Only 25 minutes from campus, St. Louis offers everything you’d expect from a major metropolitan area: libraries, parks, museums, theaters, a symphony hall, professional sports, and restaurants galore. There are many family-friendly attractions including the Magic House (a huge, interactive children’s museum), Grant’s Farm (a unique zoo and venue for seasonal shows), Sky Zone (a warehouse full of trampoline surfaces for every age), and the City Museum (a vast, indoor, one-of-a-kind playground for kids and adults).

To see for miles in every direction, head to the top of the Arch, St. Louis’ landmark and “gateway to the West.” The Missouri Botanical Garden is one of the nation’s premier horticultural centers and has both a children’s garden and whimsical interactive play area. Then there’s Forest Park, 500 acres larger than Central Park in New York City, it contains art and history museums, a world-class zoo, a science and aviation center, restaurants, golf, tennis, ice-skating, recreational boating, a theater, playgrounds, picnic areas, and a famous sledding hill.