Touching down at Salina Regional Airport in Salina keeps you central, with surrounding cities and sights an easy drive away. Salina sits where Interstate 70 meets Interstate 135 in the Smoky Hills of central Kansas, a wheat and railroad town with a surprisingly good downtown. Santa Fe Avenue has restored brick storefronts, public sculpture, and a historic theater, and the open prairie starts a few minutes in any direction.

Things to do in and around Salina: - Grab a sack of tiny onion-topped sliders at the Cozy Inn, cooking since 1922 - Drive through Rolling Hills Zoo and its wildlife museum west of town - Catch a touring act at the restored Stiefel Theatre - Walk the downtown SculptureTour and visit the Salina Art Center - Learn the region's story at the Smoky Hill Museum - Hike the sandstone canyons at Kanopolis State Park, about 40 minutes southwest - Climb the stone castle at Coronado Heights near Lindsborg for prairie views - Come in June for the Smoky Hill River Festival in Oakdale Park

Lindsborg, twenty minutes south of Salina, calls itself Little Sweden and keeps its painted Dala horses and bakeries. Abilene and the Eisenhower Presidential Library are 25 minutes east, Mushroom Rock State Park is 40 minutes west, and the Garden of Eden folk art house in Lucas is about an hour. Hutchinson and its underground salt museum, Manhattan, and Wichita all fall within ninety minutes. Order a bierock, the stuffed bread roll brought by Volga German settlers, and watch the sunset stretch across the hills. Salina is an easy place to slow down.