{"id":551132,"date":"2026-04-26T04:52:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T04:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/551132\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T04:52:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T04:52:15","slug":"inside-the-obscure-us-city-with-new-flights-from-the-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/551132\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the obscure US city with new flights from the UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

My way of battling jet lag? Run it off. When I wake up far too early in St Louis in Missouri after an eight-hour flight the day before, I slip on my trainers and take myself on a tour of downtown. Here is the limestone behemoth that is Union railroad station, once the biggest in the world, now a hotel with the air of a royal castle. There is the Gateway Arch, the world\u2019s tallest manmade arch, its stainless steel glinting in the 6am sun. And oh, hi, you must be the Mississippi, the second longest river in the US and certainly its brownest, which meets the Missouri \u2014 the longest \u2014 15 miles north.<\/p>\n

This midsize Midwestern city may not be the most obvious US<\/a> destination, but it heaves with superlatives \u2014 the biggest this, the tallest that. And it\u2019s just got easier to explore thanks to the launch of British Airways flights from Heathrow, the airline\u2019s 27th US gateway and St Louis\u2019s only direct link with the UK. The city is about 300 miles southwest of Chicago<\/a> and its metropolitan area stretches into Illinois across the river. It is a common starting point for those visiting Mark Twain\u2019s home town of Hannibal to the north and the Ozark Mountains to the south. I was on the first flight last weekend and spent a couple of days getting a feel for the city itself.<\/p>\n

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Many institutions here, from the Old Cathedral to St Louis University, are described as being the oldest of their kind west of the Mississippi. The city was founded as a fur trading post by the French in 1764, before being bought by the US as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. It was from St Louis that the Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the territories to the west that were acquired from Napoleon, nearly doubling the size of the country, set off the following year.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tWhat you need to know\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Where is it? St Louis is the second biggest city in Missouri, about 300 miles southwest of Chicago. New flights from Heathrow, the first direct link with the UK, launched on April 19\u00a0<\/p>\n

Who will love it? City-breakers with a passion for American history, indulgent food and live music<\/p>\n

Insider tip The Gateway Arch has a fascinating little museum beneath it telling the story of St Louis, from the Mississippian culture that predates the city to the engineering feats involved in the arch\u2019s construction<\/p>\n

The 630ft symbol of the city<\/p>\n

This pioneer spirit and the expansion of the US are what my first stop, the Gateway Arch, commemorates. This 630ft-high structure, designed by the Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen, has become a symbol of the city since opening in 1965. A ride to the top in one of the windowless, white-painted tram capsules feels like something from a sci-fi film (from \u00a311; gatewayarch.com). From the viewing platform you can see 30 miles into Missouri and peer down into the Old Courthouse, where the landmark 1857 Dred Scott slavery case was tried; the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling that enslaved people weren\u2019t citizens and so could not sue for freedom thrust the nation towards civil war.<\/p>\n

\"DowntownThe Old Courthouse sits in the shadow of the Gateway Arch Getty images<\/p>\n

Perhaps owing to its historical importance, the city really punches above its weight in terms of big-ticket attractions, which I spend my first day checking off. One highlight is the Anheuser-Busch brewery, an ornate red-brick complex a ten-minute cab ride south from the arch, where Budweiser has been produced since the 19th century. A one-hour Clydesdale VIP Experience tour does away with the tedious nitty-gritty of beer production and instead focuses on\u2026 horses. The shiny-coated, feathered-hoof Clydesdales were first introduced in 1933 to promote Budweiser after Prohibition; about fifty are kept in central St Louis. I meet the delightful Rock On, who is eight years old and is now a superstar thanks to his role befriending an eagle in a Super Bowl ad (tours including a beer from \u00a322; budweisertours.com).<\/p>\n

Another highlight is the St Louis Art Museum, which occupies a grand building built for the World\u2019s Fair of 1904, the same year the city hosted the first Olympics outside Europe. It stands on a hill in the middle of Forest Park, a vast expanse nearly twice the size of Central Park in New York, a ten-minute drive west from downtown. The Sculpture Hall displays five monumental works by the German painter Anselm Kiefer that depict his childhood on the Rhine alongside a tumultuous boat trip along the Mississippi he took in the 1990s. More serene aquatic scenes such as Monet\u2019s Water Lilies and C\u00e9zanne\u2019s Bathers hide in adjacent rooms. Unusually for the US, the gallery is free to enter and the same goes for the neighbouring Missouri History Museum and St Louis Zoo (slam.org).<\/p>\n

\"AerialForest Park covers more than 1,300 acresExplore St Louis<\/p>\n

A hotel with its own 24\/7 art gallery<\/p>\n

Just as surprising are the affordable rates at 21c Museum Hotel, in a ten-floor former YMCA building in downtown that resembles an outsize Italian palazzo. The rooms are simply done out but spacious, the bathrooms have walk-in showers and with room-only doubles from \u00a3128, they\u2019re half the cost of comparable hotels in larger US cities. My ninth-floor room facing east has brilliant views of the arch. But the most original thing about 21c is its contemporary art gallery, open 24\/7 on the first floor. I get up before sunrise on my second morning and spend a surreal half-hour browsing its completely deserted The Future Is Female exhibition \u2014\u00a0a standout is the British artist Zoe Buckman\u2019s vintage lingerie embroidered with Notorious BIG and Tupac lyrics about women, ranging from empathetic to shocking (21cmuseumhotels.com).\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is no getting around the fact that car-centric St Louis sprawls. The city is not built for tourists \u2014 me, for instance \u2014 with a passion for racking up 30,000 steps daily. This means you will be reliant on a rental vehicle (or, in the case of my two-day visit, cabs), but a key part of the city\u2019s appeal is its 79 spread-out neighbourhoods, each with a distinct vibe, where you can get a feel for local life \u2014 with few other visitors for company.<\/p>\n

\"TwoThe gallery at 21c Museum Hotel is open 24 hours a dayPETER FRANK EDWARDS<\/p>\n

On my second day I enjoy gawping at the Gilded Age mansions of the Central West End, where TS Eliot and Tennessee Williams lived. This elegant but eclectic neighbourhood to the east of Forest Park sprung up at the turn of the 20th century and is so posh even the streetlamps look like chandeliers. The Cathedral Basilica, decorated with more than 41 million luminous mosaic pieces, is the main draw (free; cathedralstl.org), but I can also vouch for the gooey butter cake ice cream at Clementine\u2019s Creamery, the chunks of cake made gloriously chewy by reversing the proportions of butter and flour (scoops from \u00a34; clementinescreamery.com).<\/p>\n

Another area I love is the graffitied entertainment strip known as the Delmar Loop, north of the park. Here I get a sense of the city\u2019s rich musical heritage thanks to the St Louis Hall of Fame with its 150 stars and plaques honouring notable St Louisans including Scott Joplin, Tina Turner, Miles Davis and Josephine Baker. A bronze sculpture of the rock\u2019n\u2019roll pioneer Chuck Berry stands opposite the Blueberry Hill music venue, where he played 209 consecutive monthly concerts from 1996 to 2014.<\/p>\n

OTT food, from toasted ravioli to frozen custard<\/p>\n

\"AerialWork on the Cathedral Basilica was completed in 1914Mark Hermes \/ Explore St. Louis<\/p>\n

Now, the food. If you like big flavours and OTT portions, you\u2019re in for a treat. Salt + Smoke in the Delmar Loop is where to try toasted ravs, said to have been invented in St Louis when a chef accidentally dropped ravioli in oil in the 1940s \u2014 its smoky brisket ones are delicious dipped in a tangy white vinegar sauce (mains from \u00a310; saltandsmokebbq.com). The other only-in-St-Louis thing to try is \u201cconcretes\u201d, whopping great cups of frozen custard so thick they\u2019re served upside down at Ted Drewes on US Route 66, which passes through the city. I go for a large Cardinal Sin with tart cherries and hot fudge. No regrets (concretes from \u00a34; teddrewes.com).<\/p>\n

For a slightly more elevated experience, a five-minute drive from downtown is Scout\u2019s in Midtown, the city\u2019s hot ticket right now. Its \u201cNew American\u201d cooking involves super-indulgent takes on Mediterranean classics such as bucatini with pecorino, black pepper and sesame seeds, as good as any cacio e pepe I\u2019ve had in Rome (mains from \u00a319; scouts.toast.site). And just around the corner, None of the Above is a plush, low-lit speakeasy in the basement of a former iron foundry where the drinks lean savoury \u2014 my Hejaz Railway with tahini fat-washed Armagnac, zaatar, marjoram, honey, Suze and lemon is an Ottolenghi obsessive\u2019s dream (cocktails from \u00a312; notastl.com).<\/p>\n

\"AA cup of frozen custard is a must-tryKevin A. Roberts\/Explore St Louis<\/p>\n

Going by the effusive local TV coverage of the new BA flights I watch in my hotel room, St Louisans are thrilled to get only their second European route (the other is Frankfurt). But we\u2019re lucky too. The city is a great place to follow Route 66 \u2014 celebrating its 100th anniversary this year \u2014\u00a0and continue east to Chicago or west to Tulsa, Albuquerque and Los Angeles. If I were here for longer, though, I\u2019d explore more of those neighbourhoods, see some jazz at the Grandel or hip-hop at Sophie\u2019s cocktail lounge and perhaps catch a St Louis Cardinals baseball game at the Busch Stadium in downtown.\u00a0<\/p>\n

How\u2019s this for a superlative, then? Last weekend was certainly the most fun I\u2019ve had west of the Mississippi. Meet you in St Louis.
Huw Oliver was a guest of British Airways, which has Heathrow-St Louis returns from \u00a3645 (britishairways.com<\/a>), and Explore St Louis (explorestlouis.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"My way of battling jet lag? Run it off. When I wake up far too early in St…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-551132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}