Anonymous wrote:If we have 11 nights, is this a good breakdown by location?

Kansas City 3 - including day of midday arrival
Des Moines 2
Omaha 3 - we're pretty set on 3 nights in Omaha
Lincoln 1
Topeka 2 - but will also go to Wizard of Oz museum and maybe also Manhattan in this time

We want to go to all of these locations but I'm mostly wondering if the Kansas City portion is too long. I've been there a long time ago but don't remember much.

Any other thoughts? We generally like to stay downtown and/or riverfront if applicable.

Obviously people here had great ideas, and obviously, you have a different approach to travel than a lot of people here.

I personally like feeling like I’m looking at raw, undiscovered history. Cool old things that are barely in Google, let alone on tourist maps.

For someone like me, the best strategy with places like Kansas City is:

- Think carefully about what your tolerance for risk is and what areas local people think are safe or dangerous.

- Look at the obvious tourist attractions in threads like these, and go to the ones that sound nice to you. There’s nothing wrong with going to the Nelson-Atkins Museum.

- Look hard for anything related to American Indians, Black people, trains, big rivers, military history and waves of immigrants.

So, for Kansas City, that might mean: Try to figure out where the oldest Black-owned businesses that aren’t barbecue restaurants are and start on the block with the highest concentration of those businesses.

Figure out where you can park near the Missouri River in downtown Kansas City without getting broken into or towed. Get as close as you can to the Missouri River without getting into obvious trouble.

Try to find old diners or other eateries near the train station. Try to figure out where the big tangles of train tracks used to be, or still are, and skulk around there. In Kansas City, that’s near the River Quay area.

Find anything related to Indians and pioneers, and especially Indian places with ties to actual Indians, and visit those. In Kansas City, for example, the Museum of Kansas City has a lot more ghosts in it than the Nelson-Atkins:

https://museumofkansascity.org/home-page/

For little, unknown ethnic “towns” related to immigrant waves, try looking for clusters of groceries related to specific cultures. So, in Kansas City, look for Mexican, Croatian, Vietnamese and Indian clusters, and especially ethnic clusters in the older more walkable neighborhoods, rather than the ones in suburban strip mall land.

Anonymous wrote:If we have 11 nights, is this a good breakdown by location?

Kansas City 3 - including day of midday arrival
Des Moines 2
Omaha 3 - we're pretty set on 3 nights in Omaha
Lincoln 1
Topeka 2 - but will also go to Wizard of Oz museum and maybe also Manhattan in this time

We want to go to all of these locations but I'm mostly wondering if the Kansas City portion is too long. I've been there a long time ago but don't remember much.

Any other thoughts? We generally like to stay downtown and/or riverfront if applicable.

KC was such a disappointment, so I would say yes to too much time. I had a great time in Omaha.

Anonymous wrote:Excited for the poster who thought 2 days was too much in San Francisco and Seattle to weigh in.

Are you talking about me?

FTR, the posters who weighed in on that thread said a weeklong vacation in SF or Seattle is too long. Two days is fine (and it’s what some of us tack on when traveling there (or most cities) for business).

I wouldn’t spend a week of previous PTO in SF or Des Moines. But a night or two would be fine.

I am genuinely impressed by OP's open mind and refreshing ideas about travel and so glad the snarky, competitive DCUM crowd has brushed past this post...so far

I’m from Columbus but have lived in major cities since college and I have to say that I am very intrigued by this trip and want to tag along.

I hope someone chimes in with Lincoln suggestions. I’ve heard good things about it. OP, I love your spirit for travel and I am pretty sure that you are going to end up with a kid who goes to a Big 10 school.

We took a random road trip on the west coast and that’s how my child became obsessed with UC Davis of all places.