From the Ferris wheel to the planetarium, along Lake Michigan
The Chicago scavenger hunt is a self-guided city game you play on your phone: you walk along the lakefront and through the downtown parks, solve a riddle at each landmark by looking closely at what is in front of you, and unlock the stories behind it. Between the pier and the planetarium you cover 5 km, roughly 73 minutes on your feet across 10 stops, and with the riddles, the stories and a few pauses to look out over Lake Michigan the game lasts around 3 hours, starting whenever you open it.
Highlights include the Ferris wheel at Navy Pier, the Outer Drive Bridge, Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, the lions and paintings of the Art Institute, the sea horses of Buckingham Fountain, and the museum campus on the lake with the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium and Adler Planetarium. Lakefront paths make Chicago easy to explore on foot.
- Durationabout 3 hours
- Walkingabout 73 min · 5 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, Spanish
What the game looks like between Navy Pier and the Museum Campus
Bascule bridge, bronze lions, mirrored steel
The riddle at each stop is hidden in plain sight: in the steelwork of the Outer Drive Bridge, on the two Kemeys lions guarding the Art Institute steps, in the skyline bent across the surface of Cloud Gate. Your eyes and some reasoning crack it, and nobody expects you to know Chicago's past beforehand.
A queen's yacht and a dinosaur called Sue
Solved riddles unlock the tales that belong to each place: the Navy Pier that opened as Municipal Pier in 1916, the royal yacht Britannia that sailed into Chicago in 1959, and the Tyrannosaurus rex in the Field Museum that goes by a first name. If reading on the move is a chore, the audio narration tells the stories while you look at the lake.
5 km of lakefront and parkland
On foot it comes to about 73 minutes: south from Navy Pier across the mouth of the Chicago River, through Maggie Daley Park and Millennium Park, past Buckingham Fountain and out along the shore to the Museum Campus. Google Maps shows the way, much of it on broad park paths by the water.
A bench by the fountain, a break out of the wind
There is no timer, so sit for a while near Buckingham Fountain or warm up with a coffee around Millennium Park, and if the wind off the lake picks up, leave the rest for later or for the next day. Suggestions for food and shops close to the route are built into the app.
See the route and attractions →
How it works
- Book online Choose the number of players. Your booking reference arrives by email straight away.
- Get the app Download the World City Trail app from the App Store or Google Play and enter your booking reference.
- Play when you like Start whenever you are ready, walk at your own pace and pause any time. No guide, no fixed schedule.
Lake views for weekend visitors, families and Loop colleagues
Two days in Chicago, one afternoon outdoors
Roughly 3 hours take you from the pier to the planetarium past the Bean, the Art Institute and the three big lakefront museums, a handy way to get your bearings on a first day downtown. The riddles turn a long lakeside walk into a series of small finds.
Young fans of dinosaurs and fountains
Kids enjoy spotting the Ferris wheel from afar, pulling faces in the mirrored Bean, finding the sea horses of Buckingham Fountain and hearing about Sue the T. rex. Every team includes at least one grown-up, and at 5 km the walk suits children used to a long day out.
Office groups after a morning in the Loop
Colleagues split into groups of up to 5, every player on a separate phone, and stagger their departures from Navy Pier. The point of land by the Adler Planetarium makes a fine place to reassemble, with the skyline across the water as a backdrop.
Good to know
- Bring a charged smartphone with mobile data; a power bank helps.
- No entry tickets needed: everything happens outside the buildings. Going inside is optional and paid separately.
- Family friendly; children must be accompanied by an adult.
- Not suitable for wheelchair users and difficult with strollers.
- Teams of up to 5 work best; bigger groups split into several teams, one ticket per player.
- Every purchase helps support stray cats and dogs in Greece.
Anonymous (verified owner) –
So nice ! Very educational and smart and accessible puzzles.