Taste your way along the spicy Central Illinois Chili Trail, made up of the best chili spots found in the heart of the state. A popular favorite is Joe Rogers’ Original Recipe Chili Parlor in Springfield, which recently made Bon Appétit magazine’s list of top 10 chili joints.
Take a 90-minute nighttime tour of sites throughout Springfield that are linked to spirited stories about Lincoln’s life and death. Founder Garret Moffett based the tour partly on local lore about Lincoln’s visions and dreams, as well as on reported ghost sightings.
This former private estate was donated to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1946. Stroll through formal gardens dotted with sculptures, a natural prairie and woodland hiking trails that skim the Sangamon River.