Header photo credit: Drone-tography

Wichita is constantly expanding and welcoming new hotels, restaurants, attractions, events and more. 2025 promises an ever-expanding footprint of new experiences to be had.

Check out our guide to some of the recent additions in 2024 and what’s coming to the Heart of the Country in 2025.

the inside of snick's cat cafe shows cats in their playroomSnick's Cat Cafe

Recently opened:

  • Pickleball fans will want to put TapNPaddles in their sights. This new 35,000-square-foot pickleball venue recently opened in Wichita and features 12 professional-level indoor courts, a full-service restaurant and bar, a pro shop, outdoor gathering space, a 1,000 square-foot event space and more.
  • Recently opened The Sandbox - Goddard is the area’s newest sand volleyball, cornhole and pickleball complex. The entertainment venues, located just west of Wichita, features sand volleyball and outdoor pickleball courts, plus cornhole and yard games – all covered by a 65,000 square foot dome to allow for year-round play. The Sandbox – Derby, located southeast of Wichita, opened in 2022.
  • High school sweethearts and longtime cat lovers opened Wichita’s first cat cafe, Snick's Cat Cafe, in December 2024. The 3,400-square-foot space has three different areas and sells hot, iced and blended coffee drinks plus teas and pastries. There is also a retail area stocked with merchandise for cats and cat people. The most sought out feature is the cat lounge, where those who want to interact with cats can book 50-minute, reserved blocks that cost $15 per person. The lounge is in a separate room from the cafe, but it’s enclosed in glass so all the action is visible from the cafe. Cat lounge visitors must be at least 7 years old.
  • Local shopping is a real treat in Wichita. Several new destination shops opened in 2024 including ICT Books, Great Image Designs, Lola Candle Co, Planterior and Rendezvous Adventure Outfitters. In historic Delano, head to the newly opened Wildflower Mercantile and find more than 30 local businesses under one roof. The mercantile showcases local entrepreneurs and businesses such as ICT Makers, which offers Wichita-themed items of all kinds, and Created by Babs, which specializes in upcycling. As new shops are continuously being opened throughout the city, use our shopping guide for even more options.

A rendering of the new Textron Aviation Flight Adventure playground at Exploration Place

Coming soon:

  • You’ll want to make plans to visit Wichita’s Sedgwick County Zoo this spring and summer. The zoo announced earlier this year that its entire breeding herd – five female elephants – are pregnant. If all five pregnancies are a success, the zoo will become the first accredited zoo in the U.S. to have five elephant births in a year. Potential births are expected to begin at the end of spring 2025 through the summer. The expected elephants will be the first ever born in a Kansas zoo.  
  • In 2024, Exploration Place unveiled a 1,500-capacity, open-air, riverfront amphitheater showcasing the nightly Keeper of the Plains fire pots experience. The Wichita Foundation Amphitheater is a venue for year-round outdoor programming and events. Additionally, the premier science center, located on the Arkansas River in downtown Wichita, is adding a $17 million playscape, described as a new generation of playground with a theme-park feel in 2025. The playscape will include 10 unique and themed play areas such as a sensory garden, an interactive water play area and the Textron Aviation Flight Adventure exhibit, which will feature a Beechcraft Staggerwing biplane sculpture atop a towering control tower and an explorable Cessna Citation business jet. The exhibit will not only be designed for climbing and play, but also to ignite visitors’ imaginations and foster a sense of wonder in aviation in a nod to Wichita’s status as the Air Capital of the World.
  • One of the country’s last remaining vaudeville theaters, the Orpheum Theatre, will be undergoing major renovations in 2025. The project, estimated to cost $9.5 million, will include new flooring, seats, stage lights and rigging. Crews will also remodel dressing rooms and restore Edison-style lights that create a night sky effect across the Orpheum’s blue-painted ceiling. The theater, which opened in 1922, will close for about a year during the restoration project, starting in June 2025.
  • Tanganyika Wildlife Park is introducing new admission packages in March 2025 that will include unlimited animal feedings, unlimited food and drink, more interactive animal experiences and limited attendance to make experiences more personal. Daily admission will include unlimited animal feedings at nine different animal encounter stations, a kangaroo walk-about, unlimited food and drink (including a new breakfast menu), a basic alcohol package, access to their Tanganyika Falls Splash Park and playground. In this new model, a 40 percent discount is available for residents of the Greater Wichita area.
  • The Kansas African American Museum is currently fundraising as part of a $6 million capital campaign to move from its longtime home at 601 N. Water to northwest corner of 1st and Main streets in downtown Wichita.

The AC Marriott Downtown hotel is photographed from the street on a sunny day

New hotels in the works

A Broadway Plaza AC Marriott is underway in the historic Broadway Plaza, located at Douglas Avenue and Broadway Street in downtown Wichita. The hotel is being developed in conjunction with the Kansas Health Science Center - Kansas College of Osteopathic Medicine and is expected to have 118 rooms. Developers plan to blend modern aesthetics with the building’s unique, historic elements. The 11-story hotel will feature a ground-floor bar that will be open to the public and a covered entryway for valet parking.

Expected to open in early 2025 is a dually branded Homewood Suites and Hilton Garden Inn near Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport. It will have 140-plus rooms, an indoor pool, restaurant and bar, convention center and more.

A male and female figure skater perform on the ice

Big events coming in 2025 

Keep an eye out for dates of Wichita’s annual festivals like Riverfest, which takes place each summer, and Illuminations, an annual holiday light display. Find more inspiration for your visit to Wichita with our visitor’s guide. Curious to know what new restaurants are coming in 2025? Take a look at the Wichita Eagle's guide.