My husband and I are talking about taking an overnight trip to St. Louis for our son's Birthday. He will be turning 4 next week, but the trip would not be until the end of the month. My husband lived in St. Louis for 10 years, but since we didn't have kids yet neither of us have any idea what is out there to do. He mentioned something about the Science Center, but other than that what would be fun for a 4 year old? I don't really want to do something like Chuck-E-Cheese or Bulid-A-Bear because we could do that where we live. We do make a trip to the zoo every Fall, but obviously that is out of the question this time of year. We would also have our 2.5 year old and a newborn with us, so please keep that in mind. Thanks in advance for the ideas!
We were just there in November and went to the City Museum. It is awesome! For parents and kids. Also, when my girls were younger they LOVED the Magic House and Grants Farm.
City museum is amazing. As long as you can wear the newborn you should be fine there. It has an elevator for a stroller but lets face it, kids are fast and there are slides to get from one level to another.
Magic house!!
If you want to burn off steam there are two Bounce U locations. Bounce U is an indoor inflatable park. There is also a place called Monkey Joes which is like Bounce U only they welcome walk ins. Price is much better too.
Oh, Magic house and Monkey Joes aren't very far from each other..... :)
Don't go to union station. Everything, well almost everything, has closed there and the parking is crazy expensive to find out there is nothing to do.
The magic house will be the most fun for everyone. There is an area just for toddlers, so you might want to split up for a while, but there's a lot for everyone to enjoy. You could spend the whole day.
You can find 2 for 1 coupons online...st louis family attractions card?
The city museum is an amazing place, but know that there are underground tunnels that kids can fit in and you can't, overhead tunnels your kid can fit into and you won't want to, and outside, crazy things that have been welded together...metal mesh and airplanes etc...that you can climb in up high....with a 2.5 year old, you might spend too much time saying "where'd he/she go?"....maybe save it for a later trip...it's not cheap to just be checking it out and decide not to stay long.. And there are no coupons.
Definitely the Magic House. It has so many wonderful things for kids. There is a bean stalk (for Jack and the bean stalk), a little pond for fishing, a water table for playing with toys in the water, mirrors, little slides and tunnels, etc, etc, etc!
I agree that the Magic House (www.magichouse.org) is your best bet. It has a special area, the Children's Village, for younger kids (under 6, I believe) and is much more geared to the ages of your children than the Science Center. We went to the Science Center this past summer with my new 4-year old and most of the exhibits are for older children, unless you pay the extra fee to get into the Discovery Room, but that's only a 45-minute session.
I haven't been to the City Museum yet but hear great things about it. I'm looking forward to visiting sometime soon. Have a fun trip!
The Magic house would be the best bet for a 4 yo and other kiddos at this time of year.
The Science Center is great too...it's been awhile since I've been there but it may be more for "older" kids.
Though it's great, I think the City Museum is definitely too much w a 4 yo and younger kids.
All the ideas are great but do not forget the zoo. Even though it is winter it is still open and some animals love the outdoors this time of year. The insectorium is there also. You could visit the Butterfly house in Chesterfield. I recommend looking up events and tourist attractions because there are so many other awesome places that I cant think of them all. Bowling hall of fame downtown...Eugene Field Toy Museum.... All sorts of museums around.
The Magic House, Grant's Farm, The Arch, The Science Center, the museum in Union Station, the other museum downtown ...
Ok, that's all I've got right now, but I've been dying to take my kids to St. Louis. I wanted to do that over Christmas break, but it just flew by. Hopefully I'll be able to take them this summer.
Have fun! St. Louis is a great place to take kids.
The ideas mentioned below sound good. Also, there's the Nascar theme park at the St. Louis Mills Mall. I'm not sure if you have one where you live, but they have rides for small kids and your soon-to-be 4 year old will probably be tall enough to ride some of the bigger rides that your other kids won't be able to and he can go with dad on those. I have 2.5 year old twins and there is a big train inside the mall that circles around the mall and my boys just love riding - I bet all your kids (even birthday boy) would love it too.
