The Magnificent Mile in Chicago

The section of Michigan Avenue that runs from the Chicago River to Oak Street on the north side of the city is known as the Magnificent Mile. This "Magnificent Mile" - which is actually less than a mile long! - is home to some of the city's most prestigious hotels.

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Gourmet restaurants rub shoulders with fast-food joints, museums, motels, souvenir shops and more affordable clothing and sporting goods stores. It's an open-air temple to consumerism that spans some 74 acres and includes some of the tallest skyscrapers in the United States.

Chicago's Magnificent Mile

Aside from the boutiques that entice shoppers behind their gleaming windows, Chicago-style shopping takes place in some of the vertiginous towers that frame the avenue. Keep in mind that the winters are harsh and the summers can be stifling. There's nothing like shutting yourself in with heat or air conditioning to shop in peace and quiet.

Magnificent Mile sign

On the Magnificent Mile, giant shopping malls with dozens of different brands, restaurants, hair salons and movie theaters dominate the street, and in this genre it doesn't get much bigger than Water Tower Place with its hundred or so stores, one of Chicago's largest malls. Two other large malls can be found on the Magnificent Mile: "900 North Michigan (900 N. Michigan Avenue) and The Shops at North Bridge Entrance (520 N. Michigan Avenue).

Shopping and museums by day, fine dining by night: it's easy to see why the Magnificent Mile is the perfect backdrop for a variety of hotels. All the major groups are represented, and most of the establishments range from chic to very, very chic.

The Magnificent Mile in Chicago

The Magnificent Mile and its environs are home to some of the city's most daring skyscrapers, including the John Hancock Center, Trump Tower and the Wrigley Building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The neighborhood is home to 5 of the 85 tallest buildings in the world and 5 of the 10 tallest buildings in Chicago.

And it's on this magnificent mile that you'll find some of the city's most iconic landmarks, such as Berghoff Restaurant and Bar or the Chicago Theater and its giant red sign, whose design inspired the signs of most of the businesses on the avenue. It's super-photogenic and very vintage, a real little stroll through time, between historic buildings and iconic skyscrapers: the whole twentieth century in one mile.