United States · Missouri
Where to Stay in Kansas City, Missouri
Fountains and boulevards run through Kansas City, a river city in Missouri where the Kansas River joins the Missouri and the Nelson-Atkins Museum stands.
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Where to stay in Kansas City
Where you base yourself shapes the visit — here's the character of each area.
Where you stay in Kansas City turns on which hilltop you want. The rail district gathers the big civic landmarks. The National World War I Memorial rises on its bluff above the restored Union Station, and Science City fills the old concourse below with its exhibits.
Base yourself here and the downtown fountains are a short walk. It is the crossroads of the city. South of the centre sits the museum district, greener and residential.
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art anchors it, with the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art a few blocks off and the grand houses of the old streetcar suburbs, among them the Epperson House, the Bernard Corrigan House, and the arts-and-crafts Mineral Hall, standing between them. The Thomas Hart Benton Home and Studio, where the painter worked, sits nearby. For families, the Union Station end also holds Sea Life Kansas City and the Legoland Discovery Center Kansas City under one roof.
Wherever you land, the Missouri River and the state line are never far, for the city straddles the border of Missouri and Kansas.
About Kansas City
What is Kansas City known for?
Kansas City is known for its fountains, its boulevards, and its museums. The scale is deliberate. Laid out with more boulevards than Paris and more fountains than any city but Rome, it wears its planning openly across the bluffs above the Missouri River.
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art holds the great collection, with the National World War I Memorial rising over the rail yards and the restored Union Station below it. Jazz and barbecue carry the rest of the name.
What are the main landmarks in Kansas City?
The main landmarks of Kansas City run from a war memorial to an art museum. High on its bluff, the National World War I Memorial crowns the rail district above Union Station, whose restored concourse now holds Science City, so that the whole quarter reads as one civic set over the valley. Art fills the southern districts.
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art carry the collections, and the Thomas Hart Benton Home and Studio keeps the painter's rooms.
What is the history of Kansas City?
Kansas City was founded in 1853 on the bluffs where the Kansas River joins the Missouri. The town grew as a river landing and then a rail hub, and Union Station rose to serve the traffic that poured through the confluence. The state line ran straight through the settlement, splitting it between Missouri and Kansas from the start.
Trade built the early fortunes. Boss politics shaped the decades that followed, and the Tom Pendergast House survives from the era of the machine that ran the city. Wealth from cattle and rail raised the mansions of the southern districts, among them the Epperson House and the Bernard Corrigan House.
Faith and civic pride left their own marks, from Sacred Heart Church to the modernist Community Christian Church. The National World War I Memorial was raised on its hill to honour the war dead, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art followed as the city turned its rail wealth toward culture. From landing to railroad to boulevard, the city kept building outward from its rivers.
Where is Kansas City?
Kansas City sits at the confluence of the Kansas River and the Missouri River. Bluffs rise from the water. The land climbs from the river bottoms to rolling upland, and the state line between Missouri and Kansas runs straight through the built-up area, splitting the city between the two states.
Fountains and boulevards trace the higher ground away from the rivers.
What is the climate of Kansas City?
Kansas City has a temperate continental climate with four clear seasons. Summers run hot and humid over the river valley, and storms build across the open Missouri plain on the warmest afternoons. The cold sets in through winter.
Snow falls through the season, and spring and autumn bring the mild, changeable weather of the mid-continent between the extremes.
How do you get to Kansas City?
Kansas City is reached by air, road, and rail. An international airport serves the metro from the north, and interstate highways cross the Missouri River to knit the two-state city together. Trains still call at the restored Union Station.
The old river landing that founded the town lies below the bluffs where the Kansas River meets the Missouri.
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Updated July 2026