We headed to Branson, Missouri for our Spring Break this year. We planned to leave after school on Friday, but we had to make some adjustments due to sickness. I feel like all of you with little ones totally understand. We headed out on Sunday morning and came back late on Tuesday. Kevin reserved us a fun condo. It had a very out west vibe and was a relaxing place to hang out. It ended up being a fun, quick trip. None of us had ever been to Branson before so we were curious about it.
HIGH: We did really enjoy The Boardwalk Aquarium, The Butterfly Palace and Branson Landing and the family adventure. We ate some delicious food, too! I'll showcase our favorite things so that if Branson is on your radar, you will have some family friendly ideas of things to do.
LOW: Overall, Branson seemed like it will be a one hit wonder for our family.
We enjoyed our trip, but probably would not return. It was almost a 7 hour drive from our house. It's very mountainy/hilly and everything is very spread out around the town. It is not a walkable city (outside of the Branson Landing area) and for our car sick kiddo it was not so fun. There weren't many places where it was safe for Leo to just walk around. I had hoped to find neat parks and places to play, but there weren't any close to us. There are also lots of shows which didn't feel like a fun option for our family with young kids along with the fact that they are very expensive.
The Boardwalk Aquarium //
It's pricey, but fun. Plan ahead a bit because you can't just buy your ticket and walk in. You get a time to enter. Luckily, we had a short wait, but buying tickets ahead of time would have been a good idea. We enjoyed all the up close views of the sea creatures, the touch pools, the activities for kids inside and many of the tanks were huge so everyone from the tall adults to Leo in his stroller could see all the sea creatures swimming by us.
This giant walk through tunnel tank was so neat! We watched sea turtles, sting rays, sharks and lots more!
The Giant Pacific Octopus was so cool to watch!!
The Butterfly Palace //
We were there right when it opened and had a really fun time interacting with butterflies. There were tons of them and they all seemed eager to eat from the flower feeders you could hold. We all enjoyed this! There are reptiles to see here, too. Everyone that worked here was really friendly. Your admission bracelets were good for 3 days, but we all agreed that we probably wouldn't go back after seeing everything once. I would preferred a one day pass/price option for our family.
The brochures tell guests to wear bright colors so we all did. The butterflies seemed to like Kevin's blue shirt and hat the best. They also loved the red stroller canopy.
These HUGE butterflies were really impressive!
Branson Landing //
This is a really fun strip of shops, restaurants, activities and more along the river. There are fountains that do a water show, restaurants on the water and it's really the only place we found where it was fun to just walk around. We ate dinner at Mellow Mushroom (SO GOOD!!) and the kids played at the arcade. It rained the evening we were there otherwise we would have stayed longer and gotten ice cream at Kilwins or stopped in one of the candy shops. We agreed that it would be fun to stay at a hotel near this area along the river.
We LOVED our meals at Mellow Mushroom and Farmhouse Restaurant. We'd highly recommend them both.
This picture cracks me up. Leo wasn't the best breakfast company this day so I offered to take the kids out while Kevin paid. Then I see him inside sipping coffee while I'm wrangling kids. Silly Dad! We're a good traveling team :)
I'm so glad we were able to get away and go on a fun adventure for Spring Break!
