I still remember the first time a friend of mine went to Strange Loop and said the conference was quite cool. When I realized it would the last edition of the conference, I decided to do my best to go to St. Louis and participate. The last edition happened in September 2023, and my description below reflects that.

Stay

Union Station Hotel is a great place to stay, especially if the conference is happening there and you get a discount code for your stay 😅. I paid ~$800 for 4 days stay.

It’s a historical building, where the old train station used to be. The old train station is a famous place and received thousands of travelers every day in the past. It’s sad that the USA don’t have decent trains going everywhere anymore, but at least they kept the place.

It’s one of the most beautiful hotel lobbies I ever seen (my experience is limited, though).

Airport

The airport is quite small, but I have nothing to complain about, everything worked well for me. My flight was 5AM, so I had to arrive there ~3AM to be able to get my flight. I think this is a tradeoff of a small airport/city.

Transport

They have the Metro Link, which is a train that connects the airport to the city center. It worked great. I was able to get from the airport to the city center spending $4, and it took 40 minutes.

Other than that, there’s not much transport other than cars, it’s a very car centric city. I decided to walk around and felt quite weird. It was as if I was doing something wrong. The only people in the streets were homeless.

You will mostly rely on Ride apps or renting a car, unfortunataly.

Places

  • City Museum: What an amazing place. Loved it. I can totally see how kids would love this place. There are slides and tunels everywhere. Definitely a place to visit if you’re in St. Louis.
  • Stifel Theater: The conference I attended was there. It’s a beautiful theater, and I think it’s worth visiting even if there’s no event happening there.
  • Bodach’s Games: It’s a shop that sells many kinds of games. Electronic games, card games, board games, etc. I decided to visit because a friend from Twitter is from Misouri and said it’s a nice place to play MTG. I didn’t have my deck with me, but it was nice to see people playing Pauper there. They also have a giant bank safe inside the store. It’s quite cool! Definitely recommend the visit if you’re into games.
  • 21c museum lounge: A friend of mine was staying in this hotel and we had the chance to stay in the lobby drinking and having a conversation. The hotel looks nice and we had some shuffle board games while we were there. :)

Food

  • Sugarfire Smoke House: We were looking for a “St. Louis” BBQ and went to this place. It was nice. Nothing to complain.
  • The Pitch Athletic Club & Tavern: I went to this place because it was very close to the hotel I was staying. It’s a sports bar, so not really my thing. The place is nice, though. We had some chicken wings and they were good.
  • Anchor room coffee house: It’s ran by volunteers of the church. We went there at the day of the conference and there were a lot of people looking for coffee out of knowhere. The people there (1 person) was doing their best to serve everyone in time. There were nice and the coffee was good, just avoid going there with a crew of ~20 people 😅.
  • Seoul taco: Had a burrito there and it was great. Recommended.
  • City Foundry STL: Great place to eat and visit the local market. They had live music and good diversity of food when I went there for dinner. We had a great time!
  • Catalyst coffee bar: It’s an art museum and coffee shop (nothing to eat, though). I had some good coffee there and visited the art museum. I would definitely returm for more coffee.
  • The Train Shed: We went to this place because it was very close the to Union Station Hotel, but it was very good. It is in the Union Station, so you can appreciate the place while having some decent food.