Today you can spend more time exploring Chicago’s Magnificent Mile or other prime attractions located nearby. Four of Chicago’s prime attractions are all congregated close together on South Lake Shore Drive. The Field Museum, one of the nation’s premier natural history museums, the Shedd Aquarium and the Adler Planetarium are all located close together. The Museum of Science and Industry is not far away. For fine art lovers, the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago are equal to any New York museum. In size, it is in between the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Philadelphia Art Museum.

We can highly recommend spending a day at the Field Museum, located at Chicago's Museum Campus or combining the Field and the Adler Planetarium into one day. The Field was incorporated in 1893 as the Columbian Museum of Chicago with the purpose of "accumulation and dissemination of knowledge, and the preservation and exhibition of objects illustrating art, archaeology, science and history." In 1905, the Museum's name was changed to Field Museum of Natural History to honour the Museum's first major benefactor, Marshall Field, and to better reflect its focus on the natural sciences.

Hotel:  Palmer House Hilton or similar

Distance: 216 miles

Minneapolis has received every accolade a city can get. The New York Times calls it an “increasingly cool city” and Frommer’s describes its “gorgeous layout.” Television viewers know it as the very Midwestern home of Mary Richards of Mary Tyler Moore Show fame. It’s really all three of these. In warm weather, it’s a really wonderful place to visit. See cutting edge art at the Walker Art Centre, a blockbuster at the Guthrie Theatre, where the building is as good as the performances. Later, dine at one of many ethnic restaurants.

Hotel:  The Depot or similar

Distance: 153 miles

Duluth was founded and claimed by the French travelling through the Great Lakes in 1676, 100 years before the Declaration of Independence. It continued to serve as the port at the “Head of the Lakes” for 300 years before it began transforming into a visitor destination. And transform it has, currently welcoming 3.5 million visitors each year. Tour the William A. Irvin, former flagship of the US Steel Great Lakes fleet and Glensheen, the estate of one of the most powerful lumber barons in the upper Midwest. Leave some time to drive a bit of the National Scenic Byway that hugs the lakeshore to Two Harbours. The views are incredible.

Hotel: Fitger's Inn or similar

Distance: 205 miles

One of the hidden treasures of the upper Midwest, Marquette was in the top ten All American City competition and was named one of the Most Livable Cities in America. Visit all or any of Marquette’s six lighthouses and nine waterfalls. You can also expect to see moose which are being repopulated in the area. They are most likely viewed in the early morning and evening and found in areas around water.

Hotel: Landmark Inn or similar

Sault Ste. Marie is filled with attractions. Start your visit at the Soo Locks and Visitor Center which illustrates the lock system between the Great Lakes which was created to allow a continuous shipping lane from Duluth, Minnesota to the Atlantic Ocean. A boat tour will take you through the actual locks. Other boat tours let you get out onto Lake Superior.

Hotel: Brockwell Chambers or similar