Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau

The CVB visitor center provides a substantial range of free print materials. Self-guided driving tour maps of Springfield's Route 66 alignment cover the historic highway as it passed through the city in the 1920s through 1960s, with marked stops at surviving landmarks including the Steak 'n Shake Original on East St. Louis Street, the various surviving motel signs along Glenstone Avenue, and the commemorative markers at Park Central Square. Statewide Missouri Route 66 maps cover the full 317-mile corridor and provide useful planning context for travelers extending beyond Springfield.

Beyond Route 66-specific materials, the CVB stocks brochures and maps for the full Springfield-area attraction set: Wonders of Wildlife National Museum & Aquarium, Bass Pro Shops Original Store, Fantastic Caverns, History Museum on the Square, Wilson's Creek National Battlefield, and various smaller attractions throughout the Springfield metropolitan area. Branson information (the major tourism destination 40 miles south of Springfield) is also extensively stocked, and many visitors combine Springfield Route 66 trips with Branson stays.

The CVB staff provide expert guidance beyond what print materials can convey. Questions about current event calendars (festivals, performances, seasonal attraction hours), specific itinerary planning based on time available and interest areas, lodging recommendations across different price points and locations, and dining recommendations for specific cuisines or occasions can all be addressed by the on-site staff. The combination of comprehensive print materials and knowledgeable staff makes the CVB visitor center the most efficient single information stop in Springfield.

The CVB has invested substantially in the "Birthplace of Route 66" national branding campaign across the past two decades. The branding is based on the documented April 30, 1926 telegram sent from a Springfield telegraph office naming the Chicago-to-Santa Monica highway as Route 66 — the specific founding event that gives Springfield its claim to be the birthplace of the highway. The CVB markets the city nationally through the Birthplace of Route 66 framework and coordinates with state-level Missouri Division of Tourism and federal-level National Park Service Route 66 corridor programs.

The 2026 Route 66 Centennial is the most significant tourism-promotion opportunity in Springfield's recent history and the CVB has organized substantial programming around the 100th anniversary year. The headline event is the expanded Route 66 Birthday Celebration at Park Central Square, scheduled for April 30 through May 2, 2026 — covering the exact 100th anniversary of the Springfield telegram. The celebration includes classic car shows, live music performances, guided walking tours of downtown Springfield's Route 66 landmarks, ceremonial events at the Park Central Square commemorative plaque, and partnership programming with the History Museum on the Square, the Route 66 Springfield Visitor Center, and various Springfield restaurants and hotels.

Beyond the April 30 anniversary, the CVB has organized Centennial programming across the full 2026 calendar year including rotating exhibits, special-event partnerships with other Route 66 cities and attractions, and a substantial public-relations campaign promoting Springfield's Birthplace of Route 66 identity to national tourism media. Visitors planning trips timed around the Centennial year should contact the CVB in advance (phone: 417-881-7444) for updated event calendars and itinerary recommendations.

Springfield sits at a critical midpoint position on Missouri's 317-mile Route 66 corridor. Joplin is 70 miles west (the Kansas border is just past Joplin), Lebanon is 50 miles east, Cuba is 130 miles east, and St. Louis is 215 miles east. The CVB stocks substantial information on all four cities and serves as a useful planning resource for travelers extending their Springfield trip in either direction.

For travelers heading west toward Joplin and Kansas, the CVB can provide information on Joplin's Route 66 Mural Park, the Bonnie & Clyde Hideout, and the brief 13-mile Kansas stretch of Route 66 that lies just past the Joplin border. The full Springfield-to-Joplin drive can be done in 75 minutes via I-44 or stretched into a longer day with various small-town stops along the historic Route 66 alignment.

For travelers heading east toward Lebanon, Cuba, and St. Louis, the CVB stocks information on the Munger Moss Motel in Lebanon (one of the most iconic neon signs on Route 66), the Cuba Outdoor Murals (over 20 large-scale murals depicting Route 66 history), the Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba (a 1930s motor court on the National Register), Meramec Caverns near Sullivan, and the Gateway Arch and other St. Louis Route 66 destinations. The Springfield-to-St. Louis drive can be done in 3.5 hours via I-44 or stretched into a multi-day trip with substantial Route 66-era stops along the way.

The CVB visitor center is open Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm and Saturday from 10am to 4pm. Closed Sundays. The weekday hours are typical of municipal tourism offices; the Saturday hours accommodate weekend Route 66 travelers who arrive in Springfield on Saturday afternoon. Visitors arriving on Sunday should plan to use the CVB website (springfieldmo.org) for information or wait until Monday morning for in-person assistance.

Admission is completely free. There is no fee to enter, no required donation, and no purchase obligation. Free street parking is generally available on East St. Louis Street directly in front of the building; metered downtown parking is available a few blocks away if street parking is full. The building is fully ADA-accessible with a street-level entrance, accessible interior layout, and accessible restrooms.

The CVB also operates an extensive website at springfieldmo.org that provides much of the same information available at the in-person visitor center. The website is genuinely useful for advance trip planning, especially for visitors who want to research itinerary options and book reservations before arriving in Springfield. However, the in-person visitor center provides the staff guidance, print materials, and current-event information that the website cannot fully replicate.

The CVB visitor center pairs naturally with the adjacent Route 66 Springfield Visitor Center — the two organizations work in close partnership with overlapping staffing and complementary exhibit content. A typical first-day Springfield itinerary: arrive at the CVB visitor center for orientation and print materials (30 minutes), then walk or drive to the Route 66 Springfield Visitor Center for the focused Route 66 founding-history exhibits (60-90 minutes), then continue to Park Central Square for the commemorative plaque and the History Museum on the Square (90 minutes to 2 hours).

For visitors with longer Springfield stays, the CVB can help plan a full multi-day itinerary that includes Wonders of Wildlife and Bass Pro Shops (full day combined), Fantastic Caverns (half day including drive), Wilson's Creek National Battlefield (half day for Civil War history enthusiasts), Branson day-trips (full day, 40 miles south), and Springfield-area food destinations including Steak 'n Shake Original and Lambert's Cafe.

For Route 66 travelers passing through Springfield as part of a longer Mother Road trip, the CVB serves as the planning hub for the full Missouri portion of the trip. Pick up maps and brochures for the full Joplin-to-St. Louis corridor, discuss the trip plan with knowledgeable staff, and adjust itineraries based on current event calendars and seasonal attraction availability. The combination of the CVB's planning resources and Springfield's central corridor position makes the city a natural mid-trip planning stop even for travelers spending most of their time elsewhere in Missouri.