10 Chicago Neighborhoods Locals Love — Ranked by Our Intelligence Score

Every city guide says "explore like a local." Almost none tell you where the locals actually are. So we did something different: we scored all 77 Chicago neighborhoods on safety, walkability, transit access, and the density of genuinely well-reviewed places — 597 of them, to be exact — and let the data pick the winners.

01. Lincoln Park — 93/100

The complete package: lakefront trails, the free zoo, tree-lined streets of greystones, and a restaurant bench deep enough for a different dinner every night for a month. Kingston Mines keeps the blues going past midnight, and you're 15 minutes from the Loop on the 'L'. If it's your first Chicago trip — stay here.

02. Near North Side — 87/100

A perfect Walk Score of 100 and the city's highest concentration of top-rated restaurants — including a certain deep-dish institution with nearly twenty thousand reviews. This is where the Magnificent Mile, River North galleries, and rooftop bars stack on top of each other.

03. Hyde Park — 86/100

The neighborhood most visitors skip — and shouldn't. The Museum of Science and Industry (4.7★ from 35,000+ reviewers), the University of Chicago's gothic quads, and a bookstore-and-coffee culture that rewards a slow afternoon.