Day trips from Chicago

This guide is for people in Chicago who want out of the city for a day and back by bedtime, with or without a car. It covers the five trips locals actually make: the Indiana Dunes on the South Shore Line, Milwaukee on the Amtrak Hiawatha, Galena in the northwest corner of the state, Starved Rock on the Illinois River, and Lake Geneva across the Wisconsin line. For each you get the train or the route, what the day costs, where parking is a fight and what shuts for winter. Four of the five fit in two hours each way; Galena does not.

Indiana Dunes

Getting there on the South Shore Line

The dunes are the one trip here where the train beats the car. The South Shore Line leaves Millennium Station at Randolph Street and Michigan Avenue in the Loop, stops at Van Buren Street, the Museum Campus and 57th Street, then runs east along the lake. Adult one-way fares on the table that took effect July 1, 2025, are $8.25 to Miller, $10 to Dune Park, $11 to Beverly Shores and $11.50 to 11th Street in Michigan City. On weekend and holiday trains, up to three kids 13 and under ride free with an adult.

Pick your station by what you want. Dune Park is the stop for Indiana Dunes State Park, with a paved trail north from the platform to the gate; walking in costs $2 a person, and a car with Illinois plates pays $20. The state park has the big climb, the three-dune loop and the crowds. Beverly Shores puts you about a mile from Kemil Beach, the quiet end of the national park, open around the clock. Miller, the first stop over the state line in Gary, is the one most Chicagoans skip and should not: Lake Street runs a mile north to Marquette Park and Miller Woods, part of the national park.

The national park fee is $25 per car for seven days or $15 per person on foot or bike, paid at the visitor center at 1100 N. Mineral Springs Rd. in Porter, at the West Beach gate in season, or on Recreation.gov. Most areas are open 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Porter Beach and West Beach close at 9 p.m. Driving from the Loop takes about an hour on I-90 and I-94 with a Skyway toll, and West Beach and the state park lots fill on hot weekends by late morning.

Where to eat in Miller Beach on the way back

The Lake Street strip near the Miller station fills the wait for the train. Miller Pizza Company, 622 1/2 S. Lake St., is a carryout and delivery pizza shop a short walk from the station, open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, until 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and noon to 7 p.m. Sunday, phone (219) 938-7071. Across the street, Tiny’s Coffee Bar, 555 S. Lake St., is a coffee bar by day and a bar with food at night, with Sunday brunch; closed Monday and Tuesday, open from 9 a.m. Wednesday through Friday and 10 a.m. weekends, phone (219) 427-0418. Next door, Indie Indie Bang! Bang!, 625 S. Lake St., sells housewares, cards, jewelry and gifts, open Wednesday through Sunday.

Drivers coming home on I-90 have two stops worth the exit. In Hammond, 18th Street Brewery at 474 Fayette St. is a brewery and distillery with a taproom and food, closed Tuesdays, phone (312) 273-2148; the brewery’s site lists two different hour sets, so call first. Off the Indianapolis Boulevard exit in Whiting, Grindhouse Cafe, 1600 119th St., is a multi-roaster coffee shop open 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day, near Whiting Lakefront Park and its skyline view back at Chicago.

Milwaukee by train

The Amtrak Hiawatha leaves Union Station at Canal Street and Jackson Boulevard in the West Loop and takes about 90 minutes to the Milwaukee Intermodal Station, stopping in Glenview, Sturtevant and at the Milwaukee airport. Weekdays there are six round trips; the first northbound is 6:10 a.m. and the last southbound is 7:35 p.m. daily, so a full day needs no hotel. Fares run $19 to $37 each way depending on demand and how early you book. North Shore riders can board at Glenview, the same station as the Metra Milwaukee District North line, with an Amtrak ticket.

Breakfast before the train is settled: Lou Mitchell’s, 565 W. Jackson Blvd., is a block east of Union Station and has been feeding travelers since 1923. The diner is open Wednesday through Friday 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., weekends 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., closed Monday and Tuesday, phone (312) 939-3111. Expect a weekend line.

In Milwaukee you do not need a car. The Hop streetcar is free and stops outside the station, and the Historic Third Ward is a 15-minute walk east. The Milwaukee Public Market at 400 N. Water St. has 19 independent vendors and seven bars, open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and until 6 p.m. Sunday. The Milwaukee Art Museum, under the Calatrava wings on the lakefront, charges $27 for adults, is closed Monday and Tuesday, and is pay what you wish Thursdays from 4 to 8 p.m. The last train home fills, so book the return before you leave.

Galena and the driftless area

Galena breaks the two-hour rule. The town sits in the unglaciated northwest corner of Illinois, about 165 miles from the Loop, and the drive is close to three hours on the I-90 tollway to Rockford and then U.S. 20 west, the last hour on a two-lane road through real hills. No train or bus makes sense for a day trip. Go early or stay the night.

The reason to go is Main Street, a curved street of 1800s brick buildings with more than 125 shops and restaurants and no chains, according to the Galena tourism office. It runs along the Galena River below the bluff where the houses sit. The Ulysses S. Grant Home at 500 Bouthillier St. is a state historic site open Wednesday through Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., $5 for adults and $3 for children, with tours capped at 16 people. The Old Market House was closed for staffing when this guide was checked.

Main Street parking is free but scarce on fall weekends. Many shops keep short hours in January and February, and the hills on U.S. 20 ice up before the interstate does.

Starved Rock

Starved Rock State Park is about 95 miles southwest of the Loop, roughly an hour and 45 minutes on I-55 to I-80 west, exiting at Route 178 in Utica. The park is free with no parking pass, opens at 7 a.m., and closes the trails at sunset. Eighteen canyons cut into the sandstone above the Illinois River, and the state lists eight with waterfalls you can reach on foot: French, Wildcat, LaSalle, Ottawa, Kaskaskia, Illinois, St. Louis and Aurora. The falls run on snowmelt and rain, so they are best March through June and often dry from late June into October.

The drawback is everyone else. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources says the busy season runs mid-March through early November and that lots close when they fill, which on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. is routine; they reopen after 3 p.m. Arrive before 9 a.m. or come on a weekday. Matthiessen State Park, three miles south, has a smaller lot, a deeper canyon and a fraction of the crowd, and is also free. Dogs are fine on leash. Starved Rock Lodge sells trolley and boat tour tickets and is where lunch is.

Stops on the way in Joliet and Romeoville

The I-80 route runs through Joliet, worth an hour in either direction. Joliet Area Historical Museum, 204 Ottawa St., is open daily 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and runs the tours of the Old Joliet Prison, the limestone penitentiary from the opening of The Blues Brothers; prison hours are Monday through Wednesday 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Thursday through Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., phone (815) 723-5201. Two blocks over, Rialto Square Theatre, 102 N. Chicago St., is a 1926 movie palace that runs concerts and gives guided tours; box office (815) 726-6600.

For dinner on the way home, White Fence Farm, 1376 Joliet Rd. in Romeoville, sits just off I-55, on the way home from the park. The order is the pressure-cooked fried chicken with corn fritters. Dine-in is Tuesday through Saturday 4 to 8 p.m. and Sunday noon to 8 p.m., closed Monday, phone (630) 739-1720, which works if you leave the park at 3 p.m.

Lake Geneva and southern Wisconsin

Lake Geneva is about 80 miles northwest of the Loop, an hour and 45 minutes on I-94 to the state line and then Highway 50 west, or a slower, prettier run up U.S. 12 through the Chain O’Lakes. There is no practical transit; the Metra Union Pacific Northwest line ends at Harvard, still about 15 miles from the lake.

The free thing to do is the Shore Path, a 21-mile public footpath that circles the lake through the front yards of the old estates. Nobody walks the loop in a day; the stretch south from the Riviera downtown past Big Foot Beach State Park is the easy version. Riviera Beach charges admission in summer and the state park charges a vehicle fee. The Lake Geneva Cruise Line’s U.S. Mailboat tour, where the crew jumps off the moving boat to deliver mail to the piers, runs June 15 through September 15, takes two and a half hours and starts at $60 an adult; it is done for 2026 and books early for 2027.

Downtown parking is metered and full by noon on summer weekends. Leave by 5 p.m. on a Sunday or sit on I-94 through Gurnee with everyone else.

Good to know

Checked September 28, 2026. South Shore Line fares above are from the table that took effect July 1, 2025; the railroad issued a new table on March 31, 2026, for the Monon corridor stations, so check before buying a family’s worth of tickets. Indiana Dunes National Park’s remaining free day this year is Veterans Day, November 11. The Lake Geneva mailboat is finished until June 2027. Starved Rock’s waterfalls are usually dry in early fall.

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