St. Louis funds its biggest museums through a regional property tax, so the Art Museum, Science Center, Zoo and History Museum charge $0 forever. Add Cherokee Street taquerias under $10, $1 senior MetroLink fares and free Forest Park, and a full day costs under $30.
Cass Gilbert's 1904 World's Fair Palace of Fine Arts holds 34,000 works — the largest Max Beckmann collection on earth — and admission is permanently free via the Zoo-Museum District tax. Open Tue-Sun 10:00-17:00, Friday until 21:00; only ticketed special exhibitions cost extra.
Blues City Deli on McNair sells the Gerardo — capicola, salami, provel on toasted ciabatta — for around $11, with free live blues Wednesday through Saturday afternoons. Cash-friendly, counter service, lines form by 11:30 so arriving before noon means a table.
Two downtown blocks of the Gateway Mall hold 24 major sculptures — Mark di Suvero, Tom Otterness, a Keith Haring — with no fence, no ticket and no closing gate. The spray plaza and 1.1 m deep pool are legally wadeable, and lighting runs until 22:00 nightly.
The 1828 courthouse where Dred and Harriet Scott sued for freedom in 1846 reopened in 2025 after a $38 million restoration, with free entry, restored courtrooms and a cast-iron dome modelled on St Peter's. National Park rangers give free talks on the hour.
Operating since 1779, the oldest market west of the Mississippi runs Wed-Sat with produce stalls where a dollar still buys a pound of tomatoes in season. Saturdays 06:00-17:00 are the full run; vendors cut prices hard after 15:00 to avoid hauling stock home.
The six-block Latino corridor between Jefferson and Compton holds La Vallesana, Taqueria Durango and El Torito, where street tacos run $2.50-3.50 each and a full torta stays under $10. Most are open 10:00-21:00 and take cash preferentially.
Free permanent admission covers 750 hands-on exhibits, an animatronic T. rex and the skybridge over Highway 40 where radar guns clock passing traffic. Open daily 09:30-16:30; only the OMNIMAX dome and planetarium shows carry a ticket price.
The 1941 custard stand on Chippewa — the original Route 66 alignment — serves concretes so thick they are handed over upside down. A mini runs about $4.50, a regular $6. Open daily until 23:00 during the season; no seating, everyone eats on the lot.
Consistently ranked among the top free zoos worldwide, with 16,000 animals across 90 acres and no gate charge at all — a legacy of the 1913 city charter. Open 08:00-17:00 summer, 09:00-16:00 winter. Only the railroad, carousel and sea lion show are ticketed.
A two-hour MetroLink pass costs $3 and the Delmar station drops you onto the six-block Loop, named one of the ten great American streets. The St. Louis Walk of Fame sets 150 bronze stars into the sidewalk — Chuck Berry, Miles Davis, Maya Angelou — free to walk.
An 1898 Romanesque standpipe disguised as a Tuscan campanile, 179 feet tall with 198 steps to an open observation deck. It opens only on full-moon evenings and the first Saturday of the month, roughly April-October, for $5 cash at the door.
The mile-long 1929 Route 66 crossing with a 22-degree bend mid-river is now pedestrian and cycle only, free to cross, with the 1894 castle-like water intake towers standing in the Mississippi below. Gates open 09:00 to sunset year-round.