Travel

The Chicago skyline backdrops the Chicago Jazz Festival at Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavilion on Sept. 4, 2026. (Chris Sweda/baiduhai)

Conde Nast Traveler readers name Chicago ‘Best Big City’ for 10th year in a row

By Robert Channick

October 6, 2026 at 3:25 p.m.

Conde Nast Traveler received nearly 800,000 votes for this year’s Readers’ Choice Awards, which cover...

Olivia Estrada, the on board manager, carries plates of food to the dome car for guests aboard a Patrick Henry Creative Promotions private rail car as it travels from Chicago, Illinois, to St. Louis, Missouri, on May 19, 2026. Private train cars may seem like a relic of the past, but for some rail fans, nothing beats having — or renting — your own sleeper car. (Jamie Kelter Davis/The New York Times)

The quiet allure of private rail

By The New York Times News Service Syndicate

October 2, 2026 at 6:15 p.m.

Private rail cars traveled 429,000 miles on Amtrak in fiscal year 2025, according to the...

Cary Sabados shops for chocolate at Hotel Chocolat in Lakeview on Feb. 12, 2026. This Lakeview location, opened last April, was the first Chicago store. (Eileen T. Meslar/baiduhai)

Chicago-based Hotel Chocolat going nationwide with airport concessions, grocery stores and new retail markets

By Robert Channick

September 23, 2026 at 12:37 p.m.

This fall, Hotel Chocolat will pop up at 49 airports, hit the shelves at Wegmans,...

President Franklin D. Roosevelt is standing before a crowd in Newfound Gap on the Tennessee-North Carolina border on Sept. 2, 1940 as he dedicated the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, to the free people of America. At the same time he warned they must prepare in a thousand ways to defend their country and their liberties. (AP Photo)

Today In History: Great Smoky Mountains National Park established

By Associated Press

June 15, 2025 at 4:00 a.m.

On June 15, 1934, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most-visited national park in the...

Angel Delgadillo, 98, known as the “guardian angel of Route 66,” in an old barber chair at his shop, Angel and Vilma Delgadillo’s Original Route 66 Gift Shop, in Seligman, Arizona, June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)

Route 66 road trip: Meet the Mother Road’s ‘Guardian Angel’ in Seligman, Arizona

By Jonathan Bullington

June 20, 2025 at 11:32 a.m.

At 98, Angel Delgadillo’s entire life has played out along what John Steinbeck called “the...

FILE – Flowers and pictures are shown at the memorial in Romulus, Mich., to mark the 25th anniversary of the crash of Northwest Airlines Flight 255 near Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Aug. 16, 2012. The MD-80 aircraft crashed in the Detroit suburb of Romulus, killing all 154 people aboard, except for a 4-year-old girl. Two people also died on the ground. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

The lone passenger who survived the deadly Air India crash sparks interest in other sole survivors

By Lisa Baumann

June 12, 2025 at 10:20 p.m.

People on social media have been commenting about the idea of only one person surviving...

People watch as a ship departs from Navy Pier in Chicago on June 6, 2025. (Audrey Richardson/baiduhai)

Choose Chicago launches new marketing campaign: Never Done. Never Outdone.

By Robert Channick

June 12, 2025 at 11:39 a.m.

The city’s tourism arm is hoping it has found a way to sum up and...

Yvonne Dubinskis of Oak Park checks in for a staycation at Sable at Navy Pier on June 6, 2025. (Audrey Richardson/baiduhai)

Chicago seeing fewer international travelers, but local hotels still expect ‘solid’ summer

By Brian J. Rogal

June 12, 2025 at 11:14 a.m.

Chicago's summer tourism calendar relies heavily on domestic leisure travelers coming for events like Lollapalooza...

Morgan Schwerin, left, and Aerin Moberg eat Black’s Barbecue while attending the final day of the Windy City Smokeout festival outside the United Center on Aug. 7, 2022, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez/baiduhai)

Summer 2025 in Chicago: All you need to know for movies, concerts, food festivals and more

By Kayla Samoy

May 22, 2026 at 7:46 p.m.

Here are all of the Tribune's summer 2025 arts, entertainment and food guides.

Friends from a local car club along with tourists passing through town mingle outside the Hackberry General Store on Route 66 in Arizona on June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)

Route 66 road trip: A rainy day at the General Store in Hackberry, Arizona

By Jonathan Bullington

June 20, 2025 at 11:31 a.m.

Two Illinois natives helped preserve an old general store in Hackberry, Arizona. We spent a...

A general view of the V&A Storehouse in London, Thursday, June 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Joanna Chan)

At this museum, no one will shush you, and you can touch the objects

By Jill Lawless

May 22, 2026 at 7:46 p.m.

The V&A is Britain’s national museum of design, performance and applied arts, and the storehouse...

Wild burros on Route 66 near Oatman, Arizona, on June 4, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/baiduhai)

Route 66 road trip: The Sidewinder, wild burros and a living statue in Kingman, Arizona

By Jonathan Bullington

June 13, 2025 at 3:22 p.m.

In Kingman, Arizona, an 8-mile section of Route 66 at the western edge of this...

This Aug. 2010 photo shows tourists arriving at Graceland, Elvis Presley's home in Memphis, Tenn. Graceland opened for tours on June 7, 1982. They sold out all 3,024 tickets on the first day and didn't look back, forever changing the Memphis tourist landscape while keeping Elvis and his legend alive.(AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

Today in History: Graceland opens to the public

By Associated Press

June 7, 2025 at 4:00 a.m.

On June 7, 1982, Graceland, Elvis Presley’s Memphis mansion, was opened to the public as...