Lombard: Lilacs, Water and Local History

Lombard offers several distinct attractions for a stay: Lilacia Park, with its gardens and festival tradition; water activities at Paradise Bay Water Park; historic sites; and regional trails near downtown. If you are looking for a hotel in Lombard, you can plan your trip around whichever of these themes you want to focus on. A garden visit, water activities, local history, and getting around on foot or by bike each appeal to different interests.

Gardens and Festival Tradition

Lilacia Park combines a distinctive collection of plants with a variety of garden features. It is home to 700 fragrant lilac trees; each spring, the park also displays 35,000 tulip blooms. The grounds include a butterfly garden, a pond, and a 0.6-mile walking path. You can explore the park from different perspectives: focusing on the blooms, the butterfly garden and pond, or the path through the grounds.

Lilacia Park is also significant to the history of horticulture. Its contribution to American horticultural history earned it a listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Since 1930, the park has also been the established venue for the annual Lilac Time Festival. The tulip blooms are associated with spring; if you want to plan your trip around the festival, check the specific event dates.

Water Activities at Paradise Bay Water Park

Paradise Bay Water Park offers a different focus. Its facilities include a leisure pool with a zero-depth entry, water slides, and a diving pool, as well as an eight-lane swimming pool. Swimming lessons and water aerobics classes are also available. The offerings therefore include a variety of pools as well as lessons and exercise classes.

When choosing among the water activities, note the intended audience for Turtle Cove: this pool has a zero-depth entry and is intended for toddlers and families with children under 48 inches tall. The other pools, slides, and classes offer different options for planning your day. This lets you distinguish between swimming, sliding, lessons, and Turtle Cove, which is specifically intended for its stated audience, rather than treating all the offerings as the same experience.

Historic Sites and Architecture

The Sheldon Peck Homestead is the oldest house in Lombard. The National Park Service recognizes it as part of the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. The Victorian Cottage offers a different historical perspective: on a tour there, visitors learn what Lombard looked like around the turn of the 20th century. The history of a single home and a tour about the town’s appearance at the time thus offer two distinct ways to explore Lombard’s past.

The Lombard Historical Museum is open to the public and operated by the Lombard Historical Society. The Carriage House features a permanent exhibition on Lombard’s history and also has a gift shop. Those interested in architecture can also visit the Maple Street Chapel, which has American Gothic board-and-batten siding and grisaille stained-glass windows. The museum, exhibition, tour, and architectural features of the chapel each highlight a different aspect of local history.

Regional Trails Near Downtown

Two major regional trails run through Lombard near downtown and are suitable for walking and cycling. If you want to include physical activity as a distinct part of your stay, you can choose between the two activities mentioned: a walk or a bike ride. The trails add another way to experience Lombard, complementing its gardens, water activities, and history.

Discover more destinations: Wood Dale, Glendale Heights, Wheaton, Westmont, Bensenville, Glen Ellyn, Carol Stream, Elmhurst

For the main travel overview: Dupage.