Community Education Travel Day Trips

Reservations for upcoming day trips open on Thursday, May 2, 2024 

Our extremely popular day trips are a great way to visit exciting local sites and events with your friends or family while staying within your budget.

Travel is an essential part of lifelong learning, join us today to explore the sights and sounds of the greater Chicagoland area and expand your horizons!

Day trips often sell out in just a few days after opening, so don’t delay! Reserve your space now.

Reservations for upcoming 2024 day trips open Thursday, May 2, 2024. 

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT WAITLISTS: Trips marked as ‘Waitlist’ are currently full, but may have additional spaces or departures added based upon demand. There is no charge to place your name on a waitlist and can be easily done by emailing cetravel@d214.org or calling 847-718-7709. If space opens up you will then be contacted by our staff.

Old World Wisconsin
Thursday, July 25, 2024

At Old World Wisconsin, experience firsthand the rural past of America’s heartland in an engaging, authentic, and fun tour. Named one of America’s Top Living History Sites by Group Tour Magazine, Old World Wisconsin offers a day in the life of the Danish, Finnish, and Norwegian immigrants who settled in the state. The site showcases Wisconsin’s immigrant past that is reached by a tram running continuously. Costumed interpreters relive and share the day-to-day activities of Wisconsin’s early settlers with demonstrations. Lunch today is in Lake Geneva for lunch at the amazing Tuscan Restaurant. $132 

Nitti's Supper Club & Speakeasy
Saturday August 10, 2024

Step back into the Roaring ’20s during a fun Saturday evening at Nitti’s Supper Club. Housed in Harry Caray's Restaurant landmark building, which was once owned by infamous Chicago outfit boss Frank Nitti, join us for dinner and an all-new production entitled “Who killed Eddie O’Hare?” The show is filled with laughs, gangsters, flappers, audience interaction and a toe-tapping musical production! Long before 33 W. Kinzie housed one of Chicago’s most famous steakhouses, it was home to Frank Nitti, the notorious enforcer of the Al Capone gang. Nitti's Supper Club and Speakeasy incorporates real characters from Nitti's life of crime. Join them on a trip back in time to the raucous world of Prohibition-era Chicago! $140

Wandering Tree Estate & Dover Straits
Thursday, September 12, 2024

By special invitation, Community Education Travel has the opportunity to visit one of the most exciting and unusual homes in the Midwest: Wandering Tree Estates! Wandering Tree is the incredible home of Elaine Sikets, internationally recognized artist and designer of model railroads & garden railways. You'll be transported into one of the most uniquely beautiful private event venues in the country. In this 10-acre garden you will experience model rail cars traversing 1500 feet of linear track, bridges, trestles, waterfalls all amongst beautiful flower gardens! Later, enjoy a fabulous lunch at Dover Straits in Mundelein. $128

Autumn Cruisin’ on the Illinois River
Thursday, October 10, 2024

A new unforgettable autumn adventure awaits as we sail on the Sainte Genevieve riverboat, North Central Illinois’ newest attraction. The Sainte Genevieve travels one of the most scenic stretches the river has to offer. The three-hour cruise departs from Starved Rock State Park and travels upriver to historic downtown Ottawa. Sail beneath legendary Starved Rock and through the locks where you will marvel at this impressive engineering feat while learning about river transportation. The relaxing cruise gives you the chance to see the natural beauty along the shoreline as the colors begin to change to their autumnal splendor.  Before the cruise, enjoy a great lunch at the Starved Rock State Park Lodge. $135

“Miracle on 34th Street” at the Fireside Theatre
Friday November 22, 2024

Kick off the holiday season at the Fireside Theatre in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, to see a timeless classic! Based on the beloved Christmas movie, “Miracle On 34th Street” is a big brassy Broadway musical. Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade needs a new Santa. Enter Kris Kringle – a sweet and jolly old man who claims that he is the real Santa Claus. Enjoy lunch in the theater’s lovely restaurant before enjoying the matinee performance in the theatre. You’ll also have time to shop before the show in the popular gift shops. $156

Winterland at Wrigley Field & Christkindlmarket
Thursday, December 5, 2024

Celebrate new and old Chicago holiday traditions. At Wrigley Field, home of the Cubs, step onto the field and see the stadium like you never have before. Decorated spectacularly for Christmas with an ice-skating rink, Christmas trees and other holiday scenes, it’s a sight to behold! Just outside the park, shop for holiday crafts and gifts at Christkindlmarket, an enchanting and inviting holiday village. Our tour begins with a tradition going back 115 years as we visit the former Marshall Field’s State Street store, now Macy’s. Here you have free time to shop and see the store’s traditional Christmas displays including the Great Tree in the Walnut Room and the always popular holiday window displays. For lunch it’s a Ho Ho Holy Cow Christmas at Harry Caray’s flagship restaurant. $137  

Sanfilippo Mansion Christmas Concert
Tuesday, December 10, 2024

Celebrate the holidays at Place de la Musique, the spectacular Sanfilippo Estate in Barrington Hills. Begin with an elegant catered holiday meal in the Estate’s Carousel Building. Dine next to the “Eden Palais'' carousel, the only complete European salon carousel in the world. The spectacular 89-foot wide and 42-foot tall-carved façade has life-size carved horses, giant art glass butterflies and an 89-key gavioli band organ. Following lunch, visit the Sanfilippo residence for a 90-minute Wurlitzer Theatre holiday organ concert performed by one of the finest theater organists in the world. The afternoon concludes with a self-guided exploration of the mansion where docents will explain and demonstrate some of the world’s greatest collections of restored antique music machines. $150

Wisconsin Supper Club Dinner Cruise
Thursday, July 11, 2024

Join CET for a memorable dining experience on a Wisconsin Supper Club Dinner Cruise on Lake Geneva. This delightful evening dinner cruise aboard the Grand Belle features a supper club menu, themed décor to set the mood, and live Sinatra-style entertainment. Travelers will hear the history of the palatial waterfront summer homes of the Wrigley, the Schwinn and the Driehaus families, which led the region to be nicknamed the “Newport of the West.”  After dinner, sit back and relax as musician John Ludy, a Midwestern favorite and former Ditka’s Arlington Trackside regular, entertains with a variety of music genres. $148  

Chicago Sports Museum & Wrigley Field Tour
Thursday, August 8, 2024

Chicago sports fans–this tour is for you! We will visit the Chicago Sports Museum and tour the friendly confines of Wrigley Field on the anniversary of its first night game on 8/8/88.  At the interactive museum, located in Water Tower Place, you will find high tech interactive experiences with an array of treasures and artifacts celebrating all Chicago professional sports teams including Chicago’s largest collection of 2016 Cubs World Series memorabilia. Lunch is included at the adjacent Harry Caray’s 7th Inning Stretch restaurant. At Wrigley Field, experience the beauty, charm and historic features on a guide tour. Visit the press box, visitor’s team clubhouse, and step out onto the field to view the Cubs dugout! $127

Rosewood of Delavan: Lunch & Cabaret
Thursday, August 29, 2024

Enjoy summertime fun as we head to one of Southern Wisconsin’s most popular event destinations, Rosewood. Experience unique "farm to table" cuisine as their chef, prepares lunch at chef attended stations featuring such items as Carved Crusted Sirloin and Pork Loin. Other stations include pastas, vegetables, salads and a delicious dessert table. Following lunch, step into Rosewood’s state-of-the-art theater for a cabaret-style show performed by the famous local duo Mark and Gretch Hladish.  You can almost feel the island breezes as you watch their musical show, “Yacht Rock.” Set sail with Mark and Gretch as they perform classic songs by Bobby Darin, the Beach Boys, Jimmy Buffet, The Drifters, and summer selections from the musicals “Porgy and Bess” and “Grease.” $144

Flyover Chicago & Museum of Illusions
Wednesday, October 2, 2024  

A fun day is in store at two of Chicago’s newest attractions, Flyover Chicago and the Museum of Illusions. Located at Navy Pier, Flyover Chicago captures your imagination and engages your senses as you virtually soar over, under, around and through the city’s most epic places in a 360-degree theater experience. Afterwards, enjoy a taste of the islands at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville Grill with its backdrop of Lake Michigan.  At the Museum of Illusions get ready to be mesmerized as you enter a world where nothing is ever quite as it seems. Immerse yourself in the illusion rooms where you will grow, shrink, defy gravity, walk on walls as you engage with uniquely designed installations that will completely baffle your brain. $132

"Mystery at the Mansion!" Death of a Gangster: A 1920s Mafia Marriage Murder Mystery Luncheon
Wednesday October 30 , 2024

Lucky you! You’ve been invited to the Dunn Speakeasy at the Jacob Henry Mansion in Joliet for the wedding of the year! In this “married to the mob” event, you’ll never know whom to trust. With the two families merging, someone is bound to lose power, which means someone else will lose their life. Solve this case with your fellow detectives. If you would like you can dress up for this crime family wedding: Flapper dresses, pinstriped suits and fedoras are all appropriate. The mansion, built in 1873 on Joliet’s Silk-Stocking Row by railroad magnate Jacob Henry, is known for its beauty and old Victorian charm and is where you will enjoy a great lunch during the event. $123

Illumination & White Fence Farm
Tuesday December 3, 2024

After a late afternoon departure, it's off to dinner at the landmark White Fence Farm Restaurant and its proclaimed "World's Greatest Chicken.” Beautifully decorated for the holidays, the restaurant has served travelers on historic U.S. Route 66 since 1926. The famous chicken is pressure cooked thoroughly before being flash fried for only three minutes and delivered immediately to your table, along with the restaurant’s famous sides. A special holiday treat follows at Morton Arboretum’s “Illumination: Tree Lights at the Arboretum."  Illumination is a spectacular holiday lights display using amazing new technology. Walk along a paved path to see the trees glowing with dazzling LED lights. $131
Illumination requires walking along a relatively level outdoor pathway about ¾ to 1 mile in length.)

Milwaukee’s Spirit of Christmas Past & Carnival of Lights
December 6, 2024

Take a step back to the days of Christmas past in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  A local guide will lead a narrated tour featuring some of the area’s iconic holiday sights. Visit the historic and spiritual St. Josaphat Basilica, completed in 1901. At the Mitchell Park Conservatory, a trio of  beehive-shaped glass domes are bedecked with hundreds of colorful poinsettias, snow white mums and brightly decorated pines for the annual Holiday Floral Show. Christmas at the Pabst Mansion is a true experience of Christmases past! Built in 1892 by beer baron Frederick Pabst, the mansion is elegantly decorated for the holidays. Lunch is a great holiday meal at the Steakout Supper Club in Greendale . Stop in Caledonia, Wisconsin, to see the drive-through “Carnival of Lights”--billed as the biggest and brightest light show in the Midwest. $149