Chicago’s First Lady Cruises

Welcome to the Chicago Architecture Center River Cruise aboard Chicago’s First Lady – recognized as the best boat tour in North America (USA Today Readers’ Choice 2024 Awards), the best tour in Chicago (Chicago Reader’s Best of Chicago 2023) and Tripadvisor’s Travelers’ Choice (2024).

Lauded as a “must-do” activity by locals and tourists alike, the 90-minute CAC River Cruise aboard Chicago’s First Lady glides down all three branches of the Chicago River, providing guests with an unobstructed, open-air, 360-degree view of the city’s wide variety of architectural styles, including art deco, neoclassicism, mid-century modernism and postmodernism. CAC-certified volunteer docents share the fascinating stories of more than 50 buildings and 13 bascule bridges along the river, and the backstories of some of the iconic figures responsible for them.

To further enhance accessibility for guests, the CAC River Cruise aboard Chicago’s First Lady provides complimentary language translation services via smartphone app in Spanish, French, Japanese and Korean, making it the only Chicago architecture river cruise to offer this service.

Since 1993, more than 100 CAC-certified volunteer veteran docents have lent their expertise and unique perspectives to guests on the popular CAC River Cruise. They undergo nearly 100 hours to become certified, plus an additional 12 weeks of study about Chicago’s architecture. Docents hail from across the city with a variety of personal and professional backgrounds – no two tours are exactly alike. Some notable docents have included Geoffrey Baer and Dr. Allison Arwady.

A portion of proceeds from each CAC River Cruise ticket supports the CAC’s nonprofit educational mission. In pursuit of the CAC’s mission to inspire people to discover why design matters, the CAC produces programs for children, students, teens and families. Teen Saturday Studio and Girls Build! programs proactively advance diversity, inclusion and representation in STEM fields and ACED careers, while field trips, award-winning publications and online tools expand the CAC’s reach into communities across and beyond Chicagoland.

As a fourth-generation family-owned and operated company, Chicago’s First Lady Cruises celebrates other local businesses by offering guests the opportunity to purchase locally-based food and drinks aboard its tours.

Boarding and Ticket Information

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. Daily tours of the CAC River Cruise aboard Chicago’s First Lady begin March 17.

Tickets start at $54 and can be purchased online or in-person at the ticket booth located on the Riverwalk. Passengers can take advantage of visiting the award-winning Chicago Architecture Center for an additional $5 and have seven days to visit the Center after their cruise date.

Priority boarding tickets are also available and include an exclusive early boarding period, the option to skip the queue during general boarding, and CAC admission.

For additional information on the 2024 season, tickets, boarding location, parking and other details, please visit CruiseChicago.com.