The family-friendly visitor complex freshens up its offerings with a roller coaster and other outdoor rides. Indoor favorites include the St. Louis Aquarium.
St. Louis Union Station has introduced three new rides in the outdoor Wheel Park, enhancing its reputation as a family entertainment magnet in downtown St. Louis.
Located adjacent to the 200-foot-tall St. Louis Wheel and next to Union Station’s landmark train shed, the new rides are Flying Louie, a 42-seat swinging pirate ship; Loco Motion, a 16-seat, train-themed roller coaster; and Wave Swinger, a classic swing ride decorated in themes from the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. New carnival games in the former railroad depot also have been introduced.
Wave Swinger
Other Wheel Park options include a carousel and 18-hole mini-golf course. Guests can purchase individual ride tickets or combination tickets that include several of Union Station’s fun attractions.
Steps from the carousel you’ll find a pond where vending machines dispense pellets for feeding the fish. Facing the water are three full-service restaurants—Landry’s Seafood, The Train Shed gastro pub and St. Louis Union Station Soda Fountain, a retro diner renowned for its Instagram-worthy ice cream creations.
Indoor Attractions at St. Louis Union Station
The Train Shed sits adjacent to the two-story St. Louis Aquarium, the centerpiece of the complex’s indoor crowd-pleasers. It is known as the most interactive aquarium in the country.
Touch pools let guests pet a bamboo shark, caress a slippery stingray, and feel the shell of a horseshoe crab, bumpy skin of a sea star and protective spine of a slate-pencil sea urchin. Perhaps the most bizarre encounter is having your hands nibbled in a pool swarming with tiny doctorfish. (The fish actually are used to chew off dead skin in spa treatments.)
St. Louis Aquarium
In scheduled educational “shows” throughout the day, Animal Ambassadors take center stage to trot out a “performing” creature, whether it be a six-banded armadillo, a two-toed sloth, hissing cockroach, ball python, red-tail boa or an African spurred tortoise.
At Shark Canyon, the largest habitat and one whose J-wall arches over their heads, guests crane their necks to watch sharks and devil rays glide across the ceiling of water. Puffer fish, sea turtles, the giant Pacific octopus and other species also delight wide-eyed visitors looking upward or pressing their noses against the expansive main window of the 250,000-gallon saltwater tank.
Other indoor attractions at Union Station include the Ropes Course Sky Trail, A-Maze-Ing Mirror Maze and Selfie Express photo illusion experience.
Grand Hall, St. Louis Union Station Hotel
Architectural Grandeur Graces Union Station’s Hotel
Built in 1894, the old railroad station houses the 567-room St. Louis Union Station Hotel, a member of the Curio Collection by Hilton.
The hotel’s barrel-vaulted Grand Hall, once the main waiting room of the world’s largest and busiest train terminal, wows anyone who enters for the first time. Arguably St. Louis’ most magnificent public interior, the sumptuous lobby lounge is a symphony in gold leaf, marble, wood carpentry, stenciling and stained glass. Intricate mosaics, ornate plasterwork, graceful archways and green glazed terracotta bricks from Italy enhance the splendor.
Accompanied by music, nightly 3D light shows projected onto the 65-foot-high ceiling dazzle guests relaxing in armchairs and sofas or seated at the long marble bar. During my recent stay, I caught kaleidoscopic shows themed around St. Louis history and the ragtime music of Scott Joplin.
St. Louis Union Station fronts Market Street in downtown St. Louis.
Union Station’s castle-like headhouse, a National Historic Landmark, stretches an entire block along Market Street. Constructed of Indiana limestone, the Romanesque-style “fortress” sports gables, red-roofed turrets and a clock tower patterned after architecture in the medieval walled city of Carcassonne, France.
Train-Themed Guest Rooms
Guest rooms pay homage to Union Station’s history with artwork depicting railroad themes. On Floors 3 and 4 in the headhouse, high-ceilinged nests in the premium Grand Hall and Clock Tower room categories are named after famous railroads or legendary trains like The Texan, Dixie Flyer and Wabash Cannonball. Vintage Pullman advertisements touting the luxury of passenger rail travel adorn the hallways.
Besides the fancier digs in the headhouse, the hotel has modern, six-story wings surrounding a courtyard garden under the steel girders of the massive 11.5-acre train shed. Once the world’s largest roof span, the sprawling piece of real estate held 42 tracks. The courtyard’s swimming pool operates from May to October.
The hotel’s courtyard swimming pool
On a recent stay, my room was decorated with photos of the Missouri Pacific and New York Central railroads, with text extolling the Missouri Pacific’s history.
The hotel’s Station Grille occupies the elegant confines of the former Fred Harvey restaurant, one of the 80-some Harvey Houses that served passengers during the heyday of rail travel.
Union Station’s newest eatery is The Pitch, a soccer-themed pub. It resides across the street from Citypark, home of the new St. Louis City SC soccer team.
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By Randy Mink, Senior Editor
Photos courtesy of St. Louis Union Station
