Best Chicago Walking Tours in 2025

Chicago , Illinois

From $ 35.00

UPDATE 2024: Don't be fooled by the copycats out there offering shady copies of our award-winning tours for $1 cheaper! There's only one company that's exclusively offered interiors-themed tours in Chicago for more than a decade, and that's INSIDE CHICAGO WALKING TOURS. Our "World Within: Dazzling Interiors of the Loop" tour is Chicago's first and best architecture interiors tour. Accept no imitations! Explore some of the most stunning interior spaces you’ll ever see – spaces you’d surely pass by without a second glance if you weren’t shown them by a seasoned, in-the-know tour guide. Ranging from stained glass mosaics from the turn of the century to soaring Art Deco spaces from the Roaring 20s, these spaces are some of the most beautiful in the city -- and open to us to explore!

Chicago , Illinois

From $ 35.00

The Chicago Murder Mystery Tour is an interactive history tour and game! Play detective as you unravel a murder mystery, and learn about Chicago's true crime legends and Prohibition secrets. This two-in-one experience combines a rich historical walking tour with an exciting award-winning murder mystery game. Perfect for people looking for a history tour of Chicago, and also for people looking for a chance to play and have fun. Explore a City, Solve a Murder! Only on the Chicago Murder Mystery Tour.

Chicago , Illinois

From $ 35.00

Learn about the great architectural landmarks of Michigan Avenue and State Street. The 40 years between 1890 and 1930 saw the creation of some of Chicago’s the most memorable buildings, many of which are featured on this tour. After the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, Chicago was determined to become a great cultural and commercial metropolis. This tour is a testament to that era's ambitions. See buildings by Daniel Burnham, Louis Sullivan, Holabird and Roche and other noted architects and hear the stories behind the city's architectural gems. As a certified nonprofit, all CAC ticket purchases directly support our education efforts and community engagement projects.

Chicago , Illinois

From $ 35.00

This tour explores some of the best hidden details, secret buildings and spaces, and untold stories that add wonderful bits of color and texture to the overall narrative of Chicago. On this tour, we will explore the famous and mysterious Chicago Pedway, a system of underground tunnels connecting 40 blocks downtown, popping in and out of buildings to see beautiful and fascinating interior spaces. You'll learn to use this system that most locals don't even fully know or use, and you'll be encouraged to continue exploring Chicago on your own after the tour!

Chicago , Illinois

From $ 34.00

Join us along the historic streets and alleys of Chicago as we walk among the spirits of mobsters and ghosts of the condemned. This tour is for lovers of history, true crime, and haunted mysteries. Expect a sultry and gritty cocktail of Chicago's darkest stories hiding in the shadows of the Loop. From Grant Park to the Alley of Death, your expert local guide will shed light on the city’s secrets. Prepare for thrills and just the right amount of chills.

Chicago , Illinois

From $ 35.00

Want a quick introduction to Chicago’s magnificent architecture? This 90-minute tour takes a comprehensive look at the city’s architectural history by viewing buildings in chronological order, from early skyscrapers to new supertall high rises. As a certified nonprofit, all CAC ticket purchases directly support our education efforts and community engagement projects.

Chicago , Illinois

From $ 35.00

View Art Deco masterpieces built in the heart of Chicago’s financial district during the Roaring '20s. Learn how Art Deco reflected the era’s fun-loving optimism with lavish materials and geometric ornament. Discover the origins of Art Deco and its hallmark motifs while admiring buildings like the Chicago Board of Trade, One LaSalle Street and the Field Building (now the Bank of America Building) -- all of which are designated Chicago landmarks. As a certified nonprofit, all CAC ticket purchases directly support our education efforts and community engagement projects.

Chicago , Illinois

From $ 26.00

Come on our chilling ghost tour presented by US Ghost Adventures! Book Directly With Windy City Ghosts and save $5/person. Windy City Ghosts walking Ghost Tour provides a look into the darkness that lurks below Chicago’s busy streets. Our Ghost Tour transports you back in time to an era of gangsters, bootleggers, bank robbers, and jazz babies. Windy City Ghosts nightly Ghost Tours take you through Lincoln Park, a beautiful North Side neighborhood with a twisted past. Learn about the forgotten burial ground that is the foundation of this bustling neighborhood. Check the bathroom mirrors in the Lion House of the Lincoln Park Zoo to make sure the ghost of a Victorian woman in white isn’t standing right behind you. Learn what spirit haunted Al Capone to the end of his days. On our Ghost Tour, you’ll hear the strange and disturbing tales associated with each of our carefully selected tour stops.

Chicago , Illinois

From $ 35.00

Get the best of both worlds: explore Chicago’s stunning architecture while uncovering its dark past. Inspired by Devil in the White City, this expert-led walking tour reveals the secrets of the city’s skyline and its shadowy history. Led by a passionate local guide, you’ll visit architectural gems and hidden landmarks that boat tours miss bringing Chicago’s rich and eerie past to life.

Chicago , Illinois

From $ 27.00

The Frederick C. Robie House on the University of Chicago campus is considered one of the most important buildings in the history of American architecture. This Prairie style masterpiece is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the 20th Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright List. Discover the residence Wright described as “a cornerstone of modern architecture” on guided tours that take in both the exterior and interior of the building. Inspired by the expansive landscape of the Midwest prairie, Wright’s Robie House is the most famous of the architect’s groundbreaking Prairie houses. Public tours are available Thursday - Monday. The museum is closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Save when you book directly at Visit to learn more.

Chicago , Illinois

From $ 35.00

Must-See Chicago is a fast-paced, 90-minute introductory tour to Chicago featuring some of its most famous buildings, including the Wrigley Building, Tribune Tower, the Art Institute of Chicago, Willis (Sears) Tower and more! Get a brief overview of more than a dozen buildings—as well as Chicago landmarks like Millennium Park, the Loop and the Chicago River—on this whirlwind tour. There are lots of photo opportunities along the way, so be sure to bring your camera! As a certified nonprofit, all CAC ticket purchases directly support our education efforts and community engagement projects.

Chicago , Illinois

From $ 35.00

Over the course of 90 minutes, explore some of the newest buildings around the Chicago Architecture Center, focusing on construction elements and their impact on the city’s built environment. What's New looks at some of the most recent additions to the built environment surrounding the Chicago Architecture Center. This walking tour focuses on each building's height, structure, materials, ornament and its impact on the environment, the neighborhood and the city's economy. The tour showcases several recently completed buildings, including 462 N. Park and the St. Regis, and compares them to each other in order to observe emerging patterns. These new additions are also contrasted with some of the older buildings downtown as a way to highlight developments. As a certified nonprofit, all CAC ticket purchases directly support our education efforts and community engagement projects.

Chicago , Illinois

From $ 35.00

Chicago is home to some of the world’s earliest skyscrapers. Get an up-close look at these 19th Century marvels, learn about innovations used to build them and discover how they transformed Chicago into a center of skyscraper design and engineering. Highlights on this walking tour include Burnham and Root’s Rookery (1888), a transitional building with a Moorish and Romanesque exterior and a stunning interior atrium re-designed by Frank Lloyd Wright; Adler and Sullivan’s Auditorium Building (1889), a masterpiece of acoustical and structural engineering; and Holabird and Roche’s Marquette Building (1895), an outstanding example of the metal frame expression with traditional details and decorations. As a certified nonprofit, all CAC ticket purchases directly support our education efforts and community engagement projects.

Chicago , Illinois

From $ 35.00

Though the Art Deco style throws us back in time, it’s actually a futuristic style — it’s meant to make people in the 1920s think of the future. The gleaming materials, the perfect precision of the details… it’s the epitome of glitz, glam, and elegance. On this tour, you’ll walk in the footsteps of those high on the potential of the future, before the infamous Crash of ‘29. We’ll explore several stunning interior spaces within the Loop and near the Chicago River, going inside not only the great Art Deco buildings of the Loop, but also a few buildings you’ll recognize from popular boat tours. But the great thing is that you’ll go where most boat tour guests won’t ever go: inside these gorgeous Art Deco buildings, where you’ll be amazed by the beauty that people don’t know is right there behind closed doors.

Chicago , Illinois

From $ 35.00

Tour the lobbies of five opulent Art Deco skyscrapers built near the banks of the Chicago River during the business boom of the Roaring '20s. Learn how Art Deco reflected the era’s fun-loving optimism with lavish materials and geometric ornament. Discover the origins of Art Deco while admiring buildings like the Carbide and Carbon Building (now Pendry Chicago), the Chicago Motor Club Building (now the Hampton Inn) and the colorful, but often overlooked, Trustees System Service Building (now the Century Tower)—all of which are designated Chicago landmarks. As a certified nonprofit, all CAC ticket purchases directly support our education efforts and community engagement projects.