Kansas City sits on the Missouri River at the point where Missouri and Kansas meet, though the Missouri side has long been the cultural heart of the metro area. It is a city that does several things extraordinarily well: barbecue, jazz, fountains, and art deco architecture. None of these is a minor footnote — Kansas City takes them seriously, and so should you.
The city's jazz history is real and deep. In the 1930s and 40s, Kansas City developed its own swinging, blues-drenched style that produced Charlie Parker and Count Basie. The 18th and Vine district, once the epicenter of that scene, has been restored and is home to the American Jazz Museum and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. On weekend nights you can still find live jazz across the city, from the Mutual Musicians Foundation to the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts downtown.
Barbecue is the other thing Kansas City does better than almost anywhere. This is slow-smoked meat with a thick, sweet, tomato-based sauce — a style quite distinct from Texas or Carolina. The city has over 100 barbecue restaurants, and locals argue passionately about the best. The competition is fierce and the quality is high. Go hungry.
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is one of the great art museums of the American interior, with a world-class Asian art collection, strong European holdings, and a contemporary wing that includes iconic photographs by Diane Arbus. The shuttlecock sculptures on the lawn — giant badminton birdies planted in the grass — have become a city symbol. Admission is free. The surrounding Country Club Plaza, built in the 1920s and modeled loosely on Seville, is lined with Spanish-tiled buildings and is worth a wander even if you are not shopping.
Kansas City claims more fountains than any city outside Rome — over 200, many of them grand Beaux-Arts affairs in the European tradition. The art deco downtown holds its own too, with handsome towers and the restored Union Station, which houses a science museum and regularly hosts large exhibitions. The city sprawls across both states, but the Missouri side neighborhoods of Crossroads (a working arts district), Westport (the oldest commercial neighborhood, now full of bars and restaurants), and the River Market (weekend farmers' market, good street food) give it a walkable human scale in the places that count. The Liberty Memorial and National WWI Museum is one of the most serious and affecting museums in the country, and the Arabia Steamboat Museum in the River Market is one of the most unusual anywhere.