What will I do in Columbia, MO?

Question

I know it's a college town, and the lake of the Ozarks is nearby. I know there's the Katy....what else?

I'm moving there soon.

Answer 1

You're gonna love it, I think.

I got dragged to Columbia kicking and screaming, but after I was there for awhile, I really liked it. It's like being in the suburb of a big city without the big city.

If you're into the bar scene, the college town atmosphere gives you a lot of choices...as long as you don't smoke. The city went smoke-free in all restaurants and bars in January. Harpos and Shiloh are well-known college hang-outs. The Penguin is a dueling piano bar.

Lots of neat places to eat in Columbia too. Probably one of the nicest places in town is CC's City Broiler. A unique-to-Columbia place is Flat Branch Pub and Grill, where they brew their own beer, root beer, and ginger ale on site. And of course, there's the tradition of Shakespeare's Pizza.

There's a lot of entertainment going on in Columbia. Deja Vu is a comedy club that gets a lot of top-notch national comedians, and the Blue Note is a small venue that gets a lot of musical acts that a town the size of Columbia normally doesn't get, because the owner has some awesome connections to the music industry.

Mizzou sports is a big part of the community, as is the Twilight Festivals (held every thursday evening in May and September in the Downtown District).

Going to "The Lake" (Lake of the Ozarks) is an important part of the summer ritual, but you said you know that already.

The two newspapers in town (The Columbia Missourian - published by the MU Journalism School, and the Columbia Daily Tribune -- the town's "commercial" newspaper) both do an excellent job of telling about the special events that are going on.

You'll probably want to get OUT of town during the last two weekends in July. That's when the Show-Me State Games (the largest state games in the nation) take place in Columbia. I always preferred to leave town when they were going on. There's a lot of traffic, and the malls, restaurants, movie theatres, and what-not are all crowded with athletes and their families and friends, and the media.

Hope this helps provide a good start. I'm sure you'll enjoy Columbia. Bring your bike. I know you mentioned the Katy trail, but Columbia just got a $30 million grant for their PedNet project, which will expand bike and walking venues all over the city, so it can serve as an example to the rest of the nation on how to build an integrated network of trails and paths that can be used to get around town too.

Of course, if you HAVE to get your fix of a big city, both St. Louis and Kansas City are less than two hours away.