Visiting Missouri on a Budget
Missouri's free travel headlines in its two big cities. In St. Louis, Forest Park alone packs four free institutions — the Saint Louis Art Museum, Science Center, Zoo, and Missouri History Museum — plus the free Gateway Arch museum and Cathedral Basilica. Kansas City counters with the free Nelson-Atkins Museum and its giant shuttlecocks, the quirky free Money Museum, and 18th & Vine's jazz and Negro Leagues history. Beyond the metros, the Midwest meets the Ozarks: Springfield's Wilson's Creek Battlefield and Bass Pro Outdoor World are free, Columbia delivers Mizzou's free museums and the Francis Quadrangle Columns, and up the Mississippi, Hannibal celebrates Mark Twain with his boyhood home and the free Cardiff Hill lighthouse.
Cities in Missouri
Pick a city to see free attractions, cheap activities, and budget travel tips.
St. Louis, Missouri
Missouri's biggest city is a budget-travel powerhouse, largely thanks to Forest Park — bigger than New York's Central Park and home to four free institutions: the Saint Louis Art Museum, Science Center, Zoo, and Missouri History Museum. Downtown, the Gateway Arch grounds and museum are free (only the tram up costs extra), and Citygarden, the Cathedral Basilica's 41-million-tile mosaics, and Laumeier's sculpture park add still more at no charge. When you do pay, the Missouri Botanical Garden ($14), Magic House ($15), and the gloriously weird City Museum ($20) round out a city where most of the marquee sights are free.
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Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City rivals St. Louis for free culture and tops it for free art: the Nelson-Atkins Museum — fronted by giant badminton shuttlecocks on its lawn — is free daily, as are the Kemper contemporary museum, the Museum of Kansas City in a Gilded Age mansion, and the delightfully odd Money Museum at the Federal Reserve. Add free strolls through the Spanish-style Country Club Plaza, the historic City Market, and Loose Park's rose garden. Paid picks stay cheap and meaningful: the National WWI Museum ($19.50), the Negro Leagues Baseball and American Jazz museums ($10 each) at historic 18th & Vine, and hands-on Science City.
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Springfield, Missouri
The Queen City of the Ozarks sits at the edge of southwest Missouri's hill country and punches well above its weight for budget travelers. Wilson's Creek National Battlefield preserves the first major Civil War battle west of the Mississippi (free since 2023), and the 113-acre Springfield Botanical Gardens and the spectacle of Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World — with its free aquariums, waterfalls, and three on-site museums — are city-defining free experiences. The History Museum on the Square, Route 66 Car Museum, Air & Military Museum of the Ozarks, Dickerson Park Zoo, and 79-acre Springfield Conservation Nature Center round out a budget weekend.
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Columbia, Missouri
Home to the University of Missouri, Columbia is a lively college town built around a walkable campus full of free museums and historic landmarks. The Museum of Art and Archaeology and the iconic six Columns of Francis Quadrangle anchor the campus, while the 9-mile MKT Nature & Fitness Trail rolls south to the famed Katy Trail. Beyond Mizzou, the 116-acre Stephens Lake Park, the cave-and-bluff Rock Bridge Memorial State Park (home to Devil's Icebox and Connor's Cave), and the 5-acre Shelter Gardens are all free. The State Historical Society's Bingham and Benton paintings and the Saturday Columbia Farmers Market complete the picture.
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Hannibal, Missouri
Hannibal is Mark Twain's hometown — the Mississippi River town that gave the world Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. The $20 Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum campus is the marquee paid pick, but most of Twain's Hannibal is free: the 244-step climb up Cardiff Hill to the 1935 Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse, the bluff-top Lover's Leap, the renovated mile of riverfront sidewalk at Nipper Park, the 465-acre Riverview Park with its Clemens statue, the 1837 Old Baptist Cemetery that inspired Tom Sawyer's graveyard scene, and historic Main Street downtown. Add the $18 Rockcliffe Mansion Gilded Age tour and a weekend rarely tops $25 a day.
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More on Missouri from TravelCheapUS
In-depth budget travel guides from our companion blog that mention Missouri.