Skip to main content

Get to know the Gold Coast

Just the name of this neighborhood tells you a lot. It’s on the waterfront, and it’s seriously gilded. Gold Coast began as a wealthy community of lakeside mansions and has never lost its place as a highbrow destination. It now hosts Chicago’s toniest restaurants and most discerning boutiques. These are tucked in along the wide streets, in the bottoms of grand architectural marvels. This is a neighborhood of stately vintage row houses and doorman buildings, featuring quite a few mid- and high-rise towers with incredible lake views. The mansions are still here as well. Simple market mechanics will tell you that this is an affluent neighborhood, an oasis in an idealized city location. Residents stroll, bike, and drive along the Gilded Age streets. The easily accessed Lakefront Trail is the exercise regimen of choice, though certainly there are some health benefits to the retail therapy shopping in the stores of posh international brands.

Nearby Neighborhoods:

Living in Chicago

There may be people who live in Chicago who do not love Chicago, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find one of them. From the shores of Lake Michigan to the sprawling suburbs, Chicago is a global metropolis that still manages to be Midwestern friendly. The city has some 600 parks, and 18.5 miles of trail along the shore of the lake and another lining the rivers of downtown. The food is among the best and most varied in the world. Museums and performance venues abound, and public art fills green space and public squares. Public transportation is easy, as is reaching either U.S. coast in half a day. Even in the midst of its notoriously frigid winters, you won’t find a warmer city to call home.