With the crazy winter and spring we had this year in Chicago, we decided to book a vacation for early June to a location a bit further south where the temps would likely be warmer so we decided on Branson. It met our two requirements: drivable and affordable.
To be honest, I wasn’t thrilled about going to Branson. I knew it would be a good time because all family vacations are fun, but the destination itself wasn’t what was making me excited. Now that we’re back, I have completely different feelings about good ‘ole Branson. I love it! There’s so much to do for families. Yes, lots of it is super touristy, almost like a kid version of Las Vegas but there are also some hidden gems.
I love vacations but I really don’t like to spend a lot of money on them. So if you want to hear about how you can go to Branson on a budget, keep reading…
First of all, we stayed at the Wyndham. We had an almost free 7 night stay because we went to a timeshare presentation. I’ll share more about the details of that in another blog post. When possible, we try to find a hotel with a kitchen. That way we can just get groceries instead of eating out a lot. On this trip, we actually only ate out once for lunch and once for dinner. It saved us time, money, and energy to do things that our kids would enjoy more.
Day 1: Eight hour drive, Arch, swimming, and groceries
The drive from Chicago is about 8 hours. After 4 hours, you make it to St. Louis. It’s literally right on the way down. Doesn’t require any kind of detour. We saw the Arch. Pretty impressive and much harder than it looks to take a five person selfie with it. We had planned to check out the zoo (free) but it was raining so we skipped it.
We arrived in Branson around 4pm. We checked into our hotel and then Chris took the kids swimming while I drove to Walmart to get groceries for the week. When I got back, we ate dinner in the room and went to bed.
Day 2: Church, pool time, and downtown Branson
As a kid, my parents always took us to church while we were on vacation. 95% of the time, our vacations were camping, so how they got us all out the campsite looking somewhat acceptable for church is beyond me. Chris and I haven’t ever gone to church on vacation but I found one that looked good so we decided to check it out. https://woodhills.org/ The church was unlike anything we’ve ever been to before. It’s made up of a bunch of different buildings. Since it’s pretty spread out, they have golf carts that will drive you door to door. The children’s area is beyond impressive. The kids loved it and didn’t want to leave. Chris and I enjoyed the worship service. The music was good and the preaching was applicable and Biblical.
Little kids get a token to spend! 
Such a cute space! And there’s a McDonald’s-like climbing area. 
Love the camping theme! 
Golf carts can drive you to the service. 
This is where my older two boys had their class. They got “bucks” to spend on a prize afterwards. 
Beautiful farmhouse building for youth group. 
My kids said Woodland Hills was like a Disney World church. #castle
Check out the church’s beautiful mural! They change the wording from time to time. I was almost giddy when I saw it and needed to take a family picture ASAP.
Typically after we have a travel day, we try to chill so we spent most of the day at our hotel’s pool. It gives everyone a chance to recover from the drive.
After swimming and dinner at the room, we went to the downtown area of Branson which includes Historic Branson and the Branson Landing. If you only go to one souvenir shop, be sure to go to Dicks 5 & 10. https://www.dicks5and10.com/ You’ll be impressed with the sheer volume of stuff they have and there’s an old train that runs over your head. Other stores seemed to close early, but Dicks 5 & 10 is open until 10. When we were there, they had coupons for a nearby ice cream shop called Mr. B’s Ice Cream Parlor. http://brandcycle.shop/jrtr The coupons were good for buy one scoop, get a second scoop free….Way more ice cream than we needed but it’s vacation so who cares!
The Branson Landing is a beautiful area on the river with restaurants and stores. There’s also a water fountain show on the hour from noon until 10pm every day except for Sunday, when it ends at 9pm. http://www.bransonlanding.com/Fountains.html
Day 3: Swimming & Silver Dollar City
Our kids could literally swim all day so that’s what we did most of our third day in Branson. Our hotel also had a basketball court, playground, and shuffleboard so we did that too. Then we headed to Branson’s Silver Dollar City. Silver Dollar City is an amusement park that’s set in the 1880s. When you go after 3, you can get in the next day for free so that’s what we did. Teachers are also free the month of June and teacher’s family members get in 50% off so we were able to combine the promotions. You can check out the current offers here –> https://bit.ly/2DfCLgT Silver Dollar City allows you to bring food and drinks so we brought sandwiches and snacks into the park with us.
I watch a lot more than I used to. #motionsickness 
DumboI mean Elephant March
Short lines! 
Firehouse Play Place 
Kids could have played there all day. 
Shuttle ride to our car
Don’t let my pictures fool you, there are some big rides at Silver Dollar City. They’re not all for little kids. They also have a couple water rides. None of the lines were longer than 15 minutes on the day we were there. There are quite a few shows that go on throughout the day. We went to a magic show put on by a brother/sister duo. My kids thought it was the coolest thing ever. Just a quick heads up – The terrain at Silver Dollar City is very hilly, just like all of Branson so it could be challenging for some people to get around.
Day 4: Silver Dollar City
We went back the next day for a second day of Silver Dollar City. To get in free the following day, you just have to save your tickets and show them where they get scanned. We packed snacks again and sandwiches to avoid buying a bunch of food there.
Required photo to prove we went 
Treehouse! 
Water rides are always a favorite. 
He was trilled to go on rides without an adult. 
Too tired to hold his head up. 
Cooling off 
Steam engine ride and show 
Landon’s favorite ride 
This ride was fast for a 4 year old!
If you go to Silver Dollar City, you’ve GOT TO GO into Marvel Cave. The one hour tour is included with your ticket and was my favorite part of the whole park. You need to get in line about 30 minutes before the tour starts since they only let about 60 people in at a time. The cave is HUGE and stunning! It’s actually the whole reason Silver Dollar City is there. There’s tons more history with the cave, but I’ll save that for your tour guide. If you go, think about what shoes you wear. It’s pretty damp and you go down a bunch of stairs.
Tram ride back up
Each night (except for Monday) there’s an outdoor concert. We were pretty impressed. Lots of music variety but my favorite part was when Lee Greenwood’s song “God Bless the USA” was played and everyone stood to their feet. We also finally cracked and bought food in the park: two pretzels with cheese and two elephant ears. #YOLO
Day 5: Pool, Diner, & Samson
We laid low the day after Silver Dollar City. In the morning and early afternoon, we swam at the pool. We had a late lunch at Mel’s Hard Luck Diner. brandcycle.shop/rics The waiters sing while they serve food. It was fun and different. They also have some pretty delicious milkshakes. Next, we went to see the musical, Samson, at the Sight & Sounds Theatres. https://bit.ly/2IubDgc Let me tell you, don’t go to Branson without going to this theater. It doesn’t matter what’s playing, it will be amazing. The way they use the sides and aisles of the theater is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Our kids were engaged the entire time. How could they not be? There were animals running down aisles and impressive special effects. I recommend sitting on an aisle on the first floor or sit in the balcony so you can really take everything in. If you sit in the first handful of rows on the main floor, you’ll likely miss out on quite a bit of the action going on around you. Noah is going to be playing next year. I’m not kidding when I say we might have to make a trip down to Branson just to see it. We were actually given tickets by someone we met at the church in Branson. Such a blessing because we weren’t sure if we wanted to spend the money on the tickets. They are a bit pricey but after going to see Samson, I know paying full price would have been well worth it. You won’t regret it.
Day 6: Float trip & downtown Branson
When I was planning our trip, I wanted to make sure we found some outdoorsy stuff to do so I was thrilled when I found the Buffalo National River and that it’s a good river for floating. It’s about an hour and a half south of Branson in Arkansas and gorgeous! We rented floats from Dirst Canoe Rental. https://bit.ly/2WXIyCI We were brought to the starting point, floated for about an hour, and then ended where our car was. It was very inexpensive. I want to say like $35 for the 5 of us. That included the floats and the transportation. If you’re more into kayaks or canoes, they have those available to rent as well. You might want to bring water shoes since it’s quite rocky. Before and after our float trip, we spent a lot of time swimming and hanging out on the shores of the Buffalo River. There were swarms of butterflies around. Random fact: a group of butterflies is called a kaleidoscope.
After hanging out for a while, we drove the 1.5 hours back to Branson and all three boys fell asleep. #success We ate dinner at our hotel and then left to do some souvenir shopping and grab ice cream from Mr. B’s (again). We also watched the fountain show at the Landing for the second time.
Day 7: Fish Hatchery, Top of the Rock, & Danna’s BBQ
Our last full day in Branson was another super fun day! We wore our bathing suits all day so we could easily go from one activity to the next. We started out at Shepherd of the Hills Fish Hatchery. brandcycle.shop/1x4a It’s a big trout farm. There are thousands and thousands of fish. It’s totally free to visit but I recommend bringing some quarters so you can buy food to feed the trout. You’ll also want to bring a cup to put the food in so you don’t have to try and hold it all in your hands. There’s a nature center with fish, turtles, and some other animals. At certain times they have tours you can go on so you can learn more about the process. It was pretty fascinating.
From there, we drove like two minutes and went to Moonshine Beach at Table Rock Lake. brandcycle.shop/ilel It’s not the most beautiful beach but it’s a beach so we went anyways. It’s $5/car to get in for the day. You might want to bring water shoes because it’s quite rocky. Our kids enjoyed swimming, playing some volleyball, and running around at the park.
If there’s one place you go in Branson, go to Top of the Rock! It’s STUNNING. It costs $10 to get on to the property but the place is huge. To me, it would be worth the $10 even if you just walked around and did some exploring or sat on one of their rocking chairs and enjoyed the scenery. We paid extra ($30 per adult, $15 for 4-11 year olds) to take a self-guided 2.5 mile golf cart ride through the Lost Canyon Nature Trail. One of the more costly things we did but such a memorable experience. We saw waterfalls, gorgeous rock formations, and covered Amish bridges. Since it’s self guided, you can go as quickly or as slowly as you want. The drive through cave even has a bar! The cannonball was quite refreshing! brandcycle.shop/ilel
After the golf cart ride, we took a shuttle to the top of the hill where the chapel, restaurant, golf course, and museum is. We just walked around and enjoyed the sights but if were just my husband and me, I definitely would have wanted to eat up there. It would also be a beautiful wedding location.
When we were on the shuttle ride back down, an employee told us about the lazy river pool and Fun Mountain. Fun Mountain has go-carts, a ropes course, bowling, laser tag, a golf stimulator, an arcade, etc. Everything costs $$, so we decided to skip that part but we did check out the pool with the lazy river. I felt like we technically shouldn’t have been there since it’s really just for resort guests but since the employee told us about it, we went anyways. No wristband or anything is required.
Fun Mountain
After all that, we were starving! Some locals recommended Danna’s for BBQ so we went there. It’s nice and casual. You order at the counter and then they bring the food out to your table. Everything we got was delicious and it was reasonably priced. brandcycle.shop/1fl8
Day 8: Pack up, pool, and drive home
Not much to add here. We weren’t ready to go home, so we packed up, checked out, and then hung out by the pool for the afternoon until we decided we better drive the 8 hours home.
We had such a fun time in Branson! And it didn’t cost a lot. There’s so much to do; we could have easily stayed another week and still not done everything. Feel free to ask me any questions you have about our trip. I’m always happy to help!
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