Ad­ven­tures in St. Louis: The Zoo

Peo­ple who are not orig­i­nally from St. Louis may not how much this city has to of­fer. As a St. Louis na­tive, I am here to of­fer my tips and tricks on cheap and en­ter­tain­ing things to do around the city as a Maryville stu­dent.

Would you like to see mon­keys, sea li­ons and baby ele­phants for free? Well, the St. Louis Zoo is for you! The St. Louis Zoo is ac­tu­ally pretty well-known, and was re­cently named the Best Zoo in 2018 by USA To­day. Go­ing to the zoo is one of my fa­vorite things to do here be­cause it’s free to get in and there are al­ways unique events go­ing on. Bess Ram­sey, a sopho­more at Maryville, says that she likes the zoo be­cause “it’s free and it’s a great way to spend time out­side.”

In ad­di­tion to an­i­mals, the St. Louis Zoo has some amaz­ing events com­ing up. On Oc­to­ber 5th, 6th, 12th, and 13th, they are putting on a free event called Zooto­ber­fest, which is their ver­sion of Ok­to­ber­fest from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. They will have live en­ter­tain­ment, kid ac­tiv­i­ties, food, and bev­er­ages. For those 21 and over, there will be sev­eral Ger­man bars serv­ing a wide va­ri­ety of beers.

Boo at the Zoo will be held at night dur­ing Oc­to­ber 15th-30th and ad­mis­sions is $7 for zoo mem­bers and $8 for non-zoo mem­bers. Boo at the Zoo is geared to­ward chil­dren, but there are plenty of things for adults to do as well. The event fea­tures show­ings of Happy Fam­ily 4D and spook­tac­u­lar nightly en­ter­tain­ment acts in­side the Sea Lion Sound Arena – both are in­cluded in the ad­mis­sion price. 

An­i­mal en­coun­ters with stingrays are avail­able at night for only $2 and vis­i­tors can ex­pe­ri­ence the Chil­dren’s Zoo and Herbar­ium at no ex­tra cost. Every­one is wel­come to dress up and the cos­tume pol­icy is avail­able on the zoo’s web­site.

The St. Louis Zoo has a lot to of­fer for Maryville stu­dents at lit­tle to no cost. For more in­for­ma­tion and to find more events, you can visit the zoo’s web­site.