Here’s Our Best & Worst Things From Missouri

In April, Shae, Truffles and I visited Missouri – the 33rd state on our 7 year, 50 state road trip.

Seeing as we’re planning on finishing all 50 states by the end of 2024, we’re having to fit in more states this year than we’ve visited in previous years. As a result, we only had 2.5 weeks to spend in the state, so we focused on its two biggest cities – St Louis and Kansas City.

Although we ended up leaving Kansas City a night early, we enjoyed our time there and have added St Louis to our list of potential cities to move to at the end of the road trip.

Here’s a list of our best and worst things from Missouri.

Favorite Accommodation We Stayed At

Stephen – No question – the Hyatt Regency St Louis At The Arch. We used to couple of suite upgrade awards to upgrade to a spacious suite, breakfast was tasty and it has an incredible location right next to the Gateway Arch.

Shae – Definitely the Hyatt Regency in St. Louis too. The Airbnb in Kansas City was so cute and cool and had it just been us it would’ve been great, but it wasn’t the right space for us and we ended up having to leave early because of it.

Favorite Meal

Stephen – Char Bar in Kansas City – the ribs, burnt ends and beef brisket were all excellent. Honorable mention goes to the pastrami sandwich we had at Tamm Avenue Bar; it was delicious, but way overpriced.

Shae – Oh man… It was all sooo good. I loved the pastrami sandwich from Tamm Avenue Bar despite its price, so I’d probably still list that although you couldn’t go wrong with any of the BBQ we had in Missouri.

Most Disappointing Meal

Stephen – I don’t think we ate anywhere that was truly disappointing, but the brisket and white bean chicken chili from Salt + Smoke Ballpark Village in St Louis weren’t as good as I’d expected for somewhere with such positive reviews on Google.

Shae – I don’t think I had a disappointing meal either, but I did get an egg and cheese bagel at City Market Coffee that wasn’t anything special so I’d skip it in the future.

Favorite Free Activity

Stephen – Wandering around Gateway Arch National Park. We took Truffles out there everyday and it was so nice being next to the Arch each time.

Shae – Definitely the Gateway Arch National Park which is totally free unless you want to go up in the tram. You can wander the grounds and enjoy the museum without spending a cent.

Favorite Paid Activity

Stephen – Probably going up inside the Gateway Arch, particularly because the tiny tram cars were an interesting way to ascend.

Shae – We didn’t do a lot of paid things in Missouri, so I’d also agree that the tram ride up into the Gateway Arch, and paying to see the movie beforehand, were well worth it and my favorite.

Favorite Pet-Friendly Activity

Stephen – In theory, Gateway Arch National Park. The Arch itself isn’t pet-friendly, but the park surrounding it is. However, I’ll give this award to both the Laumeier and Citygarden Sculpture Parks in St Louis as it’s nice that they both allow pups.

Shae – Hanging out by the Gateway Arch with Truffles. She and I sat outside a few times and just felt the grass in our toes while we people watched and looked at the Arch. It was wonderful.

Least Favorite Activity

Stephen – Sitting in our Airbnb in Kansas City having the whole building shake due to construction outside.

Shae – Going to the Laumeier Sculpture Park. I wasn’t impressed at all. The best piece of art was probably the eyeball statue but honestly, when you just have steel beams and one can’t tell if it’s a construction pile or art, you’re probably not doing your “sculpture garden” right.

Favorite Hike

Stephen – We didn’t really hike in Missouri – we just went on a number of walks all around. My favorite walk would be in Gateway Arch National Park.

Shae – We didn’t hike in Missouri.

Favorite Quirky Thing We Did

Stephen – I don’t know if it can truly be regarded as quirky, but the Arabia Steamboat Museum was an interesting type of museum as it was different to many other types of museums. It had thousands upon thousands of artifacts displayed in an impressive way that were recovered from a steamboat that sank in 1856.

Shae – I enjoyed trying to find the original wagon swales (ruts) from the Oregon Trail in Independence, MO – the official starting place if you ever played the old Oregon Trail video game.

Favorite Memory

Stephen – Walking outside our hotel and having the Gateway Arch be right there.

Shae – Meeting up with Beth, a long time reader, and her friend Shanna at Square One Brewery, as well as a few other local people to Missouri that shall go unnamed but not forgotten.

Funniest Moment

Stephen – Visiting a few places on Easter Sunday and Truffles posing for photos in her Easter bunny ears.

Shae – Seeing a “Hungry For Change? Vote Donner Party – Serving The People Since 1846″ t-shirt for sale in the National Frontier Trails Museum – I was *this* close to buying it.

Thing We Most Regretted

Stephen – Booking the Airbnb we did in Kansas City. It honestly wasn’t a bad Airbnb, it’s just that all the noise from the construction and creaking floorboards from above us caused Truffles to bark the entire time.

Shae – Wasting perfectly good museum time in “sculpture parks.”

Something We Missed And Want To See

Stephen – City Museum in St Louis. Many people recommended it, but we just didn’t get around to visiting there. Also, many more BBQ joints in Kansas City!

Shae – We missed the City Museum in St. Louis and the WWI Museum in Kansas City. I also wish I’d gone to the National Frontier Trails Museum for a day so I could’ve done the museum and not just the gift shop and outside area. We also missed a lot of the state by only going to St. Louis and Kansas City, so I wonder if we’re missing some hidden gems.

Our Biggest Surprise

Stephen – How much I enjoyed St Louis. It had never been on my list of cities I was particularly interested in visiting, but now it’s somewhere we could potentially see ourselves living for a little while at the end of the road trip.

Shae – How much I enjoyed St. Louis is probably the same for me and how much I wasn’t impressed with Kansas City after everyone told us how “all the cool stuff is on the Missouri side” when were in Kansas City in 2019 while visiting Kansas.

My Missouri Drinking Game Would Be…

Stephen – Every time you see someone drive through a red light in St Louis. It was bizarre – and kind of shocking – the sheer number of times we saw people just ignore red lights and just continue driving, or slow down to check the intersection and drove through the red light anyway.

Shae – Take a drink whenever you see something about Lewis and Clark’s journey.

Summary Of Missouri In 10 Words Or Less

Stephen – I could see myself living there which I wasn’t expecting.

Shae – St. Louis was great as was the BBQ.

Missouri Cities We Visited In Order From Favorite To Least Favorite

Stephen – St Louis, Kansas City.

Shae – St. Louis………… Kansas City.