Kansas City

Kansas City sits in the middle of the continent, more than 1,000km from any coast, so it is not a place for a beach vacation. In summer, locals swim at sandy lake beaches in county parks on the edge of the metro area, and at hotel and public pools. These are fine for an afternoon with children, but nobody travels here to swim.

Barbecue is the reason to eat here. Kansas City style means meat slow-smoked over hickory, a thick, sweet tomato and molasses sauce, and burnt ends, the charred, fatty brisket tips the city made famous. Smokehouses run from decades-old counters near the old stockyards and the 18th and Vine district to petrol-station joints and polished dining rooms, and comparing them is a local pastime. The cattle-town past also lives on in its steakhouses.

Outside the smoke, the scene is solid rather than deep. The River Market has a weekend farmers' market and a cluster of Vietnamese, Ethiopian and Middle Eastern counters, and the Westside has a long-standing Mexican community. The Crossroads and Westport have craft breweries and modern American restaurants, and beer brewed in the city is poured everywhere. Fine dining is limited, though, and a visitor who doesn't care about barbecue will find much of the city's food familiar.

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is the anchor. It is a major encyclopaedic collection, with especially strong Chinese art and a lawn of giant shuttlecocks by Claes Oldenburg, and the modern Kemper Museum is next door. The National WWI Museum and Memorial, under its tall Liberty Memorial tower, is the country's main museum of that war and a serious, moving visit. In the 18th and Vine district, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and the American Jazz Museum tell African American stories found nowhere else.

The cityscape matters too. Union Station is a grand Beaux-Arts terminal, the Country Club Plaza is a 1920s shopping district built in Spanish style, and fountains are scattered across the boulevards. Truman's home in nearby Independence adds presidential history. Beyond these, historic streetscapes are few, and the sights are far apart, so two or three days covers the main list.

Going out happens in a few separate districts. The Power and Light District downtown is an enclosed block of big bars and sports screens, at its loudest on game nights and weekends. Westport is the older, scruffier bar strip, popular with students and twenty-somethings. The Crossroads and the River Market are better for craft beer, cocktail bars and a calmer crowd. Plenty of bars stay open late, but the club scene is small, and outside Friday and Saturday the city goes quiet early. You'll need a car or a ride between areas. It's a friendly, easy night out, not a reason to visit.

The countryside around Kansas City is gently rolling prairie and farmland cut by the Missouri and Kansas rivers. It is pleasant, but not dramatic. In town, Swope Park is one of the largest urban parks in the country, and Loose Park has a fine rose garden. A network of paved trails follows creeks through the suburbs, and reservoirs on the edges of the metro area offer boating, fishing and wooded walks. Spring and autumn are the best seasons. Summers are hot and humid, and winters bring cold snaps. Serious hiking country, such as the Ozarks, is several hours away.

A car opens up a handful of modest outings. Independence, on the eastern edge of the metro area, has Harry Truman's home and presidential library and the starting point of the old western trails. Lawrence, about forty minutes west, is a lively university town with a good main street. The river town of Weston has antebellum houses, a distillery and nearby vineyards. Further north, St Joseph has the Pony Express museum and the house where Jesse James was shot. These are pleasant half days, not famous sights, and public transport to them is almost non-existent.

Kansas City is easy with children. Worlds of Fun is a large amusement park with roller coasters and a water park next door, open in the warmer months. The Kansas City Zoo is big and spread out, with African savanna and penguin areas. Inside Union Station, Science City is a hands-on science centre, and the Crown Center complex nearby has an aquarium, a Legoland Discovery Centre and a free creative play space run by the greeting-card company based there.

Roads are wide, parking is easy, restaurants welcome families without fuss, and there are fountains to splash in through summer. Baseball at Kauffman Stadium is a relaxed family evening. The catch is that attractions are spread around the metro area, so you'll be in the car a lot.

This is a city built for driving. Highways move traffic easily and parking is rarely hard, which is exactly why a car is the practical choice. The one transit line a visitor will use is the streetcar along Main Street, which links the River Market, downtown, Union Station and Crown Center, then runs south towards Midtown and the university area. Staying along this line makes a car-free day or two possible. Otherwise, buses are infrequent, the zoo, Worlds of Fun and the outlying sights are far apart, and pavements give out quickly beyond the core neighbourhoods. Ride-hailing fills the gaps.

The Country Club Plaza is the main shopping area: an outdoor district from the 1920s with tiled towers and courtyards in Spanish style, lined with national chain and upmarket stores. The Crossroads has independent galleries, design and vintage shops, and the River Market has a few antique and speciality food stores. Westport and the 39th Street area add record shops and thrift stores. Local souvenirs mostly mean barbecue sauce and sports gear. Beyond that, shopping means suburban malls.

Kansas City is cheap for America but not a budget destination. Hotel rooms, even downtown, cost noticeably less than in the big coastal cities, parking is plentiful, and a barbecue lunch is filling and fairly priced. The Nelson-Atkins, the city's main art museum, does not charge for general entry, which helps a sightseeing day.

The costs build up elsewhere. Most visitors need a hired car, because the sights are spread out and public transport is thin. Sales tax and a tip are added to every restaurant bill and bar tab. Tickets to the theme park, the zoo, the WWI museum and ball games add up quickly for a family. Overall, a stay here costs about what it would in an ordinary American city, more than a visitor from much of Europe or Asia might expect.

Jazz is Kansas City's own art form. The hard-swinging, blues-based style that produced Count Basie and Charlie Parker grew up here, and small clubs around 18th and Vine, downtown and Midtown still put on live jazz most nights, often with late jam sessions. Blues and roots music fill a range of smaller rooms.

On the formal side, the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, with its striking pleated-shell design, is home to the Kansas City Symphony, the Lyric Opera and the Kansas City Ballet. The restored Folly Theater hosts jazz and chamber concerts, and the Kansas City Repertory Theatre stages serious drama. In summer, the open-air Starlight Theatre puts on Broadway musicals. The season is solid rather than famous, but the jazz gives it a character worth planning an evening around.

Kansas City has no bathing tradition of its own, and wellness here means hotel spas and suburban day spas. The nearest echo of a spa culture is Excelsior Springs, about forty minutes north, an old mineral-water resort with a historic spa hotel. Still, the city's pace is unhurried, traffic is light by big-city standards, and a slow morning in Loose Park's rose garden or the Nelson-Atkins sculpture park is easy to find.