Things to do in St. Louis???

[Mommy2Jameson]

You have to take your boys to the Magic House! They will LOVE it! The zoo is great too! My son is 5, and he loved the City Museum!

Also, we stayed at the Drury at Forest Park, and it was great for kids! Indoor/outdoor pool, free food from 5-7(chicken strips/hot dogs/mac and cheese) and free drinks for mom and dad! And there was a St.Louis Attraction book in the hotel room with a free pass to the Magic house!

 

[Mom2Ben02]

I LOVE St. Louis! I am hoping we can make it for a trip this summer. It is a very, very cheap trip for us.

*Grant's Farm - love it there! Free entry, just pay for parking. And the adults get 2 free drinks
*Magic House - Super fun. We get in free with our museum pass from home.
*Zoo - great zoo, free to get in. You pay for certain things, like the children's zoo, but they are free for (I think) the first hour of the day. There is a pay lot, but free parking on the street.
*Fitz's is YUMMY and reasonable
*One thing no one mentioned - Crown Candy. GREAT food, very sketchy area.

 

[defendthehill]

We just did St. Louis over the fourth of July. My kids are a little older 9,7,and 5. We absolutely LOVED St. Louis. Here is what we did:

Hotel-Hampton Inn at the Gateway Arch. Walking distance to The Arch....and Laclede Landing (night life). We went to Laclede for lunch one day but that is all.

St. Louis Zoo: Free Parking on the street, free to get in. Excellent zoo. We only explored for a few hours the day we arrived.

Visited The Hill for dinner: This is the Little Italy section of St. Louis. Had dinner at Charlie Gitto's.....although a little expensive the food and experience was super!!

The Arch: We went up early, bought tickets online before our trip. 8:30 tram to the top. Go early. The worst part was the security line. When we left the Arch about 9:30 I would guess that people were waiting 45 minutes just to get through security. 10 bucks for adults and 5 for kids.

Grant's Farm. An absolute must do especially with your young kids. $11 to park I believe the rest is free (except feeding the goats or riding the carousel.) A great place to walk around a see animals. Very wooded as well on a hot day!

City Museum: Your 2 year old may be a bit young for this but we did have a three year old with our party and she enjoyed the City Museum. This climbing, crawling, exploring place is wonderful!!! 12 bucks a head for 3 and up.

Carriage Ride around St. Louis: Prices on rides are similar to Indy and I thought very reasonable. 30 bucks for 15-20 minute ride.

Old Courthouse: Adults loved it and older kids thought it was neat. Free

Riverboat cruise: we had one scheduled but it was canceled due to the river being too high. Could walk to the dock would have had to swim it

We spent some time at the Fourth Fair at the arch and played in the Science Center tent and the Magic House tent. Probably would have gone to the Magic House if it were not for the Fair.

St. Louis was a great family get-a-way!!!!!!! Have fun!!

 

[gigi1976]

I tend to side with the majority and think your kids may be too young for city museum, but if you go make sure to wear longer shorts/capris and definitely tennis shoes, no flip flops! I think the magic house is better for yours.

 

[Disneycrazymom]

City Museum is dangerous. Lots of accidents there. I know one personally. She needed surgery after a trip down the big slide. My kids do not go there.

Everything else is good! The Muny, Zoo, Science Center, Cards game, Magic House, Trailhead, The Hill. Have fun!

 

[SarahKate]

I LOVE St. Louis! I am hoping we can make it for a trip this summer. It is a very, very cheap trip for us.

*Grant's Farm - love it there! Free entry, just pay for parking. And the adults get 2 free drinks
*Magic House - Super fun. We get in free with our museum pass from home.
*Zoo - great zoo, free to get in. You pay for certain things, like the children's zoo, but they are free for (I think) the first hour of the day. There is a pay lot, but free parking on the street.
*Fitz's is YUMMY and reasonable
*One thing no one mentioned - Crown Candy. GREAT food, very sketchy area.

We love Crown too, and it's in my article that I shared the link to in a previous post! The area seems to be getting better - you can tell that some effort has been put into it. But when you get more than a block or so away, it's just depressing how run down it is. So far we haven't felt to unsafe NOT to go - there are always police officers there eating. It's a great little gem. We love the off the beaten track kinds of places.

Ted Drewes is another great place to go, especially on a hot day. Yum!!

 

[Familycircus]

As previously stated, if you are planning to go the the Arch, buy your tickets ahead of time or get there early. They only sell a certain number of tickets per day. We arrived 3:30pm on a Saturday and the guy in front of me in line got the last tickets. Also, don't drag a lot of stuff with you, as you have to go through security just like the airport so plan for that.

 

[#1hoosierfan]

Thank you sooo much for all of the great information. I didn't know that we could purchase our tickets to the Arch ahead of time, so I will definitely do that.

SarahKate - Thanks for the link. What an awesome reference.

I decided to take a chance and pricelined a 4 star hotel. I ended up with the Hilton Downtown for $60 a night.

I think we will either go to the zoo or Grant's Farm and the Magic House this time. We are only 4 hours from St. Louis, so maybe we can hit City Museum in a few years.

I think we will definitely hit Schafly's and an Italian restaurant.

Again, thanks for all of the responses!!!!

 

[SarahKate]

One thing I wanted to suggest is choosing between Grant's Farm and the Zoo.

The zoo is absolutely HUGE. It's a wonderful zoo but you would need to spend a good part of a day there.

Grant's Farm is smaller and more "intimate." It's a place you can get to in a 1/2 day easily.

So if you're not crazy about the idea of tons of walking or you want a place you can get through in a shorter amount of time, definitely consider Grant's Farm.

They're both wonderful places in different ways.

Also, others have mentioned Magic House and that's a GREAT place for your ages. Try to get there right when they open because they get busy quickly! They just underwent a huge expansion and it's just wonderful. If you go back to that link I shared earlier, there's a page w/ coupons and there's a buy one get one free coupon (it's through Drury's website - you don't have to stay @ a Drury to use the coupons).

Have fun and be sure to post a trip report!!!!

 

[ajh88]

You've gotten a lot of great tips....have fun!

I was just going to throw in votes for Fitz's and/or The Tap Room (Schlafly's downtown pub and microbrewery - on Locust). Fitz's would be a little more out of the way (Delmar Loop area), so the Tap Room might be closer to your neck of the woods for this trip. If you go, you must try the Sticky Toffee Pudding dessert...absolutely delicious!

I also think Crown Candy Kitchen is fun and funky.

 

[ICF]

Cobblestone streets with restaurants sounds like Main St in St Charles, about 30-40 minutes west of downtown. And there is a great microbrewery there called Trailhead.

My guess is that they are talking about Lacleeds Landing....which has changed a good amount in the last 12 years, and may not be overly kid friendly these days at night.

We also love the City Museum and had a ton of fun there!