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Travel guide
Kansas City
4 days · 8 things to do
Best time to go: April to June and September to October
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Welcome
Kansas City, in a few days
Straddling Missouri and Kansas, the jazz city of Count Basie and Charlie Parker has kept its clubs in the 18th & Vine district, more than a hundred barbecue restaurants and the National World War I Museum, at the foot of a 66-metre tower. People also come for a free art museum with giant shuttlecocks, a 1914 railway station and a streetcar that costs nothing.
- Day by day
- D1 Day 1 2 things
- D2 Day 2 3 things
- D3 Day 3 2 things
- D4 Day 4 1 thing
- Worth sorting before you go
- Words that help
- The practical page
- Packing checklist
The trip
Day by day
Map of the sights (numbers follow the suggested order). It prints with the base map.
D1
Day 1
2 things to do · at your own pace
- Morning · National WWI Museum and Memorial · half a dayThe Liberty Memorial of 1926, named America's national World War I museum in 2004, entered over a field of 9,000 poppies, with a reconstructed trench and a 66-metre tower overlooking the city.
- Late afternoon · Union Station free · about 1 hThe 1914 station, nearly 260 metres long, with a Grand Hall under a 29-metre ceiling, restored and reopened in 1999, still served by Amtrak and home to a science museum and planetarium.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Hilton President Kansas City ↗ · All places to stay by budget →€160 a night
D2
Day 2
3 things to do · at your own pace
- Morning · American Jazz Museum · about 1 h 30The story of the all-night jam sessions that launched Count Basie and Charlie Parker, with instruments, listening stations and Parker's plastic saxophone, plus the Blue Room, a working jazz club.
- Afternoon · Negro Leagues Baseball Museum · about 1 h 30In 18th & Vine, the story of the leagues where Black Americans played during segregation, ending on the Field of Legends, a miniature diamond lined with bronze statues of the greatest players.
- Late afternoon · Kansas City barbecue free · about 1 h per placeMore than a hundred smokehouses descended from Henry Perry's 1908 alley stand, serving pork, beef and burnt ends in sweet molasses sauce, from Arthur Bryant's to Joe's in its working petrol station.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Hilton President Kansas City ↗€160 a night
D3
Day 3
2 things to do · at your own pace
- Morning · Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art free · about 3 hA free museum spanning 5,000 years of art, with a superb Chinese collection, a Caravaggio and Steven Holl's glowing glass wing, plus the giant shuttlecocks that became the city's emblem.
- Afternoon · Country Club Plaza free · 2 to 3 hOne of America's first shopping districts built for motorists, opened in 1923 in a Seville-inspired style with towers, fountains and mosaics, lit by thousands of bulbs every Thanksgiving since 1925.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Hilton President Kansas City ↗€160 a night
D4
Day 4
1 thing to do · at your own pace
- Morning · Truman Presidential Library · half a dayIn Independence, Harry Truman's presidential library, renovated in 2021, traces the atomic bomb, the Marshall Plan and NATO, with an Oval Office replica, while his Victorian home is visited with a ranger.
Before you go
Worth sorting before you go
📶 eSIM data
Online the moment you land, no roaming bill.
Get one · Holafly
Online the moment you land, no roaming bill.
Get one · Holafly
🛡️ Travel insurance
Health, luggage, cancellation.
Cover it · Ekta
Health, luggage, cancellation.
Cover it · Ekta
💳 Fee-free card
Pay at the real rate, with no exchange markup.
Open one · Revolut
Pay at the real rate, with no exchange markup.
Open one · Revolut
🚐 Airport transfer
A private car at a fixed price from the moment you land.
Book it · GetTransfer
A private car at a fixed price from the moment you land.
Book it · GetTransfer
Some links are partner links: we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.
Good to know
Flavours & local habits
🍽️ Worth tasting
- Burgers and barbecue: brisket and ribs cooked low and slow, done differently in every state.
- Clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl: the classic lunch on the San Francisco waterfront.
- Mexican food: tacos from a truck in Los Angeles, a Mission burrito in San Francisco.
- Pancakes and weekend brunch: a national habit, generous to the point of excess.
- Craft beer, and California wine from Napa and Sonoma.
⚠️ Best avoided
- Tipping is not optional: add 15 to 20% in restaurants and bars.
- Prices on menus and in shops exclude sales tax, which is added at the till.
- Do not plan more than four or five hours of driving a day: the distances are larger than they look on the map.
- Never travel without health insurance. A night in hospital can cost thousands of dollars.
- In summer, do not hike down into the Grand Canyon in the heat of the day: the climb back out is where people get into trouble.
Getting by
Words that help
🗣️ English is the main language here, so there is nothing to learn by heart.
The essentials
The practical page
CurrencyUS dollar (USD, $)
BudgetAbout €145 a day, mid-range
Best seasonApril to June and September to October
PlugA/B · 120V
Tap waterSafe to drink
Tipping15 to 20%, expected
Emergency911
EntryUK, Australian and most EU passports need an ESTA, applied for online before departure, for stays of up to 90 days; a few EU countries sit outside the Visa Waiver Program and need a full visa. Canadians need neither, only a passport. Anyone who has been to Cuba since January 2021 cannot use an ESTA and must apply for a visa.
HealthNo vaccination required. Keep tetanus, diphtheria and polio up to date; hepatitis A is worth considering if you eat well off the tourist trail. In the desert parks, the heat is the real risk.
Scan to open this guide online, always up to date.
https://offwegooo.com/en/guides/kansas-city
Don't forget
Packing checklist
Have a good trip.
Guide made on offwegooo.com · Photos via Pexels · Details are indicative, check before you leave.