Much to do in St. Louis

When I first investigated St. Louis prior to visiting the first time, I was amazed at all there was to do in this seemingly quiet town. I sent away for a visitors guide from the St. Louis Visitors Bureau and received it within a few weeks. Not only did this describe many of the sites for us in detail, but there were also coupons included along with hotel specials.

There are so many things to do and see while visiting St. Louis, we have yet to have a chance to do them all. Our favorites are The Science Center and The St. Louis Zoo. What''s especially fantastic about this town is that a lot of the attractions are free, yes, FREE! If they''re not free, the fees are fairly small. Most parking at the attractions are free also, or just a few dollars. So for families wanting to stay on a budget while being entertained and educated, St. Louis is the place for you!

St. Louis also offers an attraction for couples or singles - riverboat casinos. Try the Casino Queen or the President Casino at the riverfront. If you''re staying downtown, each offer free shuttles.

Quick Tips:

Make sure to order your free visitors guide from the visitors bureau. You can get it on-line at st-louis-cvc.com or Explore St. Louis. Also when selecting an area hotel, I suggest staying directly downtown near the river. It''s a beautiful city and it''s not far to the outlying attractions plus you can utilize the free shuttles to the casinos.

Best Way To Get Around:

If you stay downtown, there are a few things you can walk to (The Arch, riverboat casinos) but in order to enjoy all the city has to offer and if you plan on siteseeing, you will need a car.

St. Louis does offer the MetroLink as a separate choice. The subway goes from the airport, by Busch Stadium, through the University of Missouri campus and onto downtown and the riverfront. This is an economical choice for getting around.

When searching for a hotel to stay at while in St. Louis, getting one with an indoor pool was a must so the kids could enjoy swimming in the evening. When I phoned the Holiday Inn and asked if they had an indoor pool, they informed me they did. You would think inquiring about that amenity would lead them to believe that was important for my stay and that if this amenity in question was not available that maybe it would be imortant for them to mention this fact to us. Apparently not! When we arrived a week later, we found the pool had been closed for a few weeks and not due to re-open for a few more weeks. Then we were told we had to pay to use the hotel parking lot ($10/day). I was not a happy camper! While this was probably a fluke about the pool, I must say these events and lack of customer service turned me off to this hotel from the beginning.

While the hotel is downtown and connected to the convention center, it does not sit down on the river. The arch and riverboat casinos are around 1/2 to 1 mile away. You can walk but you may want to drive. However, the hotel does offer a shuttle to the casinos if you don't want to take your own car.

The hotel rooms are very basic, nothing special, just a typical Holiday Inn room. The hotel does offer one restaurant on site that serves meals daily.

When returning to St. Louis for an overnight instead of just a day trip and needing a hotel, the next time we will stay on the river. We walked through the Embassy Suites and it looked very nice. There are a few other hotels in the general area and they all usually offer weekend or weekly packages. Get your visitors guide to check out specials.

Meramec Caverns is about an hour west of St. Louis off of I-44. Ticket prices are $12.50 for adults and $6 for kids ages 5-11. If you enjoy hiking through caves, don't miss this one.

There's a lot of historic significance to this cave. The legendary Jesse James and his gang was said to use this cave as a hideout on several occasions. The cave was also used in conjunction with the Underground Railroad as a hideout for slaves. Even earlier in the cave's history, it was used as housing for the Indians in the area. Another fun part of history for this cave is ballroom dances were held in a large open area now near the gift store and main entrance to the underground. These dances took place 100 years ago. Before the invention of air conditioning by Willis Carrier in 1902, a cave was a nice cool place to visit to get out of the heat of the day in the summer time. The elite of Missouri would plan these dances and could entertain in cool splendor regardless of the temperatures outdoors. This area can still be rented today for special events, receptions or meetings.

When you arrive at the cave and may have just missed the tour, don't fret, tours leave the gift shop area approximately every 20-30 minutes. Have on good walking shoes because you will be hiking through the cave for about 1 1/2 hours. Think twice before bringing very small children because the rangers will not allow strollers in the cave.

The cave is amazing with what they tout as the 'largest and rarest cave formations in the world'. There are many passages and levels to this cave that tourists are not allowed to travel in. But the views are still astounding in the commercial tourist area. It was just in the 1930's that 7 more levels were found and 26 more miles of passages that they weren't even aware of. With that in mind, there are probably miles and miles of untapped tunnels in this large cavern.

At the end of your journey, you are entertained with a light show in the cavern. Our ranger even turned the lights off at one point so we could view total darkness of the cave...VERY, VERY dark! It's amazing that you can't even see your hand directly in front of your face. Afterwards, you make your way out of the cave and probably on to the gift store so you can purchase a momento or two.

Very educating and entertaining. It gets chilly inside - don't forget your jacket!

When traveling west on I-44 from downtown, take the Vandeventer exit and turn left onto Vandeventer, get in the left hand lane, turning left on Shaw Blvd., you will see the gardens after about 1-2 blocks. From downtown, it's about a 1/2 hour drive. Ticket prices are $7 for adults and $5 for kids 12 and under.

When you arrive at the gardens, you are given the choice of taking a tour with a tour guide (only given at 1:00 so arrive early) or you can go on a self-guided tour. We preferred the self-guided so that we could go at our own pace and see or skip whatever we'd like.

As a background to this garden, it was opened to the public in the 1950's and to this day, is used as a research facility "to discover and share knowledge about plants and their environments, in order to preserve and enrich life".

The Climatron Conservatory (a bubble like looking structure) houses a variety of plants and animals with the appearance of the rain forest. Housed in the dome are banana trees, waterfalls and even animals such as tropical birds, quail and doves. There are beautiful flowers and palm trees among the paths leading through the exhibit. There are so many varieties of plants, flowers and trees in the conservatory it's not possible to write about them all. This is an exquisite place designed for many beautiful pictures. Don't miss this while at the gardens.

The Shoenberg Temperate House - another jaw dropping site of beauty. This building was constructed rather recently, in 1990. The theme of the Temperate House is that of a warm, dry climate from the Mediterranean and southeast U.S. There are seven gardens within this structure, my favorite being the Moorish Garden. There is a balcony just above this garden which allows for a nice view. The flowers in this garden are purple and white and surround a fountain and blue and white tiles are laid around the fountain. We are told flowers bloom all year, but for the best show, the spring is the time to visit. There is also a section entitled the Biblical Garden boasting 30-40 plants that are mentioned in the Bible.

The outdoor sections of the gardens host many beautifully looking and smelling flowers. However, for something out of the ordinary, the gardens has a maze made of hedges. On your mark, get set, go...see who can make it through to the end first! And don't cheat by cutting through one of the hedges like one of our kids did! There's a rose garden, lillies, iris, tulips, crocus, a Japanese garden where you can walk across the water on a bridge (the cherry blossoms are exquisite here), and other international areas with plants native to those areas and I couldn't begin to name.

There is so much to see here, make sure you plan enough time to be able to take it all in.

Another adventure in St. Louis that's free of charge. Hard to believe with what all this science center has to offer. There is a fee for parking, however, of $7 per car. On site, they have an Omnimax theatre, and there is a charge for this feature if you want to view a film in the round. The charge is $7 for adults and $6 for kids 12 and under.

A really cool part of the center the kids will love is the glass enclosed bridge that spans the interstate beside the center. When standing on the bridge above the road, everyone can use the radar guns that are permanently installed to see how fast the cars are going below. Just aim and check out the speed reading...what's the speed limit again?!

Inside the center there are many hands on activities which encourage imagination and learning. There's one exhibit which has large foam cushioned blocks and you work together to form an arch (how appropriate considering the city we're in) approximately 7-8' high. There's no way to hook the blocks together, just start building from both sides and meet at the top and the arch is formed and free standing (there is a scientific reason for this). After building, it's twice as fun to knock it down! There's a room that uses optical illusions such as your head appearing atop a table and looking as if you have no body. There's a room devoted just for the younger group of kids under 8 to try their own type of activities. Be sure to look for the 2 large-as-life dinosaurs that move - you can't miss them because they are huge and loud. They are robotic and are built based on fossil information. The 2 dinosaurs are a T-Rex and Triceratops. There's also a section devoted to flight - you can peddle, use air, many activities here. Throughout the center, there are volunteers on duty to assist you in your activities or provide more detailed information to help you understand the theories behind what you're doing. It's nice having them around to ask questions of for those of us parents that aren't scientists.

There's much more to do and see at the St. Louis Science Center. This is another adventure that requires many hours, probably an entire day, in order to see and do it all. Kids and adults both will enjoy learning in this fun and educational environment.

Ticket prices are as follows: $8/elevator to the top, $6/movie, $11 elevator and movie. Kid prices are slightly less.

What a wonderous site. The Gateway Arch is the tallest man made monument and you don't realize just how tall it is until you're standing under it.

There are doors at the base of the arch where you enter and go underground to the common area where you can purchase tickets, visit the gift store (everyone needs their own miniature arch), or enter the museum where there is information on how the west was developed or go in the theater to view a film on how the arch was constructed and the difficulties in doing so.

They do allow you to take a ride to the top of the arch where there is an observation area. Luckily there's an elevator to the top, but definitely a strange one. When the doors open, you see a small car with 5 seats and a low ceiling. If you do not like confined spaces, you will not be able to ride in this elevator. When you get in and sit down and the doors close, you begin your ride to the top. In an effort to keep the car upright, the cars will rise up, then over, then up, then over, until a few minutes later the doors open and you move straight ahead into a small area at the very top of the arch. There are very small rectangular windows on both sides, but you cannot stand directly in front of the windows. In order to see out and down to the ground, you have to lay on your stomach across these carpeted areas. You don't need to stay long, everyone looks like ants below and it gets pretty crowded up there, but at least you can say you've been to the top of the arch! When you're finished, you get back in line and wait for the next elevator to reach the top and take you back underground. By the time you wait in line, ride the elevator, look out the windows, ride the elevator back gown, you can expect to expend at least an hour of your time, maybe more if the lines are long.

The arch is amazing. Put it on the top of your to do list.

St. Louis offers one of the most extremely nicest zoos that we have visited. However, what can you say about a zoo except there are animals galore!

This zoo has over 300 animals housed inside and outside. Inside there's a collection of meerkats (just like Timon in "The Lion King"), alligators, crocidiles, koala bears and many birds. On your stroll around the outdoors be sure to visit the llama, but remember, stay away from their face. Why? Because llamas love to spit and it's gross to get it on you!

In Big Cat Country the snow leopards are beautiful. There are tigers, lions, pumas, and jaguars. There are bears and apes - and hold your nose when you go by the big gorilla (he stinks!!!). There's also a sea lion show that entertains, however, there is a couple dollar entrance fee to the show.

One area that we didn't expect was the water geyser play area. In the ground and in the rocks surrounding the area, there are holes. Sometimes water bubbles out of these holes, sometimes water shoots straight out up to 5-6 feet in the air or straight ahead. You are bound to get hit if you try to walk through here because there's no safe haven. It's especially fun to watch the younger kids that aren't sure where the water will shoot out of next and get drenched when they're not ready.

Expect to spend a full day here. If you get there early, you can park free on all of the streets surrounding the zoo. If not, you'll have to park in the lot across the street for $7 per car.

The Magic House is the children's museum for St. Louis. It is located in a neighborhood because it is kept inside an old Victorian home. Parking is found behind the home and is free of charge.

It's a great place to take kids because they have several hands-on exhibits. Our favorite is what we call 'the hair raiser'. It's a huge static electricity ball and when you touch it, no matter how long your hair, it will stand straight up on end. Be sure to take your camera because it makes quite a great picture memento!

There's an exhibit dealing in the power of using a pulley. There are 3 pulleys set up next to each other and a wooden seat at each one. Each has a different tension assigned so when you sit down and try to pull yourself into the air, some are harder to maneuver than others. Don't cheat and keep one of your feet on the ground to help you push, really try to use the pulley no matter how difficult! There's a room that uses your shadow and the effects of a kaleidoscope to form beautiful images on the wall. Once you reach the top floor, there's an easy way down to the bottom - with a 3 story high slide that's sure to put a smile on your kids face.

The Magic House is a fun place to take your youngsters and allows them the opportunity to run around and touch the exhibits without worrying about breaking anything!

While entry to this historic site is free (donations accepted), it was a bit of a disappointment to us.

Basically all there is to see is an old house and grounds that aren't all that beautiful and when we were there, could not get access to. Some renovations were taking place while we were there so it's possible that's why the home was not open to the public. However, walking around looking in the windows was not very entertaining. I would not take a trip back to this location, even if the home was open for viewing.

When you read about this site, the literature will tell you there are 5 buildings (house, stone building, barn, chicken house and ice house). Don't let 5 buildings fool you, a chicken house is a chicken house is a chicken house! This historic site is run by the national park system so they do provide some background on Ulysses S. Grant in the barn (the visitor center) across the road from the house.

If you're a history buff, you might slightly enjoy this 'off the beaten path' historic site, however for those looking for more fun, this isn't the place for you.