Fun things to do in Dodge City: 15 fun attractions and activities

A change of plans almost kept us from stopping in, but we are so glad we did! The Boot Hill Museum is am amazing time capsule! It gathers an impressive collection of historical items that portray the historical significance of Dodge City. We made the most out of the hour or so we toured the museum and were very impressed by it. We only wish we had more time to take it all in. I can only imagine how amazing their live shows are!

Oh my God!!! This place is a must see place to experience and educate yourself on the Wild West!!!! I can’t recall one of the employee’s name, but she gave me knowledge of the places and nearby attractions in the area. The museum was shutting down for the evening on August 28th. But, she let me and my husband to see Ms. Kitty’s attire and admire it for a couple of minutes!!! We really appreciated that brief moment!!! Thank you!!!! When we went back the next day, it was an amazing journey of the 1800s and life in Dodge City. The artifacts collected over the years were definitely a priceless treasure!!!!! The gunfight skit was outstanding!! The gunfighters…..WOW!!!! They autographed me an 8x10 photo of the whole crew. They even took a picture with me. This particular gem and their deserve more than 5 stars. I live in Nebraska and I’m giving all of you a shout out!!! Anyone who makes plans to visit Dodge City, you have to make an unforgettable experience right here at the Boot Hill Museum!!! It will make you feel like you’re living in the moment of the Wild West!!!❤️ And thank you for making our family vacation special and worth coming back next year!!!

Living in the Wild Wild West! If you’re in the area for Dodge City and Boot Hill this is a must see attraction! So much history in a relatively small area. Legends such as Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, and many others made their presence felt here. The museum did a great job capturing this time era. Plan on staying for about a good hour to hour and a half to read and enjoy all the exhibits.

You can tell there's been a lot of effort put into the displays to bring history back to life and help the younger generations connect with what it was like living in the wild west. Their reconstruction of the boardwalk in downtown Dodge City of the Old West is fantastic! They offer a variety show with dinner most nights at 7pm featuring some talented folks as well as a gunfight at 6:30pm.

This place is an enjoyable experience for people of all ages. They have a lovely gift shop, and several bathrooms throughout the area. It is an open-ended tour, so you decide where to go at your own pace. Tickets stop selling at 5pm. Nobody new can enter, but you have until 7 to explore if you entered before 5. The saloon was great, Karen was absolutely lovely and showed my aunt and I how to do the "cancan" - and while we danced terribly, it was fun, and my aunt will not stop talking about how good the experience was. Karen was very kind and helpful, more than willing to help take photos. We spent probably 30 minutes just in there drinking our root beer and chatting with her. Highly recommend this building! A few places are closed for renovations, but there is a lot to explore and many places you can sit and rest. The environment is great and quite peaceful.

Interesting set-up with some original buildings. Many artifacts including guns are shown, along with life in Dodge City in the early cowboy times. The shoot-out was fun to watch, following most movie scripts. The dinner was tasty, and the show was fun. The actress playing Miss Kitty had a wonderful singing voice. I highly recommend this as a fun and interesting way to spend several hours.

We thoroughly enjoyed the Boot Hill Museum. The place is huge with a museum, gift shop, boot hill cemetery and recreation of an old west town. The staff are great. Many dress in period costume and are friendly and very knowledgeable. A grand spot to visit to get a feel for the area.

We arrived too late to take a tour but walked the grounds and took a few photos. The story behind the house and its owners was pretty interesting. Built in 1881 of native stone, it was the only house in the area. The owner was a German emigrant bootmaker who had served in the Union Army. He did well for a few years until a blizzard wiped out his cattle ranch. His daughter sold it to the Schmidt family who lived there until the 1960s. Neat statue of Bat Masterson on the front lawn but I don't know of any connection between the house and the man who at one time was the Marshal here in Dodge City.

This home is the only original home in Dadge City. It was built to last and nearly all the furnishings are original. Definitely worth viewing both inside and out. The bronze statue of the original owner is well crafted. There is no charge to visit this property, it is on a donation basis.

I love going through old homes and seeing how people lived. This was one of my favorites. The tour guide was so knowledgeable and personable. So glad we stopped to see it.

Great museum!! Such a neat house. Wonderful tour guides. Free will donation. Well worth checking out if you are in Dodge City.

Beautiful house. The interior is so beautiful. The furniture is stunning. A real hidden gem. Staff was very friendly and informative.

Great little museum in a historic house! The staff is friendly and knowledgeable. We really enjoyed this donations accepted museum. Definitely a must if you are visiting Dodge City.

Very interesting. The tour is free but there is a donation box. The tour guides were very nice and had a lot of knowledge. We did a fairly quick tour but there is plenty to read and look at you could probably spend about 1 hour or so.

Fun /good time for all ages. My dad and youngest who are scared of water loved it as well. I wanna go back as do my kids. It was 2021 when we did this ages of the family ranged 6 to 65. It's a place to go and have a fun day.

Here twice now when passing through Dodge City. The first time we discovered this place I absolute accident kids really enjoyed it. That was in 2020 when we were on an out west road trip and I pulled over to take a phone call for work. We were recently on another trip out west and made it a point to stop and Dodge City and visit this water park. We spent the entire day on a Sunday there and the water park was clean, well staffed, and very enjoyable. I only wish this was closer to home and we would go all the time. I am also surprised at how affordable entry was as well as their snack and concessions. Highly recommend.

We were here at the end of July, Dodge City Days, showed up just flatter opening. $4 for kids, $6 for adults, plenty of loungers but all the shade was already taken with stuff sitting on them, of course! Two main slides were great, with little to no wait, and they empty to a choice of re-entering the line or just floating out onto the lazy river. Tubes are free and plentiful, just grab one. The lazy river is nice, you can float around and probably see your kids fairly often. It even goes through the wave pool, which is fun (the waves are really just swells at that area), and there are waterfalls (with bypasses if you really don't want to be near them). It was clean, lots of lifeguards on a frequent rotation keeping good watch. the water was pleasant, not cold at all, but great on a hot day. Once the clouds came over it was perfect. Hospitality was great, my son had a bloody nose for some reason and they took a full incident report when my wife just asked for tissues, checked for anything needing to be cleaned, and got him something to drink. All we asked for was tissues! Even the people were decent. No one causing problems or being rude, even in the lazy river I could relax and not get run into by kids all the time (or at all in this case). Highly recommended!

This place was fantastic. It was clean and well taken care of had a blast tons of different things to enjoy and staff were very friendly and for only 6 dollars it is now my favorite pool to go to .

Our new favorite waterpark! Super fun! This place has pretty good variety with two tall, fast tube slides, deep end slides, diving boards, swimming lanes, big open swimming pool, lazy river, wave pool, kiddie area with slide etc. I love the fast, wide slide that will fit 3 people across and drops you off into a to 4 feet of water. Its worth the money but is more expensive than some. We drive over an hour to get here and mostly because they stay open later til 7pm, that's a giant perk.

I love that smaller kids can ride the water slides with a bigger person! There was a shortage of tubes at the peak hours, but we still were able to get one after a small wait. The lack of a drinking fountain is a bummer. At 4 they kicked everyone out of the pools for a “safety” break, but really it was just to sell more concessions. They also charge a $10 concession fee if you bring in outside food or a cooler. The lazy river was a favorite. They also have a smaller kids play structure, high dive, diving board, family slide, two water slides, two more short steep slides, a mini wave pool, a small climbing wall and a big pool. We had a blast and might stop back by again!

I miss it here so much! Thank you for an incredible time and pool! My family and I loved coming here!

Interesting tour, very informative. We saw huge amount of livestock and were given lots of information about the area. The 1.5 hours did feel a little bit long and the seats were a bit uncomfortable. Guide was great, friendly.

John our driver was awesome, street construction didn’t allow us to all places but what he showed us was great.

Cross is up the hill along the road. The site is nothing fancy. You pull into a dirt lot to park then walk up a mowed path to the cross. When Coronado crossed the Arkansas River in the area he stopped and celebrated Catholic Mass. The cross celebrates the first Eucharist mass west of the Mississippi. That is really cool

This trolley takes you around the area as an audio track gives information. The driver was great and he added more info about the area, plus he stopped and let us get pictures out the door at several spots. They go to the feed lots, which are smelly but crazy to see. The tour also includes Ft. Dodge and Boot Hill. You can’t get off the trolley anywhere, but it is a great way to learn about the area before you explore.

Must make reservations. The 130 service was sold 45m before it started. We had read the 20pg brochure on line ahead of time. We used local maps provides to do a walking tour around area. Found both sundials nearby. Area was not busy from a traffic and parking standpoint. Saw various landmarks on walking tour. See pics for samples. Did not get to ride trolley. Am sure the trolley is worth it.

Dodge City is a fantastic place if you're a fan of gunsmoke went on the trolley ride guy was great. Checked out all the different places in Dodge City and surrounding area

Took the trolley tours soon as we get to Dodge City. This way you get the layout of the land, and spacific areas you would like to visit.

It’s free and we had a great time. It isn’t a giant zoo, but they do have informational signs about the animals. There was an albino peacock in the aviary! We spent a couple hours here, most other people spent an hour. Free parking. The park has a playground for the kids.

We showed up when they opened on sunday. This little zoo was awesome. Free of charge and the people there feeding the animals very nice and informative. The animals were great and i suggest that you go meet Elvis.

Pretty neat little free place. Was hoping to see the tiger. Learned about vitamin deficiency when you feed duck's and geese bread. Its called angel wing disease. I'm missing the red fox and pond birds.

Nice to drive threw, and stop at each spot and walk around. Very nice play ground for the kids also.

Fantastic little zoo right in the middle of the park. Great stop and play area for kids, even in the winter. Admission is free, but donations are accepted and definitely worth it. Located down the street from the Boot Hill Museum and close to other attractions.

For a free zoo, it's about what you would expect. It took me about 30 minutes to walk through and see everything. I wish the big cats (Cougar, Bobcats, and Tiger) and the Bear had more space as their enclosures seemed tiny, especially compared to the aviary, which is probably 2 or 3 times the size of the Cougar enclosure. Overall a nice place to kill some time but I would recommend coming in the mornings when it is cooler and more animals are active.

Great for a free will donation zoo. A variety of animals for the size! We had a blast. You're a lot closers to them then a huge zoo.

The Fireside restaurant was good. We got $50 free play for being there for the first time. I made money off the free play on the Wheel of Fortune slots!

This casino was really nice to visit. They had dollar beer night for the Busch beer, so it was not a bad bargain for the night. I'm not sure if it's a regular deal but they're all offering $50 for getting your players card for the first time. I was sitting down at a broken machine relaxing playing on my phone when a gentleman next to me hit the jackpot. That was exciting to see that someone actually could win off a minimum bet. Although I wish it was me it was nice to see a gentleman and his wife actually hit it big! If I ever make it back to Dodge city, I will bring some more money with me and enjoy the casino a little bit longer

The smell of cigarette smoke is overwhelming from the time you open the front door. We stopped by to have dinner and play a few slots, but the dining room was closed for some unexplained reason. There was a small line of people who said it should reopen soon. There was a snack bar that was open, serving hot dogs. The gambling area was clean, simple in appearance, but the smoke smell made it hard to tollerate. Plenty of parking, nice open, well lit parking lot.

I spent $1000 here and only got two bonuses. While I stepped away for just one drink, someone named Miguel sat at my machine and locked me out of everything I had played for. When I called for help, the staff didn’t care, and even the supervisor ignored the situation. I didn’t see a single person win or even smile the entire time I was there. This place seems more focused on draining people’s money than offering a fair gaming experience. We’re not here to throw money away — we expect a bit of excitement and at least respectful service. Very disappointed.

Traveling through the area. The food was great. Brisket sandwich and a side for $5 and really good!!! Casino was fun didn’t win but got $50 free play and saw a lot of people getting bonus rounds which I don’t always see at casinos. I would give it five stars except for the staff at the bar and restaurant. Players club staff was good. At.bar had one bartender who was pretty good. Server didn’t care. Spent time talking to other workers while making us wait for our drinks that were sitting ready for at least 10 minutes and not busy. Didn’t acknowledge it. Other bartender was very unfriendly. Did not smile. Appeared to hate her job. We tried joking a little nothing. Overall loved the casino but some staff ….not good.

I wanted a place to eat and our hotel rep suggested this place. My business partner and I both ordered the 6 oz filet. Side dishes included Baby Red Smashed Potatoes (I don't think they were baby red) & green beans. Over all the meal was tasty. Steak was cooked perfectly and I prefer mine with blue cheese crumbles so in had to order. Didn't think I wanted dessert but when our server ran through the options I couldn't pass up the Carrot Cake Our server was pleasant, on the spot and very energetic!

The place has a nice area to park. No hookups of any kind. We are fully self contained with solar and batteries and had empty tanks with a full fresh tank. Only stayed one night. Easy access in and out. Quiet. We were the only ones in the correct place to park. A couple others chose to park out front. The casino is decent. The dining area was closed and under construction and you could order food at the bar. A very limited menu though. We would stay there again.

Friendly staff in an historic building. They are currently restoring the upstairs Rotunda.

Have yet to go inside, though I am extremely excited for when I do get the chance. I love anything art.. and this building speaks to me...

Historical Carnegie Building & Art 🖼 Center in Dodge City Kansas

A lovely art center full of history!

Friendly staff. Not a lot of art.

Dear Depot Theater, You asked for feed back, so as to know how to better improve the experience, so, I am giving you a 1 star review, and here are the reasons why. Your tickets are $55 for dinner/show, or $30 for just the show, which makes the dinner part $25. I brought my 5yr old to the dinner/theater, and was charged the same price for the ticket as an adult. Obviously a 5yo won't eat the same amount as an adult. You should offer a child's ticket to these plays. Then we were charged $30 for a bottle of wine that costs $5-7 at the liquor store. And as for the food, if you are going to charge $25 for a plate of food, then it needs to be food worthy of that price. I'm sorry, but lasagna and green beans are not worth that price. And then instead of being served the chocolate cake with cherry filling and whipped cream, that was on the menu, instead, we were served red velvet cake with butter frosting. Very disappointing. And one last thing, you need to have ratings on the plays you are performing, I would NOT have brought my daughter, nor would I and my husband have attended, had we known the play had quite a bit of sexual enuendos.

This is an underutilized gem!!! I have not missed a play or dinner here in 7 years. I have seen plays based on movies here and the play was better than the movie. You owe it to yourself to see a play at The Depot Theater!

We watched 'Almost, Maine'. The Depot Theater is very well kept. If you are an history buff, there are many photos on display in the old Dodge City Train Depot. 8.5/10!

We love this venue in the renovated train depot and staff. The dinner theater invites theater goers to settle in and enjoy a lovely meal. A variety of productions are chosen each season to appeal to a broad audience base. The stage sets are always right on, based on the needs of the show. Musical productions include top notch musicians and the actors are always chosen perfectly for the parts they play.

My wife and I attended the Sep 29 performance of Sin, Sex, And the CIA (a play that has been performed across the nation for several years). The Depot Theater Company's (DTC) performance of this play was wooden, unimaginative, and talentless. While the script has potential, as can be seen on several YouTube videos, DTC manages to eliminate the possibility of that potential seeing the light of the west Kansas sky. The producers of the play found a director with no sense of timing, performers with no element of talent, and staging less theatrical than a high-school one act play. Sin, Sex & the C.I.A. is supposed to be a farce delivered with a healthy dose of slapstick and exaggeration. It's supposed to be FUN and FUNNY - it was neither. It almost felt like the director tasked the cast with taking their lines seriously, to rise above the "Luci Loves Desi" atmosphere of the actual play. I would breakdown the simplistic stereotyping of the casting, but I believe I've said enough. The play tickets ran $55 each with dinner - a sum more farcical and humorous than the play itself! The fee is unjustified by any standard, however, the food was worth the $11 upcharge. In fact, it was the only value the night delivered.

Best entertainment in southwest Kansas. Do yourself a favor and go to the dinner theatre!

High Class performance, Meal and Facilities. "Bless Me Father" is an excellent holiday flick. Most of all was the feeling of being at home without the family tension. And the restroom was clean:)

Wandered in here looking for a bathroom and taking photos of the train and sculptures outside. Walked out with some books and a tshirt or two. The ladies working here were very friendly and gave great information and recommendations. Better armed for next time we head up this way.

Visited Dodge City last weekend and this was our first stop. Great place to get information and they have clean bathrooms. We signed up for the Trolley tour. I really enjoyed the trolley tour. Learned a lot about the area! The visitors center is in the parking lot of the Boot Hill Museum.

Visitors center is very nice & employees are helpful. No mention of the Trail of Fame anywhere so I'll post pics here. Visitor center well worth the visit & the 2 or 3 blocks of Trail of Fame streets immediately adjacent shouldn't be missed.

The two young ladies working here know their stuff! They directed us to the best restaurants and nearby sites. A pleasant visit!

Nice lady. Very informative. She was prepared for my questions & gave me great advice & directions for the walking tour.

Good solid roads with gravel sites. Decent space between sites. Long pull thrus are available. Good base spot to see the sites in Dodge City.

Excellent place to start your visit. The ladies who work there a extremely polite and fun to talk with.

It's a functioning train station, so you can't expect much. Clean though. If the lady at the visitor's center wouldn't have told us, we wouldn't have found the entrance.

Just stopped to take some photos from the outside. The area is way too busy for a good photo today.

You really should make sure that the hours posted on your business are accurate. I waited all day because Google said you OPENED at 6 PM. I arrive only to find out that you CLOSE at 6 PM. I’ll be more than happy to change my review the next time I’m in Dodge, but until then, I’m leaving this here in hopes that someone will make the necessary changes to these business hours.

A beautiful building, a state treasure and a jewell of SW Kansas. The artistic talent and live performances are outstanding.

Good short visit for history fans.

Passing through.

(Translated by Google) We were lucky and a VERY nice lady showed us the wonderful building and also told us about the different parts of the building. (Original) Wir hatten Glück und eine SEHR nette Dame zeigte uns das wundervolle Gebäude und erzählte auch zu den verschiedenen Gebäudeteile.

This was the Boot Hill Museum, but I also visited the Kansas Teachers Hall of Fame Wax Museum. I truly enjoyed both of them. They each had great qualities, and I'm so glad I was able to visit Dodge City Kansas.

We are from Colorado, and visited Dodge City for the first time. Our first stop was the Kansas Teachers Hall of Fame and Gunfighters wax museum. We learned so much about the history of teachers. It was actually quite fun! Redonda gave us a tour, she was full of charisma and knowledge. She made the tour that much more fun! The wax museum was neat as well. I thought it was odd that there was a Dracula part in the wax museum, that’s the only reason I’m giving this review 4 stars instead of 5. I felt it took away from the history and genuineness of the museum.

Nice place friendly staff and very knowledgeable, we will definitely be making time to stop again

This is a must place to visit if you love history! The women was so nice to us and full of information to share with us.

The wax museum was OK, but sort of tacky. I didn't really know what Dracula and JFK were doing in a gunfighter wax museum? The teacher museum had a one room school house a a few neat exhibits, but if you didn't go to school in Kansas and recognize any former teachers it's just a bunch of folks you've never heard of.

It was great! Enjoyed it so much. Brought back lots of fond memories!

This place is wonderful! The lovely staff working that day was very nice and extremely knowledgeable about the history. The wax museum was cool and interesting and the artifacts and collections in the museum are extremely interesting to look and hear about. The school house was great, I got to ring the bell and was offered a chance to play the antique piano that resides there. Overall, this was one of the best things I did in Dodge City, mostly do to the amazing staff on hand. There's really nothing not to like about it.

Construction made parking a bit more complex than it should be, but seeing this big boy and you know why it's called El Capitan

Nice historic area. Easy to park and walk to all the statues and train.

Looks really nice from the road. I was admiring it while sitting in my car waiting on a really long train that kept backing up and moving forward over and over. But it was a nice view.

Pretty neat to read the historical facts and see the Dodge City stuff. We were really hoping that Dodge City would be as well preserved as Virginia City, NV but it was pretty modernized. The el Capitan Longhorn statue is not the only statue here so make sure to check out the others. We didn't realize they were there until it was too late and we were driving away.

An impressive statue that reminds us how Dodge City got the monicker of "Queen of the Cow towns"

Nice place to visit.

A pretty good backdrop for the western town photo

We had a great time! Easy to park, short check in time... Very easy to find out seats. We could see well, and hear the music perfectly.

This place is a perfect size for a concert. You feel like you are right there with the band no matter where you sit! The acoustics were awesome, and the people were all very helpful and friendly. I can't wait to come back to see another band here!

Small cozy place for concerts and arena football. Prices are average like everywhere else. Fun for families and teaching kids how to act in public.

Super fun pretty cheap(-$5 per person if they bring their own skates) has ice skating sometimes, but one employee was super mean to my aunt about taking popcorn where you can go sit down and watch people skate like the ground level when I saw about 25 other people with popcorn and drinks and snacks

Great venue for concert no mater the seat great viewing. Friendly staff and good abundance of Dodge City Police so you felt safe. Drove from Denver, CO for this concert would definitely make the trip again for a concert at this venue.

I was so excited to see Crowder! And excited about my seats, I had thought I was sitting on the end. No such luck there ... And I thought also the bowl as they refer to it, was more than one foot higher than the floor seating. No. No such luck. Just from what I had expected and what I experienced were two different things completely, and was wondering why I spent 190 bucks on two miserable seats.??? And for being an event the spectators would most likely be Christian's, they were rude and non considerate of others.

Attended the Clint Black concert. The arena was well staffed for the event and provided a great event setting. The location next to the Boot Hill Casino and Hampton Inn and Suites makes this a great place to attend events and spend the night.

Nice small zoo and the zookeeper was super nice. Enjoyed talking with him this afternoon. There were several children at the park and all seemed to really be enjoying the animals. We were fortunate to catch them late in the day when the animals were being fed so most were up and excited about the food.

Awesome tribute to our Fallen!🙏🇺🇸🫡

This is an absolutely beautiful park. They have volleyball courts, outdoor theater, basketball courts and a beautiful yard. Interesting facts about the individual who started the park.

There is a nice play area for kids, clean bathrooms, and a really neat little zoo that is free admission. They have some very interesting and exotic animals there; including an albino peacock, wolves, eagles, bison, and goats, and the cutest MARUCHIN MONKEYS!!! Definitely a great place to visit!

Huge Dog park about the size of a football field. We'll maintained. Grills, gazebos with fireplaces and a nice playground.

Omg ppl I can’t tell you how much you need to come here!!!! The animals are amazing the tiger likes to play peekaboo!! If your patient and quite she’ll come out!!! I wish I lived closer to come here every day!!! Also did I mention it’s FREE ppl go check it out it’s amazing and cute!!!!

This is a nice park. Plenty of green space, pavilions, walking, zoo, skateboard park, and a water park. Some of the memorials are very nice, the Santa Fe Trail, the World Trade Center and Shankville, and to certain people of this area. I enjoyed my time, its peaceful.