Choose wisely. Connect locally.Add your business 
Summer evenings in Highland Park revolve around Ravinia, the open-air music festival where picnickers spread blankets on the lawn while the Chicago Symphony Orchestra plays in the pavilion. This leafy North Shore city of about 30,000 sits on wooded bluffs above Lake Michigan, roughly 25 miles north of downtown Chicago, with deep ravines cutting down to the water.
The town grew up in the 1860s around a railroad stop and became a retreat for wealthy Chicago families, which left it with a remarkable stock of architecture. Frank Lloyd Wright's Ward W. Willits House, finished in 1902, is counted among the first great Prairie-style homes, and several other Wright houses stand on quiet residential streets. Fort Sheridan, a former Army post with cream-brick barracks, lies on the northern edge.
Today visitors come for concerts, the rebuilt Rosewood Beach, the trails of Heller Nature Center and a walkable downtown full of restaurants and boutiques. The Chicago Botanic Garden in neighboring Glencoe and the lakefront towns of Evanston and Lake Forest make easy add-on trips.
North America's oldest outdoor music festival and the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with classical, jazz, pop and rock shows from June to September. Lawn tickets let you bring your own food and wine. Metra runs special trains to the Ravinia stop on concert nights.
Frank Lloyd Wright's cross-shaped Prairie-style house of 1902, with low hipped roofs, bands of leaded-glass windows and deep overhangs. It is often cited as his first fully realized Prairie design. The house is privately owned, so admire it respectfully from Sheridan Road.
A 1906 Frank Lloyd Wright house in board-and-batten wood and stucco, built for George and Alice Millard, who later commissioned his famous La Miniatura in Pasadena. It is a private home; pair a slow drive past it with a look at the Willits House a short distance away.
A Lake Michigan beach reopened in 2015 after a major restoration, with a boardwalk, swimming area, sandy coves and an interpretive center about the lake's ecology. The setting was once part of a Jens Jensen-designed estate park. Lifeguards are on duty in summer, and a daily fee applies for non-residents.
A 97-acre preserve run by the Park District of Highland Park, with about three miles of trails through oak woods, prairie and wetland, plus a treehouse-style nature center. It hosts bird walks, maple-syrup demonstrations and kids' camps. Trails are free and open daily from dawn to dusk.
A former U.S. Army fort founded in 1887, whose yellow-brick barracks, officers' houses and tall water tower were designed by the Chicago firm Holabird and Roche. Most buildings are now private homes, but you can walk the parade ground and drive the curving streets toward the lake bluffs.
A compact, walkable center around Central Avenue and St. Johns Avenue with independent shops, cafes, bakeries and a wide choice of restaurants close to the Metra station. Summer brings a farmers market and outdoor dining. Street parking is metered, and public lots sit just off Central Avenue.
The historical society runs exhibits in a restored Victorian house on Central Avenue, covering the city's railroad beginnings, its North Shore estates, Ravinia's early amusement-park days and its Prairie-style architecture. Opening hours are limited, so check the schedule before you go.
A small, walkable shopping district clustered around the Ravinia Metra stop and Roger Williams Avenue, with cafes, a bakery, wine shops and casual restaurants. It is the classic place to pick up picnic supplies before a Ravinia concert, and it hosts its own summer farmers market.
No reviews yet. Been to Highland Park? Be the first to share your experience.
Share what you loved, what to skip and tips for other travelers.
Log in to write a reviewBeen to Highland Park? Add your best shots to the gallery.
Log in to add photosPhoto: User:JeremyA, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Teemu008 from Palatine, Illinois, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: User:JeremyA, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5
Photo: Kristopher Anderson, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: James Steakley, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Marbus1966, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: WestportWiki, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: hakkun, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: hakkun, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: YourJudge, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Bmzuckerman, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Photo: Bmzuckerman, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Photo: hakkun, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Bmzuckerman, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Photo: Bmzuckerman, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Photo: Bmzuckerman, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Photo: Ronincmc, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Teemu008 from Palatine, Illinois, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: Bmzuckerman, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Photo: Ronincmc, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Teemu008 from Palatine, Illinois, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: Paul Sequeira, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
Photo: Michael from Palatine, Illinois, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: Teemu008 from Palatine, Illinois, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: Teemu008 from Palatine, Illinois, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: Teemu008 from Palatine, Illinois, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: Teemu08, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
