Chicago With Kids: Things to Do
Museum Campus, Lincoln Park Zoo, Navy Pier, and MSI's real submarine — a family-tested shortlist, cross-linked to the with-kids itinerary.
Photo: Frederick Wallace / Unsplash
- ✓Museum Campus stacks the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium and Adler Planetarium within a ten-minute walk — a natural full-day anchor for a family trip.
- ✓The Griffin Museum of Science and Industry in Hyde Park holds a real, boardable U-505 submarine and a walk-through coal mine, both reliable hits with kids.
- ✓Lincoln Park Zoo is free at the gate, which makes it one of the lowest-friction stops on this list for a family managing a limited budget or a short attention span.
- ✓Navy Pier mixes rides, a Ferris wheel and open lakefront space, but it also carries real carnival-food markup — plan around that rather than being surprised by it.
- ✓This page covers the attractions themselves; pair it with the dedicated with-kids itinerary for how to actually sequence a day or two around them.
The attractions that actually hold up with kids
Museum Campus is the obvious anchor for a family day, and it earns that role: the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium and Adler Planetarium sit within a ten-minute walk of each other on the lakefront, giving a family real flexibility to split a day across all three or focus deeply on one without a long transfer in between. The Field Museum's dinosaur hall and the Shedd's beluga and dolphin programming are both reliable, tested hits across a wide age range, and a combined ticket across the three often beats buying separately if you're planning to visit more than one.
The Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, further south in Hyde Park, deserves its own dedicated trip rather than being squeezed into a Museum Campus day — it holds a real, boardable German U-boat and a genuine walk-through coal mine exhibit, both the kind of hands-on, tactile experiences that read very differently to a kid than a glass display case does. Navy Pier rounds out the list with its Centennial Wheel, rides and open lakefront space, though it's worth going in aware that food on the pier carries real carnival-style markup — eating beforehand or budgeting for it consciously avoids an unpleasant surprise mid-visit.
Free stops, and pairing this with the with-kids itinerary
For budget-conscious families or a shorter attention-span day, the Lincoln Park Zoo is the standout free option — one of the last privately-managed zoos in the country to keep its gate genuinely free, with no admission fee to plan around. It pairs naturally with the Lakefront Trail immediately next to it, giving a family a low-cost, low-friction stretch of a day that doesn't require ticket logistics or timed entries.
This page is deliberately about the attractions themselves — what each one offers and who it suits — rather than sequencing. For the day-by-day version, built around nap schedules and realistic pacing rather than a compressed adult itinerary with a kid tacked on, see the dedicated with-kids itinerary, which draws directly from this same shortlist.
- Museum Campus: Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, Adler Planetarium — a full day, three museums, one walk.
- Griffin Museum of Science and Industry: a real U-505 submarine and coal mine, a dedicated Hyde Park trip.
- Lincoln Park Zoo: free at the gate, pairs with the Lakefront Trail for a low-cost stretch of a day.
Museum Campus (Field, Shedd, Adler)
Museum Campus groups three independently famous, separately ticketed institutions — the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, Adler Planetarium — on the lakefront.
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Lincoln Park Zoo
One of the last free, privately-managed zoos in the US — what to see, how to time a visit, and how it pairs with the neighborhood.
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Navy Pier
Navy Pier's Centennial Wheel, fireworks schedule, and how to enjoy the pier without overpaying for carnival food.
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