Driving Directions - Chicago Children's Museum (and Navy Pier)

From the North

You have two options coming in from the North: Lake Shore Drive and the Kennedy. Lake Shore Drive is the easiest, there's an exit on the right that directs you to "Grand Ave, Illinois St, Navy Pier, and Wacker Dr." The exit is like a traditional off-ramp, and you can then follow the instructions to turn left and head out to Navy Pier. Start looking for the exit a little after the curve by the Oak Street beach.

To take the Kennedy (I-90/94) into Chicago from the North, take exit 50B for Ohio St E. From there, you just need to go a take a right onto Clark, go a couple of blocks, and turn left on Illinois, which takes you straight to Navy Pier. (You don't need to choose Clark, basically any street up to Wabash will work, but after Wabash things get tricky because many roads don't go through or just go over Illinois rather than connect to it.)

From the West

If you're coming into Chicago on the Ike (I-290), Lower Wacker will take you almost directly to the Children's Museum. If you've heard stories about Lower Wacker from terrified drivers, there's good news: it's fun and easy on this trip because you go from one end of it to the other, so you don't have to worry about ramps up or down to it.

As Ike gets close to the city, the right two lanes will go to North and Southbound I-90/94. You'll instead want the left lanes which continue on to Ida B Wells (formerly Congress). After you lose I-90/94, head over to the right lane and take the exit for Wacker Dr and Franklin St. After taking the exit there are two quick splits, stay left both times: first following the directions for Wacker (rather than Franklin), and then for Lower Wacker (rather than Upper). Once you're on Lower Wacker, just follow the traffic. Wacker turns a few times to stay with the river, but you just follow traffic the whole way. Once you see Michigan and then Columbus, you're getting close, but keep going straight. At the end of Lower Wacker, you'll emerge into the sunlight and pretty quickly need to turn onto Lake Shore Drive at the light. You'll want to turn left, but to choose the right-most of the lanes going left. Immediately after you turn onto Lower Lake Shore Drive, there's an exit to the right for Navy Pier. Follow that, and take the first right to bring you out to Navy Pier.

If you're coming from the Southwest and the Stevenson (I-55) is the best option into the city, take it to Lake Shore Drive, and follow the instructions from the South.

From the South

Whether you're coming in from the Skyway (I-90) or the Dan Ryan (I-94), you'll merge together and take the exit for I-55 North (on the right of the express lanes, or left of the regular lanes). From there, take I-55 a short distance and then go North on Lake Shore Drive. You'll go past Grant Park, and take an exit for Illinois St/Grand Ave just after going over the Chicago River (the signage for that exit is very poor, but there's a small sign just before the river, and then the exit is just after it). Follow the signs and turn right onto Navy Pier.

City streets/from the Loop or the Magnificent Mile

If you're taking city streets, the tricky thing about getting to Navy Pier is that Illinois St, which goes to Navy Pier, is on the ground level while several other streets, most notably Michigan Ave, are above it. Instead, if you take Wabash or State Street, you can turn onto Illinois, and drive right to Navy Pier.