I’ve never heard anyone say they were headed to Springfield, Missouri for a vacay…but I’m here to tell you that both the young and young at heart will enjoy a day or two at the Bass Pro flagship store in Springfield. This store is not just a store…it’s a destination! Consider combining this with a couple of other towns nearby to sample Missouri and create a unique vacation!
The headquarters for Bass Pro is located in Springfield, Missouri and thus, their incredible flagship store, which, frankly, is really more an experience.
If you’ve been following our blog, you know that we really loved the area around Bentonville, Arkansas, which is only is only 2 hours south of Springfield so for a long weekend getaway start in the Bentonville area (fly into Fayetteville and rent a car). Bike the trails, visit Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art as well as 21C Museum Hotel, visit the Daisy Airgun Museum, eat at Crepes Paulette, and grab some Onyx Coffee Lab (post here has more info).
If you have some extra time before your 2 hour drive to Springdale MO, stop in Branson which is not shy about claiming to be the “Live Entertainment Capitol of the World” with over 50 theaters. Branson has a population of just over 10,000 people but this town support on an average day about 10x that many tourists (100,000 per day and over 8 million visitors per year!) Whether you’re looking for a magic show, an ABBA tribute, mystery theater, country or bluegrass music, you’ll find it there.
In Springdale, I’ll admit that the Johnny Morris Wonders of Wildlife (WOW) National Museum and Aquarium looked like a quick hour stop until we stepped inside and realized that this “aquarium”
- Is housed in 350,000 sq. feet
- features more than one-and-a-half million gallons of water and thousands of live fish and
- contains 1.5 miles of dense exhibits. Some are life-sized dioramas in settings that vary from the African Savanna to the Arctic Tundra and include multiple specimens of full-sized animals and detailed effects such as animal noises and lightening to provide an immersive experience. You’ll come eye-to-eye with the greatest collection for record setting game animals ever assembled.
- Includes several other museums withing the museum including the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame and the American Museum of Fly Fishing. We visited a tribute to Native Americans, an area dedicated to the Lewis and Clark expedition and even a display on Fishing Presidents.
- Doesn’t just have live fish but also penguins, turtles, sharks, jellyfish, alligators, snakes, beavers, etc.
It’s an aquarium on steroids!
It’s an aquarium on steroids!
Adjacent to the WOW is the granddaddy of all Bass Pro shops – Outdoor World. It has 750,000 square feet of retail space and if you can’t find it here, it may not exist – kids toys, clothing, boats, fishing gear, ATVs. Within the store are several places to eat, a conference center, the NRA museum, the Archery Hall of Fame, full sized waterfalls, and more taxidermy animal displays. In the same parking lot is a Catalog Outlet Store and if you aren’t parking overnight in the backlot with your RV, you can stay in the Bass Pro Shops Angler’s Lodge.
Plan on at least one day if not two just perusing the 17-acre Bass Pro complex. We did not allot enough time to venture into downtown Springfield, but I hear they have the world’s largest fork (can’t believe we missed it), great beer and food, and some art museums. If you’re willing to do a little more driving though, get an early start and drive to St. Louis, Missouri to check out Gateway Arch National Park. They have a phenomenal museum, you can ride to the top of the arch for a city view, and downtown is very walkable. If you’re a fan of Anheuser-Busch beer you can tour their facility including visiting their famous Clydesdales or visit their stadium for a Cardinals game . (More St. Louis details to follow on our next blog post that I’ll link here).
To conclude this unique travel itinerary, fly home from St Louis.
We, on the other hand, zipped back across the middle of the state towards Kansas City.
