Concierge.com's insider take:

It takes several days to navigate this superb museum housing some 260,000 artworks—including some of the world's most famous masterpieces: Georges Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (1884), Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, and Grant Wood's American Gothic. There's an extensive Impressionist collection, and an Asian collection spanning five millennia and including one of the world's finest collections of Japanese woodblock prints. Don't miss the Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room, a reconstruction of the Chicago Stock Exchange trading floor, or the Thorne Miniature Rooms, dollhouse-sized recreations of European and American interiors from the late 13th century to the 1930s. The museum's steps are home to two photogenic lions (circa 1893) and provide a first-rate spot for people-watching.

Open Mondays through Wednesdays and Fridays 10:30 am to 5 pm, Thursdays 10:30 am to 8 pm, Saturdays and Sundays 10 am to 5 pm.