What to Do in St. Louis

St. Louis makes a good Midwest weekend. From Chicago it's a short flight, or about five hours on Amtrak's Lincoln Service, which is how we'd go. See getting between St. Louis and Chicago for the options. You can see a lot of the city in 36 hours, but three or four days lets you slow down. A surprising amount of the best stuff is free.

The Gateway Arch

The Arch is 630 feet tall, the tallest arch in the world, and it was finished in the 1960s on the riverfront as a monument to westward expansion (Wikipedia). The land around it became Gateway Arch National Park in 2018, the smallest national park in the country. The old version of this page sent you to the Westward Expansion museum under the Arch. That museum was rebuilt, and the new Museum at the Gateway Arch opened in July 2018. It still covers westward expansion and how the Arch was built, now told from a St. Louis point of view. The park and the museum are free.

The Tram Ride to the Top is what costs money, and it's the reason to come. You ride up in a small five-seat pod, and at the top you get up to 10 minutes at the little windows, with views of up to 30 miles on a clear day. The whole thing takes 45 to 60 minutes, including exhibits while you wait to board. Same-day tickets aren't guaranteed, so buy ahead, and leave time for security, which can take 15 minutes when it's busy. It's not a ride for anyone who hates tight spaces or heights. See activity pricing for tickets and the combos with the riverboat.

Across the park, the Old Courthouse is where the Dred Scott case began.

A cruise on the Mississippi

Right below the Arch, the Gateway Arch Riverboats leave from the old cobblestone levee. The Tom Sawyer, a replica 19th-century paddlewheeler, does a one-hour narrated riverfront cruise, and there's a two-hour skyline dinner cruise in the evening, plus brunch and blues cruises. The one-hour cruise is the one to do if you're short on time, and you can book it as a combo with the tram.

The Cathedral Basilica

The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis, 4431 Lindell Blvd., has what's described as the largest mosaic collection in the world. There are 41.5 million pieces of glass in more than 7,000 colors, covering 83,000 square feet. It took from 1912 to 1988 to finish (Wikipedia). Some of the mosaics in the side chapels are by Tiffany Studios. The cathedral is open 7am to 5pm daily, so you can come for Mass or just to look, as long as you're quiet during services.

Forest Park

If you only have one day, spend a lot of it in Forest Park. It covers 1,326 acres, and it hosted the 1904 World's Fair and the 1904 Olympics. Several of the city's best attractions are inside it, and the two biggest are free.

The Saint Louis Art Museum is in the park, and admission is free every day. It's open 10am to 5pm Tuesday through Sunday, and until 9pm on Friday, when the main ticketed exhibitions are free too. It's closed Mondays. The collection runs from ancient art to contemporary work from around the world, and you could easily spend a morning in it.

The Saint Louis Zoo is also free. Some extras cost money, and the zoo sells an Adventure Pass that bundles them. The Missouri History Museum, the Saint Louis Science Center and the Muny theater are in the park too.

Missouri Botanical Garden and Citygarden

The Missouri Botanical Garden was founded in 1859. It's one of the oldest botanical gardens in continuous operation in the country, not the oldest as we said before, and it's a National Historic Landmark. Its 79 acres include a Japanese garden and the Climatron, a geodesic-dome rainforest greenhouse that opened in 1960. Admission is $16 for anyone 13 and up, and less for St. Louis city and county residents.

Downtown, Citygarden takes up two blocks between Eighth and Tenth streets, from Market to Chestnut. It opened in 2009, with sculpture, rain gardens, a long pool with a waterfall and a spray plaza with 102 fountains that kids run through (Wikipedia). It's free and open on all sides, so it's an easy stop on the walk to or from the Arch.

City Museum

City Museum, 750 N. 16th St., is the place we'd send anyone to St. Louis first, kids or not. Artist Bob Cassilly and his crew turned the old International Shoe Company warehouse into a giant climbable sculpture that opened in 1997. It's four floors of caves, tunnels and more than 30 slides, many built into the old spiral chutes the shoe company used to move boxes between floors. Outside is MonstroCity, a climbing sculpture of salvaged parts, with two airplane fuselages, castles, bridges and fire engines. The rooftop has slides, fountains, a Ferris wheel, an old bus and a giant praying mantis. It's an $8 add-on and open nearly year-round, weather permitting.

Daily tickets start at $20 if you buy online. We'd wear long pants and closed shoes, since you'll be crawling through metal. The old version of this page mentioned a Monster Slide. The big ones now are the multistory spiral slides, and one runs ten stories from the roof down to the caves (Wikipedia).

Soulard Farmers Market

Soulard Farmers Market, 730 Carroll St., dates to 1779 and claims to be the oldest public market west of the Mississippi (Wikipedia). The city runs it. It's open 8am to 5pm Wednesday through Saturday, but Saturday is the day to go, since that's when every vendor is there. On a Wednesday or Thursday only about one in ten stalls is open. Come hungry. Besides produce, meat and baked goods, there are stands selling things to eat on the spot. Afterward, take a walk around the Soulard neighborhood.

Beer

St. Louis is a beer town, and the Anheuser-Busch Brewery, 1200 Lynch St., is the big one. Tours run from 11am to 4pm Sunday through Friday and from 10am on Saturday. You'll see the Clydesdales and taste beer straight from the finishing cellars, and the Biergarten is open while you wait. The old version of this page said the tour was free. A range of tours is on offer now, so check the site for current prices.

For craft beer, Schlafly is the city's original craft brewery. Its Tap Room is at 2100 Locust St., downtown west of the Arch, and Bottleworks is out in Maplewood. The Tap Room isn't far from City Museum, so it's a good lunch stop after a morning of climbing. If beer is why you travel, our page on breweries and brewpubs in Chicago covers the other end of the trip.

Photos by Ben Spark, Mike Miley