Best Downtown Stays in St. Louis
Downtown stays in St. Louis put the Gateway Arch grounds, the Old Courthouse and Busch Stadium within a two-to-nine-minute walk or taxi of most hotel doors, more concentrated than any other part of the city. Travelers flying into Lambert International can expect a twenty-to-twenty-five-minute taxi ride from these riverfront properties, longer than the airport-adjacent hotels in Florissant but shorter than a Forest Park base. Free parking is rare downtown, with most hotels charging separately, a trade-off locals accept for walkability to the National Blues Museum, the Convention Center and Busch Stadium on a Cardinals game night. The result favors travelers who want to leave the car parked for most of the stay.
Downtown · St. Louis in numbers

Drury Plaza Hotel Louis At Union Station
2,100 reviews
Check availability
Courtyard by Marriott St. Louis Downtown/Convention Center
1,014 reviews
Check availability
Embassy Suites by Hilton St. Louis Downtown
2,337 reviews
Check availability
Hampton Inn St. Louis-Downtown (At the Gateway Arch)
2,262 reviews
Check availability
Courtyard by Marriott St Louis Downtown West
986 reviews
Check availability
Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark
5,844 reviews
Check availability
Residence Inn by Marriott St. Louis Downtown
1,516 reviews
Check availability
Hotel Indigo St. Louis - Downtown by IHG
612 reviews
Check availabilityStays in St. Louis
Embassy Suites by Hilton St. Louis Downtown and Hampton Inn St. Louis-Downtown both sit within five minutes on foot of the National Blues Museum and the Convention Center, making either a practical base for a conference trip stretched into a weekend of Arch sightseeing. Both include free breakfast, unusual for downtown's paid-parking norm, and both run an indoor pool for evenings after a full day on foot. Embassy Suites adds all-suite rooms for families wanting separated sleeping space, while Hampton Inn pairs its indoor pool with an Irish pub-style restaurant on site. Either cuts the walk to Busch Stadium to under fifteen minutes on a game night, and both run roughly twenty minutes from Lambert International by taxi.
Drury Plaza Hotel St. Louis At The Arch claims the single closest walk to the Old Courthouse among downtown properties, a literal one minute on foot, paired with free hot breakfast and an indoor pool and hot tub combination rare at this price point. Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark sits two minutes away and leans into Busch Stadium proximity with a rooftop bar overlooking the skyline, useful on a Cardinals game night when downtown fills up. Both properties trade paid parking for that walkability, standard across this stretch of downtown, and both put Lambert International at roughly twenty minutes by taxi.
Courtyard by Marriott St. Louis Downtown/Convention Center and its Downtown West sibling both offer free Wi-Fi and pet-friendly rooms, useful for a road trip rather than a flight in, with the Convention Center location putting city-view rooms within a four-minute walk of the National Blues Museum. The Downtown West property trades that four-minute walk for a nine-minute taxi to the Gateway Arch, a quieter block with easier parking access in exchange. Residence Inn by Marriott St. Louis Downtown rounds out the options for a longer stay, with a kitchen in every room seven minutes from the Arch by taxi, and all three run roughly twenty to twenty-three minutes from Lambert International.
St. Louis's downtown reads as a riverfront grid rebuilt around the Gateway Arch, mixing preserved 19th-century buildings like the Old Courthouse with glass-tower hotels and the Convention Center. Busch Stadium sits close enough that game nights change the neighborhood's energy noticeably, filling restaurants and rooftop bars that stay quiet on off nights. Lambert International sits northwest of the core, a twenty-minute-plus drive rather than a downtown fixture. The pace slows east toward the Mississippi riverfront and picks back up west toward the Convention Center, giving downtown two distinct moods within walking distance of each other.