity at dispensaries and smoke socially at venues with an on-premises consumption license. Hotels remain a gray area around ganga use but a “growing” number of Airbnb hosts permit backyard smoking or even from the sofa. Only these cannabis-friendly Airbnbs in Chicago don’t limit 420 to 16:20 p.m.

Two decades back, one of Vietnam's notorious mafia bosses was executed by a firing squad. Truong Van Cam, more commonly known as Nam Cam, or Vietnam's "Godfather," oversaw a vast criminal network that controlled much of Ho Chi Minh City's District 4. It was the ideal place for him to base his criminal activities: It's centrally located, buffered by waterways, and chock-full of clandestine networks of alleyways.

I recently left the US to spend a life-changing month exploring Italy's food, architecture, history, and natural beauty with my husband.