Kansas City

Barbecue is the first reason most people come to Kansas City, and it lives up to the billing. The KC style is defined by a wide range of slow-smoked meats — brisket, ribs, pulled pork, turkey, sausage — finished with a thick, sweet-and-tangy tomato-and-molasses sauce, and by the city's own contribution to the canon: burnt ends, the prized caramelised tips of the brisket. More than a hundred barbecue joints compete across the metro, from legendary counter institutions like Arthur Bryant's and Gates to modern favourites such as Joe's Kansas City (set in a working petrol station). Pulling up a tray, a roll of paper towels and a few sides is the essential Kansas City meal.

Kansas City was one of the birthplaces of American jazz. In the 1920s and 30s the clubs of the 18th & Vine district nurtured a hard-swinging, blues-soaked sound — the Kansas City style — that produced Count Basie, Big Joe Turner and the young Charlie “Bird” Parker. The restored district is now a cultural anchor: the American Jazz Museum traces the music and still hosts live sets at the Blue Room, while the adjoining Negro Leagues Baseball Museum tells the story of the Black baseball leagues that were also centred here. Live jazz remains easy to find across the city, from the Green Lady Lounge to the historic Mutual Musicians Foundation, where jam sessions run into the small hours.

Kansas City's nickname, the “City of Fountains”, is no idle boast — it is said to have more fountains than any city except Rome, and the loveliest cluster surrounds the Country Club Plaza, the elegant 1922 shopping district modelled on Seville and famous as the first retail centre in America designed for the car. A short walk away, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is one of the country's finest free museums, its lawn marked by Claes Oldenburg's enormous badminton shuttlecocks and its collection strong in European, American and Asian art. Together with the leafy boulevards the city built in its City Beautiful era — KC claims more boulevard miles than Paris — the Plaza-and-museum quarter is the most graceful side of Kansas City.

Downtown Kansas City has been revitalised around a free streetcar that makes it the easiest US city of its size to explore without a car. The line links the River Market (and its long-running City Market and Arabia Steamboat Museum), the Power & Light entertainment district, and the Crossroads Arts District, whose galleries, breweries and restaurants come alive on the monthly First Friday art walk. Rising above it all is the Liberty Memorial tower and, beneath it, the National WWI Museum and Memorial — the nation's official museum on the subject, with a glass-floor walkway over a field of poppies and a tower observation deck giving the best view over the city. Union Station, a grand restored 1914 railway terminal, anchors the southern end with exhibitions and a science centre.

Kansas City is a passionate sports town. The NFL Kansas City Chiefs play at Arrowhead Stadium, which holds the Guinness World Record as the loudest stadium on Earth — fans hit 142.2 decibels in 2014 — and the MLB Kansas City Royals play next door at Kauffman Stadium, the two sharing the Truman Sports Complex east of downtown. For getting around, the free KC Streetcar covers the downtown spine, and RideKC buses fill in the rest, but the wider metro depends on cars and rideshare. Kansas City International Airport (MCI), which opened a modern single-terminal building in 2023, is about 30 minutes north of downtown. Spring and autumn are the most comfortable seasons; summers are hot and humid, winters cold.