Kansas City is the central city within the Kansas City metropolitan area, which straddles the border between Kansas and Missouri. Founded over a century ago, the city today is home to fantastic barbecue restaurants and jazz clubs, and more besides, as our handy day stay guide outlines below.

Your Kansas City Day Stay Guide

• Food – There’s plenty to sink your teeth into in Kansas City, which has a range of dining options including a number of great barbecue restaurants. If you love a tipple then visiting a brewery or winery (or both, of course) might be up your street, and Europhiles will want to check out the Austrian-German fare and European beer from the Grünauer restaurant.
• Museums – Travellers with children can enjoy the family-friendly Science City museum, which features interactive science displays and a planetarium. The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum tells the history of racial segregation in baseball, and other museums in the city include the Money Museum and the National WWI Museum and Memorial.
• Jazz Music – Jazz fans have a selection of fine clubs, bars, and theaters to choose from when it comes to live music, including the Green Lady Lounge and the Black Dolphin. There’s also the American Jazz Museum, which features live concerts.
• Swope Park – If you prefer the outdoors, then the massive grounds of Swope Park offer a green escape from the urban jungle. Great for a simple stroll, the park has numerous facilities, such as a golf course, theater, and a zoo.

Seven Intriguing Kansas City Facts

1. Perhaps counter-intuitively, Kansas City is the largest city in Missouri.
2. It is the central city within the Kansas City metropolitan area, which has portions in both Kansas and Missouri.
3. The establishment of Kansas City dates back to 1853, although the area had been settled a few decades earlier.
4. Kansas City has the second largest population of Sudanese and Somalians in the United States.
5. The city’s Swope Park is home to Starlight Theatre, the second biggest outdoor musical theater in the United States.
6. Swope Park was donated to the city by Colonel Thomas Swope, and covers more than twice the area of New York City’s Central Park.
7. Famous people from Kansas City include Eminem, Ginger Rogers, and Walter Cronkite.