Journey: Postcard from Kansas City, Kansas

By Dennis Lennox, CP Contributor Sunday, May 03, 2026

KANSAS CITY, Kansas — This metropolis has lengthy lived within the shadow.

For most Americans, point out Kansas City and ideas instantly flip to Missouri: barbecue, jazz, downtown skyscrapers {and professional} sports activities. The Kansas facet has too typically been decreased to an afterthought.

That is altering.

With the National Football League’s Kansas City Chiefs relocating right here within the coming years, KCK — what the cool youngsters name it — is poised to imagine a much more distinguished function on the nationwide stage. Yet this metropolis’s rise is just not merely about soccer.

It has been quietly reinventing itself for years.

Kansas Speedway helped remodel Wyandotte County, which incorporates the town, right into a tourism and leisure hall, bringing NASCAR and different main racing occasions whereas driving substantial financial funding. Around it has emerged an expansive district of procuring, eating and lodges.

One of these locations is the Margaritaville Hotel Kansas City.

My latest keep marked my first-ever go to to a Margaritaville property, and I got here away genuinely impressed.

It compares favorably to extra conventional upscale manufacturers like Westin. While too many chain lodges more and more embrace sterile, interchangeable modernity, Margaritaville provides one thing much more transportive. Its decor is immersive, playful and resort-oriented with out sacrificing polish. In quick, this isn’t merely one other resort. It appears like a trip.

The sprawling outside pool alone would justify a return keep. One can benefit from the environment of an island resort with out the passport necessities, airport complications or bills of airfare for an entire household.

For many readers, KCK is a sensible long-weekend vacation spot.

I’d gladly return for no different purpose than to spend a number of days beside that big pool, having fun with a real resort environment with out ever needing to go away the nation.

Yet what stunned me most about Kansas City was not merely its new improvement.

It was its historical past.

Nowhere is that extra evident than Strawberry Hill.

This historic neighborhood is architecturally and culturally fascinating. Walking its streets, I used to be reminded much less of the jap Great Plains and extra of the Rust Belt. Think Pittsburgh and Erie in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin’s Milwaukee and Rochester on the Erie Canal in New York.

There gave the impression to be a church — towering reminders of Kansas City’s Croatian, Slovenian, Polish and broader ethnic European heritage — each block or two. 

These weren’t generic trendy buildings. They had been conventional church buildings within the truest architectural sense. Think limestone, pointed-arch Gothic revival or Romanesque revival with rounded arches, bell towers and masonry craftsmanship that mirrored an period when church buildings had been constructed for permanence and wonder.

Some stay lively homes of worship. Others have been repurposed or not serve Christian congregations. But all stand as enduring reminders of how earlier generations constructed sacred areas.

Their structure speaks to a confidence, seriousness and reverence typically absent from a lot modern design. These had been buildings meant to encourage, to endure and to anchor communities.

Even my unintentional crossing into Missouri’s West Bottoms provided a glimpse into the metro’s broader transformation. Once rough-edged and industrial, the world, which straddles the unmarked border between Kansas and Missouri, is quickly rising as a hotspot for lofts, eating places and different redevelopment. I think will probably be utterly redeveloped inside 5 years.

Between skilled sports activities, its rising hospitality scene and a surprisingly wealthy heritage, Kansas City, Kansas, is not merely adjoining. It is an surprising vacation spot.

If you go

In Strawberry Hill, head to Beverly’s for a chunk to eat. The family-friendly institution is an area favourite. Other locations to eat embrace Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que, which is a part of the KCK BBQ Trail.

Rowe Ridge Vineyard & Winery, the one vineyard in Wyandotte County, provides an intriguing glimpse into Kansas’ still-fledgling wine business. Produced from hybrid grapes grown on the property winery, the wines differ in fashion and examine surprisingly properly with bottles from different rising, nontraditional wine areas.

I’ve lengthy had an affinity for triumphal arches. The Rosedale Memorial Arch, a scaled-down homage to Arc de Triomphe in Paris, was erected to honor World War I veterans and later expanded as a memorial to those that served in subsequent conflicts. It is probably going considered one of KCK’s most neglected hidden gems.

If Margaritaville is just not your type of resort, contemplate Chateau Avalon Hotel. Quirky and unapologetically eccentric, it provides a particular mix of boutique resort and bed-and-breakfast lodging.

Full journey planning sources can be found via Visit Kansas City, Kansas.

Dennis Lennox writes a journey column for The Christian Post.