Trip Motivation
We had not been to St Louis since Carter was a baby and a friend had recently posted about a cool dinosaur event at the Saint Louis Zoo. We were also working on accumulating Hyatt hotel nights for status.
We took our trip in April 2021. This was an easy trip with tons of awesome fun activities
For more on activities and restaurants, see here.
Nashville to St. Louis: 5-hour road trip
Nashville to St Louis is 4.5 hours per Google. Five hours with super quick stops. We left Nashville at 3p after school and arrived at 8p. When on road trips, our absolute favorite stops are Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores. Our kiddos know this too, and they love watching out for these for us. Depending on bladders, we aim for 2 hours between stops.
About halfway between St Louis and Nashville is the town of Metropolis, IN. There’s a giant Superman statue and a small Superman museum. This is a quick stop but also fun and something different!
Favorite kids activities for cars: White boards, sticker books, craft pile, easy readers, snacks, snacks and more snacks. Find more tip for road trips here
Hyatt Regency at the Arch
We stayed at the Hyatt Regency at The Arch. I was able to use a healthcare worker’s promotion instead of points for this trip. I emailed the hotel before the stay and asked if we could have the pet fee and parking fee waived and was surprised when they agreed to both! We were fortunate enough to be upgraded to a junior suite which gave the kids a separate place to sleep, always a plus. (Our status at the time was explorist) The hotel had a great fitness area and an onsite Starbucks. No pool at this hotel, but we had a busy weekend.
The location had its pros and cons. It was right next to the arch and an easy drive to the things we wanted to do. But being downtown also made it slightly more difficult to get food as everything was crowded with the St. Louis Cardinals fans. The restaurant was always busy, and there was a volleyball tournament which made things feel chaotic and definitely not the best for my Covid-crowd anxiousness. But overall, it was a good and decent place to stay.
Activities in St Louis
To read more about what we did in St Louis, see here.
