Driving in St. Louis?

[flintsters]

I made reservations at 370 Lakeside Park in St. Charles as a stopping point for our cross country trip this summer and plan to spend a day or 2 exploring St.Louis before heading out to Colorado. When thinking about it, if we stay at Lakeside Park it looks like we're at best we'll have a 40 minute drive each way or we can drive to a train station (20 minutes) and ride for another 30ish minutes. St. Louis RV Park is right downtown and looks like we could walk to City Museum or take a quick Uber to the Arch. Staying downtown would help keep our kids out of the truck a little, which I'm expecting they'll be ready for at that point (driving from Vermont). My concern is driving with a 34 foot travel trailer right into downtown St. Louis. I have read all of the reviews about St. Louis RV Park but none of them talk about the drive in or out of there, just their time inside the park (which is really just a parking lot with a pool....it's all about location). The reviews for 370 Lakeside are outstanding so perhaps I'd be best just to stick with what I have. Thoughts? Help save me from myself!!!!!!

[Oldtymeflyr]

We like the St. Louis RV park because of it's location and very basic facilities. The people have been nice when we stay there.

Do not walk around St. Louis. There are so many areas where bad things can happen in a hurry.

We lived in Detroit for 3 years, and I worked in downtown Detroit, some rough areas, St. Louis has a bad feel compared to Detroit and Detroit is not good.

Good Luck

Rick

[Oakman]

I think 370 Lakeside Park is the way to go. Yes, it is a farther drive to St. Louis but the amenities of the park are great. You can have a campfire and they even sell the firewood. There is a lake and you can rent a kayak, canoe, or a paddleboat. There’s an archery range and a 5 mile bike and hiking trail and bikes are available to rent. The park is easy to access too. 370 Lakeside is definitely more of a camping experience and would be my choice unless you want to stay in the city.

[lewisr]

We stayed at Cahokia RV Parque in East St. Louis. It was fine for a couple nights. Easy drive to St. Louis, and we had no problems with parking. Kids enjoyed the pool.

[Wadcutter]

flintsters wrote:

How was the driving on the freeway? It is entirely possible/likely that we'll be arriving and departing right in the rush hour windows.

No shoulders on a lot of the interstates passing thru town. Bumper to bumper at rush hour with people in the far left lanes wanting to be in the far right lanes and inverse. Your call of course. Even in a car I do all I can to avoid those times of day. No way I'd do it with a trailer but if you feel up to it then it's your trip.

I am intrigued by the idea of being right downtown and walking to things since we'll be in the truck for so much time before and after this stop. As much as I don't really want to be doing additional driving, I would rather do that than to sit in bumper to bumper/stressful driving situations.

This campground downtown is not one I'd care to be walking to and from particularly after dark. And I spent a career walking dark places and chasing bad guys. But again your call. Not recommended and I sure wouldn't put my family in that situation.
St Louis is definitely not one city you want to be in places at the wrong times of day. Your vacation. Depends on just how memoriable you want it to be. There's some very serious stuff happening in those parts of St Louis. An obvious out of town tourist walking in some of those areas will be easy pickings for people who live off of those unaware.

[1stgenfarmboy]

As far as what rt to take, I would come in on I70 to exit 15B to 270 to exit 22B to 370 to your campground exit number 2, you will miss all of town so you will be golden.


If you are comming across IL on I64 I would take exit 7 to I255 to I270 so I could miss down town.


we live 2 hours from StLouis and go pretty often to The Sitemans Cancer reserch center, I have been to down town litterly 100's of times and have not been in a traffic jam in 15 years, they have alot of roads to take care of that if something comes up


Dar

[1stgenfarmboy]

the Metro-link is your ticket to explore town, the Arch is a must, the zoo is good, there is some good eatin on " The Hill ", The Lewis and Clark frontier park is cool in St Charles, and do not miss Cahokia Mounds what ever you do, got a good race track also " Gateway Motorsports "

Never stayed at the Casino Queen but I have left my car there and got on the metro, I guess it would be safer that a place without a guard.


as already said, rush hour is a killer, before and after not bad at all for a city that big, Atlanta is 10x worse.

[michigansandzil]

We just visited St Louis last spring. Pulled our 35 foot camper. We stayed at the St Louis West KOA. It worked out just fine for us.
Staying at the Casino didn't look like the best part of town, so we opted to drive 20 minutes into town each day. It was a non issue. This is also very close to 6 flags, if you plan on visiting.

Don't miss City Museum. We underestimated how long we'd need to stay there. We were there for 4 hours and closed the place at midnight, and my youngest was only 8! It still wasn't enough time. Probably not the best place for toddlers, but for school aged to adult, it was a blast.

As far as navigating the city goes, we drove from New Orleans to St Louis KOA without issue and pulled in at 10pm. 2 days later, we left St Louis at 9am for Michigan, and had no issues either way.

On a side note, I do not recommend visiting the zoo. We went because we had heard great things about it. It's free, so 6 million other people will be there with you. I did not find it to be superior to the local big city zoos in Detroit or Toledo. We could have spent our time elsewhere.

Enjoy your trip!

[flintsters]

agb2529 wrote:
We've stated at the St. Louis RV Park a couple of times and found it to be very convenient for access to everything in the area. It's not too far off the expressway (40/64) and in an industrial area so the streets can handle semi's, shouldn't be a problem getting your rig in. There's always a bunch of full size Class A's in the park and they're probably harder to maneuver than a TT.

And I'll second the vote on City Museum, nothing quite like it.

How was the driving on the freeway? It is entirely possible/likely that we'll be arriving and departing right in the rush hour windows. I am intrigued by the idea of being right downtown and walking to things since we'll be in the truck for so much time before and after this stop. As much as I don't really want to be doing additional driving, I would rather do that than to sit in bumper to bumper/stressful driving situations.

[agb2529]

We've stated at the St. Louis RV Park a couple of times and found it to be very convenient for access to everything in the area. It's not too far off the expressway (40/64) and in an industrial area so the streets can handle semi's, shouldn't be a problem getting your rig in. There's always a bunch of full size Class A's in the park and they're probably harder to maneuver than a TT.

And I'll second the vote on City Museum, nothing quite like it.

[Matt_Colie]

We twice tried to visit Purina Farms. The website said it would be open the both times. The first is was not, and the second we were told that there were no future visitor plans. We have not tried again.

There is also a "Transportation Museum" not far off. That was supposed to be open the first time, but had just been taken over by the state(?) and was closed that Monday. We got in the second time, they had a DC3, A small towboat and a huge collection of old rail cars. I mentioned that to a friend and he told me that has changed. They still have the towboat and corrected that the DC3 is really a C-47 in invasion stripes and there there is now a field of historically important rail engines and other such. That all matters if you care and if you do, check them out on the web and with Trip Advisor.

You will need to drive to this and there may not be room in the lot for the 5er.

Matt

[dblr]

Another vote for the Casino Queen campground, we visited there with our full size Kenworth and 40' 5th wheel, no problem getting in or out to the interstate and having the security take us to and from the train station saved us unloading the Smart car off to drive around.

[narcodog]

I can't tell you about any parks but I can say that at times driving through St Louis can be trying. I have made the trip both ways for the last ten years and if there is construction pay attention. Also try not to head west as the sun is setting because I70 drives right into the sun.

[ddndoug]

If your kids are a bit older make it a point to check out The City Museum

We too love Babler.

Doug

[Two_Jayhawks]

We frequent St Louis quite a bit for weekend trips coming from KC. We have stayed at many different RV parks but my favorite is 370 Lakeside.
It's large, spread out, lots of space between RV's, super easy to get to, and tons of stuff for the kids. Maybe someone from the area can correct me but I thought St Charles was only maybe a 25 drive to down town St. Louis.