Tourism

The activity of traveling for pleasure.

The Tower of London

Only the Coronation Spoon survives from the medieval regalia; everything else in the Jewel House was made for Charles II in 1661 or later, and the display was rebuilt in May 2023.

Practicalities for Paris now: the end of paper tickets and the single regional fare, the low-emission and limited-traffic zones, the new reality of the summers, what has reopened since the Olympics and what has closed, and the shape of the city.

Things to do in London

An index to the London pages: the royal buildings, the churches, the free museums, the parks and the zoo, the theatre district, the City and the markets, and the squares and the river — with the distinctions that are most often got wrong, and a note on how much time each one really takes.

Brookfield Zoo Chicago

Renamed Brookfield Zoo Chicago in 2024, though it is in Brookfield. The pandas have been gone for eighty years, the elephants left in 2010, and the Bramsen Tropical Forests opened in July 2025.

Shedd Aquarium

Opened in 1930 and part-way through a rebuilding programme running to its 2030 centenary, so galleries close in turn. The Caribbean Reef and its hand-feeding diver closed in 2023, and the Oceanarium's dolphin show is now an educational presentation.

875 North Michigan Avenue

Officially 875 North Michigan Avenue since 2018, and still the Hancock to everyone in Chicago. The X-braces are the structure, not decoration; the Signature Room closed in 2023; and the wind at the top is not where the Windy City got its name.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio

In Oak Park, not Chicago. Wright built the house at twenty-two on a loan from Louis Sullivan, added the playroom and the chain-hung drafting room, and left in 1909 — which is the year the restoration returns the building to.

The Field Museum

SUE left the main hall in 2018 for a gallery inside Evolving Planet, and a 122-foot titanosaur cast called Maximo stands there instead. Also the Tsavo lions, Bushman the gorilla, and why 'most complete T. rex' is the claim that holds.

Griffin Museum of Science and Industry

Renamed in May 2024 after a donation, and still the MSI locally. The building is the last of the 1893 fair left standing; the submarine moved indoors in 2005; and the founder who paid for it refused to have his name on it.

The Bronx, Queens and Staten Island

The Bronx Zoo and the botanical garden next door with its uncut old-growth forest; the World's Fair ruins and the ten-thousand-square-foot model of the city in Queens; the food neighbourhoods that are the real reason to go; and what is actually on Staten Island for anyone who gets off the boat. Including why there is no subway to it.

The Art Institute of Chicago

Founded in 1879 as a museum and a school. Renzo Piano's Modern Wing of 2009 added a third to its size and a second entrance from Millennium Park, and a complete Louis Sullivan trading room was rebuilt inside the building.

The Willis Tower

The Sears Tower until 2009, the world's tallest building until 1996, and nine square tubes bundled together rather than one. The Ledge, its glass boxes added in 2009, is missing from every older description.

Tourism