15 Fun Day Trips From Chicago (All Under 2 Hours)
Dunes, coasters, chocolate, Batmobiles, and a working Dutch windmill, all close enough to be home before the kids melt down.
The Dispatch
Midwest Road Trips
The Midwest is bigger than people from the coasts think and more interesting than people from the Midwest sometimes admit. The posts here cover road trips through Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri — weekend escapes from Chicago, lake-town tours, dune trips, ribfest detours, the scenic stretch of US-41 nobody talks about. Most routes are doable in a weekend. A few stretch to a week. All of them assume you actually want to drive, look out the window, and stop at the places guidebooks skip.
5 posts tagged Midwest Road Trips. See all posts →
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Budget-Friendly Weekend Trips From Chicago: Complete Guide
Five weekend escapes within 3 hours of Chicago, priced down to the gas tank, with the math to prove they're actually cheap.
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Cheap Road Trips From Chicago That Won't Break the Bank
Groceries are up, rent's up, and a "normal" family vacation now runs close to eight grand. Cheap road trips from Chicago are the workaround, especially since Illinois happens to be one of seven states where state park admission is free. Here's where to point the car.
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Best Road Trips From Chicago by Season: Year-Round Adventures
Here's a season-by-season guide to the best road trips from Chicago, with real drive times, what each spot does best in that window, and the stuff worth spotting out the window along the way.
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Fun Road Trips From Chicago for Families: Activities & Stops
A record 60.6 million Americans hit the road for July 4th 2024, and a huge chunk of them were families staring down two-to-six hours in the car. This is a rundown of the best family road trips from Chicago, with real drive times, two or three concrete kid hits per stop, and an honest take on the part most posts skip: what to do between mile zero and the parking lot.
