Do you think that Branson Missouri is too expensive for a fun family vacation ?
Well , we're going to share some free and cheap things to do in Branson with you right now .
Hi , this is Amy with T P F trips places and fun .
And this is John .
And at T P F we talk about the best family adventures , both close to home and when traveling .
So in Branson , Missouri , I think there might be kind of , um , the idea that it's too expensive or that it's pretty expensive to vacation here .
It can be , but it doesn't have to be right .
It depends on how you spend your time here .
So , we would like to share with you a few things that are either completely free or very cheap to do in Branson .
Actually , we're gonna go over nine of them , nine of them .
Ok .
We're going to do it fast .
Ok , quick punches .
So , number one , the Dewey Short visitor center .
Yeah , that's a really great place to go .
It's right by Table Rock Dam .
It's beautiful .
It's a new , new development over the last several years and you're going to learn all about the history of the lake and how they dammed the White river and created Table Rock , lake and Lake Tanni Como .
And the kids will love it .
Beautiful views right off of the balcony and , yeah , so lots of history here .
If you are into that sort of thing , you're gonna love this kind of a museum feel .
A museum of the dam have activities for the kids .
Yeah .
Sure , great stuff for the kids .
So they can grab a paper at the beginning and look all over the facility trying to find different things .
They have a little kids area where they can actually play and so it's super fun and it's completely free .
Yeah , definitely .
So number two , number two , since you're already there , you can cruise right on over to Table Rock Dam and the fish hatchery .
Now , this is actually going to be on the other side of the dam from the Dewey Short visitor center because it's on the Lake Timo side , which is actually down at the bottom of the dam .
So , and the dam is definitely a site to see when they open those floodgates .
So if you happen to be in town when those gates are open , that's extremely cool to see .
Um But otherwise it's really cool to see the dam any time and the fish hatchery is right there .
So you can go in there .
They have a visitors center that you can walk through and then you can buy food for I think a quarter and feed the super cheap .
Now it is super cheap and feed the fish and they , it's , it's really cool for the kids to feed them and , or adults anybody .
And , um , so that's something that's also completely free other than the fish food .
Right .
And they're trout because was a cold water lake .
And so there's tons and tons , hundreds , thousands , thousands .
Right .
So , they are , um , raising the trout there to release into the lake .
So , yeah .
All right .
Moving on to number three , which is , um , pretty close to that area as well .
Moonshine beach .
And so moonshine beach is where you can go swimming and you can get into moonshine beach a day pass is only $5 .
Is that five bucks a car ?
It , a car load .
Yeah , five bucks a carload .
So you can take the whole family , pile them into your vehicle .
Um , get a moonshine beach day pass for five bucks and swim all day .
They have a great playground there .
You can picnic there .
So , for five bucks you can have a whole day for a full of fun , for the whole family .
And it's really the , it's the best swimming beach in Branson in the summer time on holidays , especially , boy , that it can get crowded .
In fact , they'll close the gates once they get too full .
Yeah .
So if you're on there on a holiday or a very , very busy summer day , that's something to think .
About , you might , um , kind of be there with a ton of people , but , um , it's still fun .
Yeah , definitely .
All right .
Moving on to number four .
Number four , this is flying , man .
We got just some good , good info .
It's not taking long .
Number four .
This is always fun .
We do this all the time .
Downtown Branson and Branson Landing .
So downtown Branson has a lot of great little shops , things to see if you're into .
There's little flea markets down there .
Um , if you're into just kind of browsing without buying this could be a cheap thing to do .
There's Dicks five and Dime and this is kind of a really cool general store type feel .
Super cool .
You have to go there .
That's one of the must do in Branson .
It's an old school , uh , five and dime and anything and everything that you can imagine is in that store .
One thing our kids really like is they have sodas of all different strange flavors .
So you can go there and buy a soda for a buck or two of a very exotic .
I think they have like a ranch dressing flavor .
Something strange like that old school candies .
Yeah .
And so , and that's , and that's also downtown Branson .
There's a lot of other places to get something to eat or drink or , you know , ice cream or , you know , all different kinds of stuff like that .
And then just a little bit further down , you'll find the landing , which is right there on Lake Como .
So you can walk along the lake right there if you want .
And then also do some , um , shopping browsing there at the landing .
And every hour on the hour they have a really cool water fire Show and Branson Landing .
That's gonna be a typical outdoor mall where you're gonna have H AND M and some , uh , well known restaurants , right ?
Um , what are some of the restaurants down there ?
Oh , well , they have , uh , is it Paul is coming ?
Is coming ?
So , yeah , that would be cool .
So , if it's great to go there to get some food , if you're wanting to eat , but you can go to the landing and spend absolutely nothing .
We do that all the time .
We just go there for entertainment , kind of see what's going on , watch the water show , browse and do it for completely free .
So , so it's up to you .
It could be really expensive , but it can also be free .
So , all right .
So , moving on to number five is hiking , there are lots of great hiking trails around Branson .
We have our favorites that we go to .
Some that we visit over and over .
But if you just do a search , you can find all kinds of great places .
You can go a different place every time you're visiting , you could do five different trails in one day if you wanted .
But this is a great way to get out and see nature again , completely free .
And we took the dog and the kids .
I don't know why I mentioned the dog first .
I love Jackson .
I love my kids too .
I'm in trouble .
All right .
And so we took all of them to , uh , to a hike and there was this stair these stairs that how many stairs , like 350 stairs or , I mean , probably a lot of stairs .
So going down wasn't a big deal .
Coming back up was insane .
But there was a cave down there .
A little cave .
You can go down into it and , you know , the lake is down there and there's , uh , certain areas with old log cabins , historic stuff .
So it's super cool .
Yeah , it is very neat to see .
Um , and so we'll move on to number six now and that's Bass Pro shops .
We probably should have talked about this right after the landing because this actually is at the landing .
But Bass Pro shops is great to go see .
You can see again , it's shopping , but you can also see the fish .
They have huge aquarium , a lake aquarium , um , that has fish in it that the kids always like to see .
And around Christmas time time , it can be really great to go because you can do free crafts and photos with Santa .
So , and that's completely free .
So whenever we're at the landing , the kids , especially Eva , she's our youngest one .
She always wants to go into Bass Pro and see the fish or if it's Christmas time , I mean , you definitely want to go see Santa .
Right .
Right .
And do some of those Christmas and Bass Pro shops .
That's , I mean , that's just fun to walk through there .
You have to .
Right .
Which , let's take , this takes us right to number seven , which is parades and special events .
And Branson is kind of famous for their parades .
They have one particular parade that goes right through the landing .
Right .
And so we did that this last Christmas .
That was a lot of fun again , completely free .
You know , people throwing candy at the kids and some really great floats .
That parade was , it was pretty long and , um , we had a great time doing that .
Now , this is something you do have to do a little bit of research to figure out when the parades are going on .
But there are a lot of parades in Branson , especially around Christmas time .
The reason why that one is so cool .
I think it's my favorite one .
It's the first time that I've been , I think the first time we've been is you , you know , it's an outdoor mall and you're sitting right there and the parade , it comes right by feet away .
I mean , you can shake hands with the people who are walking by and it's very , it has a personal feel to it .
Yeah .
So that one's a lot of fun .
But there's , um , you know , Veterans day parades , Christmas parade , adoration parade , which all is all about Jesus at Christmas time and just a lot of different fun , um , parades and special events in Branson .
So , if you do research , you can hit up a lot of those things for completely free .
Right .
Number eight , we're almost there , Amy , we're almost done .
Number eight .
Ok .
And this one is also down by the landing .
This is the , the , um , they don't have to go anywhere else and bring .
No , no , there's a lot of other stuff to do too , which we talked about earlier .
It's all either seems like it's over by the dam or down by the landing one or the other .
But um , so the Convention Center , the Hilton Convention Center and they will have a lot of kind of , they'll have unique shopping experiences here .
So again , get on the , um , go look at the Hilton Convention Center and you can see a schedule of all that they have to do and this is usually gonna be a small admittance fee , but usually not very expensive .
So they , they'll have , uh what do you call it ?
Like farmers market type things or craft festivals ?
Yeah , a lot of craft fairs and Branson's version of like Comic Con , you know , and so they're all different types of things .
Uh really nice conventions that are there all sorts of different types of festivals .
All right .
And so then the last thing we're gonna talk about for number nine is just doing kind of , um , a , something that costs .
But on the inexpensive side , um , just before you leave town , if you've done all this free stuff , this is like a bonus .
So you've got all this free stuff and then just wanna have one little thing that you budget for and there's a lot to choose for .
Right .
So , we would say something like mini golf , I think Pirates Cove is probably my favorite .
Um , it's pretty reasonably priced but it's really immersive .
It has some great them .
So something like that you could throw in there in the mix at the end for not too much and kind of wrap up your vacation , your free or cheap vacation or something like that .
Yeah .
So there's go karts or bumper boats or , you know , a variety of different things that you could do some of these , these sky coasters or .
So , if you want to just save your money for 11 attraction like that , that's a good , that's a good way to end the day .
Yeah .
So you could probably do something like that for 10 or 12 bucks per , or something like that .
So , yeah .
And so by the way , we also did a video on free and cheap at Disney World .
Did we not , we did .
And actually there is a whole lot to do free or cheap at Disney .
And so if you'd like to check out that video , you'll get a lot of great information and while you're at it , could you please give us a thumbs up , subscribe and hit that bell to be notified of future videos and I guess that's it .
Safe travels .
Everyone .
I feel like we're , we're leaving so soon .
Wave .
Wave .