Explore St. Louis

American humorist Robert Benchley wrote, “In America there are two classes of travel - first class, and with children.”

Obviously, Mr. Benchley and his offspring hadn’t visited St. Louis where kids and kids-at-heart can discover first class fun. There are dozens of tantalizing new and “old favorite” St. Louis attractions to tempt young travelers this vacation season. Once they learn about all of St. Louis’ kid-centric hot spots, parents will start hearing, “Are we there yet?” before the family leaves home.

No need to break open the piggy bank. Many of St. Louis’ kid-favorite sites are open free of charge.

What’s up at Six Flags St. Louis, Doc? The giant family theme park company celebrates its 45th anniversary with a new addition to its St. Louis site: Bugs Bunny National Park. The special area has rides and attractions for the whole family. Family rides include hot air balloon replicas which take riders up, up and away; a flying rocket ship; a miniature drop ride; spinning tea cups; a rocking tugboat and a miniature train. Parents and older tykes can also participate in a 3-story tree house play structure and an interactive water play fountain. If grown-ups just want to watch, pint-sized airplanes and a swinging ship are exclusively for the toddler set. The “Bugs” area includes the Character Café which serves family food favorites, a Ranger Station with souvenirs geared for younger guests and family restrooms so fun seekers don’t have to leave the area.

New Six Flags St. Louis rides and attractions for older kids and adults include the new Superman Tower of Power 230-foot extreme free-fall ride, a Justice League entertainment area and a daily parade featuring favorite Looney Tunes and Justice League characters, lights, music and fireworks. Here’s a money saving hint: buy tickets on-line at http://www.sixflags.com/ and save with a special Internet only rate on one-day admissions. Simply click, print and go.

It’s playtime! New, innovative and, most importantly, fun playgrounds are perfect places to burn megawatts of kid energy. The newest, largest and most elaborate St. Louis play area is nestled within the beautiful Missouri Botanical Garden. The new, two-acre Doris I. Schnuck Children’s Garden: A Missouri Adventure introduces youngsters ages two through 12 to plants and nature in an amusing, hands-on style. Rope bridges, a giant-sized tree house, a slide into a fossil-encrusted cave, a frontier town complete with jail, a three-story log fort, a moving steamboat paddlewheel, a wetland ecosystem, “root” swings cascading from a fabricated tree and many more imaginative, active options bring Missouri’s 19th century history and botany to life.

Flowering plants within A Missouri Adventure grow in a petal-shaped garden designed to attract birds, bees and butterflies. Kids can clamber inside a giant beehive. A Secret Garden hidden by tall hedges is accessible through a trick door. Little folks control water jets at a splash and play area set up beneath a prairie village water tower. Toddlers can “plant” and “harvest” plastic vegetables in a sandy plot. With so many playful features packed into this special garden, kids will never want to leave. A Missouri Adventure Children’s Garden is open at the Missouri Botanical Garden from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends only in April 2006. Beginning May 1, the garden is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through October, and weekends only in November and March (weather permitting).

Playgrounds have popped up all over town. Forest Park opened its first inclusive public playground designed for all children – able-bodied and those with disabilities – between the Missouri History Museum and the Dennis & Judith Jones Visitor and Information Center. Traditional swings and seesaws are adapted for all abilities, a musical chime section delights both sighted and blind children and special stretching stations to aid parents and children with cerebral palsy are just a few of the practical and playful features.

Faust St. Louis County Park has added a new, ADA-approved play area to its collection of family attractions. Adjacent to the playground, pretty live butterflies fly around visitors who stroll through the tropical rainforest within the glass-domed Butterfly House. A hop, skip and jump away from the playground, take a spin on the festive St. Louis Carousel, a vintage 1929 Dentzel amusement ride with beautifully carved and painted horses and deer and the requisite calliope music. Faust Historic Village takes park goers back in time with its collection of 19th century Missouri homes, barns and outbuildings or tour Thornhill, the historic home of Missouri’s second governor Frederick Bates.

Kids can pretend to sail a climb-on pirate ship, maneuver a fire truck and fulfill other transportation fantasies at the newly remodeled Creation Station indoor playroom at the Museum of Transportation. No pretending is required to hop aboard one of the museum’s two, new mini-locomotives for a mile-long ride along a looping track. And, of course, there’s always the joy of clambering in, on and out of dozens and dozens of historic railroad cars and train engines from the museum’s vast collection. Older kids get their motors running at the new automobile gallery, a “dealer’s showroom” with an ever-changing display of vintage vehicles. Interactive driving, braking and turning stations allow the under-16 set to test their behind-the-wheel skills.

Other unique St. Louis play stations include the crazy, climbing and all together cool MonstroCity outdoor playground at City Museum, St. Louis’ unusual warehouse of adventure. New additions inside include more multi-level caves to explore and the distinction of being named as one of the World’ Best Public Spaces. In neighboring Belleville, Illinois, a two-acre playground that is both creative and spiritual is on the grounds of The National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows. The lushly landscaped area was designed to be an inspiration to families to enjoy the outdoors while having fun together. Across I-64 from the St. Louis Zoo south entrance sits Turtle Playground, home to a traditional playground plus seven large sculpted concrete turtles just waiting to be climbed on, slid off and played among. The turtles range from seven to 40 feet long each represent a different species found in Missouri. Among them are a red-eared slider, a soft-shelled turtle, a snapping turtle, a box turtle, a Mississippi map turtle and “stinkpot” turtle.

Within the Saint Louis Zoo’s Children’s Zoo section, kids can climb on a rope spider web, slide through the river otter pond via a plexiglass tube, dance through squirting water fountains and clamber across a bridge suspended above a pretend alligator-laden swamp. Named the Top Zoo in the U.S. by Zagat Survey and Parenting Magazine, the Saint Louis Zoo has added weighty attractions in 2006. In addition to the impending birth of a new baby elephant, a 200-ton sculpture titled “Animals Always” greets park visitors at the Hampton Avenue entry to Forest Park. The massive metal work, to be installed in May, depicts 60 different animals of all types. Inside the Zoo, kids may be encouraged to eat their veggies after watching animal meals being prepared through oversized windows at the new Animal Nutrition Center. Families can picnic in the adjacent outdoor garden. The creepy, crawly constituents of the Monsanto Insectarium are now on view for free. The Zoo has permanently waived the nominal charge to this special exhibit that includes a tropical butterfly dome.

Haven’t been to the Saint Louis Zoo in a while? You’ll notice recent new additions. Chill out at the very cool Penguin and Puffin Coast habitat of the popular tuxedoed birds and playful puffins. Go ape at The Fragile Forest home of gorillas and orangutans. Circle the animal kingdom with a ride on an endangered species replica on board the Conservation Carousel and adventure through a Cypress Swamp teeming with wildlife in the giant steel bird cage that has marveled visitors since the 1904
St. Louis World’s Fair.

The charming, St. Louis-based Build-A-Bear Workshop opened special outlets at the St. Louis Zoo and new Busch Stadium this year. The St. Louis Zoo store, the first ever Build-A-Bear Workshop located inside a zoo, offers a jungle-themed environment where visitors can choose from a variety of furry friends including Humboldt Penguin, Tree Frog, Asian Elephant and Ring-Tailed Lemur. Once the critter is “built,” the “builders” have the opportunity to dress their new pal in adorable outfits such as a zookeeper and a Zooline Railroad engineer.

The Busch Stadium Build-A-Bear Workshop is safe at home near Section 153 on the main concourse at the St. Louis Cardinals’ brand new baseball palace. Fans can build the Cardinals’ huggable mascot, Fredbird the Redbird, and deck him out in the team’s official Major League Baseball clothing and accessories. Beary cute options include Cardinals Baseball bears, a stuffed replica of the new St. Louis ballpark and FANtastic Monkey. The workshop is open during all Cardinals home games.

One visit to The Magic House, St. Louis Children’s Museum and you’ll know why it was named the nation’s #1 attraction for child appeal by Zagat U.S. Family Travel Guide. This innovative participatory museum serves up special summer fun with three playful new exhibits: Toddler Traffic Town, Right in My Own Backyard and Making America’s Music: Rhythm, Roots & Rhyme.

Children can create their own sound and learn about American musical genres from blues to jazz to rock ‘n’ roll with a toe-tapping trip to the Making America’s Music: Rhythm, Roots & Rhyme exhibit. The musical merry-making takes place at The Magic House from June 10 through September 18, 2006. Youngsters learn about tempo and volume with a wave of their arms in the “You’re the Conductor!” area. A karaoke station turns tykes into hep cats as they perform jazz riffs. Fountains of light and color are created in the drumming gallery and the windshield wipers of a country western tour bus keep pace with the music on the bus’ radio. Kids can twist and shout to their hearts’ content and see themselves cutting the rug on a big screen at an American Bandstand-style school dance station.

Calling all cars! Toddler Traffic Town puts kids under the age of seven behind the wheel of vintage pedal cars to drive through kid-size city streets complete with storefronts, pint-sized construction sites and even a miniature Gateway Arch. The tiny town teaches wee drivers about the rules of the road and traffic safety. A Magic House favorite, Toddler Traffic Town pedals along from August 26 through October 8, 2006.

This summer, The Magic House outdoor Exhibit Patio springs to life as the new Right in My Own Backyard activity bubbles over with massive mushrooms, enormous ants and gigantic plants. The hands-on exhibit combines learning about nature with outdoor family play. Families can romp inside an amazingly vast anthill, toss balls at gargantuan spiders crawling on an extra-wide web and swoosh down a slippery, tubular slide. It’s super-sized fun for everyone…Right in My Own Backyard from June 17 through August 13, 2006.

Be a stage mother or dad and give the kids a live theatre experience this summer. “The Wizard of Oz” will bewitch young audience members when the MGM classic comes to life at The Muny in Forest Park, July 6 through 16. The Muny, St. Louis’ historic outdoor amphitheatre, has been delighting fans of Broadway musicals for more than 80 years. Snoopy and the entire Peanuts gang make merry in “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” August 9 through 20 at Stages St. Louis’ Robert G. Reim Theatre.

There’s theatrical fun on St. Louis’ big screens, too. Trek to the Pacific with explorers Lewis & Clark with a viewing of “Lewis & Clark: Great Journey West” at the Odyssey Theatre beneath the Gateway Arch. This National Geographic large format film showcases the spectacular scenery along the Lewis & Clark Trail and simply and eloquently tells the story of that incredible, historic journey. The domed Omnimax Theatre at the Saint Louis Science Center revs things up through September 4 with “NASCAR: The IMAX Experience.” The giant-screen film puts viewers in the driver’s seat with NASCAR drivers including Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Jeff Gordon and more.

Another member of St. Louis’ incredible children’s attractions made Zagat’s Survey Top 10 list for Best Overall Attractions in the U.S. – Grant’s Farm. Visitors to this free attraction take tram rides through an animal preserve which pass the log cabin home built by President U.S. Grant. Buffalo, zebra, elk and other hoofed creatures reside on Grant’s Farm along with a petting zoo, an Anheuser-Busch Clydesdale breeding farm and trained animal shows featuring elephants and both exotic and birds of prey.
More animal-related fun happens at Purina Farms, where city slicker children interact with farm animals including baby pigs, chickens, cows and bunnies. Cat lovers adore the Victorian designed cat house filled with pretty felines of all shapes, sizes and colors. Kids and adults can learn how to care for their family pets, see a dog-training demonstration and special animal shows and exhibits at this free St. Louis attraction.

If a trip to the Gateway City gives kids the travel bug, take them to Worldways Children’s Museum where kids can explore another country without leaving St. Louis. World cultures are actively on display at the museum where children can dress in national costumes, shop in a Mexican market, learn how to use chopsticks and draw Chinese letters, float in a vibrantly painted boat like those from Saint-Louis, Senegal in West Africa and experience the values of foreign currencies.

Search www.explorestlouis.com for a list of free attractions, special family hotel packages and to book hotel rooms on-line. Or, call toll-free, 1-800-916-0040 for details on how St. Louis is a kids’ vacation haven. Be sure to download the St. Louis Family Attractions Card and other offers from the Tickets & Deals section of the site for special discounts at many of the Gateway City’s top spots for young visitors.