Or rather tell me what you think has to be seen done and eaten in St Louis.
I am planning to hit St Genievieve on the way there and go to the Crown Ridge Tiger reserve unless someone tells me it is a waste of time and or money.
City Museum and the Science Museum have been recommended to me. I have been told there is a good art museum but don’t know the name
I also want to go to the Soulard Farmers market and the Fountain on Locust and Beale on Broadway ? as I am a fan of Kim Massie. I think the Fountain is the only dining destination there
I like food, shopping music museums… I will be there Thursday Friday and then will drive back through on Sunday. Saturday will be in Warrington.
If you like music museums (or did you just omit a comma?), then check out the Scott Joplin House, which I found pretty cool. Another good museum in St. Louis is the bowling museum, near the stadium.
I also like to wander around old cemeteries, and St. Louis has a nice one where Dred Scott and General Sherman are buried.
And definitely go up in the Arch if you never have before. It’s weird but worth it.
Did you mean Warrenton? Asking so you don’t end up someplace you don’t want to be.
Also I don’t think the bowling HoF is there downtown anymore.
Forest Park has many attractions, the Art Museum, Zoo, History museum, Science Center, and Jewel Box. There are some great Italian restaurants just a 5 minute drive from downtown in a place call “The Hill”. The farmers market is hit or miss, but the Soulard neighbor has some great places to grab a bite. The City Museum is good in the evening wheb there are less kids.
There’s also the Missouri Botanical Garden (not free) and the zoo (free! and awesome).
As far as food, check out South Grand- there are some good restaurants down there. Pho Grand, King & I, and Lemongrass are various sorts of Asian (I think it’s Vietnamese, Thai, Vietnamese). Avoid the Fountain on weekend nights. Go for Thursday (or Sunday, if you can’t do Thursday. But not Friday or Saturday). It’s right by the Fox and Shrek is playing there now, so it’s busy as helllllll on weekends, plus they just won the best bathroom in America, so they’re even busier. Blueberry Hill is supposed to be good and Fitz’s is good. I’ve heard good things about Schlafly’s bottleworks. If you like fried chicken (I don’t), Hodak’s is supposed to be good.
For shopping, try the U City Loop (Blueberry Hill and Fitz’s are also there). Union Station is semi-interesting. It’s kind of tourist-mall-tacular in some ways and has some food and some guys who sing and make fudge and stuff like a guy drawing caricatures.
For music… Blueberry Hill again (I must admit, though, I’ve never been there. Just heard about it). There’s Powell Hall if you want to buy tickets and see a classical music concert and the whole shebang. The Old Rock House has concerts all the time and food and places you can sit where you’re not in the omgconcert crowd.
As for museums, just go to Forest Park and take your pick. There’s the art museum, the history museum, the zoo, and the science center- all free. City Museum is great fun.
I’d say the three “don’t miss” attractions in St. Louis are:
The City Museum
The Botanical Garden
The Gateway Arch.
All three are Unique and World Class.
Attraction Number Four is the Magic House (in the suburb of Kirkwood.)
To get the Arch experience you need to walk around under it . Just driving by won’t cut it. The underground museum is fine, but really just another fine museum.
The City Museum and Botanical Garden can easily take up 3 hours each. Wear comfortable clothes (that you don’t mind getting dusty) to the City Museum.
The Magic House is a children’s science museum that’s also fun for grown-ups.
Two St. Louis Eating Institutions are Ted Drewes Custard and the Crown Candy Kitchen.
Ted Drewes is just a drive up custard stand, but it’s yummy and in the evenings the lines are 10 deep (but you still get served in less than 10 minutes.)
Crown Candy Kitchen is a authentic old-time candy maker/malt shop/snack counter in a desolate area of downtown. Very cute. Go in the daytime.
That last bit bears repeating. Crown Candy is in an area of town that’s not entirely safe. However, there just was a grand opening of a little walking mall on the next block over. Not sure if there are any stores open yet, but it’s a little rehab oasis (and spark of hope) in that area. Anyway, the malts are yummy and the BLT has LOTS of bacon. Too much for my aging gut – but cool in an over-the-top, down-home decadent sort of way.
Another “don’t miss” attraction is the Brewery tour (technically it’s the InBev A-B brewery, but don’t say that to a St. Louisan.)
As for restaurants, I’d recommend Rigazzi’s on the Hill. It’s maybe not the absolute best, but it’s friendly, casual, the food is generally excellent and the frozen fishbowl beers are legendary.
And if you’ve never had “St. Louis style pizza” you need to go to Imo’s. Fair warning – their pizza is very polarizing. You’ll either love it or hate it.
Fourthing (I think) the zoo. My boyfriend is from Missouri and any time I raise the desire to go see the baby tigers at Point Defiance Zoo, he agrees they’re cute but then starts griping it’s not free and bragging about how much better the St. Louis zoo is.
(Which is true, but Point Defiance is less than two hours away and Missouri isn’t even that close via airplane.)
If you’re near Soulard, you can check out some of the beautiful Victorian houses at Lafayette Square. There are also some wonderful restaurants in that area, and the Lemp Mansion, if you’re into haunted houses (it’s a good time of year to do it, with Halloween approaching and all). You can also stay there overnight or do a dinner theater.
If you go to Lemp, you’ll be near Frazier’s Traveling Brown Bag, which is a cute, funky little restaurant near the mansion, though the mansion also has a restaurant.
If you happen upon the Central West End and feel like dancing, there’s a salsa club there called Vivathat’s lots of fun. There are also lots of restaurants in that area, though the CWE caters largely to college students food-wise.
