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Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guides
Top 10 Chicago
DK Eyewitness Top 10 Chicago will lead you straight to the best attractions this city has to offer. Whether you're looking for the most exciting festivals, the loveliest parks and beaches, the liveliest night-time hot-spots, or want to find the best restaurants in Chicago, this guide is the perfect pocket-sized companion. Rely on dozens of Top 10 lists for all budgets - from the Top 10 niche museums and the best city strolls to the Top 10 jazz and blues joints and to save you time and money, there's even a list of budget tips and the Top 10 things to avoid. DK Eyewitness Top 10 Chicago is packed with colour illustrations of this cosmopolitan city, providing the insider knowledge every visitor needs. Explore every corner effortlessly using the FREE pull-out map, plus many smaller maps included within the guide.Your guide to the Top 10 best of everything in Chicago.
- GenresTravelNonfictionAmerican
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
July 18, 2021
D.K. Eyewitness Top 10 guides are my 'go to' when traveling. They provide an excellent well-rounded overview of my destination. They are great to have at hand in the planning stages and the perfect size for a traveling companion book. The pictures are enticing and the text concise. I live about 50 miles from Chicago and hope to explore more of this wonderful city over the next few months. I am excited to try out some of the recommendations for good eats, theaters, and blues and jazz joints. One place I take time to visit whenever I am in Chicago is the Cultural Center, which is included in this guide. In 2016, I saw an exhibition: Strandbeest: The Dream Machines of Theo Jansen there and was truly captivated.
September 16, 2020
This guidebook is small and therefore good to take about with one, and the pictures are helpful. It covered all the things I wanted to know about Chicago.
January 12, 2026
4 stars for the book itself — I mean, all DK guides are beautiful and well-written productions — but just 2 stars for the subject, as Chicago is one dull destination,* (granted, the last two such guides I used were for Iceland and Angkor Wat, so not really a fair comparison). Sure…nice museums, decent food, large parks and tall buildings; but I can find as good or better of all but the last at home in D.C. (or in pretty much any other large U.S. city). Very obviously just my opinion, but I do NOT understand the attraction of big city tourism, unless it involves castles or temples or Christmas markets or Oktoberfests or the like.
I did get to visit a few bookstores listed in my Footnotes from the World's Greatest Bookstores (Quimby's, Myopic Books and Book Cellar); and I greatly enjoyed the Field Museum,** which not only has Sue the T. Rex, but also one of only a dozen archaeopteryx fossils ever found, and all those classic (if now wildly-outdated) Charles Knight murals:
...not to mention the skulls and stuffed bodies of the famous "Man-eaters of Tsavo," (made even more famous in the 1996 film "The Ghost and the Darkness" — and who back then could have predicted that Michael Douglas would outlive Val Kilmer??).
But otherwise…if I never eat a deep-dish pizza or Chicago dog again, that'll probably be fine with me.
* On the drive back to Virginia, we also visited what is widely considered the most boring national park in the U.S., the Indiana Dunes.
** The Field is truly one of the world's great natural history museums; smaller than those in both D.C. and N.Y., but just beautifully set up and maintained. Sadly, there's no Field equivalent to the Smithsonian's excellent Official Guide To The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History — someone really ought to do something about that.
I did get to visit a few bookstores listed in my Footnotes from the World's Greatest Bookstores (Quimby's, Myopic Books and Book Cellar); and I greatly enjoyed the Field Museum,** which not only has Sue the T. Rex, but also one of only a dozen archaeopteryx fossils ever found, and all those classic (if now wildly-outdated) Charles Knight murals:
...not to mention the skulls and stuffed bodies of the famous "Man-eaters of Tsavo," (made even more famous in the 1996 film "The Ghost and the Darkness" — and who back then could have predicted that Michael Douglas would outlive Val Kilmer??).
But otherwise…if I never eat a deep-dish pizza or Chicago dog again, that'll probably be fine with me.
* On the drive back to Virginia, we also visited what is widely considered the most boring national park in the U.S., the Indiana Dunes.
** The Field is truly one of the world's great natural history museums; smaller than those in both D.C. and N.Y., but just beautifully set up and maintained. Sadly, there's no Field equivalent to the Smithsonian's excellent Official Guide To The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History — someone really ought to do something about that.
March 5, 2024
Small size is perfect for pocket/purse. Good jumping off point for quick trip of tourist highlights - handy for choosing where to start the day & use Google or Atlas Obscura on phone for other interesting things in area.
June 29, 2017
A nice guild book for a short trip. Very good restaurant recommendations by area.
July 1, 2009
I've reviewed several travel guides lately, a number from Eyewitness Travel. This is another useful guidebook. And since I am from Illinois originally and Chicago always beckoned as a terrific place to visit, I was most interested in how well this book satisfied. Well, to end any suspense as to my answer, it satisfied very well indeed.
The first part of the book provides background context on Chicago--from four suggested tours of Chicago to a brief history of the place and other introductory information. On pages 21-25 are some bold selections. On Page 21, the top ten tourist attractions (I'm not sure that these would be my Top 10, but some are no brainers, such as the Art Institute, the Magnificent Mile, the Field Museum, and so on). Pages 22-23 feature the best museums in the city--and the choice is pretty reasonable.
One of the standard features of any guidebook for a city is a consideration of the different areas within the city. Here, I'll just mention a couple.
One, the downtown core, including the Loop (defined by a loop in the elevated train tracks). There are some great buildings and museums here--the Art Institute (both a great piece of architecture and a stunning museum), the old Marshall Field's flagship store (now Macy's; it's still hard to refer to the place as Macy's!), Sears Tower, Auditorium Building, and Millennium Park. Places to stay? I love the old classic Palmer House. I also enjoy staying at the Hyatt Regency (its restaurant, Stetson's is also worth mentioning, although it's not listed in this guide). Some grand ones. I always enjoyed Miller's Pub, with its fine baby-back ribs. And walk out toward the Lakefront from here and enjoy the view.
Two, the North Side. Tribune Tower and the Wrigley Building are wonderful. Want to shop till you drop? Check out the Magnificent Mile; in the process go up to the observation deck of the Hancock Building. I'm nervous about heights and get conniptions, but I can survive because of the splendid view! Some fine steak houses are located here--the well known Morton's and a Don Shula.
There is also a valuable guide as to where to go for antiques, art and art supplies, books, gifts and souvenirs, sporting goods, and so on.
As someone who has visited Chicago numerous times and has a soft spot in his heart for the Windy City, I find this a very good volume. So, a strong recommendation!
The first part of the book provides background context on Chicago--from four suggested tours of Chicago to a brief history of the place and other introductory information. On pages 21-25 are some bold selections. On Page 21, the top ten tourist attractions (I'm not sure that these would be my Top 10, but some are no brainers, such as the Art Institute, the Magnificent Mile, the Field Museum, and so on). Pages 22-23 feature the best museums in the city--and the choice is pretty reasonable.
One of the standard features of any guidebook for a city is a consideration of the different areas within the city. Here, I'll just mention a couple.
One, the downtown core, including the Loop (defined by a loop in the elevated train tracks). There are some great buildings and museums here--the Art Institute (both a great piece of architecture and a stunning museum), the old Marshall Field's flagship store (now Macy's; it's still hard to refer to the place as Macy's!), Sears Tower, Auditorium Building, and Millennium Park. Places to stay? I love the old classic Palmer House. I also enjoy staying at the Hyatt Regency (its restaurant, Stetson's is also worth mentioning, although it's not listed in this guide). Some grand ones. I always enjoyed Miller's Pub, with its fine baby-back ribs. And walk out toward the Lakefront from here and enjoy the view.
Two, the North Side. Tribune Tower and the Wrigley Building are wonderful. Want to shop till you drop? Check out the Magnificent Mile; in the process go up to the observation deck of the Hancock Building. I'm nervous about heights and get conniptions, but I can survive because of the splendid view! Some fine steak houses are located here--the well known Morton's and a Don Shula.
There is also a valuable guide as to where to go for antiques, art and art supplies, books, gifts and souvenirs, sporting goods, and so on.
As someone who has visited Chicago numerous times and has a soft spot in his heart for the Windy City, I find this a very good volume. So, a strong recommendation!
September 24, 2014
I so love the TOP 10 series! My book is 10 years old, but for the most part it still works. This time we were only in Chicago for about 23 hours, and the girl just needed to run around more and not be forced into being quiet at the Art Institute. And the one kid just did not want to do the Aquarium/Planetarium/Field Museum. So basically we just hung out around Millennium Park most of the day taking pictures by statutes and ducking back between skyscrapers in search of Chicagoan food. However, they girls REALLY want to go back so hopefully we can do that within the next couple years and "check off" more sites.
May 24, 2016
The top 10 series is a reliable guide to pretty much any major city, so I picked up this one for a weekend trip to Chicago. The maps were helpful, and of course there were more things to do in there than anybody could possibly do in just two days. Still, the book was a good starting point. My only complaint: the book (2014 version) indicated there was a walk-through model heart at the Museum of Science and Industry, but when we got to the museum staff members told us they hadn't had that for at least 10 years. It was a little disappointing that a guidebook that was supposedly updated in 2014 was that outdated.
October 16, 2008
This book is fabulous because it is a good balance of the well-known, the off-the-beaten path, and varying levels of in-depth and thumbnail information. Has good maps and is also purse size. This book is good for tourists and locals alike, though is certainly tailored to the adult crowd (very few kid-friendly suggestions, but then there are entire books dedicated to that for Chicago so it is fine).
June 3, 2010
This little guide was okay. You know, it's a little subjective to determine what's the best or most important things you want to see or do in any city. The information was helpful, and the map was great, but I'm glad I bought another guide to go along with it.
We spent ended up spending 3 weeks in Chicago, one in April and two in May and I needed to read up on the city and get a feel for it.
We spent ended up spending 3 weeks in Chicago, one in April and two in May and I needed to read up on the city and get a feel for it.
February 8, 2010
This certainly wasn't a comprehensive guide book, but it gave a quick overview of the highlights of Chicago. It was fun to look at and get ideas. I then went on-line or used my Frommer's guide to get the much-needed details.
January 9, 2010
The map is the best part. It is laminated and folds so small that it can fit into a pocket. It includes both north, south, and Chicago city center along with a map of the CTA.
November 26, 2012
superficial crap
ANY other guide is better
ugh!
ANY other guide is better
ugh!
February 17, 2013
Always enjoy this series and have read many books about other cities I have traveled to. Helps me plan out what I want to see and do.
February 13, 2016
This is a good book to read before you go and have for a reference when you are in Chicago!
August 21, 2022
Excellent!
December 30, 2022
Good overall book about Chicago--highlights of what to do in the city
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews