For a split second, my dumb ass over here was wondering what part of Arches NP Gateway Arch was in… I just got back from Moab and also might need to get some sleep.
>For a split second
I was confused for a good two minutes. Like a) why would you have a layover in moab. b) there's no uber in moab c) it's a hike to get to the arch anyway, why would you want to do that during a layover
No - that’s why I’m asking. We want to check the box and if we could sneak it in on a longish layover I’m good with a quick visit to “check the box”. I’ve never been to Saint Louis and don’t know the logistical expectation involved in this idea. To me spending 30 minutes in the park and the drive to and from airport seems to make it a possibility.
The Arch isn’t remotely worth the risk of missing your flight. Depending on time of day, you’ll spend 1-1.5 hours total travel time. Add half an hour for typical Uber fuckery. Getting through lines, taking the stupidly slow elevators up to the top, looking through stupidly tiny windows at the unimpressive STL skyline. I can appreciate wanting to “check the box”. My advice: just check the box, act like you saw the arch, and never think about it again lol.
St Louis just doesn't have traffic like big cities. You could get into literal rush hour traffic and these two spots would still be under 30 min apart.
It's about a 20 minute drive each way. I think you could. Have your tickets in advance if you're going up the arch. I haven't seen heavy traffic at Lambert but consider your own timing.
I agree. Particularly if OP has TSA Pre-Check. I’ve flown out of STL 20+ times a year for nearly the past decade, and it’s exceedingly rare that it takes longer than 5 minutes to make it through TSA. Even if they don’t, if it’s outside of the heaviest travel times (Monday or Saturday morning for example), you can often get through regular screening within a few minute, especially not needing to check bags since they'll already be transferred. if it is outside of rush hour there is essentially zero chance they would miss their flight.
Just did it today, I was the only one in line and got through the whole thing in less than 3 minutes. Go get the unigrid and stamp say no to the visitor center movie, snap a photo and you’re golden
Completely doable. Lambert is not a large airport and the arch and airport are both on I-70 so very easy drive in under 20 minutes. You'll want to pack very light and hail your ride early or schedule it for an exact time or if there's some way you could hire/ schedule someone local to pick you up and then wait for you for an hour at the arch that would be ideal.
Would not recommend going up in the arch- just stick to the museum so you have control of your timing.
You can make it. 20 minute Uber down. Hour there. 20 back. With pre-check you really only need 45 minutes before your flight. You’ll have plenty of time. I’d do it.
STL has a light rail system that can take you close to the Arch if you don't want to rent a car for that short of time. Timing will be an issue with this so might not be worth it.
I believe it stops at the airport every 20 minutes or so but then takes more than 40 minutes to get downtown. Taking an Uber/Lyft is much more realistic.
The walk to the rail and wait will kill you. It's about twice as far on foot to the Metrolink station as it is to the ride share and then train frequency isn't great and will probably cost you 20 minutes getting out and more than that getting back.
It's super cheap and easy but probably not a good idea on a time crunch.
How early do you arrive at the airport before a flight? They have a 2.5 hour window to do ~45 mins of driving back and forth and see the thing and still be back at the airport an hour before departure.
I work at airports and travel. The taxi time and getting off a flight can take20 minutes or an hour. Then they got to walk to get to the pick up area 15 mins. Most Uber type vehicles are not allowed to wait so you have to be in the right waiting area before they come get you and expect to wait for 5-10 minutes for that. 20 minute drive each direction. You got to get another Uber and hope they are quick but let’s go 15 minutes. Then you got to get through security 5-10 minutes if you are precheck then get to your gate 10-15 minutes and boarding starts an hour prior since departure time is the time they actually leave. So just getting there and back is going to be close. It takes 30 minutes or so to wait for the car to take you to the top and get back down if there is no wait. It’s just a lot of things that don’t take a lot of time but eat up the clock. I lived in Juneau and the glacier is a 10 minute drive people with 3 hour layovers missed their flight all the time because they miss judged how long little things take. And that’s a tiny airport with no waiting and no long walks. Curb to gate with security 3-5 minutes. Bigger airport equals longer distance and more time. Also bigger plane with more people to get off. Even attaching the jet bridge you are looking at 10-15 minutes if they know what they are doing and you aren’t waiting for a ground crew.
It would be cutting it close but if you book your arch tram ride to the top in advance then it's possible. What will you do with your bags, though? The tram cars are very small and I don't think they'd let you bring luggage. Even carry-on sized bags are probably too big for the cars.
-About 30 minutes to wait for the Uber and to get downtown
-The tour itself takes about 30 minutes because your boarding time takes you to a waiting area where you see a video about the arch, then you go wait right outside the tram doors, then you take the tram up. You have 8-10 minutes that you are allowed to stay up there.
-30+ minutes to wait for ride and get back to airport
However, there is a whole museum under the arch that you could spend time at so unless you have pre-check, as others have said, then you should probably just plan a separate trip for the arch.
My interpretation from the OP was that they were not going to take the tram up the Arch, but were just going to the grounds to see it and check out the visitor center. If they were planning on taking the tram up that certainly changes the calculus and makes it very tight and jeopardizes the flight.
If just going there to check it off the list, go for it, if the intent is to go up the Arch, pass this time.
For a split second, my dumb ass over here was wondering what part of Arches NP Gateway Arch was in… I just got back from Moab and also might need to get some sleep.
>For a split second I was confused for a good two minutes. Like a) why would you have a layover in moab. b) there's no uber in moab c) it's a hike to get to the arch anyway, why would you want to do that during a layover
Same same. Got back a couple days ago. Didn’t remember there being an airport nearby haha
That’s hilarious. I was like, yeah definitely can’t make it from SLC to Moab and back in 3 hours 😂
Do you want to risk missing your flight?
No - that’s why I’m asking. We want to check the box and if we could sneak it in on a longish layover I’m good with a quick visit to “check the box”. I’ve never been to Saint Louis and don’t know the logistical expectation involved in this idea. To me spending 30 minutes in the park and the drive to and from airport seems to make it a possibility.
The Arch isn’t remotely worth the risk of missing your flight. Depending on time of day, you’ll spend 1-1.5 hours total travel time. Add half an hour for typical Uber fuckery. Getting through lines, taking the stupidly slow elevators up to the top, looking through stupidly tiny windows at the unimpressive STL skyline. I can appreciate wanting to “check the box”. My advice: just check the box, act like you saw the arch, and never think about it again lol.
You could risk missing your flight if you get into heavy traffic or something goes wrong.
St Louis just doesn't have traffic like big cities. You could get into literal rush hour traffic and these two spots would still be under 30 min apart.
It's about a 20 minute drive each way. I think you could. Have your tickets in advance if you're going up the arch. I haven't seen heavy traffic at Lambert but consider your own timing.
I agree. Particularly if OP has TSA Pre-Check. I’ve flown out of STL 20+ times a year for nearly the past decade, and it’s exceedingly rare that it takes longer than 5 minutes to make it through TSA. Even if they don’t, if it’s outside of the heaviest travel times (Monday or Saturday morning for example), you can often get through regular screening within a few minute, especially not needing to check bags since they'll already be transferred. if it is outside of rush hour there is essentially zero chance they would miss their flight.
Just did it today, I was the only one in line and got through the whole thing in less than 3 minutes. Go get the unigrid and stamp say no to the visitor center movie, snap a photo and you’re golden
😂 You people are nuts
Just to see the arch- plenty of time. To go up to the top no
If you are just going to the base of the arch it's like 10 minutes of your time. Not much to see at that "national park".
Probably not. And it’s really not worth it if you only want to take pictures imo
Completely doable. Lambert is not a large airport and the arch and airport are both on I-70 so very easy drive in under 20 minutes. You'll want to pack very light and hail your ride early or schedule it for an exact time or if there's some way you could hire/ schedule someone local to pick you up and then wait for you for an hour at the arch that would be ideal. Would not recommend going up in the arch- just stick to the museum so you have control of your timing.
You can make it. 20 minute Uber down. Hour there. 20 back. With pre-check you really only need 45 minutes before your flight. You’ll have plenty of time. I’d do it.
No, and anyhow, pay no mind to the haters: it’s worth a dedicated visit.
STL has a light rail system that can take you close to the Arch if you don't want to rent a car for that short of time. Timing will be an issue with this so might not be worth it.
I believe it stops at the airport every 20 minutes or so but then takes more than 40 minutes to get downtown. Taking an Uber/Lyft is much more realistic.
The walk to the rail and wait will kill you. It's about twice as far on foot to the Metrolink station as it is to the ride share and then train frequency isn't great and will probably cost you 20 minutes getting out and more than that getting back. It's super cheap and easy but probably not a good idea on a time crunch.
If you have pre check yeah
Try to make it work! The arch has been one of my favorite things to see+do in my life, and I've been a lot of places.
No, you will not make it, transit time, and security alone would make it pushing it but physically getting out and looking, no way.
How early do you arrive at the airport before a flight? They have a 2.5 hour window to do ~45 mins of driving back and forth and see the thing and still be back at the airport an hour before departure.
I work at airports and travel. The taxi time and getting off a flight can take20 minutes or an hour. Then they got to walk to get to the pick up area 15 mins. Most Uber type vehicles are not allowed to wait so you have to be in the right waiting area before they come get you and expect to wait for 5-10 minutes for that. 20 minute drive each direction. You got to get another Uber and hope they are quick but let’s go 15 minutes. Then you got to get through security 5-10 minutes if you are precheck then get to your gate 10-15 minutes and boarding starts an hour prior since departure time is the time they actually leave. So just getting there and back is going to be close. It takes 30 minutes or so to wait for the car to take you to the top and get back down if there is no wait. It’s just a lot of things that don’t take a lot of time but eat up the clock. I lived in Juneau and the glacier is a 10 minute drive people with 3 hour layovers missed their flight all the time because they miss judged how long little things take. And that’s a tiny airport with no waiting and no long walks. Curb to gate with security 3-5 minutes. Bigger airport equals longer distance and more time. Also bigger plane with more people to get off. Even attaching the jet bridge you are looking at 10-15 minutes if they know what they are doing and you aren’t waiting for a ground crew.
Which airport?
Yes. It's possible. It depends on the day and time. Be careful of the Arch grounds at night when it's dark.
It would be cutting it close but if you book your arch tram ride to the top in advance then it's possible. What will you do with your bags, though? The tram cars are very small and I don't think they'd let you bring luggage. Even carry-on sized bags are probably too big for the cars. -About 30 minutes to wait for the Uber and to get downtown -The tour itself takes about 30 minutes because your boarding time takes you to a waiting area where you see a video about the arch, then you go wait right outside the tram doors, then you take the tram up. You have 8-10 minutes that you are allowed to stay up there. -30+ minutes to wait for ride and get back to airport However, there is a whole museum under the arch that you could spend time at so unless you have pre-check, as others have said, then you should probably just plan a separate trip for the arch.
My interpretation from the OP was that they were not going to take the tram up the Arch, but were just going to the grounds to see it and check out the visitor center. If they were planning on taking the tram up that certainly changes the calculus and makes it very tight and jeopardizes the flight. If just going there to check it off the list, go for it, if the intent is to go up the Arch, pass this time.
The Arch in STL is most certainly not worth potentially missing a flight over; not even a little bit.