Country Club Plaza

On our Kansas City New Year's Eve route it is stop 2 of 2 in a 3-day trip. Split evenly, that is about 2 days here, an estimate rather than a rule. The listed visit times for our 7 places add up to roughly 7 hours, before travel between them, so you will need to choose.

Spanish-style shopping district for a slow Jan 1 under the holiday lights, with brunch and park walks. Standouts on our list: Plaza Lights (Strings of colored bulbs outline the Plaza's towers and rooflines from Thanksgiving night, a tradition since the 1920s); Mill Creek Park and J.C. Nichols Fountain (A small park at the Plaza's edge anchored by the J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain and its bronze horsemen); Shuttlecocks (Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen's four giant shuttlecocks, scattered across the Nelson-Atkins lawn since 1994).

Our Kansas City New Year's Eve route is best Dec 30 – Jan 1. NASA POWER 2001–2025 averages for nearby Kansas City put the warmest highs in July (32°C / 89°F), the coolest in January (3°C / 37°F) and the most rain in May (about 141 mm).

Start with Plaza Lights, Mill Creek Park and J.C. Nichols Fountain, Shuttlecocks, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and Loose Park. Our guide lists 7 places in all, from 4 sights, 1 outdoor spot, 1 place to eat and 1 place to stay.

The closest destinations in our guides are Downtown Kansas City (about 6 km / 4 mi), Kansas City (about 7 km / 4 mi) and Lawrence (about 56 km / 35 mi). Distances are straight-line estimates, not road distances.