• Attend a performance at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Home of the Kansas City Symphony, Kansas City Ballet, and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, this performance center is a hub of culture and art. It consists of two elegant performance venues, the Muriel Kauffman Theatre and Helzberg Hall, and hosts a brilliant array of entertainment and events, including ballets, operas, symphonies, and music concerts in many genres.

• Tour Union Station Kansas City, a fully restored 1914 landmark train station that's now home to restaurants and shops, railroad and museum exhibitions, a theater, a planetarium, and the Model Train Experience, 8,000 square feet of model trains chugging through their tiny landscapes. Stop by Science City, an interactive museum for adults and children, and don't miss Regnier Extreme Screen, the largest 3-D movie screen in the region at five-and-a-half stories tall.

• Experience the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Located near Southmoreland Park, this outstanding cultural institution is among the best places to view contemporary artwork in all of Kansas City.