Travel Information for Illinois Hotel Guests
If you are searching for an inn, hotel, motel or resort near an Illinois attraction, amusement and theme parks, or close to shopping, cultural events, historic sites, museums and performing arts centers, or nearby zoos, a festival, a golf course, an Illinois state park, this is where you will find it.
From the skyscrapers of Chicago and the riverboats along the Mississippi, to the brand new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum and the lush Shawnee National Forest, the opportunities to discover ILLINOIS are endless. In the Windy City there is non-stop fun, world-class museums and sights; beyond it is a whole world of culture, shopping and entertainment, charming small towns, the great outdoors you can follow in the footsteps of Abraham Lincoln, get your kicks on Route 66 or experience the Amish way of life, follow the rivers to historic sites, spectacular state parks, sample along winding wine trails and follow in the footsteps of explorers Lewis and Clark.
The countryside at ARCOLA is home to Illinois' largest Old Order Amish settlement, a rural area lined with Amish homes, businesses, and schools, plus horse drawn buggies; attractions include Rockome Gardens Theme Park, and The Illinois Amish Interpretive Center.
The BLOOMINGTON/NORMAL area has several attractions including the Children's Discovery Museum, the Illinois State University Planetarium, Upper Limits, the tallest indoor climbing facility in the world, and the McLean County Museum of History.
CHAMPAIGN-URBANA visitors can enjoy the prairie flora at The Arboretum and the Mabery Gelvin Botanical Garden, and explore Allerton Park; sports fans can visit The Olympic Tribute, a monument honoring the achievements of Olympic athletes; kids can pick apples and pumpkins at Curtis Orchard, feed the barnyard animals at Prairie Farm, try their luck with the Cornfusion maze at Hardy's Evergreen Acres and Reindeer Ranch, or learn about the stars and planets at The William M. Staerkel Planetarium.
CHICAGO is the Blues Capital of the world, and home to world-class shopping and legendary museums. The Navy Pier is a Chicago landmark with over 50 acres of parks, gardens, shops, restaurants and attractions of every kind; Chicago is filled with museums, including the Museum of Science and Industry, The Dusable Museum of African-American History, and The Field Museum, home to Sue, the largest and most complete T.rex ever found; a visit to Chicago is not complete without a stop at popular cultural landmarks like the Chicago Cultural Center, an architectural showplace for the lively and visual arts; there are architectural river cruises, the Chicago Music Mart, Chicago Neighborhood Tours, Eli’s Cheesecake World where 30,000 cheesecakes are made every day, and State Street with its specialty stores; the 100 elevators of the Skydeck Observatory take visitors to the 103rd floor of the soaring Sears Tower for spectacular views of the city.
CHICAGO METRO blankets those areas just outside the city limits; this is the place to discover biking and hiking trails, tree-lined Victorian homes, and over 300 golf courses; attractions include the 1800s homes in the Historic Districts of AURORA and its Splash Country Aquatic Center, a water-park and pioneer village, the historic downtown of ST. CHARLES, the 667 rare homes in Elgin’s Historic District, and Six Flags Great America.
JOLIET, with four riverboat casinos is said to be the Gaming Capital of the Midwest.
At NAPERVILLE is the 19th-century living history of the Naper Settlement Museum Village, and two famous names are commemorated at Oak Park: Ernest Hemingway Museum and Birthplace and Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio.
The Prairie Years and the Victorian Era come to life in exhibits at the Macon County Museum Complex in DECATUR; the Children's Museum offers hands-on exhibits; and animals from around the world live as they would in the wild in the Scovill Zoo.
At EFFINGHAM the County Courthouse has not been altered externally.
At the Ben Winter Museum at ALTAMONT ten full-scale steam engines and five scale-model steam engines and 12 stationary engines are all in working order; more than 30 rooms are open for viewing in the former Franciscan Novitiate at St. Francis Church; the Teutopolis Monastery Museum has a collection of articles used by the Friars including books from the 1700’s and Bibles in 12 languages.
Some 85% of GALENA (and nearly 100% of nearby Scales Mound) consists of National Register Historic Districts; attractions include the Galena/Jo Davies County History Museum, The Old Market House State Historic Site, the center of community life during Galena's most prosperous era, and The Old Stockade on Cobblestone Street which provided safety for Galena's earliest pioneers during the Blackhawk War of 1832; one of Galena’s outstanding buildings is the Ulysses S. Grant Home State Historic Site which was presented to the Civil War hero on his return to Galena.
There are over 600 antique dealers in KANKAKEE COUNTY including four of the largest Antique Malls in Illinois; visit the 100 dealers at Carriage Lane Antique Mall in Bourbonnais, Indian Oaks Antique with 165 dealers, Northfield Square, a mega-mall in Bradley, and six antique malls at Kankakee.
PEORIA is home to the Ronald Reagan Museum, a collection that now numbers over 2,000 items. Near Peoria are the Wheels O'Time Museum with vintage autos and many "hands-on" displays, Wildlife Prairie Park where visitors can discover wolves, bison, black bear and cougar, and the Dickson Mounds State Museum, an onsite archaeological museum.
QUAD CITIES (Rock Island, East Moline and Moline, Hampton and Davenport) in the Western Illinois region come alive at a variety of attractions including the Rock Island Arsenal, the Col. George Davenport Home, and in the Black Hawk State Historic Site; the John Hauberg Indian Museum/ Watch Tower lodges an important collection of Sauk and Fox Indian artifacts. other attractions include the Mississippi River Visitor Center on historic Rock Island, and the Walnut Grove Pioneer Village in Long Grove.
ROCKFORD in Northern Illinois is a hop, skip and a jump from the hustle and bustle of downtown Chicago, its many attractions on offer including the Rockford Art Museum, Tinker Swiss Cottage Museum, a rare example of Victorian "exotic" architecture, the Burpee Museum of Natural History, the Discovery Center Museum, and Midway Village and Museum Center, a turn-of-the-century village, with 24 buildings on 137 acres.
The State capitol SPRINGFIELD (and the surrounding area) has more than 15 different Lincoln-era historic sites: There’s Lincoln’s New Salem where Lincoln lived for six years, the Lincoln Home where the Abraham Lincoln family resided for seventeen years, (1844-1861), Lincoln-Herndon Law offices where Lincoln practiced law, the Old State Capitol where Lincoln spoke the immortal words "A house divided against itself cannot stand...", Lincoln Depot from which Lincoln departed his beloved Springfield for an uncertain future in Washington DC, and finally Lincoln Tomb, the final resting place for Abraham, Mary Todd, Tad, Eddie and Willie Lincoln; other attractions include the Lincoln Ledger at the bank where the Lincoln's paid their bills, and the Lincoln Pew in the First Presbyterian Church; the crown jewel of Abraham Lincoln sites is the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum housing the 47,000-plus Abraham Lincoln Collection of documents, books and priceless artifacts.
UTICA is the hometown of Starved Rock State Park, with waterfalls, bluffs and 18 canyons
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