Things to do for visitors in or around Columbia, MO?

Question

I have heard it's a small college town but I was wondering if there are any fun things to do in or around Columbia, MO?

notyou311, I am asking about the town of Columbia in the state of Missouri, not the District of Columbia.

Answer 1

By the way, the first answerer wasn't talking about the District of Columbia. They were talking about Columbia, MD (Maryland). I could tell by his description of the town. Columbia, MD is the first completely "planned" city in the United States...with a Town Center that includes a city hall and a mall, and surrounded by villages that have their own mini-shopping centers and gas stations, which in turn are surrounded by residential areas. Pretty cool place to visit...but...on to your question...


There's lots to do in Columbia. Many people there say it's like living in the suburb of a big city, without the big city. Since it's the home of the University of Missouri, Columbia College, and Stephens College, as well as some other smaller schools, there's a lot of culture and sports available. Since it's a college town, there's a lot of night life, too. Particularly the Blue Note is a club that books acts that normally wouldn't stop in Columbia, but somehow the owner, for 25 years, has been getting big name shows into his relatively small establishment. Deja Vu is a comedy club that recently hosted Dustin Diamond (Screech from "Saved By The Bell") and has a headliner on tour almost every week.

Ninth street has plenty of shopping and dining options, and there's the Columbia Mall on the west side of town that sports a lot of shopping as well.

Columbia's got a pretty vast network of parks, including the MKT trail, which starts in downtown Columbia and winds up joining the Katy Trail, a rails-to-trails path that extends from St. Charles all the way to Sedalia. You can also check out "Cosmo Park" (short for "Cosmopolitian Club park"), which actually used to be the airport, but now sports a large range of playgrounds, soccer fields, baseball/softball diamonds, and a skateboard park. Nearby is also Rock Bridge State Park, where during certain times of the year, you can take a tour with a park ranger and go into the caves and see the bats, if that's your thing.

Mizzou sports are always fun to watch, even if the Tigers haven't had much luck in the Big 12 lately.

In May and September, The District (Columbia's name for it's downtown area) has Twilight Festivals on Thursday evenings. There's live entertainment and horse-drawn carriage rides downtown, with the headliner band playing in Courthouse Square at the close of the evening.

If you can't find anything to do in Columbia, then our state's capital, Jefferson City, is about a half hour away, and it only takes an hour and a half to reach either St. Louis or Kansas City.

Answer 2

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Things to do for visitors in or around Columbia, MO?
I have heard it's a small college town but I was wondering if there are any fun things to do in or around Columbia, MO?

Answer 3

Columbia isn't that small of a town. It's a small city.
There are numerous things to do. Depends on what you are interested in.
There's a mall, great boho shopping downtown and on Thursdays, they will start their Starlite evenings where everyone goes downtown and there are street musicians, and other things going on. There are numerous places to eat from the typical chains to local eateries. They have some great Mexican restaurants downtown. There's some clubs in the downtown area, sports bars, etc. The downtown is quite quaint really and still very active. Columbia actually has three colleges, the University of Missouri, Stephen's College and Columbia college. The University is a medical college so lots of doctors and such around.
Then if you want to go out of town, there's Boonville about 20 miles to the west on I 70. There's a gambling boat there plus the oldest active theater west of the Mississippi.
To the east of Columbia is Fulton which has a nice historical downtown still paved with brick and some cute shops. Westminster college is there and that's where some Presidents have visited plus Winston Churchill gave his famous Iron Curtain Speech on that campus. He adopted that campus and had a British Abbey brought over piece by piece and rebuilt there. Also part of the wall is there that was between Russia and the world. Churchills grand-daughter donated that.
South of Columbia is Jefferson City the state capitol. It still has a nice downtown also and several places to shop.
Like I said, it depends on what you want to do. Mid Missouri is a pretty area of the state.

Answer 4

Columbia is nowhere near DC. I suggest going to the bars in the town and maybe checking out a Mizzou game if you can. There are some wineries too.

Answer 5

It's not far from Washington, DC where there is a ton of stuff to do. They have a dinner theater in Columbia and a big shopping mall.

Answer 6

Columbia Missouri is a city of near 100k people (not that small) I would imagine You could find some fun things to do there depending on your idea of fun.


GOOOOOOOO TIGERS!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 7

Yea, unless its a ghost town

Answer 8

ask any BOCOMOFO (Boone County Missouri Fool) they will tell you lots of stuff to do