On a budget, Jackson Park & Garden of the Phoenix still earns its price.
Free
A tranquil, little-known Japanese garden on Wooded Island, anchored by Yoko Ono's 'Skylanding' — twelve steel lotus petals, her first permanent public artwork in the Americas — with the legacy of the 1893 World's Fair all around. A true escape from the tourist core. The honest catch is the trek south and the fact that it's quiet by design; come for stillness, not stimulation.