5 Best Museums Chicago

Why it made the list: One of the great art museums in the world, guarded by its famous bronze lions on Michigan Avenue, a staggering collection from the Impressionists (the largest outside Paris) to American icons like 'American Gothic' and Hopper's 'Nighthawks'. It's the cultural anchor of the city and easily a half-day.

Why it made the list: The great natural history museum on the lakefront Museum Campus, home to 'SUE', the largest and most complete T. rex skeleton ever found, plus Egyptian tombs, gems and a titanosaur that barely fits in the hall. The classic dinosaurs-and-mummies museum done at the highest level.

Why it made the list: The largest science museum in the Western Hemisphere, in Hyde Park, walk through a real captured German U-boat, a full-size coal mine, a 3,500-square-foot model railroad and a giant beating heart. It's hands-on, enormous, and the best family museum in the city.

Why it made the list: One of the best aquariums in the country, on the tip of the Museum Campus with the skyline right behind it, beluga whales, sea otters, sharks, and a beautiful Caribbean reef, all in a grand 1930s beaux-arts building jutting into Lake Michigan.

Why it made the list: America's first planetarium, sitting at the very end of the Museum Campus point, sky shows under the dome, space history, and, outside, the most famous skyline view in the city framed by the lake. Smaller and quicker than the others, and worth it as much for the setting as the shows.