I'm trying to come up with some activities for a family reunion next summer. We will be staying at a hotel (downtown) for a few days with most of the family flying in.
Last time most of the "activities" involved going to various restaurants or swimming. I'd like to come up with some other ideas. I'm hoping for things we can really do together. I would love to suggest gong to a park and playing kickball of volleyball, but it might be really hot in August. Maybe bowling?
What are some fun things we could do together ... besides eat. The kids got really bored at the restaurants.
ETA - I'm really looking for bonding activities rather than museums or amusement parks. I was thinking of things like nerf wars or laser tag. Maybe an indoor gym that has group activities. My fear is that if we go to a zoo, we will just break off into groups (like our own immediate family) and not really do social as a larger family. I think I need information from the locals, as I wasn't really able to find what I was hoping for online.
Go to the tourism website for the city. If you aren't a member of AAA, join now and then get all the free guidebooks and flyers/brochures from the KC area office. They will mail them for free to you.
If you do go to a zoo or museum, figure out a way to make it a friendly competition. Devise a scavenger hunt, and make teams that mix up families. Give everyone a notebook (I mean a paper one) and a list of things to look for. You can even make it a scavenger hunt that lasts through several activities. Or make it a visual scavenger hunt, if each group has a smartphone (take a picture of a sleeping tiger, for example, or a photo of a hot dog stand or whatever). Have a bowling tournament and mix and match the teams so that every team has adults and teens and young kids, not from the same immediate family.
Holy cow there are a million things to do in kc! Worlds of Fun/Oceans of fun, the Jazz museum, negro leagues baseball museum, LEGOLAND, the Aquarium, Crown Center, the Plaza, WWI museum, Nelson Atkins museum, and you really should try to go to a Royals game (yes, it might be hot - there are seats in the shade). Or since you'll be a group you could do tours of the stadiums. OH and the zoo.......That's just off the top of my head. TONS of stuff for kids, and it's all fun for grownups too!
Google things to do in Kansas City Missouri. There are a million. You'll have a blast! <3 my town! (I grew up about 30 minutes south of the city and now live about 20 minutes south of it.)
tripadvisor.com
yelp.com
Enjoy your vacation!
What are the age ranges for the kids? The great thing about the KC area is that are TONS of fun things to do, the bad thing is the metro is so spread out! Near downtown is Crown Center. It is family friendly, mostly for the younger crowd like preschool-early elementary. There are always free exhibits for the preschool crowd that are fun. There is a Crayola store and cafe that is SO great. The food is only ok, but the restaurant is cute and the store is fun. There are quite a few kid friendly stores there. THere is a train restaurant called Fritz's in there too. Your food is delivered by a train. My kids love it! It does get busy though so expect a wait. Across from Crown Center is Kaleidoscope. It is a free arts/crafts experience sponsored by Hallmark (which started in KC). During busy seasons you can only go in there for 45 minutes and then they kick you out. It's big enough but still small so you can keep eyes on various children.
Union Station has some stuff, but it's not all that exciting. They do have a children's theatre downstairs though. Tickets are about $10/pp and the shows are all based on kid books and stuff. They are mostly geared for preschool-3rd grade or so.
There is a paint ball place outside of downtown. I've never been and can't remember the name but it should come up on google. There might be a bowling place still in the Power and Light District, which is downtown. It was one of those fancy bowling places, but kids are welcome. I honestly don't know if it closed or not though.
About 20ish minutes from downtown there is a place called Paradise Park. It has laser tag, arcade games, bumper cars, etc. It's in Blue Springs, MO I think.
South of downtown in Overland Park is a great children's farmstead called Deanna Rose. It is free during the week, $2/pp on Fri-Sunday. It is fun and there care lots of hands on activities. You could easily spend 4 hours there I think. It is mostly geared for the preschool-2nd grade kids too though.
I feel like I could go on but honestly not knowing how old the kids are is hard. Swope park is big and there are lots of places to play and walk, with open spaces for games and stuff. They do have a frisbee golf course. It absolutely will be hot in August though. The zoo is also inside Swope Park. You only want to go there during the day though.
