Chicago Riverwalk

For much of Chicago's history the river was a working waterway and, at times, an open sewer, an industrial back door the city preferred to ignore. Famously, engineers even reversed the river's flow in 1900 to carry the city's waste away from Lake Michigan, its drinking water source, a feat of engineering that remade the region's waterways.

In recent years the city reclaimed the downtown riverfront for people, building the Riverwalk out block by block along the main branch. What had been a neglected edge became a continuous public promenade of gardens, seating, and cafes, one of the clearest signs of a river, and a city, transformed.

The Chicago River and the low, wet portage beside it were the reason a city rose here at all. This was the homeland of the Potawatomi, along with the Ojibwe and Odawa peoples of the Council of Three Fires and others, who knew and used the portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi watershed long before Europeans arrived. The name Chicago itself comes from a word in the Native languages of the region.

That portage, the short carry between the river and the streams flowing toward the Mississippi, made the site a crossroads of the continent. The city that grew up around it, and the river now lined by its Riverwalk, sits on a spot Native peoples recognized as a strategic passage for untold generations.

The Riverwalk is the front row for Chicago's architecture. From its docks set off the river cruises that draw visitors from around the world, gliding beneath the bridges while guides narrate the story of the buildings, from early skyscrapers to gleaming modern towers, that line the banks. Seen from the water, the city reveals itself in a way the streets never quite manage.

Even on foot, the walk is a lesson in the skyline. The river cuts a canyon through downtown, and standing at its edge you look straight up the faces of famous buildings, past the movable bridges that still lift for tall boats. It is one of the great urban walks in the country, a moving portrait of the city that helped invent the skyscraper.

The Riverwalk is organized as a series of themed rooms and coves along the water, some with cafes and patios where you can sit with a drink and watch the boats, others with steps down to the river's edge, floating gardens, or open plazas. In the warm months it hums with life, music, kayakers, tour boats, and strollers out for the evening.

The walk connects the lakefront at the river's mouth westward toward the forks of the river, so you can string together a long stretch or dip in and out as you explore downtown. It links easily to Millennium Park, Michigan Avenue, and the Loop, making it a natural spine for a day in the city center.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.