Overland Park, Kansas

Sure, sure it’s wonderful and important that Overland Park often rates #1 for cities for families in the entire U.S. of A. Great schools, great homes, great parks, etc., etc., etc., and sure that should be top of your list of considerations.

But throw on top of that the fact that it’s also a music and creative hub with beautiful artwork spread throughout the city and you’ve got a place to get excited about. Artists and musicians often take to the streets to perform and create art, and a solid mix of museums and festivals provides locals with a more organized way to experience the art scene of the area as well. The BBQ scene is also an art form, rivaling (besting?) the South in terms of quality.

More of a dense Kansas City suburb than a major city itself, Overland Park suffers from the main criticism that comes with many midwest suburbs: a lack of diversity. Somewhat related to that, it can be hard to find a community in Overland Park if you don’t already know families in the area, and people from coastal cities in particular often cite it as difficult to feel at home here. Overland Park is a great place to be a part of, but for some, that's mainly for those who already feel they’re a part of it.

Those knocks on the Overland Park community will likely swing your experience one way or the other. It’s a tight knit/midwestern-friendly community where locals support each other and their thriving local businesses. It provides an oasis from the traffic, crowds and long lines of big cities like KC, but also a severance from the nightlife and variety of social amenities of those cities as well. Its variety of upscale restaurants, storefronts, and outdoor recreation opportunities may give it a leg up on most suburbs, but still may be underwhelming for young professionals coming from bigger cities.

If you want to see what's happening here check out the calendar of events.

We highly recommend visiting Overland Park and staying in the community in a VRBO rather than a hotel to get a feel for what it's like to live among the locals. You can receive discounted fares on travel via our partnership with Expedia as well.

Outside of working for those wide variety of local businesses, many Overland Park residents commute into Kansas City. Only a twenty minute drive to downtown KC from most parts of the area, residents tend to take advantage of the bigger city’s rich employment opportunities in the healthcare, tech, manufacturing, and transportation industries. It's also easy to imagine plenty of full-time WFH'ers moving to cities like Overland Park so their families get the best possible opportunities and the local economy is less important.