Kansas City lodging?

Thinking about an overnight from Chicago to KC - my Google maps doesn't show any lodging close to the Amtrak station. Is there anything decent within walking distance, e.g. half mile?

I’m not sure if it’s still the same brand, but when I was there a few years ago, there was a hotel (Crown Plaza maybe?) almost right across the street.

There is a link on the On-Track-On-Line site to Rails to Rooms. Below is the link to Kansas City: http://kevinkorell.com/hotels/hotelkcy.htm

This. . . https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotels-g44535-Kansas_City_Missouri-Hotels.html#MAPVIEW . . .shows 5 or 6 hotels within 6 to 8 blocks of the Kansas City MO station. It also has photos and reviews of each property plus a link to each hotels website for making reservations.

Some may even have shuttles to and from the station. Trip Advisor is all I ever use when planning a trip.

There are 3 or 4 within a quarter-mile. Kansas City isn't a big place, so a ten-minute radius can encompass a lot of the city. Uber/taxi shouldn't be too expensive.

FWIW, getting fancy and using Google Earth will reveal a 310 yard enclosed overhead walkway from the station to the closest hotel (the Westin, rated #8 of 122 hotels in KC MO on Trip Advisor)

niemi24s said:

FWIW, getting fancy and using Google Earth will reveal a 310 yard enclosed overhead walkway from the station to the closest hotel (the Westin, rated #8 of 122 hotels in KC MO on Trip Advisor)

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Very nice, but High end i.e. Pricey!!

Bob Dylan said:

Very nice, but High end i.e. Pricey!!

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So what? If he wants cheap, there's a La Quinta for about $100 but it's 0.8 miles away and has dismal reviews and rating.

The nice thing about Trip Advisor is that once you enter your date of stay, the map feature will display the lowest standard rate advertised by each hotel in a little box at the hotels location. All the OP asked was "Is there anything decent within walking distance, e.g. half mile?" and there's nothing closer. I won't cater to the "decent" part - too iffy.

That’s the problem with answering these questions. the closest hotel is usually not the cheapest. And the cheapest is not the nicest. And the nicest is not the cheapest etc.

The expensive downtown hotels can sometimes be found on Priceline for very reasonable rates.

niemi24s said:

So what? If he wants cheap, there's a La Quinta for about $100 but it's 0.8 miles away and has dismal reviews and rating.

The nice thing about Trip Advisor is that once you enter your date of stay, the map feature will display the lowest standard rate advertised by each hotel in a little box at the hotels location. All the OP asked was "Is there anything decent within walking distance, e.g. half mile?" and there's nothing closer. I won't cater to the "decent" part - too iffy.

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The reviews on Google Maps look reasonable. I've given up on TripAdvisor for my hotel searches - their reviews are about the same quality lately as Yelp reviews are for hotels (that is - very skewed towards negative reviews without enough counterbalance with normal reviews to be useful) and Google Maps seems to pull decent pricing data as well. It's also very easy to click on a hotel and pull up transit directions without going off the site; last time I used TripAdvisor it required going to a different site to do that.

While I've been using Google Maps for many years, had never even noticed it had its own hotel search engine until you showed me - thanks for that. But with so many different hotel search websites it's not surprising everyone probably has a different favorite. Cripes, I even found a website that rated the top 10 hotel search engines: https://www.frommers.com/slideshows/819303-best-and-worst-hotel-booking-sites-for-2020 And for all I know, there may be a website that rates the websites that rate the hotel search engine websites!!

But I'll use any hotel search engine that lets me decide which hotel to book and Trip Advisor works OK for me. However, I never use any of those second party websites to make a reservation. Never. I won't even use the national reservation center for the hotel (if it has one)! I'll ferret out the local phone number for the hotel and use that to make the reservation with a person located where I'm going to stay, verifying the rate I've found on the hotel's website, recording the name of the person dealt with and requesting and email confirmation.

Doing it that way rarely (if ever) costs any more and I've never showed up a hotel to be told there was some problem with my reservation due to using some second party booking outfit. Never. I'm just an old fuddy-duddy who's stuck in his ways!

I stayed 3 nights at the Westin across from the station for a very reasonable price last June, so don't write it off just because it's sometimes expensive. It's definitely very walkable from the station. The most dangerous thing you'll encounter are drivers flying through the crosswalk.

The Crown Center Westin (CCW) has an additional feature. The train arrives in KC later in the evening and you can walk to the CCW via a well lit, elevated, covered and heated walkway directly from the station. You don't even have to worry about crossing the street.

BTW --- If you are there for a little while here is an idea. Around the corner from the CCW is a free museum for the Hallmark Card company. It is actually quite interesting and enjoyable.

OK, there's something nobody else pointed out.

Kansas City has a free streetcar running straight from the train station to downtown, the KC Streetcar.

There are a LOT of hotels within a block's walk from streetcar stops. Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots. Many many choices. You don't need a hotel within walking distance of Union Station, you can take the streetcar.

Occasionally Amtrak arrives so late that the streetcar has stopped running, but I've been to KC by Amtrak twice and it didn't happen to me. If that happens, you can get a taxi or just take the walk down Main Street.

Here's a rails to rooms site written by a guy who is doing it as a courtesy.

http://kevinkorell.com/hotels/hotels.htm

neroden said:

OK, there's something nobody else pointed out.

Kansas City has a free streetcar running straight from the train station to downtown, the KC Streetcar.

There are a LOT of hotels within a block's walk from streetcar stops. Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots. Many many choices. You don't need a hotel within walking distance of Union Station, you can take the streetcar.

Occasionally Amtrak arrives so late that the streetcar has stopped running, but I've been to KC by Amtrak twice and it didn't happen to me. If that happens, you can get a taxi or just take the walk down Main Street.

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Another option: There are several hotels near the Plaza, about three miles south of Union Station. The Max express bus runs every 30 minutes at night and more frequently during rush hour. This is a nice area of the city near the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum.