15 Best Sights in Day Trips from Chicago, Chicago

Your mouth is sure to drop to the floor the first time you lay eyes on this stunning structure, a nine-sided building that incorporates architectural styles and symbols from many of the world's religions. With its delicate lacelike details and massive dome, the Louis Bourgeois design emphasizes the 19th-century Persian origins of the Bahá'í religion. The formal gardens are as symmetrical and harmonious as the building they surround. The Bahá'í faith advocates spiritual unity, world peace, racial unity, and equality of the sexes. Stop by the welcome center to examine exhibits that explain it; you can also ask for a guide to show you around.

There are more than 3,000 animals at this gigantic zoo and highlights include the 7½-acre Great Bear Wilderness exhibit, a sprawling replica of North American woodlands for the zoo's population of grizzlies, polar bears, bison, Mexican gray wolves, and bald eagles. Watch the polar bears from the popular underwater viewing area. Elsewhere, monkeys, otters, birds, and other rainforest fauna cavort in a carefully constructed setting of trees, shrubs, pools, and waterfalls at Tropic World, while at the Living Coast you can venture through passageways to see sharks, rays, and Humboldt penguins.

One of the best educational exhibits is Habitat Africa, where you can explore the dense forest section with animals like the okapi (an animal that looks like a cross between a zebra, giraffe, and horse). In the savanna section, which has a water hole, termite mounds, and characteristic rock formations, you can spy such tiny animals as the 22-inch-tall klipspringer antelope.

The Swamp is about as realistic as you would want an exhibit on swamps to be. It has a springy floor and open habitats with low-flying birds that vividly demonstrate the complex ecosystems. For hands-on family activities, visit the Hamill Family Play Zoo, where kids can play zookeeper, gardener, or veterinarian. Special events—most notably Holiday Magic, which lights up the zoo on select December evenings—are also worth checking out. If you don't want to trek around the 216-acre property, don't worry. You can hop aboard a motorized safari tram ($6) on weekends in warm weather months.

Among the 28 different gardens here are the three-island Malott Japanese Garden, the five-acre Evening Island, and the Grunsfeld Children's Growing Garden. Three big greenhouses showcase desert, tropical, and semitropical climates where beautiful and fragrant flowers bloom year-round. Weather permitting, 35-minute tram tours are offered daily and are free with admission from late April through late October. Special summer exhibitions include the 7,500-square-foot Model Railroad Garden with 17 garden-scale trains traveling around nearly 50 models of American landmarks, all made from natural materials. Butterflies & Blooms, a 2,800-square-foot white mesh enclosure, is filled with hundreds of colorful butterflies interacting with plant life; both are free with admission.

This 1951 minimalist dwelling by Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe sits just down the Fox River from Aurora. Constructed of steel, wood, and travertine marble, it appears to nearly float against a backdrop of serene river views and woodland landscapes. Now operated as a museum by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Farnsworth House may only be seen by guided tour (advance reservations are required). Note that the house is a half-mile walk from the visitor center.

Wright designed and built his first home in 1889, on the strength of a $5,000 loan from his then employer and mentor, seminal Chicago architect Louis Sullivan. Only 22 at the time, he would continually remodel the modest dwelling over the next two decades, so a visit here provides a unique look into the architect's developing ideas. This is where Wright's nascent architectural philosophy first bloomed; the house was intended not only to hold his rapidly growing family, but also to showcase his then-revolutionary notions. It combines elements of the 19th-century Shingle Style with subtle innovations that stamp its originality.

Wright established his own practice in 1893 and added a studio to the house in 1898. In 1909, he spread his innovative designs across the United States and abroad (at this time he also abandoned his wife and six children for the wife of a client). He sold his home and studio in 1925, which was later turned into apartments that eventually fell into disrepair. In 1974, a group of local citizens calling itself the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio Foundation, together with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, embarked on a 13-year restoration that returned the building to its 1909 appearance. Today, Wright's Oak Park home and studio are owned by the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust.

Wright's home, made of brick and dark shingles, is filled with earth-toned spaces. The architect's determination to create an integrated environment prompted him to design the natural wood furniture as well—though his apparent lack of regard for comfort is often the subject of commentary. The lead windows have colored-glass designs, and several rooms have skylights or other indirect lighting. A spacious barrel-vaulted playroom on the second floor includes a hidden piano for the children's theatrical productions. The adjacent studio is made up of four spaces—an office, a large reception room, an octagonal library, and an octagonal drafting room that uses a chain harness system rather than traditional beams to support its balcony, roof, and walls.

To see the interior, you must take one of the small-group tours, led by well-informed guides who discuss the architecture, point out artifacts from the family's life, and tell amusing stories about the rambunctious Wright clan. Reservations are advised: without one, you'll need to arrive as early as possible to snag a spot—not later than early afternoon to make the last tour on any given day. Tours begin at the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio Museum Shop, which carries architecture-related books and gifts. You can pick up a map noting other examples of Wright's work that are within easy walking or driving distance; guided tours and self-guided audio ones of the neighborhood are also available.

The annual Wright Plus Architectural Housewalk on the third Saturday in May offers interior tours of private homes designed by Wright and his contemporaries in Oak Park and other nearby villages.

Comprised of three galleries, this multipurpose space is among the most notable sights on the Northwestern University campus. The impressive rotating collection includes prints, photographs, and other works on paper spanning the 15th to 21st centuries. An outdoor sculpture garden features pieces by Joan Miró and Barbara Hepworth. Workshops, lectures, and symposia are also hosted here, and the museum's Block Cinema screens classic and contemporary films.

The 500-acre estate of former Chicago Tribune editor and publisher Robert McCormick (1880–1955) has multiple attractions. For starters, there's the First Division Museum, an impressive military history museum that has interactive, immersive exhibits. The sweeping landscape also incorporates formal gardens, picnic grounds, walking trails, and its own 27-hole public golf course with a separate 9-hole course for kids.

Part of the literary legacy of Oak Park, this three-story, turreted Queen Anne Victorian, which stands in frilly contrast to the many streamlined Prairie-style homes elsewhere in the neighborhood, contains period-furnished rooms and many photos and artifacts pertaining to Hemingway's early life. Museum curators have restored rooms to faithfully depict the house as it looked at the turn of the 20th century. You can poke your head inside the one in which the author was born on July 21, 1899.

When neo-nazis planned to march in the predominantly Jewish suburb of Skokie in the 1970s, local Holocaust survivors reacted by creating the Holocaust Memorial Foundation of Illinois, a group determined to educate the public about the atrocities of World War II. In 2009, the foundation unveiled the 65,000-square-foot Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center. The collection includes more than 20,000 items that belonged to Holocaust victims and survivors. Permanent exhibits include the Richard & Jill Chaifetz Family Virtual Reality Gallery, which takes visitors on a journey with Holocaust survivors, and the Spagat Family Voices of Genocide Exhibition, which explores how and why genocide continues to occur across geography and time. The Abe & Ida Cooper Survivor Stories Experience features interactive holograms of Holocaust survivors telling their stories.

Adults are hard-pressed to get youngsters to leave the 17 hands-on exhibits at this Glenview museum. Here toddlers to eight-year-olds can learn about solar power or how sounds make music. They can slip on a white jacket and be pretend doctors in a baby nursery or vets in an animal hospital. Kids can also get into home construction in Hands on House, learn to change a tire, or paint their faces and don costumes. There's also a spot to put on raincoats and play in the water. When weather permits, the two-acre Habitat Park, just outside, is a great place for bug hunting, wall painting, and wandering through a grass maze.

Samuel Insull, partner of Thomas Edison and founder of Commonwealth Edison, built this mansion as a country home in 1916. After Insull lost his fortune, John Cuneo Sr., the printing-press magnate, bought the estate and fashioned it to suit his own taste. The skylighted great hall in the main house resembles the open central courtyard of an Italian palazzo, the private family chapel has stained-glass windows, and a gilded grand piano graces the ballroom.

Founded in 1977, the Mitchell Museum houses more than 10,000 Native American artifacts from the Paleo-Indian period through modern times. Permanent exhibits focus on tribes in the Plains, Southwest, Northwest Coast, Woodlands, and Arctic areas. Guided tours, lectures, and kids' craft mornings (weekends only) are a regular part of the programming here.

At this 1,700-acre outdoor oasis, you can hike some of the 16 miles of manicured trails, or drive or bike (bring your own) along 9 miles of paved roads bordered by trees, shrubs, and vines. Every season is magnificent: spring's flowering trees, summer's canopy-covered trails, fall's dazzling foliage, and winter's serene beauty. Snowshoe and cross-country ski rentals are available. If you have kids, check out the award-winning 4-acre Children's Garden, which is stroller- (as well as wheelchair-) friendly. A 1-acre maze garden will delight as you wind your way to the lookout platform.

This private university, founded in 1851 by town namesake John Evans, puts Evanston on the map. Its sprawling Evanston campus hugs Lake Michigan. Strolling around its ivy-covered walls while listening to the crashing waves hitting the shore is a delightful experience. The campus is home to highly regarded undergraduate and graduate schools (the Medill School of Journalism and Kellogg School of Management among them) as well as the Block Museum of Art, which has more than 6,000 works in its permanent collection. Northwestern's Big Ten athletics program draws a mix of students and locals to games, especially when the Wildcats football team play.

If you enjoy music under the stars, the outdoor concerts at Ravinia are a stellar treat. Ravinia Festival, a summer-long series of performances, is the hot-months' home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, but the festival also features popular jazz, chamber music, rock, pop, and dance acts. Pack a picnic, bring a blanket or chairs, and sit on the lawn, often for little more than the cost of a movie. Large screens are placed on the lawn at some concerts so you won't miss anything. Seats are also available in the pavilion for a significantly higher price. There are restaurants and snack bars on the park grounds, so if you forget your goodies you still won't go hungry. Concerts usually start at 7 or 8 pm; the park usually opens two to three hours ahead to let everyone score spots and get settled. Weekend-morning concerts are aimed at kids. They feature a "KidsLawn" with an interactive music experience, and on select dates an "instrument petting zoo," arts and crafts, and live performances. During the off-season, check out the Fall and Spring Series of indoor concerts at Bennett Gordon Hall.