St. Louis

Yes, particularly for the combination of free major museums, the Gateway Arch, Forest Park, and baseball. The city has real struggles — parts of it are severely challenged economically and socially — but the tourist corridor delivers genuine value, and the Cardinals fan culture gives it a civic pride that carries into everyday interactions.

Absolutely. The Arch is a more moving experience than most people expect from a monument to westward expansion — it is the tallest man-made monument in the United States, beautifully engineered, and the view from the top is genuinely spectacular. The renovated museum beneath it tells the story of westward expansion honestly, including its effect on Native American tribes. Reserve tram tickets well in advance for summer visits.

A St. Louis original — pasta pockets filled with seasoned ground meat, breaded and deep-fried, served with marinara sauce for dipping. The story goes it was invented in the 1940s in a Hill neighborhood restaurant when a cook accidentally dropped ravioli into hot oil. It is now on virtually every Italian-American menu in the city and a required first-night ritual.

An extraordinary amount. The Saint Louis Zoo (Forest Park) is free and world-class. The Saint Louis Art Museum is free. The Missouri History Museum is free. The Saint Louis Science Center is free. The Gateway Arch grounds are free; the tram and museum charge admission. Forest Park itself is free. This is the legacy of the 1904 World's Fair, and it makes St. Louis one of the best-value cities in the country.

A 1,371-acre park in central St. Louis — larger than Central Park — that was developed for the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition (World's Fair). It now contains the Zoo, Art Museum, History Museum, Science Center, and Jewel Box conservatory, all free. The park itself has lakes, golf courses, jogging paths, and a boathouse with rentals. A full day in Forest Park is one of the best free days available in any American city.

April through June and September through October. Spring brings mild weather and the Cardinals season opening. Fall has beautiful weather and the final weeks of the baseball season. July and August are hot and humid with heat advisories; January and February are cold with ice storms possible.

A tour of the original 1852 Budweiser brewery campus in south St. Louis — a complex of Victorian-era brewery buildings including stables housing the famous Clydesdale horses, historic lagering cellars, and working production facilities. Free tours run throughout the day; premium tours include tastings. The campus architecture alone is worth seeing.

The tourist corridors — Forest Park and the Central West End, Downtown, the Arch, Soulard, and the Hill — are generally safe. St. Louis has some of the highest violent crime rates of any American city by per-capita measure, concentrated in specific north St. Louis neighborhoods. The visitor experience in the established areas is normal; use rideshares, stay oriented within the known corridors, and the trip is straightforward.

St. Louis's oldest neighborhood and one of its most characterful — brick rowhouses, a Saturday farmers market (the largest in Missouri), blues and rock clubs, and a Mardi Gras celebration that draws hundreds of thousands of people every February. The Soulard Farmers Market (open Wednesday through Saturday) is one of the best in the region.

One of the most unusual attractions in any American city — a former 10-story shoe factory repurposed by sculptor Bob Cassilly into a multi-level art and play environment filled with crawl tunnels, spiral slides, a rooftop ferris wheel and school bus, a cave system, and architectural salvage from buildings across St. Louis. Adults and children use it equally. It is genuinely hard to describe. Go before deciding if you'll like it.

St. Louis consistently ranks at the top of national surveys of baseball fan bases. Attendance, knowledge of the game, and civic investment in the team are all notable. The city has won more World Series titles than any National League franchise. Going to a game as a neutral visitor means being surrounded by people who genuinely care, which makes for a better atmosphere than in many larger markets.

Solid, affordable, and specific. The Hill for Italian-American classics. Soulard for casual neighborhood restaurants and blues-bar bar food. The Delmar Loop in University City for diverse mid-range dining. Toasted ravioli, provel cheese (the local processed cheese on St. Louis-style thin-crust pizza), and frozen custard (Ted Drewes on Route 66 is the institution) are the local food markers.

A frozen custard stand on the original Route 66 corridor in south St. Louis, in operation since 1929. The 'concrete' — a frozen custard blended so thick it can be held upside down — is the menu anchor. In summer, the lines are long and worth it. One of the more legitimate food pilgrimages in the Midwest.

The Missouri Ozarks (2–3 hours south and southwest) offer river floating, state parks, and genuine Ozark hill country. Springfield, Missouri (3.5 hours) has the Bass Pro Shops flagship and the original Route 66 diner culture. Cahokia Mounds (20 minutes east in Illinois) is the largest pre-Columbian archaeological site north of Mexico and is surprisingly overlooked.

St. Louis has an exceptional stock of late-Victorian and early-twentieth-century architecture — the brick townhouses and rowhouses of the Central West End, the ornate commercial buildings downtown, the 1904 World's Fair legacy in Forest Park, and the Wainwright Building designed by Louis Sullivan (1891) — considered one of the first true skyscrapers in architectural history. Union Station, now a hotel and entertainment complex, has a stunning 1894 train shed interior.

One of the oldest and most significant botanical gardens in the United States, founded in 1859 and spanning 79 acres in the Tower Grove neighborhood. The Japanese Garden is one of the largest in North America. The Climatron — a geodesic dome greenhouse — holds a tropical rainforest environment. Best visited in spring or early summer; the rose garden peaks in May and June.

St. Louis was the fourth-largest American city in 1900 with 575,000 people. It is now around 300,000 in the city proper, with a metro area of 2.8 million. The population loss accelerated through the mid-twentieth century due to white flight, highway construction through existing neighborhoods, deindustrialization, and political fragmentation between the city and St. Louis County. The physical evidence — vacant lots, abandoned buildings — is visible. The city's downtown revival is real but geographically concentrated.

A stretch of Delmar Boulevard in University City (just west of St. Louis proper) that functions as a commercial and cultural district with independent restaurants, bars, a music venue (The Pageant), and the St. Louis Walk of Fame. One of the more walkable and pleasant evening destinations in the metro area, and connected to the MetroLink Red Line.