Tulsa, Oklahoma Flight Path

An (almost) comprehensive list of all the fun and fresh things to do in Tulsa, one of my favorite cities ever.

Mar 05, 2025

I spent the past three years, on and off, living and going to university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I am not entirely sure why I picked Tulsa or the University of Tulsa, so please do not ask. When interviewers ask and I must present a conclusive answer, I use the following:

“I was deciding on a college during COVID so it was a hard decision! But ultimately I chose the University of Tulsa because my older brother’s best friend went there and spoke very highly of it, I liked the size of the school, and I enjoyed the city of Tulsa the last time I went to visit.”

All of which are true. Except that last time I had visited Tulsa was spring break when I was in 5th grade. My older brother, Caden, and I had built a working wind turbine for a science project and buried it in the backyard where our neighbors got a glorious view of the 10 foot tall specimen rotating whenever the wind blew. But the wind in St. Louis is nothing compared to the wind in Oklahoma, so sayeth that one song, so we asked our parents to go to Oklahoma for spring break so we could test it out. Even when we were pulling out of the driveway that Saturday morning to get on the highway to Tulsa, my dad was still trying to convince us to go to the beach in Florida. We could not be deterred. So although I did enjoy our trip to Oklahoma, we spent more time pulling off the highway into the plains and setting up our turbine instead of doing sightseeing around the town.

Despite all, I thoroughly love and enjoy the town of Tulsa. I just went back a few weekends ago to celebrate Galentine’s day with my friends Blakely and Archer and realized how much I missed the city. The art scene is incredibly welcoming and easy to access because of the small town nature. There are so many fun things to do. If you’re planning a trip to Tulsa (or even if you’re not but when I say “Tulsa” you still picture something out of an old western movie) read this!!!

Shop the local stores:

While downtown, go to Made (selling local artists’ work ), Ida Red (Tulsa & Oklahoma merch), Magic City Books (famous Tulsa bookstore), Fulton Street Coffee & Books (famous Tulsa bookstore in Greenwood District). In Bartlesville there is a massive Dillard’s clearance store. The best thrift store in town is the Salvation Army in Broken Arrow.

Take in the amazing art scene

Downtown currently there is a Vintage Barbie Museum which tracks Barbie’s from the first in 1959 to present. It is free but you should leave a little donation because the owner was Blakely’s old writing mentor.

If you are in Tulsa during the first Friday of each month, go downtown after 6 p.m. to walk through the First Friday Art Crawl. I have acquired all my favorite jewelry pieces and prints from the artists with booths at the Art Crawl. Everything is very cheap and they have the best food trucks in town (Masas Empanadas and Bondi Bowls) there. Also, “OK, So” storyslam events.

Admiral Twin Drive-In for movies. I watched “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” here.

Philbrook Art Museum is the most gorgeous art museum ever, and I say that having been to The Louvre. It is an oil tycoon’s old and beautiful mansion turned into an art museum. They have a Kehinde Wiley painting there. I love him. I saw him for the first time in the Philbrook, the second time in the D’Orsay, and the third in the STL art museum.

To see music, visit the BOK Center (the arena, where I photographed The Eagles), Cain’s Ballroom, Mercury Lounge, and Guthrie Green for summertime jaunts.

EAT!

Country Bird Bakery was recently listed as one of the 22 best bakeries in the US by New York Times. It is only open on Saturday’s from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and there will be a line. On Saturday it was raining but Blakely and I still had to wait an hour and 45 minutes.

Blakely and I go crazy for our mornings at Dilly’s Diner and love their mimosas and pancakes. Kilkenny’s has the best burger I have ever eaten. Que Gusto is Ecuadorian food and Wanda J’s Next Generation is soul food.

If you need a birthday cake, get something from Queenies. I love their strawberry cake.

For Valentine’s Day dinner Blakely, Archer, and I went out to JINYA, our favorite ramen bar. Everyone else was there as a couple. People thought we were a thruple. We were.

See local flora and fauna

The Gathering Place is the best park in town with the coolest playgrounds. I used to always run on the trail behind the park. Out in Bartlesville, you can drive and walk through buffalo, ostrich, and other animals at Woolaroc.

Nightlife

The best bars are The Valkyrie (dark, moody, upscale), Saturn Room (tiki bar, give you leis at the front), Shady Keys (western, dueling pianos), Whiskey 918 (two-stepping and line dancing bar SO FUN). If you go downtown on a weekend night you will definitely see people with horses charging you to ride them through the streets. Embrace it.

If you are there in the summer, go to a Driller’s game. It’s a minor league baseball team and usually we spend more on shaved ice than we do on the tickets. If you’re looking for a more bougie experience, watch the baseball game from the balcony of in the raw while eating expensive food. If there in the winter, Oilers game.

Stereotypical Oklahoma activities

I have gone to pig shows, rodeos, vintage markets, and the Tulsa State Fair at the Tulsa Expo Square I love that place so much. The city of Claremore has nice rodeos as well. A bit outside of the city, I photographed motocross and rented dirt bikes at Jandebeurs Motor Sports.

Do a little work in the WFH cafes

My favorite coffee shop is Chimera and the artists of town call it the “watering hole”. Coffee snobs say it is the best latte in town. DoubleShot Coffee is huge and has lots of space. Blakely and I used to go to Inheritance Juicery downtown to write and eat avocado toast and acai bowls and once were asked to be featured on the Instagram page.

P.S. you should read about the Tulsa Remote program. They give remote workers $10,000 to work from Tulsa.

“I Brought My New York Friends to Tulsa “My hometown is low-key having a moment.” The Strategist article by Tulsa-local Luke Leifeste.

@experience.tulsa on Instagram. They interview locals for their favorite spots in Tulsa.

“The Outsiders”: The book and the movie. You can visit the house from “The Outsiders” while in Tulsa. A friend did a photo project on “The Outsiders” and actually used the real house.

“The Ground Breaking: The Tulsa Race Massacre and an American City’s Search for Justice” by Scott Ellsworth: I bought this in Magic City Books after learning surprisingly little in my classes about the Tulsa Race Massacre.

“Tulsa King”: Set in Tulsa but mostly filmed in Oklahoma City.

“Killers of the Flower Moon”: Leonardo DiCaprio lived next door to a friend of mine while he was shooting this and my friend said all the moms would go on their neighborhood walks after doing full glam trying to catch his eye.

“Twisters”: Self explanatory. I was in Tulsa for a few tornados but nothing major.

“The One Where Emma Cries”: That one “Friends” episode when Chandler has to move to Tulsa. Without a hitch whenever I told my international friends I lived in Tulsa they always said, “All I know about Tulsa is when Chandler moved there.” Chandler made it seem pretty miserable which is a major L for the Tulsa community.

My articles about Oklahoma things: