Looking for cowboy culture, modern museums, and a booming food scene? Head to Oklahoma City! OKC blends Western heritage with contemporary flair. I like Oklahoma City's lively arts districts, riverside parks and great museums. I like to walk around the Bricktown district too, where a scenic canal, water taxis, boutique shops, and riverside restaurants make it easy to enjoy a full day out. Whether you’re touring stockyards or riding a canal boat downtown, Oklahoma’s capital delivers big surprises and Southern hospitality.
Oklahoma City, OK Highlights:
- Explore the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum : Dive into the art, history, and legends of the American West.
- Stroll through Bricktown: OKC’s lively entertainment district features a canal, restaurants, nightlife, and minor league baseball.
- Pay tribute at the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum: A powerful and moving site honoring the victims of the 1995 bombing.
- Visit Scissortail Park: Enjoy gardens, playgrounds, concerts, and skyline views in this downtown green space.
- Tour the First Americans Museum: Discover the stories and cultures of Oklahoma’s 39 tribal nations in this striking riverside facility.
Best Time to Visit Oklahoma City, OK
The best time to visit OKC is from April through June and September through October when temperatures are pleasant and festivals fill the calendar. Spring brings wildflowers and events like the Festival of the Arts, while fall offers crisp evenings and fewer crowds.
How to Get to Oklahoma City, OK
- By air: Will Rogers World Airport (OKC) is just 15–20 minutes from downtown with nonstop flights from major cities.
- By car: OKC sits at the intersection of I-35, I-40, and I-44 — easily accessible from Dallas, Tulsa, and Wichita.
- By train: Amtrak’s Heartland Flyer runs daily between Fort Worth and Oklahoma City’s downtown Santa Fe Depot.
Where to Stay in Oklahoma City, OK
- Check into The Skirvin Hilton, a downtown hotel with luxurious touches and timeless elegance.
- Aloft Oklahoma City Downtown – Bricktown is located close to the canal
Best Things to Do in Oklahoma City, OK
1. Oklahoma City Museum of Art
Rating: ★★★★★
The Oklahoma City Museum of Art is located in the Donald W. Reynolds Visual Arts Center, a 110,000 square foot facility in downtown Oklahoma that was built in 2002 to become a core of the city's cultural life. The museum's permanent collection spans a period of five centuries and focuses on American and European art from the nineteenth through the twenty-first centuries and contemporary art.
The museum has one of the largest collections of Dale Chihuly's glass sculptures in the world. The museum also has a premier repertory cinema showing high quality international, classic, and independent films and the Museum School, which offers art classes for all ages and art camps for children.
415 Couch Dr, Oklahoma City, OK 73102-2214, Phone: 405-236-3100
2. Myriad Botanical Gardens
As a garden lover, I head to the Myriad Botanical Gardens for a long afternoon of immersive experiences. I step into a tropical wonderland filled with palm trees and waterfalls.
You will not want to miss this 17-acre botanical garden and urban park with a magnificent 224-foot Crystal Bridge Tropical Conservatory as its star feature.
The Gardens have several layers of densely planted areas around a sunken lake.
The Crystal Bridge Tropical Conservatory is a living museum where you can admire plants such as stately palm trees, lush tropical plants, flowers, cool waterfalls, and even exotic animals.
301 W Reno Ave, Oklahoma City, OK 73102-5030, Phone: 405-445-7080
3. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is located on a vantage point high up on Persimmon Hill in Oklahoma City, offering a view of the American West like no other institution in the country, including its history, culture, and art. The museum was founded in 1955 in order to collect, exhibit, and preserve a significant collection of Western artifacts and art and promote an understanding of the American West, which is such an important part of American identity.
The art collection includes works of world-known artists such as Frederic Remington, Charles M. Russell, and sculptor James Earle Fraser. The museum houses a replica of a turn-of-the-century cowboy town. Interactive galleries focus on the history of the American cowboy, Native American culture, rodeos, Victorian firearms, and frontier performers. Wonderfully landscaped gardens and the Children's Cowboy Corral, an interactive children's space, are also part of the museum.
1700 NE 63rd St, Oklahoma City, OK 73111-7906, Phone: 405-478-2250
4. Museum of Osteology
The Museum of Osteology, located in Oklahoma City, is a 7000 square foot museum that focuses on providing information about bones, and it is the first of its kind in the States. It interprets the function and form of the animal (including the human) skeletal system.
The museum's galleries display about 300 hundred skeletons and skulls from all all over the world. Exhibits explain locomotion, adaptation, classification, and diversity of the vertebrates such as mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians, and some species of fish. Explorers' Corner offers visitors a hands-on experience with more than a dozen of skulls of real animals. They can examine and handle a number of North American species, check their knowledge of osteology, and even participate in the challenge of the three Mystery Skulls.
10301 S Sunnylane Rd, Oklahoma City, OK 73160-9220, Phone: 405-814-0006
What to do if you are traveling with kids:
5. Oklahoma City Zoo
The Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden is located in Oklahoma City's Adventure Park on 119 acres designed to recreate natural habitats of animals that live in it. It is currently home to over 1,900 animals.
There is a six-acre tropical jungle with lush tropical plants that is home to gorillas, orangutans, and chimpanzees, a 9.5-acre elephant habitat, the Children Zoo with flamingos, goats, monkeys, and lorikeets, Cat Forest, with 4000 plants that recreate habitat for African lions, tigers, and snow leopards, Oklahoma Trails with animals that live in Oklahoma such as black bears, bison, alligators, beavers, snakes, birds, and much more. Visitors to the zoo can also enjoy Safari Voyage boats, the Safari Tram, the Endangered Species Carousel, the Centennial Choo Choo, the Sea Lion Show, swan paddleboats, and the Jungle Gym Playground.
2000 Remington Pl, Oklahoma City, OK 73111-7103, Phone: 405-424-3344
6. Science Museum Oklahoma
If you’re looking for a place where you can have a blast and learn something new, I can’t recommend Science Museum Oklahoma enough. My son had so much fun here.
You’ll find it in the Kirkpatrick Center museum complex, spread out over eight acres of interactive fun. If you’re into hands-on experiments or space exploration, you’ll find something here that sparks your curiosity.
My son and I spent forever in the Tinkering Garage, where you get to grab real tools and build your own projects.
The smART Space Galleries are also very cool. They let you “travel” way beyond the Milky Way.
2020 Remington Pl, Oklahoma City, OK 73111, Phone: 405-602-6664
Activities and Attractions for Couples:
7. Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum
Located in downtown Oklahoma City on the site of the former Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building (which was destroyed in the bombing in 1995), the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum honors all those affected by the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, including the victims, rescuers, and survivors.
The Outdoor Symbolic Memorial is spread on 3.3 acres and consists of the Gates of Time, the Reflecting Pool, Field of 168 empty chairs, Survivors' Wall, Survivors' Tree, the Memorial Fence, Rescuers' Orchard, Children's Area, Journal Record Building, and the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building Plaza. Journal Record Building is home to the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum, with a number of artifacts and exhibits about the Oklahoma City bombing.
620 N Harvey Ave, Oklahoma City, OK 73102-3032, Phone: 405-235-3313
8. Boathouse District
The Boathouse District on the Oklahoma River in Oklahoma City is the place to go if you feel like having some fun on the water.
Located near Bricktown Entertainment District, Boathouse District is the official U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Site for rowing, kayaking, and canoeing. But you do not have to be an Olympian to have fun on the water and go kayaking, canoeing, or stand-up paddleboarding, use land fitness facilities, or hit 13 miles of paved trails running or cycling.
Take a look at RIVERSPORT OKC for their high adrenaline activities such as whitewater rafting, zip lines, high speed slides, and adventure courses. Check the Boathouse District calendar to find out about one of their many festivals such as the Oklahoma Regatta Festival and the Stars & Stripes River Festival.
725 S Lincoln Blvd, Oklahoma City, OK 73129-4430, Phone: 405-552-4040
9. 45th Infantry Division Museum
The 45th Infantry Division Museum in Oklahoma City celebrates the history of the Oklahoma 45th Infantry Division of the National Guard called the Thunderbirds, as well as other aspects of American military history. The museum has a range of exciting exhibits. One of the most important is the Reaves Firearm Collection of basic weapons used by infantry and cavalry from the Revolutionary to the Vietnam War.
One of the particularly interesting exhibits in the museum is the famous Mosby Cannon, a Civil War cannon that the Union army captured in 1863. The museum also features more than 200 cartoons created by Bill Mauldin, a 45th Infantry Division soldier, about World War II. The cartoons were produced mostly from 1944 to 1945. The Hall of Flags' exhibits tell Oklahoma's military history starting with the history of the Oklahoma forts. The exhibits, which feature photographs, artifacts, and documents, also describe battles that were fought in Oklahoma during the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, and World War I.
2145 NE 36th St, Oklahoma City, OK 73111-5396, Phone: 405-424-5313
10. Bricktown Water Taxi
If you really want to soak in the vibe of Oklahoma City’s historic Bricktown entertainment district, I have an idea for you. Hop aboard the Bricktown Water Taxi!
I found it such a fun and relaxing way to see the area.
For a full round-trip tour of the canal allow about 45 minutes. The guide shared fun stories and facts along the way.
I grabbed a wristband, which was good for unlimited rides all day, and it made getting around super easy.
111 S. Mickey Mantle Drive, Oklahoma City, OK 73104, Phone: 405-234-8294
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