Best time to visit Chicago
All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.
Plan this trip
Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too.
Book with the airline
Where to stay
Book direct
Things to do
Car hire
Rent direct
Travel insurance
Check whether your bank card or home insurance already covers this trip.
If the trip needs a visa, the travel agent or visa centre usually sells the cover it asks for.
Mobile data (eSIM)
Your own plan's EU roaming may already cover this.
Renting a pocket Wi-Fi is the other common way to stay connected.
These are sites people in book with. Each opens in a new tab, on the site's own pages. Some pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where.
Check your inbox. A confirmation is on its way: open the link in it, press Confirm, and you are subscribed.
That did not go through. Check the address, or try again in a minute.
Already sent. A confirmation went to that address in the last day: look for it, spam folder included. Its link works for three days.
You are not on the list until you confirm from your inbox. The list lives with our email provider, Resend; the privacy page says the rest.
No fare history for this route yet, so this ranking is climate and crowds only — the price column will fill in as the scanner collects.
Month by month
| Month | Max °C | Rain days | Humidity | Sun h/day | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 0° | 8d | 74% | 4.9h | avoid | bitter cold: 0C daily max |
| Feb | 3° | 7d | 70% | 6.6h | avoid | bitter cold: 3C daily max |
| Mar | 9° | 9d | 69% | 7.5h | ok | 9C max, 9 rainy days |
| Apr | 14° | 12d | 68% | 8.5h | good | 14C max, 12 rainy days |
| May | 20° | 11d | 68% | 10.1h | sweet spot | 20C max, 11 rainy days |
| Jun | 27° | 10d | 69% | 11.4h | sweet spot | 27C max, 10 rainy days |
| Jul | 28° | 11d | 73% | 11.8h | sweet spot | 28C max, 11 rainy days |
| Aug | 27° | 10d | 74% | 11.3h | sweet spot | 27C max, 10 rainy days |
| Sep | 24° | 8d | 72% | 9.5h | sweet spot | 24C max, 8 rainy days |
| Oct | 17° | 10d | 70% | 7.3h | good | 17C max, 10 rainy days |
| Nov | 8° | 6d | 71% | 5.7h | ok | 8C max, 6 rainy days |
| Dec | 4° | 7d | 73% | 4.9h | avoid | bitter cold: 4C daily max |
A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.
Getting there
How far Chicago is, and what it costs, depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.
- from Toronto
- from New York
- from Boston
- from Miami
- from Mexico City
- from Seattle
- from Los Angeles
- from Vancouver
Around Chicago
Also in United States
- Boston best May, Jun, Aug
- Los Angeles best May, Jun, Jul
- Miami best Feb, Mar, Apr
- New York best Apr, May, Jun
- San Francisco best Apr, May, Jun
- Seattle best Jun, Jul, Aug
Compare with
Nearby
- Toronto Canada · 719 km
- Mexico City Mexico · 2,719 km
- Vancouver Canada · 2,831 km
- Bogota Colombia · 4,364 km
Kind of place
Chicago is in United States, North America. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.
Before you go
Type A and B plugs at 120 V. Drives on the right. The currency is the United states dollar. No UK Foreign Office advice against travel. Everything for United States: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through one, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It does not affect the scores on this page, which are computed from climate and fare data before any link is built.