St. Louis sits on the western bank of the Mississippi River, and for most of American history that meant it was the last city before the frontier. The Gateway Arch rises 630 feet over the waterfront, a stainless steel curve designed by Eero Saarinen in 1947 and completed in 1965. The tram ride to the top costs $15 and requires a reservation. At the base, the Museum of Westward Expansion covers the Lewis and Clark expedition, the forced removal of Native American nations, and the railroad era with more honesty than many Midwestern museums. The Arch grounds opened their new park design in 2018, replacing the old highway berm with a pedestrian bridge to the riverfront.
The City Museum occupies a former International Shoe factory in downtown. Bob Cassilly, a sculptor with a demolition permit and no patience for safety codes, converted the building into a labyrinth of rebar tunnels, spiral slides, and a rooftop Ferris wheel. Children climb through aircraft fuselages suspended from the ceiling. Adults crawl through concrete caves. The ten-story slide starts on the roof and ends in the lobby. Admission is $20. The rooftop reopens seasonally, usually mid-March through October. Wear closed-toe shoes and expect bruises.
Anheuser-Busch has brewed beer in St. Louis since 1852. The free tour runs through the historic brewhouse, the beechwood aging cellars, and the Clydesdale stables. The horses live on site in a brick stable with brass fixtures and individual fans. The tour ends with a sample of whatever is currently in production. The Biergarten serves pretzels and cheese dip. If you want more depth, the $30 Day Fresh tour includes a tasting of experimental brews from the research pilot brewery.
Forest Park is larger than Central Park and entirely free. The 1904 World's Fair left behind the Art Museum, the Zoo, the Missouri History Museum, and the Muny outdoor theater. The Art Museum holds a respectable collection of German Expressionism and Max Beckmann paintings. The Zoo houses 18,000 animals and charges nothing for admission, though the parking lots fill by 10:00 AM on summer Saturdays. The Missouri History Museum covers the 1904 Olympics, which were held alongside the World's Fair and included events like the plunge for distance and an anthropology day where indigenous people competed in simulated "savage" competitions. The museum does not gloss over this.
The Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis on Lindell Boulevard contains 41.5 million mosaic tiles covering 83,000 square feet of interior wall and ceiling. The installation took 76 years, from 1912 to 1988. Artists from the Tiffany studio in New York and the Ravenna workshop in Italy contributed. The crypt holds relics of Saint Louis IX, the city's namesake and the only French king ever canonized. Mass is at 8:00 AM Monday through Saturday, with additional Sunday services. The docent-led tours run Tuesday through Friday at 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM and explain the iconography panel by panel.
The Hill is a neighborhood of narrow streets and brick bungalows settled by Italian immigrants in the late 1800s. Toasted ravioli was invented here, probably at Charlie Gitto's or Mama Campisi's, depending on which family you ask. Both restaurants still serve the breaded, deep-fried pasta pockets with marinara. The Hill also hosts Missouri's largest collection of bocce courts, most behind the Italian-American restaurants on Marconi Avenue. Gioia's Deli, open since 1980, makes hot salami sandwiches with meat cured in-house. Rigazzi's serves fishbowl cocktails in glasses the size of goldfish tanks.
The National Blues Museum opened in 2016 in the Mercantile Exchange building downtown. St. Louis was a crucial stop on the blues circuit between the Delta and Chicago. Chuck Berry played the Cosmopolitan Club on Jefferson Avenue. W.C. Handy wrote "St. Louis Blues" in 1914, though the song's titular woman may not have been from the city at all. The museum has interactive exhibits where visitors mix tracks on simulated recording consoles. Admission is $15. BB's Jazz Blues and Soups on Olive Street still hosts live bands five nights a week, in a room that smells like barbecue sauce and beer.
Union Station, a Romanesque Revival train station built in 1894, stopped handling passenger rail in 1978. The National Park Service runs the visitor center in the old ticketing hall, with a vaulted ceiling of gold leaf and Missouri granite. The surrounding building reopened as a hotel and entertainment complex in 2021, with a 100,000-gallon aquarium and a Ferris wheel in the former train shed. The aquarium is mediocre. The architecture of the original hall is not.
Crown Candy Kitchen has operated on St. Louis Avenue in North St. Louis since 1913. The soda fountain still has the original marble counter and Tiffany-style lamps. The kitchen serves a BLT with a full pound of bacon. The malts are hand-spun in metal cups. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10:30 AM to 8:00 PM. They close at 4:00 PM on Saturdays and do not open on Sundays or Mondays. Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, on Chippewa Street since 1930, serves concrete shakes so thick the cup can be turned upside down without losing the contents. The seasonal locations open in April. The original location stays open year-round, including Christmas Eve for people who want frozen custard at 35 degrees.
The neighborhoods surrounding downtown require honest discussion. North St. Louis has blocks of brick homes abandoned after decades of redlining, highway construction, and population loss. The city peaked at 856,000 residents in 1950 and dropped to under 300,000 by the 2020 census. Some streets have more vacant lots than occupied houses. The Delmar Divide remains a visible racial and economic boundary, with wealth and investment concentrated south of Delmar Boulevard and disinvestment to the north. Visitors should not wander randomly into residential neighborhoods north of downtown after dark. Use ride shares or drive.
The Missouri Botanical Garden, founded by Henry Shaw in 1859, covers 79 acres in the Shaw neighborhood. The Climatron is a geodesic dome conservatory designed by Buckminster Fuller and opened in 1960. It houses a tropical rainforest with a 50-foot waterfall. The Japanese garden, Seiwa-en, is 14 acres and the largest in North America. The garden hosts a Chinese lantern festival from May through August, with silk displays and evening admission. The herbarium contains 6.6 million specimens and is open to researchers by appointment.
The Old Courthouse downtown was the site of the Dred Scott case in 1847 and 1850. The National Park Service runs exhibits on slavery, legal history, and the failed suit for freedom that hastened the Civil War. The building has been restored to its 1850s appearance, with courtrooms and jury rooms open to visitors. The view from the dome gives a clear perspective on the Arch and the river.
Practical notes: St. Louis is spread out and public transit is limited. The MetroLink light rail runs from the airport through downtown to the Illinois suburbs, but most attractions require a car, ride share, or bus connections. Summer heat reaches 95 degrees with 80 percent humidity. Fall is the best season, from mid-September through October. The city is generally affordable. A good hotel downtown runs $120 to $180. Meals at The Hill cost $15 to $25 per person. The free zoo and art museum make it possible to visit cheaply if you plan around parking costs, which run $15 to $20 in Forest Park lots.
By Elena Vasquez
Cultural anthropologist and culinary storyteller. Elena spent a decade documenting traditional cooking methods across Latin America and the Mediterranean. She holds a PhD in Ethnography from Barcelona University and believes the best way to understand a place is through its kitchens and ancient streets.