Oklahoma City is a city of about 700,000 people spread across one of the largest municipal land areas in the United States, which is the first thing a visitor should understand because it decides everything else. OKLAHOMA CITY COVERS MORE THAN 600 SQUARE MILES. That is bigger than many American cities with five times the population, and it means the distance between two things you want to see is measured in tens of minutes of driving rather than in blocks.
AND THE MOST IMPORTANT PLACE IN THE CITY IS A MEMORIAL, WHICH IS WHERE ANY HONEST POST ABOUT OKLAHOMA CITY HAS TO START. On 19 April 1995 a truck bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and killed 168 people, nineteen of them children in the building's day care centre. The site is now the OKLAHOMA CITY NATIONAL MEMORIAL AND MUSEUM: a reflecting pool where the street was, two gates marked 9:01 and 9:03 for the minute before and the minute after, and a field of 168 empty chairs, the smaller ones for the children. It is open, free to walk through at the outdoor memorial, and it is not a sight to tick off. IT IS ABSENT FROM EVERY PHOTOGRAPH IN THIS POST, which is worth saying rather than letting a canal and a skyline stand for the city, and it is the one place to give proper time to.
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What Is Here
BRICKTOWN'S CANAL IS ENTIRELY ARTIFICIAL AND THAT IS THE POINT. The first photograph is the Bricktown canal, and it exists because in 1993 the city voted a sales tax on itself to rebuild its own downtown, a programme called MAPS. The warehouses were derelict; the canal was dug; the district now holds restaurants, a ballpark and a water taxi. A visitor walking it is walking through a civic decision, which is more interesting than the usual regenerated-waterfront story because the money came from residents rather than from a developer.
THE SKYLINE IS NEW AND ONE BUILDING DOMINATES IT. The second photograph is downtown at dusk, and the tall one is the Devon Energy Center at 844 feet, finished in 2012, which is a reminder that this is an oil and gas city and that the local economy rises and falls with a commodity price. Around it are the Myriad Botanical Gardens and the Crystal Bridge conservatory, which is the best indoor hour in the city in July or January.
LAKE OVERHOLSER IS THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CITY AND IT IS A RESERVOIR FROM 1919. The third photograph is out there, on the western edge, and it is where the city goes to sail and run. ROUTE 66 CROSSES THE LAKE ON AN OLD STEEL BRIDGE nearby, which is the most genuinely photogenic piece of the Mother Road inside any large American city.
AND THE STOCKYARDS ARE A WORKING BUSINESS RATHER THAN AN ATTRACTION. Stockyards City holds what has been one of the largest stocker and feeder cattle markets in the world, with live auctions on Mondays and Tuesdays, and the boot shops and the saddle makers around it serve people who need them. It is free to watch from the catwalks and it is the least touristic thing in the city.
When to Go
April to early June, or late September to October. The shoulder seasons are genuinely pleasant and the rest of the year has a character worth planning around. July and August run into the high thirties Celsius with humidity, and the wind never stops: Oklahoma is one of the windiest states in the country and that is not folklore, it is why the turbines are there.
STORM SEASON IS MARCH TO JUNE AND THE PEAK IS LATE APRIL AND MAY. Central Oklahoma sits in the most tornado-active region on earth, and the honest framing is neither to dramatise it nor to leave it out: a visitor is very unlikely to meet a tornado, and should still know how the warning system works, because the city's own residents do. The distinction that matters is that A WATCH MEANS CONDITIONS ARE FAVOURABLE AND A WARNING MEANS ONE HAS BEEN SEEN OR DETECTED ON RADAR, and a warning means go to an interior room on the lowest floor now. Outdoor sirens are tested regularly and are meant to be heard outdoors, not indoors, so the reliable alert is a phone. Hotels have a designated shelter area and the front desk knows where it is: ask on arrival rather than at 2am.
WINTER IS SHORT, DRY AND PUNCTUATED BY ICE. January averages around freezing and the problem is not snow but ICE STORMS, which take down power lines and make driving genuinely dangerous for a day or two at a time.
The FCDO publishes no advised-against areas anywhere in the United States, but it does carry a national warning: it says terrorists are very likely to try and carry out attacks in the US, and that attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places visited by tourists and foreign nationals. Its guidance concentrates on the practical differences a British visitor meets: entry requirements and ESTA, the cost of healthcare without insurance, extreme weather including hurricanes on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts between June and November, and wildfires, which the FCDO describes as a danger in many dry areas, particularly in canyons, hills and forests.
Getting There
Will Rogers World Airport is fifteen minutes from downtown and you will want a car. OKC is at the crossing of Interstates 35, 40 and 44, which is why it grew, and it is about three hours from Dallas and six from Kansas City. There is one Amtrak service, the Heartland Flyer, running south to Fort Worth once a day.
THE CITY IS NOT WALKABLE BETWEEN DISTRICTS AND THAT IS NOT A CRITICISM, IT IS THE 600 SQUARE MILES. Bricktown, Midtown, the Plaza District, the Paseo and Stockyards City are each walkable inside themselves and each is a drive from the next. A streetcar loops the downtown core and is useful for exactly that core. Ride-hailing works everywhere and is cheap.
The Oklahoma City Packing List
Relentless wind, hot humid summers, a short icy winter, long distances, and a lot of time outdoors at a memorial, a canal and a lake.
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women earns its place here mainly for the wind: a steady 25 to 40 kilometre an hour wind strips heat from you at temperatures that read as mild on a forecast, and a thin wool layer under a shell does more than a thicker jumper without one. In summer it does the opposite job, keeping the sun off your shoulders on an unshaded canal walk.
A Marmot PreCip Eco rain jacket, which here is a WINDBREAKER first and a raincoat second. This is the item most visitors underpack for Oklahoma.
Columbia Saturday Trail stretch trousers for long days that mix a museum, a canal and a lakeside path.
Salomon X Ultra 4 GTX hiking shoes, or any comfortable walking shoe. Nothing here is technical and everything here is far apart.
A wide brim UPF 50 sun hat with a chin cord, because the Oklahoma sun in July is strong and the wind will take a hat without one.
A Columbia Powder Lite II insulated jacket for a December to February visit, when the wind chill is the whole story.
Not linked and worth packing: SUNSCREEN, which this registry does not carry at all; SUNGLASSES, with no eyewear entry in the registry; and A REFILLABLE BOTTLE, since the dry heat and wind dehydrate faster than the temperature suggests.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Oklahoma City
Emergency numbers: 911 for police, ambulance and fire, free from any phone including a locked mobile. Calls are answered locally and dispatchers will stay on the line. For non-urgent police matters many cities also run a 311 information line.
OKLAHOMA CITY IS AN ORDINARY LARGE AMERICAN CITY AND THE GEOGRAPHY OF CARE IS THE USEFUL ANSWER. Bricktown, Midtown, Automobile Alley, the Plaza District, the Paseo and the area around the memorial are busy, lit and unremarkable to walk in the evening. As in most American cities built around the car, the thing to be deliberate about is not a district but a MODE: long stretches between districts have no pavement and no pedestrians, so walking a route that looks short on a map can mean a mile beside a six-lane road in the dark. Use a car or a ride-hail for anything between districts after dark. Parking garages rather than surface lots, and the usual habits about leaving nothing visible in a car.
AND THE WEATHER IS THE REAL HAZARD HERE, WHICH IS UNUSUAL FOR A CITY POST. Enable WIRELESS EMERGENCY ALERTS on your phone and leave them on. Know your hotel's shelter area before you need it. In a tornado warning, an interior room on the lowest floor away from windows is the instruction, and a vehicle and a highway overpass are both among the worst places to be. In an ice storm, do not drive.
This is the single biggest practical difference for a visitor: there is no public health system, an emergency room visit without insurance can run into thousands of dollars, and an ambulance is billed separately and is not free. Comprehensive travel insurance with a high medical limit is not optional in the United States, and you should carry your policy number and the insurer's 24 hour number somewhere you can reach them. Urgent care clinics handle anything short of an emergency far more cheaply and quickly than an emergency room, and are the right choice for a sprain, an infection or stitches.
US State Department travel advisory: there is none, and this is not an omission. The State Department issues travel advisories for other countries, not for the United States itself, so no US advisory for this destination exists to link. In its place, the Government of Canada advice for the United States gives an equivalent third-country assessment.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/usa, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits. The FCDO names no advised-against areas anywhere in the United States. The same advice also covers Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands.
Main hospital or clinic: OU Health University of Oklahoma Medical Center is the state's only Level I trauma centre and sits in the Oklahoma Health Center district just east of downtown, with INTEGRIS Baptist and Mercy Hospital also large and well equipped. Urgent care clinics across the city handle minor problems far faster and far more cheaply than an emergency room. GET TRAVEL INSURANCE WITH PROPER MEDICAL COVER BEFORE YOU COME, because an American emergency room visit can cost thousands of dollars and nothing about being a visitor changes that.
Official health authority: the CDC travellers' health pages, the US federal health authority for visitors, is the US Centers for Disease Control travel health service
Embassy contact: the United States is the host country, so there is no US embassy to contact. Your own country's embassy is in Washington DC, with consulates in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, San Francisco, Miami and Boston. Find yours before you travel and save the number.
Official tourism authority: Brand USA, the national tourism marketing body, covers the country, and the Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau publishes the memorial's museum hours and the Stockyards auction days, which run Monday and Tuesday and are not a daily attraction
Takeaways
More than 600 square miles. Everything is a drive from everything else.
The National Memorial is the most important place in the city. It is in none of these photographs.
Bricktown's canal was dug because residents voted a tax on themselves to rebuild downtown.
Storm season is March to June. A watch means conditions are favourable; a warning means go to an interior room now.
The wind is constant. Pack a windbreaker rather than a thicker coat.
The Stockyards auctions are a working cattle market on Mondays and Tuesdays, free to watch.
Solo women safety assessment: Oklahoma City is a straightforward solo destination and an inexpensive one. THE FCDO PUBLISHES NO ADVISED-AGAINST AREAS ANYWHERE IN THE UNITED STATES, but it does carry a national warning: it says terrorists are very likely to try and carry out attacks in the US, and that attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places visited by tourists and foreign nationals. The visitor districts are busy and well lit in the evening and the city is friendly in a way that surprises people who have only driven through. THE THING TO PLAN AROUND IS THE CAR-SHAPED GEOGRAPHY: between districts there is often no pavement at all, so a walk that looks short becomes a mile beside a six-lane road, and the answer is to drive or ride-hail after dark rather than to avoid any particular area. THE WEATHER IS THE GENUINE HAZARD and it is worth taking seriously without anxiety: leave emergency alerts on, ask the front desk where the shelter area is when you check in, and know that a warning means move now while a watch does not. Summer heat and constant wind dehydrate faster than the thermometer implies. Medical care is excellent and expensive, so insure properly. 911 for everything.
Reading On
Oklahoma City sits at the crossing of three interstates, so its neighbours are a drive rather than a train ride. Three hours south, the Dallas packing list and the Fort Worth packing list cover the nearest large cities, with Fort Worth's own stockyards making the obvious comparison with this city's. North, the Kansas City packing list covers the next city up Interstate 35. West along the old Route 66 corridor, the Albuquerque packing list and the Santa Fe packing list cover northern New Mexico, and the Flagstaff packing list the Arizona high country. For the thunderstorm and flash flood mechanics that this part of the country shares, the Tucson packing list covers the monsoon version of the same problem. For the country as a whole, the USA travel guide for women carries the regions, the costs, the tipping and the driving in full. For why a thin wool layer under a shell beats a thicker jumper in a constant wind, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection. Up the turnpike to the north east, the Tulsa packing list covers Greenwood, Route 66 and the art deco downtown.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
