St. Louis Attractions
 | Busch Stadium Tours 700 Clark Street St. Louis, MO • 314-345-9565 Few cities exhibit baseball fever like St. Louis, and a Cardinal's home game is not to be missed if you're visiting; just be sure to wear something red. However, if you're timing is off, tours of the stadium are held on all the other days of the year. See the locker rooms, the press box, the 11 World Series trophies, and learn lots of insider trivia about the Cardinal organization and the construction of the third Busch Stadium completed in 2006. Unfortunately, there's no touching that beautiful natural turf or running of the bases. Tours take about an hour and depart from Gate 5. Advance ticket sales are not possible, so get there early to make sure you get the tour you want; tours often sell out. Best For: Kids (7-9)•Tweens (10-12)•Teens (13+) |
 | City Garden St. Louis, MO • 314-802-5971 There's more free family fun located in these two blocks of downtown St. Louis than the rest of the city combined. Amidst fountains, trees, flowering plants, picnic tables and green grass are 24 playful sculptures that range from oversized bunny rabbits to a super-sized Pinocchio shouting "I'm a real boy." A number of sculptures are more abstract but still contribute to the playful, stimulating environment. Kids and adults are welcome to play in the fountains, so bring a change of clothes and a towel and let the kids get wet. City Garden is located between Chestnut and Market from 8th to 9th Street in downtown St. Louis. Best For: Tots (0-2)•Kids (3-6)•Kids (7-9)•Tweens (10-12)•Teens (13+) |
 | City Museum 701 N. 15th Street St. Louis, MO • 314-231-2489 Yes, that is a school bus teetering on a ten-story building in downtown St. Louis. But don't worry, it won't collide with the airplane lodged in an oversized slinky strung into the next building; it would hit the world's largest pencil before doing that. Once a shoe factory in downtown, the extraordinary mind of artist Bob Cassilly created an innovative, creative, and fun place from all sorts of recycled objects. Crawl inside a dinosaur, swing from a trapeze, slide down a shark's tooth -- nothing here is breakable. Everything is to be touched, punched, pulled and pounded on. Older kids or adults may enjoy seeing a portion of the real building that inspired the best-selling book and movie "The Exorcist." Best For: Tots (0-2)•Kids (3-6)•Kids (7-9)•Tweens (10-12)•Teens (13+) |
 | Crown Candy Kitchen 1401 St. Louis Avenue St. Louis, MO • 314-621-9650 This is one of St. Louisans' favorite places for ice cream treats and hard to find rock candy. Teach your kids the difference between a phosphate and an ice cream soda in this joint that's been in business since 1913. Go for lunch or dinner, but don't expect to find hamburgers on the menu; BLTs and Tamales are the top sellers here. Go figure. But anytime you visit, expect a line out the door. That's just the way it is. Crown Candy Kitchen is located in the part of town known as "Old North St. Lou," and at times it looks a little rough, but don't worry -- it's a safe visit to Crown Candy. Best For: Tots (0-2)•Kids (3-6)•Kids (7-9)•Tweens (10-12)•Teens (13+) |
 | Endangered Wolf Center Eureka, MO • 636-938-5900 Animal lovers young and old can get a rare close look at beautiful and rare wolves at the Endangered Wolf Center (formerly known as the Wild Candid Center). Home to endangered wolves from around the world, the center is located in Eureka, Mo., about a 40-minute drive from downtown St. Louis. Visitors choose from two kinds of tours: a two-hour tour, which includes an educational presentation about wolves in addition to a walk through the wolf pens; or a one-hour tour, which is basically a guided walk through the wolf enclosures. Best For: Kids (7-9)•Tweens (10-12)•Teens (13+) |
 | Forest Park St. Louis, MO Forest Park is a must-see spot for families visiting St. Louis. One of the United States' largest urban parks, Forest is chock-full of kid-friendly activities and many major St. Louis attractions are located here, including the St. Louis Science Center, the St. Louis Zoo and the World's Fair Pavilion. During winter, the Steinberg skating rink is open. And during warmer weather months, activities from paddleboat rentals to bike rentals to summer concerts are available. Bring your camera and snap some shots of the kids at Turtle Playground, a collection of seven giant turtle statues on which youngsters can crawl and climb. A shuttle within the park takes visitors to major attractions. Best For: Tots (0-2)•Kids (3-6)•Kids (7-9)•Tweens (10-12)•Teens (13+) |
 | Gateway Arch Riverfront St. Louis Riverfront St. Louis, MO • 877-982-1410 One of the city's most famous pizza places, Pi is the joint where President Obama himself stopped during a campaign visit to St. Louis. The pizza here is different from your typical Pizza Hut fare. Pies are extremely deep dish and made with an unusual cornmeal crust and a very chunky tomato sauce. The sauce goes on top of the toppings and cheese! Dozens of interesting toppings listed on the menu, from Amish chicken to fresh rosemary to gorgonzola cheese, are sure to add some pizazz to your pie. Gluten-free crust is available. Best For: Kids (3-6)•Kids (7-9)•Tweens (10-12)•Teens (13+) |
 | Grant's Farm 10501 Gravois Road St. Louis, MT • 314-843-1700 Grant's Farm, the ancestral home of the Busch family (of Anheuser-Busch, Inc.), is a popular kid-friendly attraction in the St. Louis area. Here you'll find those famous Budweiser Clydesdales -- a stable of 25 of the majestic horses is on site. The farm also houses Ulysses S. Grant's 19th-century cabin (it's real, not a replica), plus a deer park with species from around the world. There are several restaurants at the farm in addition to a bunch of stores that sell everything from Clydesdale T-shirts to quilts and country knickknacks. For a fee, visitors can get their picture taken with a Clydesdale. Admission to Grant's Farm is free, but parking does cost a fee. The farm is about a 25-minute drive from downtown St. Louis. Best For: Kids (3-6)•Kids (7-9)•Tweens (10-12) |
 | Magic House St. Louis Children's Museum 516 South Kirkwood Road Kirkwood, MO • 314-822-8900 Kids will have a ball at this award-winning children's museum, located on the outskirts of the city. Hands-on exhibits like a three-story beanstalk (a la "Jack and the Beanstalk"), a replica of the Oval Office where kids can play President, and mini-construction site will keep little ones -- and parents -- entertained for hours. The museum has special exhibits just for infants, too. Best For: Tots (0-2)•Kids (3-6)•Kids (7-9) |
 | Missouri Botanical Garden 4344 Shaw Boulevard St. Louis, MO • 314-577-5100 This St. Louis treasure is both the country's oldest continually operated botanical garden and a National Historic Landmark. While it's fun to take a casual stroll through the grounds and explore the gardens independently, we recommend taking advantage of the Botanical Gardens' various organized tours and events, many of which are geared toward families. There's also a special Children's Garden on site that has hands-on exhibits where kids can soak up fun facts about trees, caves, wetlands, pollination and more. Best For: Tots (0-2)•Kids (3-6)•Kids (7-9)•Tweens (10-12)•Teens (13+) |
 | Missouri History Museum 5700 Lindell Boulevard St. Louis, MO • 314-746-4599 Here's another top attraction set in Forest Park. If your kids start to yawn at the idea of touring the humdrum halls of a dusty history museum, tell them at the Missouri History Museum has a giant airplane hanging from the ceiling; real Native-American artifacts; a blackened replica of a room destroyed by the Great Fire of 1848; guns, furs and other artifacts owned by Lewis and Clark; and many other far-from-boring exhibits. Admission to the museum is free, but a fee may be charged for admission to temporary exhibits. Best For: Kids (3-6)•Kids (7-9)•Tweens (10-12)•Teens (13+) |
 | Museum of Transportation 3015 Barrett Station Road St. Louis, MO • 314-965-6885 From horse-drawn carriages to street cars, this museum tells the story of people going places. Kids can climb around on boats, airplanes and bunches of old trains. Adults and history geeks will enjoy the exhibits on Route 66, which crosses through Missouri. A restaurant and children's birthday party area allow for a long day of entertainment. Best For: Tots (0-2)•Kids (3-6)•Kids (7-9)•Tweens (10-12)•Teens (13+) |
 | Science Center of St. Louis 5050 Oakland Avenue St. Louis, MO • 314-289-4400 One of the Top Ten science centers in the country according to Parents Magazine, this facility includes a planetarium and outer space program, along with great telescopes and numerous nighttime programs. Get nose-to-nose with a dinosaur and discover what makes a balloon take flight. Figure out why you don't fall out of a roller coaster when it goes upside down. Build a robot, a Web site, or a biofuel source. If your kids are into gross, yucky and stinky -- there's plenty of that, along with so many other things that whiz, bang and whirl while teaching the science behind it all. Best For: Tots (0-2)•Kids (3-6)•Kids (7-9)•Tweens (10-12)•Teens (13+) |
 | Six Flags St. Louis Eureka, MO • 636-938-5300 Take a day trip to this mega-amusement park located less than an hour's drive from St. Louis. Six Flags offers dozens of rides for young children, plus rip-roaring coasters that teens will love. In addition, Six Flags has a water park, Hurricane Harbor, that features raft rides, a wave pool, a children's area and other wet-and-wild attractions. Keep in mind that the park is open seasonally; during spring and fall months, it's open only on weekends, and it's closed during winter. Best For: Kids (3-6)•Kids (7-9)•Tweens (10-12)•Teens (13+) |
 | St. Louis Zoo One Government Drive St. Louis, MO • 314-781-0900 If you've seen one zoo, you haven't seen them all. Every zoo offers something special, and the St. Louis Zoo, with its abundance of unique, family-friendly activities, is definitely worth a stop. Young kids will love the Emerson Children's zoo, an interactive zoo within a zoo where youngsters can get hands-on with furry (and some not-so-furry) critters. One cool feature in Emerson Children's zoo is a slide that extends through the otter pool (with clear walls on all sides, of course). Your kids can shoot down the slide while otters swim and splash around them. There's a beautiful carousel in the zoo (it's ADA accessible), plus a fun 20-minute railroad ride on a vintage-looking steam locomotive (one of the zoo's most popular attractions). Here's the best part: zoo admission is absolutely free! However, some attractions, like rides and shows, do cost extra. But families can save money by purchasing the Safari Pass, which includes admissions for Emerson Children's Zoo, Zooline Railroad, Sea Lion Show, Conservation Carousel and Motion Simulator. The St. Louis Zoo is located within Forest Park. Best For: Tots (0-2)•Kids (3-6)•Kids (7-9)•Tweens (10-12)•Teens (13+) |
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