Area Guide

Recently renovated while maintaining her traditional elegance, the Palmer House Hilton is located in the heart of the theatre, financial and shopping districts of downtown Chicago. Walking distance to museums, shopping, government and corporate buildings.

The Loop is a living architectural museum, where shimmering modern towers stand side-by-side with 19th-century buildings. Striking sculptures by Picasso, Miró, and Chagall watch over plazas alive with music and farmers' markets in summer. There are noisy, mesmerizing trading centers, gigantic department stores, internationally known landmarks like the Sears Tower and the Art Institute, and the city's newest playground, Millennium Park. Rattling overhead, encircling it all, is the train system Chicagoans call the El.

The city's greatest tourist magnet reads like a to-do checklist: Navy Pier, the John Hancock Building, art museums and galleries, lakefront activities, and countless shops where you could spend a few dollars or thousands. The Magnificent Mile, a stretch of Michigan Avenue between the Chicago River and Oak Street, owes its name to the swanky shops that line both sides of the street. Shoppers cram the sidewalks in summer and keep the street bustling even in winter, when the trees are twined with thousands of white fairy lights and the buildings are lighted with colored flood lights.

While you’re in town, make sure to visit these nearby attractions, all less than three miles from Palmer House:

Adler Planeterium
Art Institute of Chicago
Broadcast Museum
Buckingham Fountain
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
City Center
Field Museum of Natural History
Grant Park
John G. Shedd Aquarium
John Hancock Building
Lincoln Park Zoo
Lyric Opera
Magnificent Mile
McCormick Convention Center
Millennium Park Museum of Contemporary Art
Navy Pier
The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum
Sears Tower