Kansas City - Category of Backgroud

From the airport (tel 816/243-5237), twenty miles northwest of downtown, a convenient forty-minute shuttle bus (half-hourly 6am11.55pm; tel 816/243-5000) heads to major downtown hotels ($13) and Westport ($14). The equivalent taxi ride costs around $43 (Yellow Cab tel 816/471-5000).

The isolated Greyhound terminal lies well out from downtown in a miserable area at 12th Street and Troost Avenue. Amtrak is in the Union Station at 23rd and Main streets, opposite Crown Center. The Metro Buses system (tel 816/221-0660) covers downtown and routes out to Independence. In addition, seasonal trolleys loop continuously between downtown, Crown Center, Westport and the Country Club Plaza ($7 all-day pass, $10 two-day pass).

The city's main visitor center is tucked away on the 25th floor of City Center Square at 1100 Main St (MonFri 8.30am5pm; tel 816/221-5242 or 1-800/767-7700, www.gointokansascity.com ); additional information offices are housed in the Country Club Plaza at 4709 W Central St (daily 8am6pm; tel 816/691-3800) and in the Grand Hallway of Union Station. There's also a State Welcome Center on the grounds of the Truman Sports Complex, off exit 9 on I-70 in Independence (daily 8am5pm, closed DecFeb; tel 816/889-3330). The main post office is close to Amtrak at 315 W Pershing Rd (MonFri 8am6pm, Sat 8am3.30pm; tel 1-800/275-8777; zip code 64108). You can access the internet at the Public Library, 311 E 12th St (tel 816/701-3400) or at the Westport Coffee House at 4010 Pennsylvania St.

KANSAS CITY , 250 miles due west of St Louis, straddles the state line between Kansas and Missouri. Virtually all its main points of interest are on the Missouri side, where the fountains, boulevards, and Art Deco and Mediterranean-style buildings, and the encouraging revitalization of downtown, are unusual and welcome features in a Midwestern city. Kansas City, Kansas, on the other hand, is a sprawl of suburbs.

Kansas City was a convenient staging post for 1830s wagon trains heading west. Its consequent prosperity and rough and tumble "sin city" image was brought to an abrupt end by the Civil War. However, its fortunes revived in the 1870s, when the railroads brought the boom in meat packing that was responsible for the development of the huge stockyards, which finally closed down in 1992.

Thanks to political boss Tom Pendergast, an outrageous figure with whom the city had a love-hate relationship, its many jazz clubs continued to sell alcohol during Prohibition. As in Chicago and New Orleans, speakeasies, brothels and gambling dens went hand in hand with superlative jazz and, to a lesser extent, blues spawning the careers of Count Basie, Duke Ellington and, in the Fifties, Charlie Parker. KC's resurgent jazz scene, fine restaurants, professional football and baseball teams, and theme parks help make it a popular short-break destination for the people of the western heartland.