Things to Do in Branson - Seeing Sunshine

For Easter weekend, Travis and I decided to take a short trip to see Branson, Missouri. It’s only a couple hours away, and we’ve heard lots of great things about this city.

Today, I’m sharing what we did in Branson, as well as other things to do there.

Our Favorite Things in Branson

Extreme Racing

There are several places to ride go-karts, but of course Travis wanted the fastest ones we could find. This led us to Extreme Racing, where you have to qualify before actually racing the fast cars. And these cars were fast! I was really impressed with the organization, staff, and safety of Extreme Racing. Plus, this was one of Travis’ favorite parts! (Probably because he won!)

Six

There are so many shows to choose from in this city. It’s safe to say you could spend your entire trip just being entertained by shows. Everything from singing to comedy to magic to full-out theatre productions — you name it, they have it. Since my grandparents have been here about a gazillion times, we asked them for recommendations. Six was one of their favorite shows, and after seeing it for ourselves we know why.

This group of six brothers put on a great show of a Capella singing. They have all different genres of music in their show, so you will definitely hear some songs you know. They are also pretty funny, so overall it was entertaining. We would definitely recommend this show to friends. Another neat part is the brothers have matching Mustangs that they park in front of the theater every night. Those are pretty awesome to see too!

Promised Land Zoo

This was one of my favorite parts of our trip. This small zoo has several animals I had never seen before like sloths and wolves. The best part, though, is your chance to feed many of the animals there. I loved feeding the kangaroos!

They also have a bottle baby feeding time, where guests can bottle feed certain animals. While we were there, they were letting guests bottle feed baby goats, a calf, and a baby camel. It was all first-come, first-serve with no real organization, though. I felt bad taking a bottle from a child so that I could have a turn, so I didn’t bottle feed any animals. That was OK with me, but I would have been really disappointed if I hadn’t gotten a chance to bottle feed an exotic animal if they had that option.

This zoo also has an animal show a couple times a day. During the show, they bring out some different animals and give everyone a chance to pet them. I really enjoyed this part. We learned a lot about some animals. I got to pet a prairie dog and an armadillo. Other animals we opted out of petting were snakes, alligators, and a giant frog. You can also pay extra for a VIP experience where you can hold and feed other exotic animals. I saw someone holding a baby bobcat, and it was adorable!

Another part of the zoo is the parakeet paradise — an area filled with birds. You are given a feed stick and can go inside and feed the birds.

Craft & Antique Shopping + Downtown Branson

There are lots of craft and antique stores in Branson, as well as souvenir shops and malls like the Tanger Outlet Mall. We visited a few craft stores, but most of our shopping was done in downtown Branson.

I wanted to go to Dick’s Five & Dime after seeing advertisements for the store. This place was huge with all kinds of things for sale. It was really fun to walk around and look at it all, but I thought a lot of the items were overpriced. We did buy a few fun, cheap items like candy while we were there.

We ate lunch next door at the Farmhouse Family Restaurant. It was really good! We also enjoyed walking around the other nearby shops and even stopping for ice cream.

Sight & Sound Theatre

This is probably one of the most popular things to do in Branson if I were to guess. The Sight & Sound Theatre is known for putting on some huge productions. Right now, they are showing Moses. I am so glad we went to see this musical. I can’t imagine how much work goes into putting this show together. It is huge with so many awesome effects, great sets, and more. Travis and I would have loved to do the VIP experience where you get to go backstage and see how it all works. They weren’t offering it while we were there, but we recommend it.

Other Things to Do in Branson

Since we were only there for one weekend, we didn’t have time to go to everything. Here are just some of the other possibilities of things to do in Branson. Many of which we will try if we ever go back!

The Butterfly Palace & Rainforest Adventure
Titantic Museum — I’ve heard a ton of good things about this place!
Tanger Outlet Mall
Ride the Ducks, a Table Rock Lake experience
Veterans Museum
Dixie Stampede
Auto & Farm Museum
Adventure Ziplines of Branson
Shoji Tabucchi Theatre — I’ve been told if nothing else at least go check out the bathrooms at this place!
Toy and Dinosaur Museum
Branson’s Wild World
Hollywood Wax Museum
Showboat Branson Belle
Miniature Golf (tons of places for this activity)
Silver Dollar City