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Broad river with a long sandbar between wooded bluffs and harvested fields under a warm evening sky

Small town getaways from St. Louis, and the cities to reserve beside them

These small town getaways from St. Louis, and the three cities that balance them, are listed by one number: how many people lived in each place on the 2020 census. This page shows every count, the states the stays are in, and how the drawing on each page turns a count into houses.

Four states, one day's drive

Four of the stays are in Missouri: Boonville, Hannibal, Springfield and Kansas City. Two are in Arkansas, in the Ozark hills; two are in Iowa, one on the Des Moines River and one on the Mississippi; and one is in Kentucky, on the Ohio River. The longest drive is under six and a half hours.

Census places, not metro areas

Every number is the total population the Census Bureau published for the incorporated place where the lodging stands, from the 2020 count. The place is the town as a legal unit, so a city's suburbs are not added in, and a village is counted on its own even when a larger town is nearby.

Turning a count into houses

Each drawing has six houses. The first house stands for a count of ten, the second for a hundred, then a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand and a million. A town fills houses from the left as far as its count reaches, and the last house is filled only partway, by how far the count has climbed toward the next mark. That is the number in the table's Houses filled column.

2020 census counts for each incorporated place, from the Census Bureau. Road distances from the office by the most direct driving route.
TownStateCountyPeople, 2020Houses filledTown sizeRoad
KeosauquaIowaVan Buren County9362.97Fewer than 5,000 people203 mi
Eureka SpringsArkansasCarroll County2,1663.34Fewer than 5,000 people306 mi
Mountain ViewArkansasStone County2,8773.46Fewer than 5,000 people289 mi
BoonvilleMissouriCooper County7,9643.905,000 to 49,999 people137 mi
HannibalMissouriMarion County17,1084.235,000 to 49,999 people106 mi
PaducahKentuckyMcCracken County27,1374.435,000 to 49,999 people188 mi
DubuqueIowaDubuque County59,6674.7850,000 people or more339 mi
SpringfieldMissouriGreene County169,1765.2350,000 people or more219 mi
Kansas CityMissouriJackson County508,0905.7150,000 people or more237 mi
Florissant (office)MissouriSt. Louis County52,5334.7250,000 people or more0 mi

Why the scale grows tenfold

On an ordinary scale Kansas City would stretch hundreds of times longer than Keosauqua and the small towns would vanish into a corner. Growing each step tenfold keeps the village, the river town and the city readable on one short row, and it matches how the places feel: the gap between a village and a county seat is as large as the gap between a county seat and a big city.

Choosing by size

If you already know you want the quiet of a small place or the evenings of a city, start from the size and let the office suggest the town. The request form opens with exactly that choice.

More on dates, payment and evening call-backs is collected under getaway planning from St. Louis.