IgoUgo

Wichita

  • Back to
    • Best of IgoUgo

    What to Do Around Wichita

    Wichita, KSMore Photos
    Outdoor Museums:
    Not to be missed are Cowtown, which recreates life in Wichita in the 1800's when it was a town on the cattle drive route from Texas to Abilene, KS, and the Sedgwick County Zoo, which features the first, and maybe only, of its kind--the North American Prairie exhibit complete with bears, otters, bison, prarie dogs, and even a boat ride.

    Riverside Parks:
    The riverside parks in the downtown and riverside areas offer not only great walking and cycling paths but great art as well. Local wood sculptor Gino Salerno has carved and painted tree trunks all through the area while in the downtown area there are numerous lifelike bronze sculptures to catch and amuse your eye. The largest sculpture, the Keeper of the Plains, is by the famous Native-American artist Black Bear Bosin, at the meeting of the big and little Arkansas rivers.

    Festivals: In mid-May is the River Festival which is two weeks long of activities, concerts, a treasure hunt, hot-air balloon launch, fireworks, and of course boat races down the river. An admission button can be bought for Housing:
    Hotels and motels are both inexpensive and plentiful in the Wichita area. For an interesting sleep try the bed and breakfast at Crumb Castle. A cheap motel should be around $30 for a double bed with en-suite bathroom.

    Food: Eating out is also inexpensive with most sit- down restaurants around $10 or less for a meal and a drink. Locally owned Mexican, Vietnamese, and Italian restaurants are both excellent in the mid-town region while chain-restaurants tend to be plentiful on the trendier edges of town and thus more pricey.

    Weather:
    The winter (Nov-Feb) is very cold (dry, around freezing, and windy), the spring is great (Mar-May) requiring only a light jacket, the summer (June-July) is baking but great for swimming with highs between 80-100 F, and the fall is the best (Sept-Oct) where everything gets green before turning gold and red and the temperature is very pleasant for playing golf in shorts and t-shirt.

    Customs:
    Even in this city with half-a-million people in the metro area, people are still very friendly and tend to say hi to you if they pass you on the street. ${BestWay} You need a car. Gas is cheap (less than $1.50/gallon usually) and public transit is limited. There is a bus system that runs infrequently and is most convenient for going to and from downtown. Downtown there is a trolley (motorized) service that takes you between downtown attractions that could be worth riding and is great for the river festival. The upside of driving is that the roads are wide and uncrowded, there are tons of parking lots which are almost always free, and the only place where you may need to parallel park is downtown but there are lots there too. Taxi cabs can be phoned but are not plentiful enough to count on hailing one from the street (unless you are at the airport). Walking is feasible downtown but everything else is really spread apart. Biking is great on the special paths but there are no bike lines on the street and few cyclists so drivers tend to be not paying attention for cyclists. Watch out.
    From journal What to Do Around Wichita