Things to do in Manhattan
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Manhattan
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Best months, with football Saturdays, tolerable heat and golden prairie.
Spring green up and post burn wildflowers at Konza, with the best hiking weather between storms.
Worst months, with wind, ice and a quiet campus between terms, and basketball the only pulse.
Heat and humidity move outdoor activity before 10am, with peak ticks and chiggers.
Fake Pattys Day fills Aggieville for one Saturday in early March before spring break.
Festival of Lights at Blue Earth Plaza runs from late November to the New Year apple drop.
What's on
- Fake Patty's Day Saturday in early March
Aggieville enormous early St Patrick Day, invented by students before spring break.
- Riley County Fair late July
County fair and rodeo at CiCo Park, the agricultural town under the college town.
- Rock the Plains August, check current dates
Country and red dirt festival at Tuttle Creek, the smaller local successor to Country Stampede.
- Purple Power Play on Poyntz Friday before the first home football game
Downtown pep rally that opens football season in family friendly form.
- Festival of Lights late November to New Year
Five weeks of lights at Blue Earth Plaza in downtown Manhattan.
- Little Apple New Year's Eve Drop 31 December
An apple drops at midnight in Aggieville to close the year, a tradition in its third decade.
Best things to do in Manhattan
Bill Snyder Family Stadium
Fifty thousand fans in purple in a town of fifty five thousand, with tailgating and Aggieville framing the whole day.
Flint Hills Discovery Center
The essential first stop, explaining tallgrass prairie ecology and ranching before you go and stand in the real thing.
Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art
A free campus art museum focused on Kansas and Midwestern artists, and the quiet counterweight to a football weekend.
Sunset Zoo
A small accredited zoo on a hill that families can do properly in two hours without exhausting small children.
The Museum of Art + Light
Immersive projected art installations in a small Kansas city, striking for fans of the form and priced like a big city.
Kansas State University
A limestone campus walk past Anderson Hall and the 1922 Memorial Stadium, the best free hour in town.
Kansas State University Gardens
Nineteen acres of free display gardens on campus, built for wandering and picnics from dawn to late evening.
K-State Insect Zoo
Leafcutter ants, a beehive observatory and glowing scorpions in an old dairy barn, for three dollars a person.
Where to stay in Manhattan
Aggieville and the campus edge
game weekends, alumni and nightlife
Walk to campus, the Beach Museum and the bars, with a short drive or shuttle to the stadium.
Downtown Poyntz Avenue
families, conferences and food
The Discovery Center, the best restaurants and the conference center, calmer at night than Aggieville.
West Manhattan
drivers, golfers and value
Free parking and lower rates near the golf courses, the car museum and the road to Fort Riley.
Think twice about
- Immediate Moro Street bar block on big weekends
The hotels are fine but the street is a 2am bar district on game weekends and Fake Pattys Day, so light sleepers and small children should base a few blocks away.
- Far east Tuttle Creek Boulevard highway strip without a car
Isolated highway motels leave you a taxi ride from everything, between a highway and a parking lot.
- Junction City as a Manhattan base
It is 20 plus minutes west on I-70, so the saving vanishes in return trips and a dark interstate drive after night games.
Best restaurants in Manhattan
Wine Dive + Kitchen
The towns special occasion room, with serious wine, steaks, seafood and a speakeasy cocktail lounge downstairs.
Bourbon & Baker
Small plates and a full bakery on Poyntz, the most written about kitchen in town, walk in only.
Tallgrass Tap House
Downtown brewpub flagship with a wide craft beer list and a menu big enough for any mixed taste group.
Taco Lucha
Aggieville taqueria famous for inventive tacos and a chipotle raspberry black bean dip everyone orders.
Little Apple Brewing Company
The west side brewpub steakhouse that absorbs game day crowds and family celebrations with house beer.
So Long Saloon
Aggieville burger institution whose bean dip and saloon room make it a local pick for best lunch in town.
The Chef Cafe
Breakfast institution since 1943, serving the towns benchmark biscuits and gravy, hash and benedicts.
Varsity Donuts
Aggieville donut landmark by day and, via its alley truck late at night, the correct end to a bar crawl.
Outdoor things to do in Manhattan
Konza Prairie Biological Station
Public trails climb from Kings Creek into 8600 acres of native tallgrass prairie above the Kansas River Valley.
Tuttle Creek State Park
One of Kansas largest lakes for boating, fishing, swimming and camping, ten minutes north of town.
Colbert Hills Golf Course
K-State championship home course in the Flint Hills, with a purple paw print bunker on the fifth hole.
Wildwood Adventure Park
Seven ziplines and a 40 foot freefall through Flint Hills canopy, run by guides reviewers praise by name.
Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve
A free roaming bison herd and forty miles of trails in nearly 11000 acres of protected tallgrass prairie.
Pillsbury Crossing Wildlife Area
A natural limestone ford ending in a broad waterfall and wading pool on Deep Creek, a local summer ritual.
Linear Trail
Nine to ten paved miles along the river and Wildcat Creek, the run, ride and dog walk residents use daily.
Stagg Hill Golf Club
A mature, forgiving public course that is the value second round of a Manhattan golf weekend.
Best hotels in Manhattan
Bluemont Hotel
The towns flagship independent hotel across from Aggieville, with big suites and a rooftop beer garden.
Hilton Garden Inn Manhattan
Downtown full service anchor attached to the conference center, walkable to the Discovery Center and Poyntz dining.
Hampton Inn by Hilton Manhattan Aggieville
The walk to Aggieville chain option for groups who would rather spend their money in the bars than on the room.
Fairfield Inn Manhattan
A downtown Marriott value pick beside the Discovery Center, usually priced below its full service neighbours.
Holiday Inn Express & Suites Manhattan
The budget reliable downtown chain with free hot breakfast, a pool, and an easy drive to Fort Riley.
Candlewood Suites Manhattan
Extended stay suites with full kitchens and free laundry, built for relocations, rotations and long family stays.
Is Manhattan expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | $85 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | $150 a person |
| Splurge | $340 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Bill Snyder Family Stadium: weeks ahead
- McCain Auditorium: a few days ahead
- Bramlage Coliseum: weeks ahead
- Colbert Hills Golf Course: weeks ahead
- Wildwood Adventure Park: a few days ahead
- Stagg Hill Golf Club: a few days ahead
- Bluemont Hotel: months ahead
- Wine Dive: a few days ahead
- Book Aggieville and downtown hotels months ahead for home football, family weekend and graduation weekends.
- Bourbon and Baker takes no reservations at any time, so go early or on a weekday.
- Reserve Wine Dive on busy weekends, Wildwood zipline always, and Colbert Hills tee times weeks ahead in peak season.
- Recheck Fort Riley museum hours and post access rules the day before a visit.
Is Manhattan safe?
- Read hotel severe weather instructions in tornado season, mainly spring into early summer.
- Hike prairie trails early with more water than feels necessary, because Konza has no water and almost no shade.
- Use repellent and check for ticks and chiggers after any Flint Hills hike from May to September.
- Respect flood closures and dam release conditions at Tuttle Creek and on the Kansas River.
Manhattan travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Country Stampede no longer happens at Tuttle Creek and any guide still selling it in Manhattan is years out of date.
- Skip the chain restaurants on the Tuttle Creek Boulevard corridor because every worthwhile meal is in Aggieville or on Poyntz.
- Expect bar covers in Aggieville on big nights, including steep under 21 covers at some bars.
- Do not judge Konza Prairie from the trailhead, because the landscape reveals itself an hour into the high loops.
Getting around Manhattan: public transport and more
- Walk the Aggieville, campus and downtown triangle, and drive everywhere else.
- Use game day shuttles or walk from campus edge hotels because stadium parking fills hours before kickoff.
- Flint Hills ATA buses cover town on weekdays with limited weekend service and do not reach Konza or Tuttle Creek.
- Manhattan Regional Airport is about 15 minutes away, while Kansas City airport is about two hours east on I-70.
Who Manhattan suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Great |
| Couples | Good |
| Bachelor parties | Great |
| Families | Great |
| Bachelorette parties | Great |
Make Manhattan your trip
Swearby drafts the days from places people swear by. Swap any stop, then invite the crew by text, even friends without the app. Vote on dates, track costs as you go, and everyone gets one number at the end.
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