We went to Wichita this past weekend Friday-Sunday and stayed at the Hotel at Old Town. Great hotel with a nice kitchenette, newly remodeled. Prices are high right now for January. The Hyatt and Drury are both being remodeled, Drury does not give a completion date and Hyatt now says spring 2025 (was to be complete this year). Just something to keep in mind.
There is no grocery store downtown. There is a Quick Trip (nice convenience store/gas station) at Douglas Ave/Washington St in Old Town. There is a free Q-Line
bus that runs downtown, right up and down Douglas. 5pm-11 M-Th (every hour) and 5pm-midnight on Friday and 11am-midnight on Saturday (every 20 minutes). The Frank Lloyd Wright house is in a neighborhood called College Hill and there is a Dillons grocery store in that neighborhood on Douglas. So if you really needed a grocery store you could take the Q-Line to Dillons and back for free. We had planned to ride it to the College Hill neighborhood for our FLW house tour but rain was in the forecast so we drove. We did see it running and it never looked packed.
As for never looking packed, Wichita was a ghost town for a nice weather weekend in July. We ate at a restaurant called Lotte on Friday night and it is highly rated so I expected a lot of people but nope. There were three tables dining for happy hour when we arrived and two new tables and some spots at the chef’s counter when we left around 7:00. There was no one out on the street. This place is near the arena but not a quick dining option. If you are looking for a nice meal and the schedule works, I highly recommend. Old Town wasn’t even busy and there are a lot of restaurants/bars around. We got up Saturday and the farmer’s market was just across the street (won’t be happening in winter) and that was the most people we saw in Old Town all weekend. We decided to walk to a shop about two blocks away and then a huge candy/nut shop called the Nifty Nut House ½ mile away. Once we left the area of the farmer’s market there was no one else out walking. Walking to the shop was fine but I would not walk to the Nifty Nut House again. We went through an industrial type area and then some auto shops/homes. It felt safe and the only other person we saw (not in a car) was a homeless man sleeping in a parking lot. For lunch we ate at Piatto Neapolitan Pizzeria. It was excellent and on Douglas but not walking distance to downtown. They do use Door Dash or you could take the Q if you want some good pizza. Saturday night we walked to dinner in Old Town and saw two other people out walking. There was only one other person dining at the restaurant we went to. We found out my brother was in the hospital so got up Sunday and left early so we could go visit him (he is doing fine now). Before we left we drove around the arena and main hotels. The walk will be easy from any of them as everything is flat as long as there are no ice storms. The arena area is interesting as a lot of the buildings have not been rehabbed and it is hard to tell if still in use or abandoned. It would be easier to tell on a weekday when workers are around.
Hilton Garden Inn is the closest to the arena and on Douglas. You will walk by the Greyhound Bus Station but we never saw anyone loitering or sleeping around there or the arena.
Ambassador is next in closeness and also on Douglas.
Hyatt and Fairfield are close. The Fairfield is right by the I-400 overpass and a McDonalds/Wendy’s. We did see homeless around these areas milling about. There is also a big abandoned lot across from the Fairfield and it had not been mowed in weeks. It was very high and would give me the creeps to walk by at night. Of course the grass/weeds would be dead in January. If you stay and the Fairfield I would walk Waterman with all the Hyatt people and then take Main down to the hotel, walking on the sidewalk on the hotel side. Avoid that empty lot.
Drury is on Douglas and seemed fine.
Hotel at Old Town and Courtyard are in Old Town. You will have to walk under the railroad overpass to get to the arena. We never saw any homeless sleeping under these but I would take Douglas until the street of your hotel. We walked under on 1st street once to get to a brewery and there were no cars or other people around and I found it to be creepy during the day. At least on Douglas there will be cars going by as you go under the trains as it is the main thoroughfare.
Wyndham is on the other side of the I-400 overpass and I would not stay there if walking. I guess if you had a car it might be ok.
I checked my Uber and Lyft apps on Friday/Saturday night and there seemed to be plenty of ride-share cars.
There is a sandwich/bar place (Solly and Jude’s) directly across from the arena and they say they are open during events. So hopefully that will be an option for Nationals. On the other side of the arena there is Tor Brewery and they have burgers and fries. There is a Smoothie King on Douglas right after the railroad tracks if you are looking for something healthy (ish). Several other places on Douglas and then the fast food places over by the Fairfield.
We did see a lot of homeless but no one ever bothered us, they definitely just wanted to be left alone. I also don’t know if it was a lot of homeless or it just seemed that way because there were no other people out walking around.
That is all I can think of so let me know if you have something specific.