Bounded by the Chicago River to the north and west, Harrison Street to the south and the Lake Michigan to the East is The Loop. This is where all of Chicago's business meets. It has the tallest of Chicago's skyscrapers and is also the place for anyone traveling through Chicago to meet Chicago's finest. With the area covered by the loop a tourist to Chicago is always advised to get a map. These are available at various sites:

http://iguide.travel/Chicago/Loop

http://www.heartland.org/publications/looptour/LoopTour.pdf

http://wikitravel.org/en/Image:Loop_map.png

Simple street layout

The Loop's street layout is not quite a hard one to crack. The tourist will be able to get around without fear of getting lost. While traveling through Chicago one notices that the city's grid system is quite simple with 8 blocks per mile.

This is shown by a map of the area along the east side of the Chicago River, The West Loop Gate:

http://egov.cityofchicago.org/webportal/COCWebPortal/COC_ATTACH/Community_Areas_NEAR_WEST_SIDE.pdf

The Near West Side has some of Chicago's premiere restaurant strips including: Little Italy on Taylor Street which has small culinary strips with some of the best Mediterranean dishes. Greektown located on Halstead Street has some good food and nice hospitality for the tourist.

Getting around

It is also prudent to plan for wherever you want to visit at The Loop beforehand. This will necessitate that you search for schedules in the Chicago Transition Authority's site: http://www.transitchicago.com. The CTA runs all the El trains and the local buses running through O'Hare and The Loop. When one is traveling through Chicago their trip is made more fruitful by planning it over the CTA website. Useful, free street maps are also offered at all CTA stations.

Transport trolleys

Since the city of Chicago is served by a network of free transport trolleys during the summer, visit this site for information on the routes:

http://www.cityofchicago.org/Transportation/trolleys/