First time visiting Texas
My family never visited Texas before. Therefore, in spring break 2024, we spent 9 days visiting San Antonio, Austin, Fort Worth, and Dallas to have a sample of Texas. Our son will also join us in the middle of our trip.
Day 1 (Tuesday): Portland to Austin to San Antonio
Our Alaska flight arrived at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in the evening. After getting our rental car from Enterprise, we drove to our hotel, Hyatt Place San Antonio-North/Stone Oak, at San Antonio. The drive took about 1.5 hours.
Along the way, we had our dinner at a random BBQ truck. This is our first Texas BBQ.
Day 2 (Wednesday): San Antonio - Natural Bridge Caverns and River walk
In the morning, we checked out from the hotel and drove to our 10 am Natural Bridge Caverns - Discovery Tour. The hotel and the Natural Bridge Caverns are both at the north of San Antonio. Natural Bridge Caverns has several different tours. Since this is our first time, we choose the classic discovery tour. We loved the tour.
After the tour, we had our lunch at Curry Boys BBQ. This is a very unique curry-flavored BBQ and it tastes pretty good.
In this afternoon, we checked in our hotel at Hyatt Regency San Antonio Riverwalk. The location of this hotel is very convenient because it is right at the center of all the restaurants along the river walk. Then we walked around River Walk and visited several places. Just like what we read on the internet, this is a very touristy place.
- Casa Rio Umbrellas
- La Villita Historic Arts Village: This village is a lot smaller than what we thought.
- ARNESON RIVER THEATER: There was no show going on during our visit. It would be nice to see a show here I guess.
- Kallison Love Lock Walk Bridge: This is similar to all other love lock bridges in many other cities.
- Selena Bridge Riverwalk
- San Fernando Cathedral
We walked back to our hotel to have a short break. In the late afternoon, we drove to The Pearl District. There are several parking lots nearby, so it is easy to find a parking spot. Also, the traffic at San Antonio is not bad at all. We walked around the Pearl district.
We walked along the river walk by the Pearl district to see the following F.I.S.H by Donald Lipski and THE GROTTO by Carlos Cortés. This section of the river walk is a lot less touristy and has many local people running and walking.
There are several expensive restaurants in the Pearl district, but we did not want to have expensive dinner. We had our dinner at Velvet Taco at Pearl district. The tacos are pretty good. This is not a traditional taco place and has many unique-flavored tacos.
After dinner, we walked back to F.I.S.H on the river walk to see the lighted fishes.
Then we drove back to the hotel and walked to San Fernando Cathedral to see the Light show at 9 pm. The light show is really cool and it displays the history of San Antonio. There are limited seats in the plaza in the front of the cathedral. If you want to sit, plan to arrive early. Otherwise, it is totally fine just to stand and watch the show.
After the show, we walked back to the hotel while doing people-watching of all the night life along river walk.
Day 3 (Thursday): San Antonio - The Alamo and missions trail
We had breakfast at La Panaderia nearby. This is a Mexican-European fusion bakery. The food is really good. Then we visited The Alamo. We reserved our entrance to the church and to the special exhibition at 10 am. We were very lucky. The special exhibition was having the famous Travis “Victory or Death” letter on display for a limited time. The entrance to the church is free, but it requires reservation. The special exhibition is not free but we found it totally worth it.
After visiting the Alamo, due to the weather (with scattered showers), we took our rental car and drove to the missions, instead of biking along the missions trail. All the missions have a large parking lot and national park service visitor center. You can learn the history of each mission at the visitor center.
We first visited Mission Concepción.
Then we had lunch at South BBQ & Kitchen. This is not in any tourist place and seems to be a very local restaurant. The BBQ is good. The chicken leg is large with only $3.5.
Then we finished the remaining missions:
- Mission San José: This has the largest visitor center.
- Mission San Juan Capistrano
- Mission Espada
- The Acequias
After the missions trail, we drove back to hotel and had a short break. In the evening, we walked to Rivercenter mall. The mall is just ok and seems out-dated. Since we wanted to have a break from tacos and BBQs, we had a light dinner at the food court in the mall.
Day 4 (Friday): San Antonio - Botanical Garden
We had breakfast at La Panaderia again. We really liked its pastries and hot breakfast. After breakfast, we visited San Antonio Botanical Garden. This is a very well-maintained place, and we like it. We spent about 2.5 hours here.
After that, we had lunch at Carnitas Don Raúl, which is a food truck near the botanical garden. The meat portion in each taco is huge. There are many local folks dining here also. The nearby Mila Coffee has fanatic coffee.
Then we relaxed at the hotel, and later went to watch Light show at San Fernando Cathedral again.
Day 5 (Saturday): Austin
In the morning, we checked out from the hotel and drove to Austin. Upon arriving at Austin, we parked at the parking garage of Texas State Capitol and toured the capitol building. Many rooms are not open since this is a Saturday.
Then we walked to visit Bullock Texas State History Museum. There are a lot of stuff in the museum. If you like history, this is a great place.
Then we walked around the University of Texas - Austin campus, and had lunch at one of food trucks around the campus. UT Austin is huge. It is a good hike from the main tower to the LBJ library. We did not choose to buy the tickets to visit inside the LBJ library since we have enough of history stuff for today. The exterior of LBJ library is still worth visiting though.
Then we picked up car and drove to Lady Bird Lake to have a short walk. Then we checked in at our hotel, Hyatt Place Austin Airport. Wanting to have a light dinner nearby, we walked to a taco place in the same area as the hotel. It was not good at all.
Day 6 (Sunday): Austin to Fort Worth
In the morning, we picked up our son at Austin airport. Then we checked out from the hotel and had lunch at Stiles Switch BBQ. We all liked it. I liked the beef rib and my son liked the brisket. There is a 吃茶三千 CHICHA San Chen nearby and we had afternoon tea.
Then we drove to Fort Worth. Since it was a weekend, the traffic was not bad. The drive took 3 hours. We checked in at our hotel, Hyatt Place Fort Worth/Cityview. We had dinner at Plank Seafood Provisions in The Shops at Clearfork. This is nice area with many shops and restaurants.
Day 7 (Monday): Fort Worth
In the early morning, we checked out from the hotel and visited Fort Worth downtown area including Fort Worth Water Gardens and Sundance square.
Then we drove to Fort Worth Stockyards and checked in at the hotel, Hyatt Place Fort Worth Historic Stockyards. The hotel is at the perfect spot, right at the center of the stockyards. We watched the daily Fort Worth Herd cattle drives at 11:30 am. It was interesting. My wife expected it to have a lot more cattle though.
Then we had Texas steak for lunch at H3 Ranch.
In the afternoon, we visited MULE ALLEY, Billy Bob’s Texas, and several stores and museums in the stockyards. Without any event or concert, Billy Bob’s Texas really has nothing to see inside though and it was pretty empty inside when we visited. We kind of regretted paying tickets to go inside.
We had dinner at Esperanza’s Restaurant & Bakery, which seems to be a very authentic Mexican restaurants.
Day 8 (Tuesday): Dallas
In the morning, we checked out from the hotel and drove to Dallas. We visited Dealey Plaza to see the JFK assassination site, Grassy Knoll, and JFK Memorial. Sixth Floor Museum is not open today, so we will visit the museum the next day.
Then we checked in at our hotel, The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas. We had lunch at Shake Shack nearby and then walked to Klyde Warren Park. Being in the Texas spring break, there were many kids playing in the park and many food trucks. However, all the museums in the same art district were closed today. Then we relaxed at the hotel to enjoy the Ritz experience. In the evening, we use the house car service provided by the Ritz and went to see Murals at Deep Ellum.
We had dinner at Terry Black’s BBQ right at Deep Ellum. It was crowded on a Tuesday. It turns out that it is either the best or second best BBQ in Dallas according to our house car driver.
Day 9 (Wednesday): Dallas to Portland
In the early morning, we dropped off our son at the Dallas Love-Field airport. Then we had breakfast at the Ritz.
We checked out from the hotel and visited Sixth Floor Museum. We reserved our entrance ticket at 10 am. After that, we drove to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. We returned the rental car and flied back to Portland.