Start from 25 curated places around Ste. Genevieve, MO, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Anvil Restaurant & Saloon
A Historic District institution occupying a building that dates to 1855, with the original floor, bar, and shelving still in place. The menu runs to straightforward American fare — certified Angus steaks, house-made pies, onion rings that come up repeatedly in reviews — served in a room that feels genuinely old rather than decorated-to-seem-old. Locals who know the building's history recommend asking the staff about it.
Audubon's
A scratch-kitchen American restaurant at Hotel Audubon in the Historic District, with a menu that draws from French, Cajun, German, and Italian influences in a way that reflects the town's layered cultural history. The French onion soup, triple smash burger, and giant pretzel with beer cheese come up in almost every review. A proper sit-down dinner option in a town that has limited fine-dining.
Trails & outdoors
Whispering Pines Trail
The flagship backcountry trail in Hawn State Park — a 10.2-mile hard loop through ancient Ozark uplands, pine forests, and the sandstone shut-ins of Pickle Creek. The trail crosses dramatic ridgelines and descends into hollow stream valleys with clear-bottomed sandstone crossings. One of the most consistently praised trails in the entire state, with over 2,200 AllTrails reviews at 4.7 stars.
Pickle Creek Trail to Whispering Pines Loop
A 5.3-mile combination route in Hawn State Park that starts on the Pickle Creek Trail (following the clear sandstone stream) and returns on the Whispering Pines section — the best balance of creek scenery and ridge hiking in a single half-day outing. The shut-ins section where the creek carves through Lamotte sandstone is the visual highlight and worth the drive from Ste. Genevieve.
Things to do
Charleville Brewery & Winery
The most atmospheric winery experience in the Ste. Genevieve wine country — a working brewery and winery on wooded grounds with an 1860s log cabin, a historic French Colonial house, and a relaxed tasting room that makes an afternoon feel genuinely earned rather than rushed. The craft beers and estate wines share the same tasting list, making it easy to explore both in one visit.
Ste. Genevieve National Historical Park Ranger Tours
The NPS ranger-led tours of the French Colonial structures are the best way to access building interiors and get expert interpretation of the vertical-log construction techniques — information that transforms the exteriors from interesting old buildings into genuinely rare survival of a colonial building tradition. The Welcome Center orientation is the prerequisite.
Landmarks & sights
Ste. Genevieve National Historical Park
A National Park Service unit that preserves the largest concentration of French Colonial vertical-log architecture in North America — the poteaux-en-terre and poteaux-sur-sole construction techniques used here exist almost nowhere else in the US. The Welcome Center on Main Street orients visitors with exhibits and a park film, then rangers guide tours of the surviving colonial structures. A genuine surprise for visitors who expect the NPS to mean canyons and geysers.
Bolduc House Museum
The best-preserved French Creole vertical-log house in the US, built by wealthy merchant Louis Bolduc in the 1790s and meticulously restored by the National Society of Colonial Dames of America. The large glass windows and room scale reveal how much this merchant's wealth set him apart in a frontier settlement. The adjacent Bolduc-LeMeilleur house and surrounding garden round out the most complete French colonial residential complex in North America.