1 day trip to Wichita, 1st time visit

Hi Everyone,

We are planning a road trip and one of our stops will be Wichita. We will only be in town for 1 day at most and this will be in the month of May. Can anyone recommend, for a first time visitor on a limited amount of time, what would be the ';must dos';?

We really don%26#39;t care what we do, we just want to experience the best time we can while we%26#39;re in Wichita on our short amount of time and absolutely any input would be appreciated.

We will have a car, if that means anything.

Thank you all so much!

Charlene

1 day trip to Wichita, 1st time visit

It would help if we knew what you like to do, but here is a shot.

The Sedgwick County Zoo is one of the best in the country. If you normally do zoos, you should visit this one.

This one will add an hours%26#39; drive each way, but the Kansas Cosmosphere in Hutchinson is world class. If either of you are interested in aviation or space, this is a solid ';must do.'; The Cosmosphere%26#39;s collection is phenomenal: more Soviet space items than anyplace outside the former Soviet Union, Liberty Bell 7 (the one recovered from the bottom of the ocean by the Discover Channel), the Apollo 13 Command Capsule, much more. This is the museum that does the restoration for most of the others.

If you make the trip to Hutch, you should also consider the new Salt Mine Museum, and stopping at Yoder - a small Amish/Mennonite community along the way.

There are many other cool things in Wichita including minor league baseball, parks, cool restuarants and many museums; but I don%26#39;t think that any of them are ';must dos.'; Tell us what your interests are, and we can suggest the things most likely to interest you.

Have a good time.

1 day trip to Wichita, 1st time visit

I would strongly second the previous recommendations. Another suggestion would be the Museum of World Treasures in our Old Town area. It is a collection of everything from dinosaurs to WWII memorabilia. Also at that time of the year, Botanica,the Wichita botanical gardens should be in full flower. If you are at all interested in western art our art museum has a small collection of works by Charles Russell and Fredrick Remington. Russell was certainly capable of painting a picture with words as well as paint.

Pat

Thank you so much for the suggestions, truly everything sounds wonderful!

I%26#39;ll be 34 and he%26#39;ll be 31 when we do our trip, in terms of what we like to do, I%26#39;m a big antique person, are there any Antique malls or shops that are worth stopping in? We are also both into history, so anything historical would be of interested. I also love gardens and zoos and the space museum, that sounds like fun.

Are there any suggestions on hotels or what part of the city we should consider staying in?

Concerning hotels I would recommend www.hotelatoldtown.com or the Courtyard Marriott ,Wichita Old Town. You can do a search of Marriott%26#39;s web site and find the hotel info. They are both located in the same area and are within a few minutes walk of restaurants,bars,antique stores and even a multi screen movie theatre. The Museum of World Treasures and some interesting shops are just across the street from the Hotel at Old Town(My number one choice) and there are several antique stores on Douglas avenue which is only one block south and then about one-two blocks to your right on Douglas.

There is also a good sized brew pub across the street and a farmers market open on Saturdays in the summer and autumn.

Pat

Another great place is Cowtown it is near downtown in the Museum District. You will want to check ahead of time to ensure when it opens as it is a seasonal place. It is a western town with many authentic buildings from Wichita%26#39;s original days.

Does Cowtown appeal to adults?

Driving past, it doesn%26#39;t look very interesting. I could never bring myself to stop.

lighthouse,--- Evidently not,it is closed while trying to get their finances in order.

Pat

lighthouse - I used to love to visit Old Cowtown; my husband and I got married at the church there in 1989. It has a lot of potential, but many, many museums are struggling with attendance and finances now.

Wideawake, depends on when you%26#39;ll be in town, but Riverfest is in May and can be a lot of fun or a traffic/crowd headache, depending on your point of view!

Patrick,

I think you are thinking of Wild West World

I stand corrected. It was closed earlier in the summer but is now open Fri.thru Mon. They are having financial problems and also inspection problems A city inspector cited them for failure to have a smoke alarm in the chicken house.

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