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ST LOUIS
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Hotels in St Louis
• Holiday Inn Airport Oakland Pk St Louis from $68.70 USD
• Days Inn- Airport St Louis from $59.95 USD
• Travelodge St Louis Arpt Berkel St Louis from $59.25 USD
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Perched just below the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, three hundred miles south of Chicago and north of Memphis, cosmopolitan ST LOUIS (pronounced, whatever any song might say, as Lewis) owes its vaguely European air to its history and developed cultural infrastructure. Any city capable of producing two of the twentieth century's greatest poets - T.S. Eliot and Chuck Berry - probably has a lot going for it.
St Louis was founded in 1764 by the French fur trader Pierre Laclede , but the American immigration that followed its sale to the US under the Louisiana Purchase all but extinguished the refinement it had gained during French and Spanish rule. It subsequently became crucial as the major gateway for pioneers on the wagon trails westward. Transportation - first steamboats, then trains and now air haulage - has long been the basis of its considerable industrial strength. However, St Louis has not always had an easy ride. Downtown reached a nadir during the 1970s, but the years since then have seen a remarkable turnaround, with attractions on the revitalized riverfront including the magnificent Gateway Arch and the restored warehouses of Laclede's Landing .
Try not to leave without sampling the outlying districts. To the west lie arty Central West End and studenty University (or "U") City , on either side of prodigious Forest Park with its museums and playing fields. The blue-collar southside features the markets, antique shops and jazz pubs of Soulard and the Italian shops and caf?s of the Hill . Directly across the river in Illinois, East St Louis , once the stomping ground of jazz stars like Miles Davis and John Coltrane, has very little to offer visitors.
Lambert-St Louis International Airport (tel 314/426-8000) is a dozen miles northwest of downtown - $27 by taxi or $3 by bus or Metro Link. Some Greyhound buses call at the airport, though their main terminal is downtown at 1450 N 13th St. Amtrak stops at 550 S 16th St and Market Street down town. The Bi-State Transit System (tel 314/231-2345) operates the Metro Link, a light rail system serving the airport and most of the significant tourist sights; rides cost $1.25 (free in downtown Mon-Fri 11am-1.30pm). BSTS buses also go to all of the city's suburbs, but service can be slow and infrequent. Big Shark Bicycle Company, near Forrest Park at 6681 Delmar Blvd(tel 314/862-1188; $5 per hour or $20 per day), rents bikes .
The city runs visitor centers at 308 Washington Ave, near the riverfront (daily 9.30am-4.30pm; tel 314/241-1764), at the America Center in the massive Cervantes Convention Center, a few blocks back (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm; tel 1-800/916-0092), and at Kiener Plaza (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat 9am-2pm, closed Jan-Feb; tel 314/231-0336). The post office is at 1720 Market St (Mon-Fri 6.30am-2.30pm, Sat 7am-2pm; tel 1-800/275-8777; zip code 63155). You can access the internet at the St Louis Public Library, 1301 Olive St (Mon 10am-9pm, Tues-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat 10am-5pm), or inside Union Station at Big Fat Wow! computer terminals. For the latest events, visit .
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