What's the must-see thing in Chicago?

The Art Institute of Chicago, not the Willis Tower. The Skydeck's glass ledges sit 412 metres up, and the view is fine for a photo, but it looks like any tall-building panorama in any large American city. The Art Institute is the thing Chicago has that nowhere else does. Gallery 240 alone holds Seurat's 'A Sunday on La Grande Jatte,' Caillebotte's 'Paris Street; Rainy Day,' and more than 30 Monets in a single wing. The Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collection is the largest outside France. General admission runs $35 for adults, $26 for seniors, free for kids under 14. The museum sits at 111 South Michigan Avenue, at the south edge of Millennium Park, so Cloud Gate is a 5-minute walk north from the exit.

Go on a Thursday. The Art Institute stays open until 8pm on Thursdays, and after 5pm the European galleries on the second floor thin out enough that you can stand alone in front of Edward Hopper's 'Nighthawks' without someone's phone blocking your view. The light through the skylights in the Modern Wing, designed by Renzo Piano and opened in 2009, turns warm and amber by 6pm. You'll catch the smell of old wood floors in the older galleries on the Michigan Avenue side of the building. The Impressionist rooms stay cool even in mid-June, when Michigan Avenue outside sits at 22°C and 80% humidity. Budget at least 2 hours. The museum holds over 300,000 works, and covering all of it in one visit is a mistake first-timers make. Start with the Impressionist galleries and the American Art wing, both on the second floor.

Cloud Gate in Millennium Park costs nothing and takes 15 minutes. The 110-ton polished steel sculpture, installed in 2004, reflects the Loop skyline, and on a clear day you can pick out individual windows on the Wrigley Building to the north. The curved underside rises 3.7 metres at the center and warps your reflection into something almost liquid. On a warm evening you'll hear street musicians echo off the steel trellis of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, about 200 metres south. The Chicago Architecture Center river cruise is the third pick. A 90-minute boat ride on the Chicago River for $47, leaving from the dock at 112 East Wacker Drive. You pass under 14 bridges while a docent names every building on the riverfront, from the 1920s Wrigley Building to Marina City's corncob towers from 1964. Book at least 2 days ahead in June and July. The 10am departure carries fewer passengers and the morning light hits the east-facing facades along Wacker Drive.

Skip Navy Pier on a first visit. The Centennial Wheel currently runs about $18 for a 10-minute ride, and the pier is chain restaurants and souvenir shops that locals tend to avoid. If you want a high view, the 360 Chicago observation deck at 875 North Michigan Avenue, the former John Hancock Center, has shorter lines than the Willis Tower Skydeck and better north-facing views along 26 miles of lakeshore. If you have a third day, the Field Museum of Natural History on the Museum Campus opened in 1893. The dinosaur hall with SUE the T. rex is worth the $30 admission on its own. The Field Museum sits at 1400 South DuSable Lake Shore Drive, a 15-minute walk south from the Art Institute.