Disclosure: Many thanks to the Kansas City Convention and Visitors Association for providing us with a complimentary hotel stay on our girls’ trip to Kansas City.
This past Friday after work, Hannah, Joanna and I loaded up my little Honda Fit with bags and snacks and hit the road for Kansas City. We were taking a weekend trip as a last hoorah to the end of summer.
Crazy fact about myself: Before I moved to Omaha I thought the Midwest had one big city: Chicago. Chicago is definitely top dog, but there are tons of other big cities in the area. Kansas City is one of them. To give you some perspective: the Omaha Metro has about 800,000 people, while the Kansas City Metro has about 2 million people. I had been here twice for work before, but never just for fun. I was so excited to change that.
The trip to Kansas City from Omaha was awesome. The roads were uncrowded, the drive was easy, and our general direction was a straight, flat line South. We got to the city in a little under 3 hours, and immediately got to exploring our hotel.
The Aladdin Hotel
We stayed in the Holiday Inn Aladdin in Downtown Kansas City. It is a restored hotel from the Art Deco period and it’s on the National Register of Historic Places. I love staying at hotels that have their own unique look and feel and aren’t cookie cutter replicas of thousands of other hotels. The Aladdin definitely breaks the traditional hotel mold. You can tell this building has some real history.
The Aladdin is also right in the heart of the everything. It is three blocks to the Power and Light District; a fun club, bar, and restaurant area that is a must visit on a trip to Kansas City.
A view from above.
Rates at The Aladdin are really affordable, especially considering the location. One cost to factor into your stay is parking. This is very typical in city hotels, but if you bring a car you’re going to have to decide between paid lot parking and paid valet parking. The parking lot was a block away and meant paying every time you leave. The valet parking was more money but involved an underground parking garage and having your car delivered to the door every time you needed it on your trip. We ended up going with the valet parking and I thought this was a great decision.
Our room
Our room was a double Queen room. It was cute, clean, and comfy.
We spent Saturday night watching Dateline episodes on TV. (We’re exciting, we know.) The cases were all about family murders and my faith in humanity was lowered a little.
Plenty of chargers for all our camera and phone needs. It is a huge pet peeve of mine when I get to a hotel and have to hunt for a charger. I’ve unplugged lamps and clocks before in times of need.
A view of our bathroom with a Myspace-like pose. I had to step into the shower to get a good shot of the bathroom vanity. That’s dedication guys.
I loved this shower head. I think I’m becoming spoiled by hotel showers.
The ammenities
We were surprised with a bottle of champagne at check-in. I of course had to pose the champagne with the little elephant animal towel in our room. How cute is that?
We got there on a Friday night so we immediately had to pop open that bottle.
Some silliness ensued. More on that in tomorrow’s post. 😉
Joanna was dedicated and while Hannah and I slept she woke up for an early run in the hotel’s fitness center. She inspired me to bust out a quick 7 minute workout when I woke up.
The hotel has a Zebra themed bar and restaurant. We did not make it here, but there seemed to be a crowd both nights.
I appreciated that there was complimentary coffee in the lobby each morning.
And blueberry muffins! I wanted to try these, but we were on our way out the door to restaurants both mornings. Next time.
We really enjoyed our stay at the Aladdin. The staff was friendly and the hotel was really nice. It was a great location, too. We could walk to so much and the things we had to drive to were really close by. I would definitely come back here with Josh.
Questions of the Day: Have you been to Kansas City? What’s the last weekend trip you took? What do you look for when choosing a hotel for vacation?
I’m planning a trip to Kansas City in the not-so-future! I’ve only been to the city once for an afternoon of shopping, but this time the plan is to stay for an extended weekend. I’ll have to look into staying at the Aladdin! It looks like a beautiful hotel with a great location! Thank you for sharing!
The What’s In Between
Have so much fun!! I fell in love with the city on our trip and can’t wait to go back. I think you would love the Aladdin. 🙂
Thanks for sharing! I love catching a glimpse of new hotels. Last weekend trip I took was to the beach and we stayed at Harrah’s resort. Sadly I didn’t take any pics, except for in the pool area because that is where we met 2 NY Giants football players, so I had to break out the selfies, ya know!
PS, I just read an article this weekend that said after 2015 Honda will no longer be making the Fit. I thought of you because I remember reading how much you liked your car!
Oh how fun you met Giants players! That must have been awesome.
I did some research after you mentioned this (and getting very scared haha) and it looks like they’re only discontinuing the hybrid version of the Fit. I have a regular Fit, and it looks like those are safe. I <3 them.
It looks beautiful! I love the bright colors!
Me too! It was so fun seeing all the colors.
You can’t beat a free weekend in a hotel! I don’t much about Kansas City but I would totally go visit! Glad you had fun with your girlfriends.
Thanks Melanie! We had such a fun time together! 😀
It is my pet peeve too when hotels don’t have enough outlets. Where I was staying for Blogfest I had to unplug a clock and a lamp, but the outlets were too loose and the plug would just fall out. It drove me crazy!
I”ve never been to Kansas City, but I’ve really heard nice things about the city. The hotel looks lovely.
It was a great hotel! And Kansas City is awesome! I can’t wait to go back!
Beautiful hotel!
I loved it!
Ohhhh… that shower! I love a double head. 😉
Me tooo! haha I want one in my home shower!
Baha! Loving the picture of Joanna and I looking dead tired in the hotel lobby 😉 And I so agree about the shower head. It was fab!
I thought you guys looked cute! 😉
Why cant all showers be like that?
I visited KC on business a long time ago. That hotel looks awesome. There’s much to be said for avoiding the traffic and $$$$ of Chicago. We were there for the tri over the weekend.
It was a great hotel!
I really want to visit Chicago! I have never been!
I love the decor and colors in this hotel. There’s a hotel with very similar decor in Orlando that we love that resembles this hotel very much. It’s filled with very eclectic art and decorations.
If I’m ever in Kansas I will have to check out the hotel.
You would love it! I really want to go back!
It’s so cool when a hotel looks different and unique. It makes the stay so much more fun!