We (me, my husband, and elderly parents) will be staying in St Louis for a night in March on a road trip vacation to Nashville, then on to GA, SC, NC. We'll want to stay more on the perimeter of St Louis to avoid rush hour traffic. I'm wondering about the following St Louis areas....are they safe and which would be a better choice for convenience and decent hotels?

St Louis West
Westport Maryland Heights
Fairview Heights, O'Fallon, Collinsville

Any insight provided would be appreciated. Thanks!

Are you just stopping for the night and driving through or are you planning on seeing anything in St. Louis?
Where are you getting your St. Louis area descriptions from (Priceline?)

Where are you coming from? The hotels in Southern IL (Fairview Htgs, Collinsville, O'Fallon) are on the way to Nashville but then you won't be as well situated to do anything in St. Louis if that is your goal. (and there is an O'Fallon, MO but I assume you meant the Illinois one).

Give me some more info, and I'll be glad to help you out if I can.

Thanks for the quick response, Liz 5959. We'll be coming from Nebraska stopping just for the night in STL. Area descriptions are from Hotwire and I was referring to O'Fallon, IL.

Regarding Hotwire, I'm 90% certain of the identity of a 3.5 star hotel in Westport Maryland Heights area, but not sure on any of the hotels offered in the other two areas I mentioned. Price is important or I wouldn't be considering using Hotwire, but convenience and safety matter too.

Which Hotel in Westport? Westport if perfectly safe, will have some restaurant options if you need them and close to highways to get back on in the morning to head to Nashville. If you don't want/need to see anything in St. Louis, staying in Westport is a fine option.

This is a list of Westport Hotels.
http://www.hotels-stl.com/WPP.htm

They are all, of course, not really in Westport but the list still may help you. The Courtyard and Drury Inn in Creve Coeur are NOT Westport but would also be fine stopping one night spots if fit your budget..

One more point, if you're trying to avoid rush hour, it would be silly to go all the way through STL to get to IL during the late afternoon/evening. Crossing the river at rush hour is always very busy. You will have to cross at some time but morning rush hour will be better as most people will be going over the bridge in the opposite direction (into STL).

I bid on Priceline for a 3.5* downtown St. Louis last spring and got the Hyatt Regency for two nights at a ridiculously cheap price (maybe not anymore - they were renovating last year). The hotel was in a great location, right across the street from the Arch and the riverfront park and near the sports arenas. Of course, you may have to pay for parking downtown - I think I parked on the street one night (after meter enforcement) and then in the lot next door at the Crowne Plaza. There isn't really a lot going on downtown other than sports and the few tourist things like the Arch, but for just one night that's probably the area I'd shoot for.

If you don't care about sightseeing, I'd recommend staying in O'Fallon,IL so you don't have to worry about rush hour on bridges, etc. It's a nice, safe, outer belt suburb.

Great info from you all. Thanks!

The area we end up staying in will probably depend on the time of day we hit the STL area. If it's 4:30 or later, I'm guessing it would probably be better to stop and stay in the Westport/MarHeights area. Let me know if rush hour starts earlier or later.

Liz5959 - The 3.5 star hotel I mentioned is (I believe) either the Sheraton Westport Chalet or Sheraton Westpot Plaza. Any comments of either of these accomodations?

If we hit STL earlier than 4:30, I think we'll keep driving and head for O'Fallon. That Hotwire area includes Fairview Heights, O'Fallon, and Collinsville with no guarantees we'll get lodging in O'Fallon. What about Fairview Heights or Collinsville...would they be 'nice, safe, outer belt suburb' as well?

Earth City, just outside of St Louis, is virtually deserted and has a nice Holiday Inn Express. I stay there at least once a month for work. It's easy to access the city but you don't deal with the traffic or noise of the city. There's also a Dave & Buster's (great food and fun games) next door to the Holiday Inn and a casino nearby.

Thanks, tru-echo, but as I mentioned, I'm planning to use Hotwire. The area east of St Louis that Hotwire offers is Fairview Heights/O'Fallon/Collinsville. If I choose that Hotwire area, I won't know until I submit which hotel and which of those three towns the hotel will be situated in. Sounds like O'Fallon, IL is a nice, quiet suburb....just trying to find out if FH and Collinsville are too.

Have you checked to see if you can get just as good of a deal booking direct so you'll know where you'll be? Just a thought, as a lot of the hotels around St. Louis aren't very expensive. I'm only familiar with Earth City, Hazelwood (I wouldn't stay there) & downtown St. Louis so unfortunately I don't know anything about the other areas you've mentioned. Whatever you end up doing I hope it works out well for you!

Thanks again, tru_echo. In that Hotwire area, the 3*is $46 and the 2.5* hotel is $49 (i.e. Hilton Garden Inn, Holiday Inn Exp, Hampton Inn, or similar). Haven't found anything close to that price on any other site. I've been using Hotwire for about 10 years and have always been happy with my results. Appreciate your well wishes!

Hi, lovebug. I imagine you've already booked by now (and great prices, by the way).

Rush time starts earlier on Fridays, and I wish I had that kind of job. 4:30 it's in full swing most weekdays and in effect until 6-6:30.

This is probably too late, but any of the locations you mentioned in Illinois will be fine. I grew up in this area...I have lived in both Collinsville and O'Fallon and my in-laws still live in Collinsville. Fairview has a mall and lots of chain restaurants and shops surrounding it. Collinsville has a lot of decent restaurants near the hotels as well.

Any time near 4:30 in St. Louis is a bad time to be commuting anywhere! Rush hour isn't fun. Crossing the bridge into Illinois can be a nightmare on occassion, and Wesport won't be any better (I used to work near there, in Creve Coeur). Your best bet would be to try to time it so that you arrive in the St. Louis area well before 4:00 pm.

Tracy

Hi stokebailey and tcreath. Not too late at all. I've always made reservations for our trips months in advance, but this trip is going to be different. Kind of 'fly by the seats if our pants'! I probably won't make our reservation for St Louis until the night before we leave and then continue on making our hotel reservations along the way. This will allow us to take our time and if my parents have any health issues along the way, we can always turn around and drive home.

Thanks for the added info on rush hour traffic and O'Fallon, Collinsville, and Fairview. Very helpful. I think we'll maybe eat dinner before we get to STL. If you know of any good restaurants on 70 between Columbia, MO and STL, I'd love to hear about them. Also wouldn't hurt to know of good restaurants in the O'Fallon/ Collinsville/Fairview area. Just looking for reasonably priced, tasty food. Doesn't need to be fancy.

To add to the mix here... I wish I knew of good restaurants between STL and Columbia. Suggest you eat pizza at Shakespeare's in Columbia, with the students, or wait till you're in O'Fallon MO (near Wentzville, definitely west of STL) and hit the O'Fallon Brewery. Good food, Excellent Beer. Their pumpkin ale in October is best ever, and they do other seasonals too. Food is definitely unrelated to regular bar food. Other than that, chains like Applebee's are probably a best bet.
FH / Collinsville / O'Fallon IL are safe, have typical chain hotels and restaurants. Your big problem will be rush hour across the bridge, as others have said. There are Red Roof Inns near the airport - go online to search - but not sure they can beat your prices already.
Drury Inns are along 170, a N/S cut between I-270 and I-64, and if you choose the one on Clayton Rd, you're right next to the Galleria Shopping Mall with the Cheesecake Factory, CPK, a food court, and a movie theater. Ethnic and high-end restaurants in Clayton can be excellent; I'd suggest Remy's Kitchen and Wine Bar. Terrific food; excellent service and presentation. Our waiter one night is a PhD candidate in German history, set to teach at Yale in the fall. Certainly added to the fun of a good dinner.

A few miles off I-70 in between Columbia and St. Louis is Hermann. It's a cute little German town and there are some decent restaurants there. My husband and I used to eat at the German restaurant at the Stone Hill Winery. Hermann has a nice tourist website that you could look into if you are interested. http://www.hermannmissouri.com/

In Fairview Heights there is a great restaurant called Lotta Watta Creek. Just good food (burgers, sandwiches, salads, steaks, etc), but beware that it gets crowded for dinner and there may be a wait. Actually, just about anywhere in Fairview will have a wait around dinnertime if you will be there on a weekend night.

In Collinsville there is Bandanas, which is a local BBQ chain. If you don't want a typical chain restaurant, I suggest this place. Their BBQ is pretty good. Also in Collinsville is Ravanelli's, an excellent Italian restaurant. My family had been going to the original location in Granite City since I was a child. I haven't been to this second location but I've heard that it's just as good as the original.

Good luck!
Tracy

Hermann would be a lovely side trip. It is 13 miles fromn I-70, half of them winding. You can meander into St. Louis along Hway 100 afterwards.

Having to prepay is a disadvantage with Priceline and Hotwire, certainly, but possibly could pick up last minute bargains there.

DD and I were in St. Louis just this past weekend and I did Priceline for our room just two days before...$39 for a full-service Marriott just off I-64 and I-270! Whoo hoo!