Summertime in St. Louis brings fireworks, flowers, and frozen custard. Opens swimming pools and water parks. And provides days of festivals, fairs and races. Everyday is an opportunity to do something new and fun in and around St. Louis.
One of the more unique summertime festivals in the St. Louis area centers around the "World's Largest Catsup Bottle" located in Collinsville Illinois. The Brooks Catsup Bottle was actually built as a water tower for the G.S. Suppiger catsup bottling plant in 1949. It has been restored and is now on the National Register of Historic Places and the City of Collinsville celebrates its birthday each year in July with a festival. St. Louis celebrates our nation's birth each year over the Fourth of July holiday with a big party that lasts several days called "Fair Saint Louis". This celebration is located on the Arch grounds and features fireworks displays each night of the Fair, an amazing Air Show, live entertainment on several stages and the VP Parade on the morning of the Fourth.
Swimming pools, waterparks and aquatic centers are the quintessential summertime places to be! And many of the St. Louis area communities have them such as the Aquaport in Maryland Heights, The Lodge Aquatic Center located in Des Peres and the Wood River Aquatic Center located in Wood River Illinois. Some of the larger water parks are Raging Rivers Waterpark in Grafton Illinois, Hurricane Harbor at Six Flags in Eureka and Splash City Family Waterpark in Collinsville. Visit our St. Louis Waterparks and Aquatic Centers page for more pool fun in the area. Another quintessential St. Louis summertime thing to do is to go on a float trip!! Many of the smaller rivers and creeks in Missouri that flow into the much larger Mississippi and Missouri Rivers provide clear and gentle waters for floating. The upper Meramec River, the Huzzah Creek, the Cuivre River and the Big River are just a few of them.
When it is too hot to do anything outside, consider doing something inside and visit one of the many museums located in the St. Louis Metropolitan area. One museum to visit would be the Holocaust Museum located in Creve Coeur Missouri. This museum tells powerful stories through pictures and artifacts of St. Louis residents who were Holocaust survivors. An appropriate museum to visit during the "dog days of summer" would be the American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog. This museum, located in the historic Jarville House, is dedicated to all things about the dog!
And of course, there are the many parks that dot our communities that provide summer fun-from picnics to fishing. St. Louis has one of the best parks in the nation being Forest Park! Forest Park has many summer perfect amenities, one of them is the Boathouse. The Boathouse is located on the Post-Dispatch Lake and visitors can rent paddle boats to take for a leisurely paddle on the lake. Also in the park is the Forest Park Golf Course, a public golf course that offers three 9-hole courses for a long or short day of golf. The Muny is St. Louis' premiere outdoor amphitheater that brings in Broadway plays and can only be enjoyed during the months of June, July and August! Then there is the Zoo, the Art Museum, the Missouri History Museum, the bike trails and picnic sites, all in Forest Park, that make perfect places to spend those lazy days of summer!
For more ideas of what to do in St. Louis during the summer, see the list below!