Kansas City travel guide

Top 10 sights in Kansas City

Ranked by Wikipedia language editions — proven fame.

1. 

   1

   The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

   An encyclopaedic art museum in Kansas City with one of the finest Asian collections in the West, particularly Chinese painting and sculpture. Four Claes Oldenburg shuttlecocks eighteen feet high lie on its lawns, and the 2007 Bloch Building by Steven Holl is glass lenses set into the ground.

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2. 

   2

   Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum

   The presidential library at Independence, holding the papers of Harry Truman and the graves of the president and his wife in the courtyard. Its exhibits cover the atomic bomb decision and the Korean War directly.

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3. 

   3

   National World War I Memorial

   The only American museum devoted to the First World War, beneath a memorial tower of 1926 with an observation deck at the top. A glass bridge over a field of poppies leads into the galleries.

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4. 

   4

   Independence Temple

   The headquarters of the Community of Christ at Independence, dedicated in 1994, with a spire that winds upward in a spiral shell. It is given over to peace work and is open daily, including a room kept for silent prayer.

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5. 

   5© Nightryder84 · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Kansas City Zoo

   An 82-hectare zoo in Swope Park founded in 1909, with an African savanna section of thirty-eight hectares and an Australian walkabout. An aquarium was added in 2023, and the zoo runs on a bi-state cultural tax.

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6. 

   6© Mwkruse · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Cathedral of Saint Peter

   The Catholic cathedral of the archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, built in 1892 for a parish of Irish and German immigrants working the stockyards and packing plants. It stands in the Strawberry Hill district.

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7. 

   7© Moonraker0022 · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Patriot

   An inverted coaster at Worlds of Fun opened on 8 April 2006, built by Bolliger and Mabillard, on which riders hang below the track through four inversions. It runs over a wooded ravine at the edge of the park.

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8. 

   8© Captain Thor · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Fort de Cavagnial

   A French fort and trading post built in 1744 on the bluffs above the Missouri north of Kansas City, to hold the fur trade of the upper river. It was abandoned in 1764 when France gave up Louisiana; its exact site has never been confirmed.

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   9© EGDJ · CC BY 3.0

   Temple Lot

   A parcel of land at Independence dedicated by Joseph Smith in 1831 as the site of a temple in the city he identified as Zion. No temple has ever been built on it; the plot is owned by the Church of Christ, a small Latter Day Saint denomination.

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10. 

    10

    Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception

    The Catholic cathedral of Kansas City, Missouri, built in 1883 and given a gold-leaf dome in 1960. It is co-cathedral of a diocese that spans the state line arrangements of the region.

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1. 

   1

   SubTropolis

   A business complex inside a limestone mine in the bluffs north of the Missouri, with about 1.3 million square metres of leasable space — the largest underground business park in the world. Its constant temperature makes it useful for archives and food storage; trucks drive in.

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2. 

   2© Tkexb173 at en.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Worlds of Fun

   A 95-hectare theme park opened in 1973, themed on the continents of Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days, with Africa, Europe, Scandinavia, the Orient and Americana sections. It has forty-three attractions including five roller coasters.

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   3

   Country Club Plaza

   A shopping district of 1922, the first in the United States designed for people arriving by car, built by J. C. Nichols in Spanish Revival with tiled fountains and towers copied from Seville. Its Christmas lights have been switched on every Thanksgiving since 1930.

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   4© Tkexb173 at en.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Mamba

   A steel hypercoaster at Worlds of Fun, opened in 1998, with a first drop of about sixty-two metres and a top speed near 120 kilometres an hour. It was among the tallest coasters in the country when built.

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5. 

   5© Adam Jones from Kelowna, BC, Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0

   Harry S. Truman National Historic Site

   The house at Independence where Harry Truman lived from 1919 until his death in 1972, and which served as the summer White House during his presidency. The interior is preserved as the Trumans left it, down to Bess Truman's kitchen.

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6. 

   6© Stephen Edmonds · CC BY-SA 3.0

   KCTV Broadcast Tower

   A 318-metre freestanding steel lattice tower on Union Hill south of downtown Kansas City, and the tallest structure in the city. It carries television and radio for the metropolitan area.

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7. 

   7© Moonraker0022 at en.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Timber Wolf

   A wooden roller coaster of 1989 at Worlds of Fun, designed by Curtis Summers and built by Dinn Corporation, running through a wooded hillside so that much of the track is among trees. It was rated one of the best wooden coasters in the world in the early 1990s.

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   8© Iknowthegoods (talk) · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Westport

   The oldest neighbourhood in Kansas City, founded in 1833 as the outfitting point where the Santa Fe and Oregon trails left the Missouri river. Its 1830s buildings survive as the city's main bar and live music district.

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9. 

   9

   Fairyland Park

   An amusement park at 7501 Prospect Avenue that operated from 1923 to 1977. It refused Black visitors under segregation and became a focus of protests in the 1960s; the site was later cleared.

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    10© Robb Alvey Theme Park Review - www.themeparkreview.com 7512 Dr. Phillips Blvd. · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Orient Express

    A steel roller coaster at Worlds of Fun from 1980 to 2003, built by Arrow and designed by Ron Toomer, which ran through two vertical loops and a boomerang element. It was the first coaster in the world with a boomerang inversion.

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