08/14/2022

Best Downtown Hotel Near Navy Pier

With Marriott Bonvoy Autograph Collection accommodations at Hotel Chicago in River North, you’ll find yourself delightfully close to the Windy City’s famed lakefront. And among the many attractions along Chicago’s Lake Michigan margin, few are so widely known and loved as Navy Pier.

You’re but a hop, skip, and a jump from this world-famous 3,300-foot Great Lakes pier, which offers one of the densest concentrations of all-ages attractions in town. With high summer in full swing, there’s no better time to experience its many charms!

Summertime Pleasures on Navy Pier in Chicago

Navy Pier was built back in 1916 as Municipal Pier; it was renamed not long thereafter to commemorate naval veterans of the First World War. Serving many purposes and adopting many guises over the decades, it now ranks among the most-visited attractions in the Midwest, vying with Millennium Park as Chicago’s number-one tourist draw.

A summer’s day spent on Navy Pier is a quintessential Chicago experience. There are oodles of waterfront shopping and dining opportunities, for one thing, not least the pleasures of the Navy Pier Beer Garden. Rides and games abound, including such supersized installations as Centennial Wheel and the S&S DoubleShot. Those entertainments aren’t the only draw for the younger crowd, either: The excellent Chicago Children’s Museum calls Navy Pier home.

On Wednesday and Saturday nights through Labor Day Weekend, meanwhile, the skies above Navy Pier light up with spectacular (and free) fireworks, doing their pyrotechnic thing to a stirring soundtrack.

And summertime brings plenty of live entertainment to the Pier, including the Live on the Lake! free concert series in the Beer Garden and the Skyline Sessions at the Wave Wall Staircase, featuring solo acts and bands every Thursday and Friday through September 2nd. The Water Flicks series puts on outdoor movies at Navy Pier, with this year’s program (from My Family Mi Familia to Meet the Parents) focused on explorations of family. The Chicago Shakespeare Theater here is presenting It Came From Outer Space through July 31st, and debuts a musical version of The Notebook beginning September 6th.

A current exhibition in Navy Pier’s Festival Hall A honors the heritage and symbolism of black quilt art: Arts & Agency: Exploring the African American Quilting Tradition, presented by Africa International House USA Inc. and displaying remarkable works made by the Needles & Threads Quilt Guild of Chicago and the Liberia West Africa Quegeh Quilters.

The Midwest’s biggest seafood bash goes down at Navy Pier, too: the Great American Lobster Fest, underway September 2nd through the 4th with crustaceans, live music, family games, and more.

Visit Navy Pier on Your Next Luxury Stay at Hotel Chicago in River North

Experience one of America’s signature waterfront funlands with a jaunt to Navy Pier while soaking up our Autograph Collection luxury here at Hotel Chicago!

Let’s Get Social

FOLLOW US AT: @HOTELCHICAGODOWNTOWN