Top 5 Things to Do in St. George, Utah

Last week was spring break and we stayed home – in good ol’ St. George, Utah! Our city used to be a small town, but now it has grown tremendously and tourists are starting to notice what a gem this place is! There is so much to do here, not to mention our weather right now is fabulous! Come summertime, it’ll be way too hot to go anywhere so we are soaking it all in while we can. We had the best time last week visiting all of our favorite places. I thought it would be fun to share all about our stay-cation with these top 5 things to do in St. George!

Let’s start with where to eat, because we all know the best part of any vacation is food!

1. Where to eat in St. George?

• Hash House a Go-Go – my first time trying chicken and waffles. I was skeptical, but they were AMAZING! I got the smaller portion of the Sage Fried Chicken and Waffles and it was still huge and very filling. Yum!

• Benja’s Thai Garden – the BEST place to get thai food in St. George. Their sushi is pretty amazing too. We always order the Vegas roll and their “drunken noodles”. Seriously drooling just thinking about it again!

• Cafe Sabor – The best chips and salsa in town! Trust me. Go on Thursday and ask for the $5.99 burrito special. Comes with a drink, too. We go here at least 2 Thursdays a month. We usually get it to go and still get a huge to-go bag of chips + salsa!

• Crumbl – One of the yummiest cookie shops in town. It’s fairly new to our area and kind of in a hidden location. They have ginormous cookies and offer seasonal flavors on top of their signature chocolate chip cookie, which is to die for! A perfect stop for dessert or late night cravings!

2. Where to Hike in St. George?

• Zion National Park – not technically in St. George but close enough! It’s about an hour travel time to the park and well worth the drive. I would highly recommend doing Angel’s Landing at least once in your lifetime. The most thrilling and gorgeous hike I’ve ever experienced! There are lots of hikes and activities to do if you’re traveling with young kids. We love taking our kids on the Emerald Pools trail.

• Red Cliffs in Leeds – the most beautiful hike that can be quite long, but we’ve only gone to the stream since we have young kids who can’t make their way across the waterfall just yet. This picture was actually from last spring. We hope to go again this year!

• Sand Dunes – SO. MUCH. SAND! This is such a magical place for kids. There is endless amounts of fun to be had here. Spring and fall is the ideal time to spend the day at the Sand Dunes since the sand gets way too hot in the summertime with no shade. This Sand Dunes Trail is located at Snow Canyon State Park. There are many beautiful trails in this park!

3. Where to Play with Kids in St. George?

• St. George Children’s Museum – Located in the heart of downtown St. George, is the Children’s Museum. This is my kid’s favorite place to visit! They get to go shopping in a grocery store that is just their size, pretend play in an airplane, play dress up and dance on stage, and create their own music with instruments. They could play all day here! If you are a local and have a library card, stop by the library right next door first and “check out” their half off pass to the museum. Every bit of savings helps!

• Town Square Park – After the Children’s Museum we always make sure to play in the splash pad right next door to the museum. There is a cute little lazy river that is such a happening spot come summertime! We love riding the carousel here too. Such a quaint park with so much to do. A short walk will take you to cute little shops and restaurants, too.

• Judd’s Candy Store – I definitely consider this a spot to play for kids! A real-life candy store with every soda and nostalgic candy you could ask for! They also have the best breadsticks, ice cream and snow cones. The perfect place to hang out after a day playing in the sun in Town Square Park!

• Thunder Junction All Abilities Park – The Disneyland of St. George! This place can get very crowded on a nice spring/fall day but there is plenty of space to spread out and play! Kids can ride a real-life train for $1 per person. There are swings, slides, splash pad, and a volcano that goes off every 30 minutes or so. This park is AMAZING! It’s so fun that something this cool is in our town.

• Fiesta Fun Center – Where you can bowl, play arcade games to win tickets for prizes, ride go-karts and bumper boats, miniature golf, lazer tag, and even experience a thrilling haunted house during Halloween time! This place has it all. It has been around since I was a kid and I loved coming here for birthday parties. It’s fun to see my kids enjoy it in their newly renovated building. Expect to have a good time and use lots of hand-sanitizer here! Ha!

4. Where to Swim in St. George?

• Sand Hollow Aquatic Center – One of our favorite places to swim come summer or winter because it is all indoors! I love not having to worry about applying sunscreen for a day at this pool. It is decorated jungle themed with a water slide, rock climbing wall, diving boards, lap pool, and so much fun for the kids! It is also very affordable especially for locals.

• Summit Athletic Club – I’m hesitant to share this secret favorite swim spot of ours because I’d hate for it to get crowded! Since I love my readers, I will share with you this hidden treasure of a pool. You do have to have a gym membership to swim but you can also get a free week long pass. There are no lifeguards on duty here so you do have to keep a close eye on your kids. My favorite thing about this pool area is there is a lap pool indoor and outdoors, but there is also a little kids pool that is only about 3 feet deep. Along with that there is a kids hot tub and an adult hot tub. We spent a lot of days here last summer!

• Sand Hollow Reservoir – If you’re feeling adventurous playing in the sun, sand, and water at the Sand Hollow Reservoir is a lot of fun! You do have to be aware of potentially getting swimmer’s itch depending on the time of year. You can get a swimmer’s itch guard to help prevent. Also towel drying off as soon as you get out of the water helps too. If you have a boat or wave-runners, this is the prime place to use them!

5. Things to Explore in St. George

• Sand Hollow State Park – One of the most popular places to jeep and ride ATV’s in St. George! The views are amazing. You can rent ATV’s for the day so you can go on one of these adventures!

• Toquerville Falls – Just outside of St. George is a crazy, bumpy trail that takes you to Toquerville Falls! You definitely need 4-wheel drive to make it. One of the coolest places we’ve taken our Jeep! This is a really cool place to explore. Kids can swim and adults can jump off the lower cliff if brave enough!

• Glitter Mountain – This is a pretty doable dirt road for any vehicle to take. It is an old gypsum mine. It is sparkly and our kids think that is awesome! They love finding the sparkly rocks. Just west of this is Little Black Mountain. This is a really cool place to climb on rocks, hike around and find petroglyphs. It is about a 10 minute drive from Glitter Mountain. If you continue west after Little Mountain Black that will take you out to the Southern Parkway and exit 2.

Oh how I love this place we get to call home! There is so much to do OUTSIDE which is why I love it so much. I just wish our summer’s weren’t so dang hot.

If you do get the chance to visit St. George, I hope this list of things to eat, hike, play, swim and explore helps you plan out the best ever vacation in the desert!