Chicago voted Best Big City for leisure travel in the USA by Conde Nast Traveler

I'd really like to spend a long weekend/short week exploring Chicago, but every time I look at flights (non-stops from the NothEast) I'm dismayed by their high prices—often more than I pay to cross oceans!

City officials must have bribed the magazine to increase tourism revenue.
Chicago has always been famous for briberies and corruption, if not outright extortion.

Wow.I will.have what they are drinking!!! Sorry Chicago but to me there are many better large US cities to visit.

Actually Chicago is a pretty livable big city. It has your world class theatre district and art like New York, a ton of good mom/pop ethnic restaurants and the best skyline in the US. And while the sports teams are always bad, their stadiums are pretty nice. And I've noticed Chicagoans are always a bit friendlier than their Eastern big city cousins.

Winter can be brutal but running along the Chicago lakefront on a warm summers morning has to be heaven. The only bad thing is that aside from Chicago, there's not that much around.

If I had to live either in NYC/Chicago/LA it would always be Chicago. Glad to see that so many here don't like it-keeps the cost down:)

City officials must have bribed the magazine to increase tourism

What? For six years straigh?. Everyone who is anyone comes through here entertainment wise. Corruption has no influence on the tourism seen through all the same and new conventions that continue to happen.

Moreover believe it or not when I was in Italy a little over a year ago I ran into a native Italian who had run the Chicago Marathon 2019 sporting the official T-shirt and another in the Dolomites who spoke very little English wearing a Cubs hat.

I adore Chicago and loved living there. I go back as frequently as I can. It has everything you want in a city but in a smaller size.

I spent a lot of time there over the years, visiting relatives, and traveling for work. I got to see a lot of the ethnic neighborhoods, and wouldn't mind living there. Except for the traffic: six lanes and nothing moving, on a Sunday afternoon, nothing special going on.

Chicago rocks; I saw the Rolling Stones & Elton John play sold out stadiums there this summer.

Best big city for what???? Holidays, living, sport, entertainment? Also best big city of where??? America, North America, the world?
Very confussed?

Yes!! Chicago is so underrated. I always tell people when I travel abroad to skip NYC and go to Chicago instead. I grew up in the northern burbs so I understand I’m bias, but Chicago will always have a special place in my heart and I’m yet to find a US city I like better. It’s clean, it’s got a beautiful lake, lovely parks, amazing free festivals during the summer, and much friendlier people than other large US cities. And who can forget Portillos and Genos East sigh I really miss those places.

Tom_MN - The LV Metro area has a population nearing 3 million inhabitants. It may not be to your tastes (it certainly isn't to mine), but there is no denying that it is a major American city.

It also has an allure for people around the world. It is what our American society presents as a city worth visiting and being wondered by, despite plenty of us Americans thinking it's not so worthy.

I wouldn't feel safe in NYC right now, but I've been to Chicago, LA and NYC and NYC is definitely the better city. Right now my choice would be Boston.

Chicago is plenty safe to visit. The violence in Chicago is very concentrated to areas tourist don’t go to. Every city has its risks and every city has areas that are less safe than others.

I am not a big city person, but I really enjoy Chicago. Like every city, there are areas that aren’t safe, but I have always felt safe in Chicago in the areas tourists tend to go to. Chicago has good museums, entertainment, restaurants, architecture, the lake...oh, and for me it helps that it is the closest really big city that I can drive to!

From reading this post it sound like senior citizen tourists feel more vulnerable than the younger ones as far as possibly being the victim of a crime (so what else is new) ; this is judging by all the tourists that I ran into at the stadium size concerts in Chicago I attended and the fact that my own parents who are seniors retired spend a lot of time watching the if it bleeds it leads tv show aka " the news " that repeats in the morning when the wake up, in the evening and then at night.

Many businesses also left Illinois (not Chicago Caterpillar was based in Deerfield, Illinois) because of very high taxes, and the work home during the pandemic showed that they did not need as much office space. So it is not solely based on crime.

I reserved an Airbnb in Manhattan for spring, my brother tells me NY
is unsafe

Tom, we just spent the better part of a week in Manhattan last month and can't remember feeling unsafe anywhere we ventured to. Did run across a homeless soul shooting up in his nest of blankets after dark one night on Broadway (somewhere south of Beach or White) but he was harmless. Police presence in lower Manhattan was heavy, and noticeable in other parts of the city as well. Walked through Central Park in the rain after the Met and didn't feel uneasy at all.

We were staying at World Center/Club Quarters, near the south edge of the Ground Zero site. We were visiting friends who live in Battery Park City, thus our choice versus further north this time. Oh and yes, we used the subway without incident.

Hey folks, this thread is getting a bit off the rails here and I'm cleaning out a few posts that largely just serve to make you afraid of broad locations. Apologies if the remaining posts seem disjointed. This forum is about traveling somewhere and advice to do so, and on balance realistic advice about risk in specific locations is welcome.

If someone cited crime statistics about a city every time someone recommended traveling there, no one would go anywhere. Absolute numbers always sound scary, and to understand your risk, this must be tempered with population size (millions) and knowledge that those numbers aren't happening every hour in every location but across an entire year and (mostly) in non-tourist areas.

The sort of advice that is helpful is "hey, Chicago is a great city... but maybe avoid this specific area at night where businesses moved out and crime became high during the pandemic." Right? Throwing an entire city under the proverbial bus isn't helpful in a travel forum. And I can personally say let's keep Seattle out of this. Like other cities, it has it's challenges in some spots and I even live nearish one, but it doesn't take away from why you'd visit.

Let's be helpful, realistic, and specific with our advice. Thanks, everyone.

Also, crime in cities is not the topic of this thread. Let's get back to the main topic.

I personally had a great time in Chicago in 2019. I hung out a bit downtown, enjoyed a big event outside of downtown, took public transport to find the best deep dish pizza, etc.

I've lived in Chicago for more than two years--moved here from the West Coast right when the pandemic started. I moved here because I like it, not for a job or anything else.

I love it here and even though we have our problems (as all cities do), it is a great city! So much to do, see, and eat!

If anybody needs ideas about things to do in Chicago, please let me know!

Chicago is fine. I've been there probably a 1/2 dozen times over 50+ years and enjoyed each encounter. The Art Institute has been a beloved friend since my youth, as is the Science and Industry Museum and Shedd Aquarium. Add Adler Planetarium, the Field Museum, the Chicago History Museum and a couple of zoos and there's enuf to keep young and not-so busy for more than a few days.

Dad took us to our first major League baseball game at Wrigley when we were kids. He was a diehard (!!!) Cubs fan, and sadly didn't live to see them win the 2016 Series. 😢 Yep, we had peanuts and Crackerjacks, and root-root-rooted for the home team (they lost to the Phillies).

The DH and I enjoyed a self-guided architecture walk last time with a printed guide picked up at one of visitor centers, a free concert at Millennium Park, exploring Old Town, Graceland Cemetery and lots of street art, and popping into a couple of churches. One especially fun thing? Dinner at Twin Anchors. It was a unpretentious throwback to an earlier time, right down to the basket of cellophane wrapped crackers and breadsticks. The ribs, BTW, were delicious, and their Prohibition BBQ sauce is killer. I wish we'd taken more than just a couple of bottles home!

There is a reason Chicago is known as the "Second City."

It's always a far second behind NYC. :)

And on the note of "Second City," if you have time, I recommend checking out one of the shows at the improv club of the same name. I've seen 3-4 shows there and it's always awesome. As a reminder, some big names have come out of Second City, including:
Bill Murray
Gilda Radner
John Candy
Eugene Levy
Catherine O’Hara
Steve Carell
Tina Fey
Amy Poehler

I grew up in the Chicago suburbs. My wife and I first bonded over our love for Chicago.

It has a lot going for it - Art Institute, Field Museum, good China town.

Chicago hot dogs and Italian beef sandwiches ARE the premier junk food of the USA. Chicago pizza is the very best of the USA.

There are places I would not go during the day even. But I love going to Chicago.

I remember being a just out of college and into the punk rock scene youngster, living and working near Cleveland, and going to Chicago on weekends to hit up the cool record stores. Never felt unsafe then, and didn't feel unsafe when I was there last December. I've always appreciated Chicago not just for what it is, but also for what it isn't. Chicago never tries to be anything other than a Midwestern city. ❤️

I happen to think Chicago is the best city in the US - and one of the prettiest. The food scene is amazing. While I love New York I find getting an amazing meal to be harder than it is in Chicago. Hotels can also be very affordable in Chicago. My favorite is The London House: a curio hotel by Hilton. The views of the river are just incredible. And then there's Chicago pizza! Lou Malnati's rips it out of the park!