McCormick Tribune Ice Rink

A free downtown park with Cloud Gate ("the Bean") and Crown Fountain, whose two towers spray water over a shallow plaza made for wading.

A landmark 1893 athletic-club building across from Millennium Park, now a Hyatt hotel whose old lap pool is a tiled event space rather than a place to swim.

Home of Giordano's stuffed deep-dish pizza a block from Millennium Park, with a kids' menu of pizza, pasta, chicken bites and ice cream.

A major art museum where kids under 14 get in free, with a family learning center, tiny miniature rooms and stained glass kids recognize.

A 191-room boutique hotel in the Loop, in a century-old former hat-factory building, previously Kimpton Hotel Monaco before a 2022 rebrand as L7 Chicago.

A three-acre play garden downtown with rope nets, a play ship and a seasonal splash pad, next to two rock-climbing walls and a looping ice-skating ribbon that turns into a scooter path in summer.