How Much Does a Trip to Chicago Cost? Real Prices for 3 Days
You are standing at the kiosk on the Riverwalk with a credit card in your hand, and the person in front of you has just paid $57 for a river cruise while the boat one dock over is selling the same 90 minutes for $39. That is Chicago in one moment: the same skyline, three prices, and nobody explaining the difference. I grew up here and I still count every dollar out loud, so here is the whole trip priced out, from the hostel bunk to the steak dinner.
The short version: three days in Chicago runs about $95 a day if you are careful, $220 if you are comfortable, and $400 or more if you stop looking at the bill. The tours are the smallest line and the one people get most wrong.
Three budgets for three days: the numbers first
Everything below is per person, per day, assuming two people sharing a room. Hotel prices move a lot with the season and conventions, so treat the bands as what I have seen on normal weeks, not a promise. Check current rates once your dates are set.
| Line | Shoestring | Mid-range | Comfortable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bed (half a room) | $35 hostel dorm | $110 (a $220 hotel, shared) | $200+ (Loop or Mag Mile) |
| Food and drink | $35 | $70 | $130+ |
| Getting around | $5 (walk plus the L) | $10 | $40 (ride apps) |
| Tours and tickets | $20 (one thing a day, sometimes nothing) | $45 | $90 |
| Per day | about $95 | about $235 | $460+ |
| Three days | about $285 | about $700 | $1,400+ |
Flights are not in there, and neither is the roughly 17 percent hotel tax the city adds on top of the room rate (check current; it changes). Add both before you decide the mid-range column is too generous.
Where to sleep, and why the Loop is worth an extra $40
Hostel dorms in the West Loop and River North run around $35 to $60 a night. Chain hotels a little way out, near O'Hare or in the suburbs, go for $100 to $140, and that is where the shoestring travelers I know end up. Mid-range in the Loop or near the Magnificent Mile is $180 to $280 on a normal week. Anything with a lake view and a doorman starts around $350.
My rule: pay for location, not for the room. A hotel in the Loop puts you a ten-minute walk from Millennium Park, the Riverwalk, the Art Institute and every L line in the city. A cheaper room 40 minutes out costs you two train rides a day and, more importantly, the evening. If you are here three days, the extra $40 a night in the Loop is the best money you will spend. Compare how the days actually stack up in our three-day Chicago itinerary before you book somewhere far away to save $25.
Food: $35 a day or $120 a day, and both are real Chicago
This is the city of the $7 Italian beef and the $95 tasting menu, and the two are a block apart. The shoestring day looks like this, and it is not a sad day:
- Breakfast: coffee and a pastry from a bakery, $6 to $8. Skip the hotel breakfast unless it is free.
- Lunch: a Chicago-style hot dog ($5 to $7) or an Italian beef, dipped, with hot giardiniera ($9 to $12). Eat standing up. Locals do.
- Dinner: one deep-dish pizza split between two people, $25 to $35 for the pie. It takes 45 minutes to bake; order at the bar and have a beer.
- Tips: 18 to 20 percent at sit-down places, a dollar or two per drink at the bar. Budget it; it is not optional here.
The mid-range day adds a proper sit-down lunch in the West Loop ($25 to $35) and a dinner with a drink ($50 to $70). The comfortable day is a steakhouse or a Fulton Market reservation, and $130 a person goes fast once wine arrives.
One paid food experience is worth it on any budget, because it replaces a lunch and a dinner. If you eat one thing organized in Chicago, make it this one: three hours, five or six stops, and you walk out understanding why the Italian beef exists.
Chicago Favorites Ultimate Food and Walking TourCheck availability on Viator →
At $85 it sounds expensive next to a $7 hot dog, but count what you would have eaten anyway and it comes out close to even. The food and deep-dish tours page lists the pizza-only version and the bike version if you would rather ride between slices.
Getting around: the L is the whole answer
Chicago's elevated train is the cheapest thing about the trip. A single ride is a few dollars and a day pass is around the price of two rides (check current fares; the Ventra app shows them). Tap a contactless card at the turnstile and you do not even need the pass. The Blue Line runs from O'Hare to downtown in about 45 minutes; the Orange Line does Midway in about 25.
Do not take a taxi from O'Hare. It is $50 to $70 with traffic, and the train drops you in the Loop for the price of a coffee. Ride apps make sense late at night or in February when the wind off the lake is a physical object. Otherwise walk: the Riverwalk, the lakefront trail and the Loop are flat and close together, and a Divvy bike day pass covers the longer hops to Lincoln Park.
The tours that earn their price
Chicago has 520-plus listed experiences and most visitors need three. Here is where I would put the money, in order.
1. The architecture river cruise, once, on day one. It is the best 90 minutes in the city and it teaches you to look up for the rest of the trip. The one below has 16,969 reviews at 4.8 stars and starts at $39, which is $18 less than the docent-led version and, for a first visit, the difference does not matter.
Chicago Architecture River CruiseCheck availability on Viator →
Book it for a morning: cheaper slots, calmer river, and the light is on the east faces of the towers. The architecture cruise page compares the 45-minute Magnificent Mile version at $28 if you are short on time or cash.
2. One observation deck, not two. The Skydeck at Willis Tower is $44 and has the glass ledge everyone photographs. 360 Chicago's sip-and-view ticket is also $44 and includes a drink. Pick one. Going up both towers is the most common $44 wasted in Chicago.
3. A $35 walking tour that does what the bus tour cannot. This is my underrated pick: two hours inside the lobbies of the Loop, the marble and the mosaics you would walk straight past. Five stars from 1,790 people, and it works in January when the river is frozen.
Original Chicago Architecture Interiors Tour: Dazzling InteriorsCheck availability on Viator →
A crime-and-mobsters walk at $34 rounds out most people's list, and the history buffs can find a dozen more on our Chicago hub. Between all of them I would cap tours at about $130 a person for three days. Above that you are buying tickets instead of walking, and walking is the point.
What costs nothing
- Millennium Park, the Bean and the Crown Fountain (kids in swimsuits in July, free).
- The Riverwalk, end to end, and the lakefront trail from Navy Pier down to the Museum Campus.
- Lincoln Park Zoo. Genuinely free, genuinely good, a short bus ride north.
- The Chicago Cultural Center: the largest Tiffany dome in the world, free, across from Millennium Park. Most tourists never go in.
- Navy Pier itself and its fireworks on summer weekends (check current schedule).
- Some museums have free days for Illinois residents; if you are visiting from out of state that will not help you, so plan on paying.
Where people overspend, and the one thing to skip
Navy Pier food. The Centennial Wheel is $24 and a fair deal for the view. The restaurants around it charge downtown prices for food-court quality. Walk 15 minutes west to Streeterville and eat there.
The hop-on hop-off bus. Here is my overrated pick. It is $49 and the reviews sit at 3.9 stars, the lowest of anything on this page. The Loop is walkable, the L covers the rest, and the bus spends half its loop stuck on Michigan Avenue. Skip it and put the $49 toward the river cruise and a walking tour.
The Museum of Ice Cream. $43 and 3.4 stars. Skip it. If you want an indoor afternoon, the Art Institute costs less than double that with a guide and about a thousand times more to look at.
Airport taxis and hotel parking. Parking downtown is $40 to $70 a night. If you drove, park once in a garage away from the hotel and leave the car there until you go home. Day trips to Oak Park or the Indiana Dunes run on trains, as our day trips page shows, so the car does nothing for three days except cost money.
A mid-range three days, actually added up
- Day one, $228. Loop hotel share $110, river cruise $39, lunch beef $11, dinner deep dish split $16, drinks and tips $22, L day pass and coffee $30 total for the small stuff.
- Day two, $257. Hotel $110, food tour $85 (covers lunch), interiors walk $35, light dinner $27.
- Day three, $214. Hotel $110, Skydeck $44, a free morning at Lincoln Park Zoo, a West Loop lunch $30, a last dinner $30.
That is about $700 for three days before flights and hotel tax, and it includes every experience I would actually book. Cut the observation deck and the hotel down a band and you are near $450. Add a steakhouse and a helicopter and you are past $1,000 without trying, which is exactly how the comfortable column happens to people who did not plan to be in it.
Questions people ask before going
Is Chicago expensive compared with New York?
Noticeably cheaper on hotels and food, similar on tours and tickets. A room that costs $350 in Manhattan costs $200 to $250 in the Loop, and a good casual dinner is $15 to $20 less per person. Public transport is cheaper too, and it goes to both airports.
How much should I budget for tours in Chicago?
About $80 to $130 a person for three days covers the river cruise ($39), one observation deck ($44) and a walking tour ($34 to $35). A food tour at $85 replaces two meals, so it changes the food line more than the tour line. Helicopter flights and private tours sit outside every budget here.
Is the CityPASS worth it?
Only if you will visit at least four of its attractions in a few days, and most three-day visitors do two or three. Price the things you genuinely want individually first. If the total beats the pass, buy the pass; if you are adding attractions to justify it, do not.
What is the cheapest time to visit?
January and February, by a wide margin: hotels drop, the museums are quiet, and the interiors and gangster walks run regardless of weather. The trade is the cold and the fact that the river cruises stop for the season, roughly November to March (check current dates). Spring and fall are the value sweet spot if you want the boat.
Do I need to tip on tours?
Yes, and budget for it. $5 to $10 a person for a walking tour guide and about the same for a boat docent is normal here. On food tours the tastings are included, but guides still expect a tip at the end.
Can I do Chicago on $100 a day?
Yes, with a hostel bed, the L, one paid thing a day and street food. You will still see the river, the Bean, the lakefront, the Cultural Center dome and the zoo, because they are free, and the $39 cruise fits on day one. The thing you give up is the sit-down dinner, not the city.