Our Five Favorite “Bubble” Experiences in St. Louis
For any serious vacationer, the best part is feeling like you’ve stepped into the vacation bubble. For someone on a cruise, it’s the feeling of stepping on the boat and leaving the world behind. For the Disney World traveler, it’s going into the Disney bubble, complete with its own internal transportation options. I’ve even felt that way going camping, out at night under the stars, where life is far away.
Bubble experiences, though, can be expensive. (Except maybe for tent camping.) It’s entirely because they’re bubble experiences that they are expensive. Unfortunately, that means you have to come home from the bubble, something that can be hard to accept.
Fortunately, St. Louis isn’t entirely without its own little bubbles. No, they’re not huge: there’s no Caribbean cruise or Magic Kingdom to be found here. But you can find spots in St. Louis where you are, at least for a little while, transported into a spot that feels a little set apart from everyday life.
Here are our five favorites.
5. Six Flags St. Louis (soon to be Mid-America By Enchanted Parks)
Theme parks are their own pre-made bubbles. You come in through the front gate and are suddenly in this self-contained space full of rides, food, and entertainment. We won’t try to argue that Six Flags St. Louis — or what will soon be known as Mid-America by Enchanted Parks — is Disney World or even Holiday World.
Still, when you step into Six Flags, you’re stepping into its own world, with its own experiences. We personally enjoy just getting to walk around and watch the people, young and old, as they make their way through the park.
It all starts at the entrance, where you’re greeted with a scenic plaza with a fountain complete with a main street vibe. From there, you can walk through a park populated with coasters, restaurants, gift shops, and even a few entertainment spots. Hurricane Harbor, the water park, has its own atmosphere.
Six Flags St. Louis is a pretty cool day-in-a-box, especially for those who have a long history with the park.
4. Market Street Between Jefferson and Tucker
Not far from downtown St. Louis, the stretch of Market Street from Jefferson to Tucker includes a collection of places that individually are bubbles of their own.
On the western side, you’ve got Energizer Park, home to St. Louis City SC, the Major League Soccer franchise in town. Energizer Park is its own space, especially during a match. The team keeps a store just across the street.
Just east of the team store is Union Station. There you can take in the likes of the St. Louis Aquarium, the St. Louis Wheel, or the indoor Ropes Course. There are a few eateries in the Station.
A stone’s throw east of Union Station is the Enterprise Center. The indoor arena is best known as the home to the St. Louis Blues, and going into the space during a hockey game is its own little planet. Of course, the Enterprise Center hosts other events, too, including concerts and the occasional March Madness game.
Just northeast of the Enterprise Center is Soldier’s Memorial Military Museum. Free to the public, the museum showcases various displays related to American history from a St. Louis point of view.
We’d also be remiss if we didn’t mention the series of parks that cut east to west along Market Street. On the west end, near Energizer Park, sits Aloe Plaza, a lovely fountain space. Walking east will take you through or by Memorial Plaza, Eternal Flame Park, Poelker Park, and Kaufman Park.
3. Historic Main Street St. Charles
While there are several cool vintage shopping districts in St. Louis — Old Town Florissant and the Delmar Loop come to mind — none of them are quite as atmospheric as Main Street in St. Charles. The cobblestone streets, old buildings, and happy vibe make it a great spot to shop, eat, or just walk. If you’re mobile enough, you can deposit your car in a lot and walk along the sidewalk to view the shops, taking in everything along the way.
Stepping onto Main Street feels like walking into a different world. You can feel the bricks under your feet as you walk, and hear them under the tires of passing cars. You can see blocks upon blocks of vintage structures housing retailers of all kinds. It’s a marvelous place on any normal day, and it is even better during one of the seasonal festivals that take over the district.
As an added bonus, Frontier Park, just a block over, is a great place to get your steps in or soak in views of the Missouri River.
2. Downtown St. Louis near South Broadway
If you want an iconic St. Louis experience, you could hardly do better than going downtown. Whether you park in one of the various street spots, deposit your car in a garage (Keiner Plaza East and Stadium East are two personal favorites), or even take MetroLink downtown, there is plenty to do along and around South Broadway between 44 and 64.
On the north end, you’ve got the Dome at America’s Center, which currently is the home for the UFL’s Battlehawks, along with various other concerts and events. Across the street sits the casino hotel Horseshoe Place, or what was formerly known as Lumière Place.
South of Horseshoe Place is Laclede’s Landing, a small, quaint shopping district with cobblestone streets and a handful of places to eat and shop just off the riverfront.
If you walk south of Laclede’s Landing and the Eads Bridge, you’ll reach the sprawling Gateway Arch National Park, which offers paved walking near and along the Mississippi River.
It probably goes without saying that the Gateway Arch itself is a must-visit downtown. The museum is free to enter, but you can also ride up to the top of the Arch for a fee.
Across the street from the Arch sits the Old Courthouse, which you can tour for free.
Just a stone’s throw southwest of the Arch is the baseball mecca of St. Louis: Busch Stadium and Ballpark Village.
This area is its own bubble-within-a-bubble, especially on game days. You can walk up and down Ballpark Village, which features restaurants, shopping, and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame and Museum, which can be toured for a fee. Of course, the real attraction here is the stadium, which becomes something of a small city when the Cardinals are in town.
1. Forest Park
For us, there is one bubble experience in St. Louis that stands over all the others, and that’s Forest Park. Larger than Central Park in New York City, Forest Park is a virtual smorgasbord of attractions, most of them free to enter. Those attractions are set inside a park filled with walking paths that weave through grassy spaces, into wooded areas, and around waterways.
The perennial attraction in Forest Park is the Saint Louis Zoo, a free attraction that is its own bubble, and a day trip all by itself.
Near the Zoo sits the Saint Louis Art Museum, a multi-story building dating back to the 1904 World’s Fair, that is mostly free.
On the southeastern side of the park sits the Saint Louis Science Center, a free-to-enter complex stretching over I-64. You can check out exhibits of all kinds — from dinosaurs to outer space — and check out demonstrations that run daily.
On the north side of the park, you can find the Missouri History Museum, yet another free-to-enter space with a collection of permanent and rotating exhibits.
In the center of the park sits The Muny, an expansive open-air theater that showcases Broadway-quality performances during the summer months. The Muny has paid seating, but there are also a limited number of free seats in the back.
The list goes on. You can check out the Forest Park Visitor’s Center, peek inside the exquisite Jewel Box, bring the kids to the Anne O’C. Albrecht Nature Playscape, play golf at one of the two courses in the park, ice skate in the winter at the Steinberg Skating Rink, or see one of dozens of other sights in and around Forest Park.
As bubbles go, Forest Park is one of the biggest, as there’s literally no way to do it all in a day, or even three. Better yet, Forest Park is a place with seemingly endless revisit possibilities. It’s no Disney World, but as bubbles go, it’s about as close as it gets in St. Louis.
Do you have a favorite St. Louis area bubble? Let us know about it in the comments.
