Inside the award-winning Chicago Architecture River Cruise

Recognized three years in a row as one of the best boat tours in North America (USA Today Readers’ Choice 2023 Awards) and the Best Tour in 2023 (Chicago Reader), the official Chicago Architecture Center (CAC) River Cruise aboard Chicago’s First Lady hosted a media tour recently to celebrate the line’s 31^st season as well as National Travel and Tourism Week. I think my husband and I are the only people left on the planet who haven’t taken this cruise, but boy was it worth it.

The tour, hosted on May 22, offered an insiders’ look at the skyline and history of Chicago from certified CAC docents. All docents are volunteers who do this solely because of their passion, no pay, just for the sheer joy of it. And it certainly showed in the two tour guides we had on this particular cruise.

Their faces lit up with joy as they described the fascinating stories of more than 50 buildings and 13 bridges, as well as the iconic figures who designed and built them. We learned about architectural styles, including art deco, neoclassicism, mid-century modernism and postmodernism. The tours are continuously updated to reflect the city’s changing skyline with the docents going through nearly 100 hours of training, plus an additional 12 weeks of study about Chicago’s architecture.

The CAC River Cruise aboard Chicago’s First Lady departs from the Michigan Avenue Bridge at Wacker Drive on Chicago’s Riverwalk just three blocks north of Millennium Park. Tickets start at $54 and can be purchased online or in person at the ticket booth located on the Riverwalk. Priority boarding tickets beginning at $69 are also available and include an exclusive early boarding period, with the option to skip the queue during general boarding, and CAC admission. Daily tours of the cruise began March 17.

Chicago’s First Lady Cruises and its sister company, Mercury Chicago’s Skyline Cruiseline are fourth-generation family-owned and operated. The Chicago Architecture Center (CAC) is a nonprofit founded in 1966. Its riverfront location features nearly 10,000-square-feet of exhibition space with views of a century of iconic skyscrapers.

In conclusion, I thoroughly enjoyed the cruise and highly recommend it. Even though I've lived here for decades, I have never seen the skyline described in such depth and with so much love for our city. Made me proud all over again to live here.