Illinois is Chicago, and Chicago alone would be reason enough to come. The city's skyline is an open-air museum of American architecture, from the pioneering steel frames that rose after the Great Fire to Mies van der Rohe's glass towers along the lakefront. Add world-class blues and jazz clubs, deep-dish pizza, a food scene that ranges from Michelin-starred restaurants to legendary Italian beef stands, and 26 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline with public beaches, and you have one of the great American cities.
Beyond Chicago, the state capital Springfield is Lincoln country through and through. You can visit his home, his law office, and his tomb, and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library does a fine job of putting his story in context. The old state capitol where Lincoln delivered his "House Divided" speech still stands, and the town wears its history with genuine pride rather than theme-park gloss.
Head south and Illinois becomes a different place entirely. The Shawnee National Forest stretches across the southern tip of the state, with sandstone bluffs, cypress swamps, and the dramatic Garden of the Gods. Near Collinsville, the Cahokia Mounds preserve the remains of the largest pre-Columbian settlement north of Mexico — a UNESCO World Heritage Site that most Americans have never heard of.
Illinois also claims a long stretch of historic Route 66, running from Chicago all the way down to St. Louis, with small-town diners and roadside attractions along the way. The college town of Champaign-Urbana brings a youthful energy and good restaurants to the central prairie, and Galena in the northwest corner is a beautifully preserved 19th-century town that was home to Ulysses S. Grant. If you only know Illinois from its famous city, the rest of the state will surprise you.
