San Antonio Vacation

[tink20]

I am bored...so I start looking at places close enough to drive to for a family vacation. Trying to wait to go back to WDW until the big refurb is finished. So, I was looking into San Antonio, TX. It would be a 10 1/2 hour drive, is it worth it? We drive about 8 for WDW (definitely worth it)

Interested in:

Six Flags
Sea World
The Alamo
San Antonio Zoo
The Riverwalk (would like to know more about this)

But, I don't know where to stay?

Anyone, live here or been on vacation here?

Or any other suggestions for a family trip? We live near Mobile,AL (so anything close enough to drive to) Don't want to do the beach, doing that for Spring Break.

 

[ilovejack02]

Another suggestion , what about Chattanooga ? So much to do, I think it is a great place to vacation with children!

We like San Antonio alot too, but it has been about 5 years so I am not much help on where to stay .

 

[Wall-E1]

Besides the Alamo, there are other Spanish Missions nearby. We visited Mission San Jose and Concepcion. They weren't as crowded as the Alamo and had more things to see.

 

[Nette]

As someone who grew up in Central Texas (and my grandparents all lived in SA) I can tell you the zoo is NOT worth it. It's a concrete jungle. Hot and stinky and it makes me sad.

Fiesta Texas (6 flags) could be fun -- if you can get past the filth. We are way too spoiled by Disney.

Sea World is good. I actually don't know much about the riverwalk.

I would head a little north and go to New Braunfels for a day and visit Schlitterbahn.

 

[Kat77]

I would skip the zoo as well. Ripley's is along the Riverwalk. I have not visited that location is 15 years but it could be fun.

 

[Planogirl]

There are actually several Ripley attractions now. There is the Guinness book of world records, a haunted attraction and a few others besides the normal Ripley's.

Where you stay depends on your budget and where you'd prefer to be. If you want a chain, I suggest the Marriott Rivercenter or the Hilton Palacio del Rio. The Emily Morgan is nice but doesn't have much of a pool. It's great for couples. The Omni La Mansion del Rio is a good place. The Menger Hotel is a lovely historic hotel with all amenities right next to the Alamo and across from the Riverwalk. The old section is said to be haunted and is also quite creaky in some areas. The Westin La Cantera is said to be nice but isn't close to downtown.

The Riverwalk is a lovely place to walk in the daytime and a great place to eat at night. It's miserable when it's cold out though.

It's sad that the zoo is so awful now. It was nice many many years ago. Sea World is fabulous. Bring your swimsuits because a large part of the park is a waterpark. The old missions on the mission trail are interesting and lovely and you can't beat the price. You drive through some shady areas but the missions are safe with park rangers onsite. People I know rave about the botanical gardens and Fort Sam Houston can be interesting. There are historic things all around downtown and in the King William Historic District if you like that sort of thing. Do make the drive to Schlitterbahn if you can.

Don't expect WDW! If you want something different and you avoid the hottest times, you can have a great time.

 

[klacey1]

We went a few years ago and were NOT crazy about it, to be honest.
Six Flags: Okay, typical amusement park. Has some fun rides-- stay away from the wooden coaster-- think it's called the Rattler? Something like that.
Sea World: Not as nice as the Orlando one, but still a nice day. Has lots of rides in addition to the aquarium. Gets very, very hot here due the concrete. I passed out-- not a pleasant thing, but I have to say the workers at the park handled it wonderfully and gave me free drinks and food and offered to get me a free wheelchair for the day (I declined).
The Alamo: Smaller than we thought. Definitely cool to see if you're into history though.
San Antonio Zoo: Didn't go there.
The Riverwalk (would like to know more about this): Seemed like basically a row of restaurants. We went to a random Mexican one and were not impressed. Some cute shops, not much though. We did see a Ripley's and some other similar museum, but they looked like typical tourist traps, so we stayed away (been to the Orlando Ripley's a couple of times).
We drove up to Austin for a day while we were there and LOVED it! It was a beautiful city. We went to the Texas history museum and the LBJ museum and loved them both. Seeing the letters from Jackie to LBJ after JFK did was very powerful.

 

[RNMOM]

We stopped in Austin and San Antonio on our way to Houston in fall 09 for a wedding. We liked both a lot. We did the Alamo and toured around the area. The Riverwalk is interesting but there isn't enough for more than a day or two. We stayed at the Holiday Inn on North St. Mary's st. It was great. We were using DH's travel points and frankly it was so much better than I expected. The room was really nice and new, squeaky clean and the balcony overlooked the RW. There is access to nearly every business, hotel the whole way around. When we were there a lot of construction was going on and many places were improving things. I use a scooter so it slowed us down. You might remember my posting about loosing a bag at this hotel and I got it back with all my pain meds, gold jewelry and a lot of other stuff completely untouched. Considering I didn't even call for several days after we left cause I didn't need the bag till then, I can't say enough good things about this place.

There are a lot of websites about the Riverwalk so do some searches. I would suggest a couple days at both San Antonio and Austin. Houston isn't far and Johnson Space Center is there.

I think you can find fun and educational things in any moderately large city. Have fun.

 

[mamacatnv]

Couple of summers ago we spent 10 days in New Braunfels, TX. We rented a 1 bedroom apt. at the Schlitterbahn water park. We loved it.

We explored all over from Austin to San Antonio as well as spending lots of time at Schlitterbahn which we loved, absolutely loved!

We went "tubing" on the Comal River

Dinner at the Gristmill in Gruene, TX and a visit to the world famous dance hall (I'm from California, I had never really seen a "dance hall") beautiful town.

Dinner at the Salt Lick in Driftwood, TX - again, beautiful area and I saw fireflies for the first time ever!

Bat cruise on Lady Bird Johnson Lake in Austin under the Concord Ave Bridge.

a visit to the Snake Farm in New Braunfels - cheesy but really neat

The Alamo was solemn, awe inspiring and we left Texas with a bigger understanding of why Texans are so proud to be Texans.

St. Francis Cathedral where the remains found at the Alamo are entombed was beautiful.

We loved our walk down to the outdoor market and enjoyed lunch at a tiny little vendor in the market.

We enjoyed the boat ride on the riverwalk but found the rest of it to be commercial and icky. We ate at Joe's CrabShack, thought it was lousy, expensive and nothing memorable.

Sea World was a fun day. We have never been to the one in Orlando but have been to the one in San Diego. We did not visit the water park but we did enjoy the coasters and the animal shows.

Natural Bridges Caverns were amazing. We went on the standard tour in the main caverns as well as the flashlight tour in one of the smaller caverns and the drive thru safari right next to it was fun also.

The Outlet mall in San Marcos was huge. We did a bit of shopping. Like all outlet malls, one really needs to know their prices but the place is huge and there were tons of stores with good selections and good prices.

We would go again. We loved Schlitterbahn soooo much. The only issue we has was with the heat. The heat/humidity really wore us out but other than that, it was an amazing family vacation and honestly we loved it more than any of our trips to WDW.