Top 10 Chicago [With Map]

I am not a big fan of the Eyewitness guides, but this Top 10 Chicago was the most useful, complete and precise travel guide I have used in a long time (I use a lot of them). It is all you need for a 3-5 day trip. It is a good reference for longer visits (coupled with other travel guides). So, if you are someone going to Chicago as a first-time visitor, get it. If you are the author or publisher, the only content suggestion would be to provide locations based on intersections (so that one can locate it by looking at the map - without having to go online), not only by street address. I wish the folding layout of the pullout map was simpler.

Color throughout. Easy to use and keep track of what we saw to reference back to in the future. Great street maps. Has all the famous pizza parlors!! Perfect little guide! Always get theirs and Fodor's.

It's occurred to me that even though I've lived in Chicago for a good number of years, I still don't know the city *that* well. I picked this book up on a whim since I've had good experiences with DK travel books in the past and it floored me because of the amount of things I haven't been to and history I felt like I should have known. It's a combination of both me sucking at Chicago history and this being a really good book. Most travel books suck, but the DK Top Ten books are essentially the most distilled books you can get for a city and make a good book you keep in a pocket or in a bag while exploring.

What do you need when you are in a big city for the first time and just for 4 days? You need a simple guide, one that you can take with you while you're exploring the area. Using the top 10 system you can find all the highlights in a few seconds. As I need some structure in my exploration too, I used this guide in combination with Frommer's Chicago day by day. It made my visit to Chicago to a success. There will certainly be a next time.

This was a wonderful introduction to Chicago and definitely made my trip more enjoyable. I have used many of the top 10/eyewitness travel guides throughout the years, and really feel that Top 10 Chicago was one of the best. It captured the best the city has to offer, and was perfect for someone who had less than a week in the city. With the help of my Top 10 guide I made it to 8 of the 10 top sites. One of the best features of this book is its size - it's compact, chock-full of information, and easily fits into any bag/purse. The book also included a very helpful subway/street map and, because the book is so thin, I didn't feel like I was being conspicuous when I referred to the guide in public. DK continues its tradition of including top-notch photography, and there was also a lot of background information about each of the Top 10 sites. My book was a copyright 2004 and all of the information (prices, free museum days, discounts) was still the same ; I would definitely recommend this book for your upcoming Chicago trip but, like with any guidebook, make sure it's the most recent version you can find so dates, times, etc. are still useful. Highly recommended!