Editors' picks across 8categories — the dock with the deepest channel, the winery with the view, the restaurant with the right wine list, the trail nobody's on at sunrise.
A prime-steak-focused steakhouse in downtown Antioch offering lunch and dinner service.
A multi-level waterfront deck restaurant in downtown Fox Lake serving American fare, including a lobster and fish-fry menu.
A bar and grille with an attached marina directly on Lake Marie, part of the Chain, serving pizza and homemade specials.
A marina restaurant and bar on a channel off Fox Lake with over 100 boat slips, a playground and basketball/horseshoe area, and weekend live music.
A small-batch craft brewery taproom in downtown Lake Villa.
Four paved bike trails totaling about six miles, a 2.25-mile Nature's Way hiking trail, an accessible quarter-mile trail at Pike Marsh North, and roughly eight miles of equestrian trail.
A seasonal farm attraction roughly six miles west of Antioch and Fox Lake, known for one of the country's larger corn mazes, plus u-pick pumpkins, sunflower fields, and a Christmas tree farm.
A weekly outdoor farmers market in Sequoit Creek Park in downtown Antioch, running Thursdays through the summer.
A full-service marina on Pistakee Bay with 86 protected floating slips and Waverunner ports, offering pontoon rentals and seasonal slip rental.
The largest full-service marina on the Chain O'Lakes, with capacity over 300 slips, offering transient slips, boat repair, and storage.
An offshore bar on Grass Lake operating in some form since 1901, reachable only by private boat or a shuttle from the mainland dock, with live music and drag boat races through the summer.
A state park anchoring the west end of the lake chain, established in 1945, with camping and boating access along the historic Fox River route Joliet and Marquette traveled in 1673.