This series features guides taking you on day trips from Chicago
Day one of your Saugatuck trip focused on enjoying locally farmed cider and exploring the bustling town by water. On day two, you’ll explore by sand and indulge in some culinary delights by local chefs and distillers.
Drive south along Lake Michigan and you’re sure to pass through dozens of cute beach towns. But about 145 miles around the lake from Chicago, you’ll find one of the most charming and unique coastal towns in Michigan called Saugatuck. Known as a haven for artists and the LGBTQ+ community, you will spend two days exploring the impressive arts and culinary scenes as well as the natural treasures of Saugatuck, learning why thousands of vacationers flock to the area each year.
It’s time for a change of scenery, so for two days this weekend, we’re heading north to Milwaukee — a mini Chicago, as some refer to it. The vibrant Wisconsin city on the west coast of Lake Michigan is a quick 1.5-hour drive from Chicago. You’ll know you’ve arrived when you’re in view of dozens of steeples scattered about and expressway ramps crisscrossing everywhere you look. The backbone of this excursion is an art museum with otherworldly architecture, a garden conservatory in futuristic domes, a bar in the back of a TV repair shop, and even more good food and drink interspersed throughout.
About 18,000 years ago, Illinois and Wisconsin were covered under a big sheet of glacial ice. Eventually, these massive glaciers began to retreat, but not before leaving behind fields of rock and debris, otherwise known as moraines. For this guide, you'll take a road trip to see this geological formation, which extends over 120 miles across Wisconsin. You'll make a 2.5-hour drive into Kettle Moraine State Forest, where you'll camp, hike tall ridges, and fish out on the water.
Imagine Chicago with mountains in the distance. Nobody would ever leave. While we don't have mountains, there are still places to hike to get some elevation. For this guide, you'll head about 1.5 hours outside the city where you'll hike through 3,400 acres of bogs, wetlands, and up large, ancient land formations called kames.
This guide has you hitting the road for a weekend trip out of the city. You'll visit Galena, IL, about a three-hour drive from Chicago and on the border between Illinois and Iowa. This is the opposite of the hustle and bustle of Chicago — it’s a small town situated amongst rolling hills, and its big draw is a picturesque main street full of small boutiques and restaurants.
Access to nature can sometimes feel inaccessible if you don't have a car. But for this guide, the Metra is all you need. You'll take the UP-N line to the North Shore where you'll walk through a field of wild flowers on a former military base turned nature preserve. The hike ends on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. After, you'll hop back on the Metra and take it one stop where you'll explore a charming downtown and grab a quick bite at a hot dog and sandwich shop. It ends at an old-school ice cream and candy shop for desert.
We've got a short trip planned to Southwest Michigan for a quick weekend getaway. You'll layout on dunes along Lake Michigan's coast, drink whiskey while putting on a 30,000-square-foot putting green, get some hiking in, and explore shops along a country highway.
This guide has us venturing out into the deep dark abyss, a terrifying hellscape for 20-somethings living in the city. That's right, we're headed to the Chicago suburbs. While it gets a bad rap, we've got a day trip planned that might have you feeling different by the end of it. You'll make your way to Long Grove, IL, about a 40 minute drive northwest of Chicago. It's home to a small downtown with rural farming charm. You'll walk through cobblestone sidewalks, munch on apple cider donuts, rummage through antiques, and have a beer in the woods.
We're hitting the road for a weekend trip to Wisconsin. It starts with a 2.5-hour drive to Madison, Wisconsin, our home base for the weekend. After getting settled, the next part of the trip takes us less than an hour away for some serious hiking up a 500-foot bluff. After a day of climbing boulders and hiking through woods, we reward ourselves with cheese and a bottle of wine on the hillside of a nearby vineyard.
Pack the car because you're going on a day trip to Southwest Michigan. It's close to a 2-hour drive, and if you're going during the right time of year, you'll start at a pick-your-own peach/grape/apple orchard on a hillside farm. Afterward, you'll head to a park covering nearly 2,000 acres and 6 miles of sandy trails that go up and over steep sand dunes. The day ends at small downtown in one of the many communities dotting Lake Michigan's coastline.
Put on a comfy pair of walking shoes and bring your appetite because you're venturing out on a day trip to Lockport, Illinois. You'll start the day with some vegan eats and then head to the #5 ranked disc golf course in the world. It's set in the woods between steep dolomite cliffs and ancient ravines. Here are the details.
We're headed about 45 minutes from Chicago to visit that other nationally recognized zoo in the Greater Chicago area. This is a particularly good guide for those days where you want to spend the afternoon out of the city, but don't want to make too much of a hassle out of it. Here are the highlights:
For this guide we’re off to Illinois State Beach Park where we’ll be camping right off the coast of Lake Michigan. Here are the highlights in this guide.
We're headed on an adventure to small town America just 40 miles west of Chicago. On this guide we're hopping on the Metra to Geneva, IL and starting the day off with breakfast brought to you by a world-renowned pastry chef, then we make our way through a massive row of boutique stores and antique shops. That's followed by a stroll through a Japanese garden and we end the day at a local brewery. Here are the highlights.
A while back we took advantage of the Metra train's $8 all-you-can ride weekend pass and visited a forest preserve on Chicago's far North side. We're following that up with another trip, but this time we're taking the Metra the opposite way to drink mead, wine, and beer on this drinking tour.
For this guide, we're headed about an hour away and crossing over to Indiana where we we'll be hiking through sand dunes and some of the most beautiful trails you'll find near Chicago. Right along the Southern tip of Lake Michigan is the Indiana Dunes State Park and surrounding it is the Indiana Dunes National Park. We'll be checking out a bit of both for this guide. Let's get started with the highlights.
For this guide we’re heading 1.5 hours out of Chicago for an easy day trip exploring canyons, waterfalls, and indulging in cajun cuisine. Here are the highlights in this guide.
Welcome to Part II of our Michigan Road Trip guide. Last week we stopped by Saugatuck, Michigan for some boating, hiking, and beach time. For Part II, we're headed about 25 minutes north of Saugatuck to Holland, Michigan where we'll be combining loads of eating with some outdoor escapades. Here are the highlights.
We're hitting the road with this guide and heading east to visit our neighbors and friends in Michigan. There are a number of summer vacation towns along Lake Michigan, and we're highlighting a few that make for an action packed weekend trip. In fact, we were so productive that we're splitting this guide up into two parts. For this week's guide we're taking you to Saugatuck where we'll be doing a bit of boating, swimming, hiking, and eating. Here are the highlights of the Saugatuck guide.
For this week’s guide, we’re taking you on an overnight trip to that other big city on Lake Michigan. I’m talking about Milwaukee, which is a real easy 1.5 hour Amtrak ride from Chicago’s Union Station. We met up with a local who served as our tour guide, and provided us with a action-packed 24+ hours in Milwaukee. Here are the details.