This lively college town shares a sprawling University of Illinois campus with its sister city, Urbana. Champaign and Urbana are contiguous, and together offer a world of history, culture, entertainment and sports action, most of which is connected to the university. Awaiting you are big-hitting art museums and colossal sports venues, all contrasted by Champaign’s convivial …
On the leafy North Shore, Evanston is a city famed for its diversity and progressive politics. This is reflected in many aspects of local life, and for visitors it means ethical and sustainable independent businesses, especially in the shopping areas at Main Street and Dempster Street. Northwestern University, one of the top institutions of higher …
This northwest suburb of Chicago is a family-oriented kind of place with a bustling events calendar and masses of public green space. Big swathes of the Village of Palatine are given over to parks, golf courses and nature preserves, so there’s ample opportunity to get outside in the summer, whether you’re hiking in woodland, swinging …
Thirty miles southwest of Chicago, Bolingbrook is a village that took shape in the 1960s and has grown steadily since then to a population of 75,000. Bolingbrook stands out for its diverse population, and for visitors one of the big draws is a bustling outdoor mall flanked by national and international retailers like IKEA. Another …
Sitting 25 miles southwest of Chicago, the village of Orland Park is a wealthy suburb renowned for its upscale restaurants and shopping opportunities. At the heart of this is the newly remodeled Orland Square Mall, the largest in the Chicago Southland. Something special about this village is the amount of open space given over to …
The state capital of Illinois since 1839, Springfield is the second-largest city outside of the Chicago Metropolitan Area. It’s impossible to talk about this city without bringing up Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, who lived here from 1837 until 1861 when he left for Washington. You’ll find out all you could want …
This northwest suburb of Chicago has the distinction of being the largest community in the United States to be incorporated as a village. Some 75,000 people live in this mostly affluent municipality, featuring a dynamic downtown area with cultural amenities, shops and restaurants and cafes with sidewalk seating. Arlington Heights is perhaps most famous for …
A northwestern suburb of Chicago, Des Plaines sits directly north of O’Hare International Airport and west of the namesake river. Being close to the airport puts Des Plaines near the convergence of Interstates 90 and 294, and within touching distance of a raft of major sports, shopping and entertainment venues. Things are a little more …
In the Chicago Southland, Tinley Park is a suburb that almost doubled in population between the 1980s and 2020. This village has long been considered one of the best places in Chicagoland to raise children, and in that vein has an abundance of family-friendly attractions to go with its excellent public parks, extensive bike path …
Often rated as one of the most livable places in the United States, Schaumburg is a northwestern suburb of Chicago, 30 miles outside the city. Administratively, this is still a village, and beginning in the 1960s was transformed from a small rural community to an economic hub on the Golden Corridor, home to multinational companies like …