What to Do In St. Louis
Are you planning an upcoming visit to St. Louis and wondering what to do? Do you have family or friends from out of town coming in for a visit and you are wondering how to entertain them? Are you mentoring a Little Brother or Little Sister and are looking for ideas on where to try new adventures? Are you wondering where you can take your family on a budget? Are you new in town? Or are you just looking for new ideas to add something interesting to your life? If you answered YES to any of these questions, then allow me to help you Discover St. Louis!
Free Stuff To Do in St. Louis
* = Kid Friendly activity
- Budweiser Brewery Tour- Tour the brewery, get free beer, see the Clydesdales www.budweisertours.com
- Casino Boats- Gamble, eat, see concerts, shop www.ameristarcasinos.com, www.casinoqueen.com, www.harrahs.com, www.lumiereplace.com, www.presidentcasino.com/stlouis
- *St. Louis Science center & Planetarium Great for kids and families. www.slsc.org
- *Forest Park –Gigantic park with picnic areas, walking trails, and also contains many other free museums and the zoo. Stuff for all ages. www.stlouis.missouri.org/citygov/parks/forestpark
- St. Louis Art Museum www.slam.org
- *Missouri History Museum www.mohistory.org
- Holocaust Museum www.hmlc.org
- *Big Foot Monster Truck Museum- See Big Foot up close and archival footage. Great for kids of all ages. http://www.bigfoot4x4.com/news06.html
- Third Degree Glass Factory- watch blown glass being made and make your own www.stlglass.com
- *The Muny Theatre at Forest Park(free seats in back)- Professional Off-Broadway productions www.muny.org
- The Loop- St. Louis’ “cool” district with shops, theatres, and restaurants along with the St. Louis Walk of Fame www.Visittheloop.com
- Pevely flea market www.pflea.com
- Soulard Farmers Market www.soulardmarket.com
- *St. Louis Union Station- Shopping & dining www.stlouisunionstation.com
- *Outlets malls, regular malls- Westfield shopping Centers, The St. Louis Mills, & the Galleria
- *Cahokia Mounds – Ancient Indian Burial Mound & museum www.cahokiamounds.com
- *The St. Louis Zoo An enormous zoo with a great selection of unique critters www.stlzoo.org
- *Wild Bird Sanctuary www.worldbirdsanctuary.org
- *Purina Farms- See live animals shows www.purinafarms.com
- *Loan Elk Park- See Elk, Buffalo, Deer, ducks, and turtles in the own habitat www.stlouisco.com/parks/LoneElk.html
- *Pin Oak Farms -Weekends in October you can pick your own pumpkins right off the vine. Hayrides, 5-acre corn maze, straw-bale maze, great fall photo backdrops, home-made fall treats. http://www.pinoakfarms.com
- *Creve Coeur Lake & Memorial Park- Walking trails, lake, archery, golf, volleyball, picnic areas http://www.marylandheights.com/index.asp?nid=215
- Calvary & Bellfountaine Cemetery- see where Dred Scott is buried
- Mural mile- See amazing graffiti art along a mile long flood wall
- *Castlewood State Park- Take a nature hike, lay on the beach, or go for a swim in the river
- If you are feeling adventurous you can take an "urban decay" tour of St. Louis, noticing the history of the old city while perhaps sparking a lively discussion about politics, architecture, and art.
- Cherokee Street Antiques -This old neighborhood has enjoyed a recent revival with fabulous and interesting stores popping up all over. Window shop, sell, or buy to your hearts content.
- *USS Inaugural ship wreckage on the Riverfront south of the Macarthur Bridge
http://www.builtstlouis.net/riverfront/riverfront06.html - *Sledding on Art Hill is a popular winter activity, just grab your sled and go
- Prestige Outlet Malls in Chesterfield http://www.taubmanprestigeoutlets.com/
- Ferguson Protests- If you are interested in learning about the Riots in Ferguson and want to see more about what happened there with the protests and results of the riots, you may want to head down West Florissant Ave is Ferguson. A memorial is setup on Canfield St at the site of the Michael Brown's Death.
$2 - $10 Stuff
- *The Butterfly House- Walk through & see hundreds of butterflies www.butterflyhouse.org
- *Shaw Nature Reserve www.mobot.org/MOBOT/naturereserve/
- *Skyview Drive-In, Belleville IL http://www.skyview-drive-in.com/index.asp
- *Laumeier Sculpture Park www.laumeier.org
- *The Botanical Gardens- Walk through the sculpted greenery and see the sculpture exhibits www.mobot.org
- *Meramec Caverns- One of the most popular destinations in the area with lots of options for activities like camping, Canoe & Float trips, Cavern tours, zip lining, gold panning, riverboat cruises, or just get some ice cream and visit the gift shop in the cave entrance www.americascave.com
- Scott Joplin House- See where Scott Joplin lived, play a player piano, see the museum www.mostateparks.com/scottjoplin.htm
- *The Griot Museum of Black History has fascinating exhibits with a wealth if information in video, material, audio, and reading formats. You can get the experience of what it was like to be crammed in the space of a slave ship.
http://www.thegriotmuseum.com/index.html - Museum of Transportation www.museumoftransport.org
- Eugene Fieldhouse & St. Louis Toy Museum www.eugenefieldhouse.org
- Miniature Museum of Greater St. Louis www. miniaturemuseum.org
- *Laclede’s Landing Wax Museum http://www.stlwaxmuseum.com/
- Contemporary Art Museum www.contemporarystl.org
- *The Magic House Children’s Museum is a favorite interactive museum for elementary age kids. www.magichouse.org
- *City Museum & World Aquarium- Interactive art museum where you can climb up inside the art and go down giant slides, eat ice cream and pizza, see a magic show, create art projects with free materials in Art City, and see animals. This has fun stuff for all ages. www.citymuseum.org
- *Steinberg Ice Skating Rink stlouis.missouri.org/citygov/parks/forestpark/steinberg
- Tivoli Movie Theater in the loop is unique and often shows retro midnight movies and hosts special events like interviews with celebrities, film festivals, and hosts the Rocky Horror Picture Show weekend events. www.landmarktheatres.com/market/St.Louis/TivoliTheatre.htm
- Moolah Movie Theatre & Bowling Alley is an especially fun place to see a movie while seated on leather couches and love seats, or from a balcony. Check out the special cult TV show viewing events in their TV lounge http://www.stlouiscinemas.com/moolah/
- The Pink Galleon- Video games, darts, pool, air hockey http://pinkgalleon.com/
- Pin-up Bowl- Retro bowling and lounge area with dimly lit ambiance http://www.pinupbowl.com/
- Clubs: Pepper Lounge, Viva, Club Buca, The Way Out Lounge
- Live Music Bars: The Way Out Club, Fubar, Off Broabway, Blueberry Hill, Firebird
- Popular Bars: Automic Cowboy, Famous Bar, The Royale, Seamus McDaniels, Fortune Teller Bar, Bar 360, Absoluti Goosed
- Popular Gay Venues: JJ's, Rehab, Just John's, Bastille, Muyer's Grove, Attitude's, Mocabe's, Lily's Social Club
- Lemp Brewery Salvage Yard - If you are looking to do some interesting art pieces or rehab work, this is a great place to shop for recycled materials on the cheap. The owner is super nice and very helpful.
$11 - $20 StufF
- *The Endangered Wolf Center- Wild wolf Sanctuary and research center in Eureka, Missouri. You can take guided tours of the facility, learn about the wolves, or pay extra for enrichment activities to feed the wolves. They also have evening campfire activities for wolf howls http://www.endangeredwolfcenter.org/
- *The Arch- You can ride up inside it and view the city from the top of the Arch. There’s a museum inside the arch too. www.gatewayarch.com
- *Tom Sawyer or Becky Thatcher Paddle Boat Rides or Steam Boat Cruise on Mississippi www.gatewayarch.com
- *Carriage Rides at Laclede’s Landing
- *The Painting Paw- Paint your own pottery or take classes in pottery or jewelry making
http://www.paintingpaw.com/ - Painting with a Twist- Drink Wine and learn to Paint like a pro http://paintingwithatwist.com/crevecoeur
- *Painted Zebra -Paint your own pottery or take classes in pottery or jewelry making www.paintedzebra.com
- *Glazed and Confused -Paint your own pottery or take classes in pottery or jewelry making http://glazed-confused.com/
- *Upper Limits Indoor Rock Climbing www.upperlimits.com
- Mt. Pleasant & Stonehill Winery- Local Vineyards/Winetasting www.mountpleasant.com
- *Animal Paradise -Strafford, MO -Plan a safari adventure right here in Missouri. Located near Springfield, this 288-acre drive-through park features 70 different species of animals, most of which roam freely. Take the nine-mile drive through the natural landscape for a rare opportunity to get up close and personal with these wild animals and rare birds from around the world in the comfort of your car or aboard an open-air bus. Bags of feed are available at the entrance, and the animals will come right up to your window for food. Perhaps the trickiest part – and the most fun – is keeping their heads out of your vehicle. For more information, call (888) 570-9898 or visit http://www.goanimalparadise.com/Home_Page.html
- *Grant’s Farm is a popular destination to feed and pet animals on what was the estate of President Grant www.grantsfarm.com
- American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog www.akc.org/affiliates/museum/aboutmuseum.cfm
- *Riverside Reptile Ranch- See tigers, a huge lion, turtles, birds, snakes, and alligators up close. You can hold some of the creatures. http://www.geocities.com/suzieq_artworks/RiverSideReptileRanch.html
- *Ghostride Tours- Tour the haunted sites in saint louis www.ghostridetours.com
- *Skyzone trampoline jump- Huge room of floor to wall trampolines to jump on www.skyzonesports.com
- *Meramec Challenge Paintball Park- Paintball & LaserTag http://www.meramecchallengepaintball.com/
- *Maryland Heights Aquaport waterpark- Outdoor waterpark with slides, free for Maryland Heights residents www.marylandheights.com
- *Raging Rivers Water Park www.ragingrivers.com
- Bonne Terre Mine - National Geographic ranked it among America's top 100 adventures. Once one of the largest mines in the world, it was abandoned in the 1960's, only to fill up with groundwater. Its current owners claim the resulting billion-gallon subterranean lake is the world's largest. Visit the mine for a tour by boat or by foot, or if you're a certified diver (or want to become one), you can explore the lake to its depths, following up to 24 dive trails. Bonne Terre is about one hour south of St. Louis. http://stlouis.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=stlouis&cdn=citiestowns&tm=114&gps=100_10_1276_619&f=10&su=p529.6.336.ip_&tt=3&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//www.2dive.com/btm.htm
Endangered Wold Center Guided Tour starts inside a WWII Bunker
$21- $50 Stuff
- St. Louis Symphony Orchestra www.slso.org
- Lemp Mansion Haunted House & Mystery Dinner Theatre Have dinner at the legendary haunted mansion and former brewery, partake in a mystery dinner theatre, or if you are brave you can even rent a room for the night and see for yourself if the legend of the hauntings are true. www.lempmansion.com
- Pinot's Palette- Paint and drink wine for the evening during these classes where canvases are provided. http://www.pinotspalette.com/Chesterfield
- Haunted Bissell Mansion Mystery Dinner Theater www.bissellmansiontheatre.com
- *Gateway AirTours- helicopter tours over the riverfront www.gatewayarch.com
- *Doublekey Treasure Hunts- With this real-life adventure, you and your kids will visit various St. Louis locations to find answers to your treasure hunt clues. These complete packages include everything you need - even real gold dust as the treasure - to unlock a full summer of fun your kids will never forget. Or, if you are pressed for time we also offer one-day treasure hunt packages as well. www.doublekeytreasurehunts.com
- *Six Flags Water & Theme Park www.sixflags.com
- *New Busch Stadium/Sporting events (Hockey & Baseball are huge here) See a Cardinals game or a Blues Game. Check out Ball Park Village around the area as well.
- Concert venues: Fox Theatre www.fabulousfox.com, Pagaent www.thepageant.com, Sheldon www.sheldonconcerthall.org, Harrah’s harrahs.com/casinos/harrahs-stlouis/casino-entertainment/index.html, Verizon Wireless Amphitheater www.livenation.com/venue/getVenue/venueId/2240, UMSL’s Touhill Theatre www.touhill.org/home.php, Repertory Theatre www.repstl.org, Orpheum Theatre www.robertsorpheum.com, Scottrade Center www.scottradecenter.net, Savvis Center
$51 +
- *Ape Sanctuary – See famous retired chimps in private guided tours or have them come to your house www.chimpparty.com
ChimpParty visit from the Ape Sanctuary