Looks like we will be visiting the US next year as my wife may be landing a 3 day expenses paid teaching gig at a craft fair in Kansas City, MO sometime in late April.
If it happens we’ll turn it into a family trip and try to spend another 10-14 days in the US. The first three days I would be touring around the city with my boys (8 1/2 and 7 by then).
After that we would most likely head west to Colorado and Utah, mainly to see the scenery in the Rockies and Monument Valley. If possible in the time frame a leg down to the Grand Canyon would be a treat.
So my questions:
What’s good in Kansas City for a family for a few days? I’ve always been interested in the US Civil War so a bit of history is always welcome.
Is the rest of the trip viable in a 10 - 14 day timeframe or would we be pushing it?
What would be the best travel options? Fly, train, bus or self-drive?
We are in the initial planning stages right now so any information is very welcome.
Union Station and Science City are good for the kids.
Worlds of Fun/Oceans of Fun are good family fun. Schlitterbahn is another water park.
Power&Light has lots of bars and restaurants. Crossroads district is more art galleries. Westport is more bars and restaurants. The Plaza is high end shopping and dining.
Just north of Kansas City is the Jesse James farm in Kearney, MO (pronounced "KARN-ee). I was there 20 years ago, but I remember liking it. http://www.jessejames.org
As someone interested in the US Civil War, you’re probably familiar with Quantrill’s guerillas. They operated in between northwest MO and Lawrence KS. I’m not familiar offhand with any sites related to them, but I would think there must be some that would turn up if you ask Google nicely.
I don’t know enough about those locations to give you specific advice, but as an Aussie living in the US, I can help with this bit:
When most Americans travel, they fly the big legs and rent a car at the other end. I’d recommend this approach to you too, or you’ll end up spending all of your limited time waiting for the sparse buses and trains. And some places just aren’t accessible by any means other than private cars or maybe tour buses, which tend to be expensive compared to, say, Greyhound.
Renting a car in the US is, on the whole, much cheaper than in the US. Petrol is prob cheaper too, but I’m a bit out of date on local comparisons and don’t care enough to Google it.
So, fly from Kansas City to Vegas (even if that’s not a destination you’re interested in, it’s probably the closest airport hub) and rent a car. You could even rent a campervan (don’t get one of the monster RVs, they’re much more $$) – April will be a nice time to camp in the desert. You can also be a bit more spontaneous if camping; if you’re enjoying somewhere, stay another night, or leave early if you’re not feeling it.
If you’re going through Colorado to get to Utah, make sure you stop at Mesa Verde in the southwest corner of CO. Take the walking tour down to the cliffside pueblo. Then on to Monument Valley, which is pretty cool, and the Navajo have tours. From there you could go west to the Grand Canyon, or go north into Utah to see Canyonlands and Arches. I’d personally recommend the Grand Canyon if you haven’t seen it. There is a huge number of things to see in the American Southwest.
Kansas City -> Denver : 8 hour drive with absolutely nothing to see in between. Literally, nothing.
Denver -> Grand Canyon: 12 hour drive with lots of beautiful scenery and things to do in between.
With 10-14 days, a plan to drive from Denver to the Grand Canyon and back again (stopping at various intermediate places along the way) sounds great to me! There are two routes to take that are both approximately the same travel time (I-70 and I-25), so you can take one route on the way there and the other route on the way back. This is a classic American road trip! Another option would be to continue on from the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas (~4-5 hours), and then fly home from there. Las Vegas is not for everyone, but April is a good time to be there.
Don’t plan to take the train or bus anywhere in this part of the country. You need to rent a car wherever you are. If you really want to see the country, driving is the way to do it. However, there’s nothing to see between Kansas City and Denver, so skipping that leg by flying is a perfectly viable option depending on the cost. Other than that, I suggest you drive. And it still may be cheapest and most convenient to just drive the 8 hours between Kansas City and Denver.
I’ll echo others here and say that if it is at all possible, see the Grand Canyon. It’s like nowhere else on earth. Carlsbad Caverns is good too.
Heck, ten to rourteen days is barely a taste. I’d recommend checking out the website Roadside America, for those fun, offbeat places, that lots of people miss out on.
Another vote for The Steamboat Arabia museum. The artifacts are very cool, and the story of how they found it is even better. There were a bunch of friends who had a theory about a sunken steamboat buried under a cornfield…and they were right!
There’s Branson, about three hours out from Kansas City. It has a lot of theaters where singers come to perform, usually country and western, but not exclusively. It also has a couple of amusement parks.
Between Denver and the Grand Canyon, you might visit Mesa Verde National Park, which has a lot of artifacts from the ancient Indians who lived in the area thousands of years ago.
If you’re in the area of the Grand Canyon, I’d also recommend some of the National Parks in southern Utah, especially Arches, Bryce and Zion. They are like no other places on the planet . . . especially Bryce.
Practically everything in nature is different from what you are used to on your continent. Birds, flowers, trees, etc. Pick up a few field guides to the nature of the region you plan to visit. Kids of that age can become very enthusiastic about identifying species of birds or flowers or trees.
Self-drive is really the only way to do it, and with the above in mind, there is as much to see in the spaces in between, as in the chosen attractions themselves. That’s where America is, out there in between. You might surprise everyone (and yourselves) by getting home and saying “We loved Kansas most of all”.
Kansas City resident here. I want to emphasize the recommendations, above.
The WWI museum is extremely top-notch, and is well worth the visit. Plan on spending at least 4-6 hours there. Also, the Steamboat Arabia museum is phenomenal, as well. I think we spent about 2-3 hours there. You might be able to do both museums in one day. The WWI museum is just across the street and up the hill from Union Station, and you can catch the new, free streetcar from Union Station down to the City Market, which is where the Steamboat Arabia museum is located. I believe it is about a 15 minute ride.
Personally, I am not a fan of Branson. The traffic there sucks like nowhere else on earth, except possibly those massive traffic jams in Beijing. IMHO, the whole Branson experience showcases the “Hillbilly” aspect of life in the Ozarks, and, again IMHO, is overdone and excessively kitsch.
Kansas doesn’t have many (dare I say, “any”) natural wonders, so if you want to see the natural wonders, the suggestions made upthread are all very good.
One thing about the USA that many visitors completely underestimate is just how big the place really is. The last time I drove from Los Angeles to Kansas City, it took about 36 hours (but I was driving 55 MPH in a moving truck pulling a car). With the higher speed limits, the actual drive time drops a little bit, but it isn’t going to drop significantly. I believe the general rule-of-thumb is that it takes 3 days of hard driving to get from coast to coast.
Going north-to-south isn’t much better. From Kansas City, we have driven to Houston, Texas, a few times. That is a 10-12 hour drive, going from the middle-of-the-country to the mid-southern portion of the country.
I’m in Kansas City as well, and I essentially agree with what’s been said so far. As I’m sure you know Australia has significant history in WWI.
I recommend a trip to Moon Marble Company, in Bonner Springs on the west side of the Kansas City Metropolitan area. Besides a staggering variety of marbles, it has a wide selection of older-style traditional toys (give the boys a few dollars each and let them choose what they’d like) and a marble-making demonstration that’s fascinating for all ages. Check the times for the demonstration to make sure you can see it. This could take 2-3 hours. It could fit in with heading west to Colorado.
On your way to or from Kansas City to Colorado, consider taking U.S. 50 (highway) rather than Interstate 70 (high-speed limited-access highway). It’s a bit slower, but you’ll get a taste of the old (and current) American West with cattle ranches, small towns you’ll drive through and can stop in, and the reasonably famous Dodge City in Kansas. This can give you a feel for part of America away from the Interstate highways.
The National Toy and Miniature Museum is a bit of an odd duck – toys are one thing and miniatures are another – but I’d say it worth considering.
If you’re a beer drinker I think you’ll enjoy some of the offerings of the Boulevard Brewing Company. They’re available in most restaurants as well as groceries and liquor stores.
That’s a good idea. I took US 50 from Cincinnati to St. Louis a couple of times. It took quite a bit longer than taking the interstate, but it was a much more interesting and pleasant drive. A year or so ago, I had to drive from mid-Missouri to Madison, WI, almost all of it over non-interstate highways. It was a really nice drive.
If you decide to fly from Kansas City to Denver and drive from there to Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon, be aware that you could get snowed on in late April. I-70 goes right through the Rocky Mountains and snowstorms are not unheard of that time of year. Even the Grand Canyon could possibly get snow- the south rim is at 7,000 ft (2,100 m) elevation. So keep an eye on the weather reports.
We just returned from that neck of the woods (left here on May 24th), and while the roads were clear and the snow mostly all gone, the higher elevations still had snow warnings when the clouds rolled in, and we drove through a flurry at about 9,000 feet. Going over the summit in Rocky Mountain National Park means climbing to over 12,000 ft., which I wouldn’t recommend in April.
I drove cross country several years ago and got off the interstate in Missouri and took 50 though Missouri and Kansas. Much more interesting drive than the interstate, and the highway isn’t much worse than driving an interstate, as far as traffic and access.
I remember fondly my trip to KC as a kid and going to Worlds of Fun. If you want to go keeping in mind that Worlds of Fun is only open Saturdays and Sundays in April. It is probably too early in the year for water parks to be open and likely too cool weather to make them enjoyable.