Art Institute of Chicago: Skip-the-Line Tour

Experience the Art Institute of Chicago like never before with a skip-the-line guided tour. Explore famous masterpieces and learn the stories behind them with an engaging guide.

Duration: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Cancellation: 24 hours
Highlights
  • The Art Institute of Chicago - Only the highest quality guide is equipped to introduce you to one of the greatest museums on earth. the Art Institute, one of the world’s great art museums, houses a works that cover centuries of Art & History. Its is also known to have the worlds greatest collection of Impressionist artwork (Even rivaling the Musee…
What's Included
  • Exclusive semi-private groups of no more than 8 guests
  • Enjoy a 2.5-hour immersive experience
  • All entrance fees included for a hassle-free visit
  • Benefit from skip-the-line access with a semi-private guided museum tour
What's Not Included
  • Tour price does NOT include gratuities (optional)
  • Tour price does NOT include hotel pickup or drop-off (we recommend UBER or Taxi)
Additional Information

The Art Institute of Chicago, rivals other leading global institutions such as the Met, Louvre, and British Museum in terms of visitor draw. This 2.5-hour semi-private guided tour, limited to 8 guests, allows you to bypass the queue and discover renowned works with the assistance of a knowledgeable guide.
Featured Masterpieces Usually Include: (subject…

Location
The Art Institute of Chicago
South Michigan Avenue
Meeting Point: “To The Lions Left”; next to the iconic lion statues (the lion on the left when facing the museum) outside the main Museum entrance on South Michigan Avenue.
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
5.0
(110 Ratings)
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Pruitt102
Jan 11, 2025
First-class museum, first-class guide - Our guide Amanda was first-class. She could be an art historian! Knowledgeable about not just art and artists but also about time periods, society, and customs in the times in which they lived. Mandy made the tour very, very interesting and chose our goals well. It’s a wonderful museum, and there are so many options! Our guide has an obvious love for the museum which is contagious.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
William
Jan 4, 2025
Great museum- fantastic guide ! - We enjoyed a wonderful tour with Mandy. She was a fantastic guide. She was very personable, accommodating, up-beat and knowledgeable. She was very informative and knew so much detail about the paintings she had chosen to discuss - and others which we asked about along the way. Most importantly, she provided us with context about each piece so that we could understand the painter and interpret the painting. I saw many classic American paintings in an entirely new light after hearing her explain the context for each painting. She made a great museum come alive for all of us.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
William_s
Jan 4, 2025
The guide made the tour ! - Four of us enjoyed a great tour of the Art Institute. Our guide, Mandy, was fantastic. She has a great personality, up-beat attitude and was very knowledgeable. She took time to answer all of our questions and provided us with a lot of information. Most importantly, she explained the context to interpret and understand all of the pieces we viewed with her. She really made this a very rewarding and enjoyable experience.
Review provided by Viator
Alison_m
Nov 11, 2024
5 star Fabulous tour guide - Spiro is the absolute best tour guide that I have ever had worldwide. Viewing the masterpieces in person is surreal enough, but accompanied by his narration filled with deep details of the art through a historical lens, elevated our entire experience. His thoughts and words will now remain with me and guide me in art appreciation in the future.
Review provided by Viator
Mpwelborn
Oct 28, 2024
Best Tour Ever - Heath was the best tour guide we have ever had! He made you want to learn more after the tour was over. He gave us lots of information and pointed out things we would have never gotten from just reading the plaques. He was the best! Also, getting in before the crowds is definitely worth it. I would highly recommend this tour to anyone!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
9ygxspxt68
Oct 20, 2024
Money well spent - Samantha was very knowledgeable and shared information that was new to our family regarding the various artists. She did an excellent job of keeping our school age kiddos engaged. Highly recommend.
Review provided by Viator
Wanderer759306
Oct 14, 2024
Deep knowledge and exuberant engaging style - This was one of the most informative and engaging tours we have ever been on. Ben was just superb!! He was exceptionally knowlegeable and had such a joyful passion and exuberance. Our tour included participants from Japan, Italy and USA and Ben made a point to show us artwork that was culturally significant for everyone along with all the "big name" items. If I could give 6 stars I would.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Bryan_f
Oct 4, 2024
Blown Away!! - Heath, our guide was amazing! His knowledge was only rivaled by his enthusiasm!😁 He took us thru the different periods of art making it very interesting and entertaining.., my wife thought that the museum would be boring but left with a newfound appreciation of art and she said she truly owes it to Heath.. I can’t imagine walking thru the museum on your own.. the stories he told about each painting made such a difference! I highly recommend this tour….
Review provided by Viator
Georgieservice
Sep 29, 2024
Brilliant tour - highly recommend - We had Ben as our guide for a 2.5 hour tour of the Arrowhead Institute. I couldn’t recommend him more highly - he was knowledgable, engaging and enthusiastic. We absolutely loved the tour and could have spent double the time listening to Ben!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Travelfortango
Aug 27, 2024
Guides Make a Difference to Museum Visits - I really appreciated Spiro's perspectives and how he was able to accommodate our group of five's requests on this AIC semi-private tour.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
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up to 8 guests
1 Adult
January 2025
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