Tell me about San Antonio

[MelanieC]

Ok,
DH and the kids don't want to go back to Disney next year (and we have been almost every year since 1995). DH would like to go to San Antonio to see the Dallas Cowboys training camp. San Antonio is on my list of places I would like to visit, but I am not excited about the Dallas thing. Our other plan is possibly doing Montreal and Quebec.

I want to explore San Antonio and see if there is enough for us to do. I wonder if I could get excited about going. I love Mexican food, so I'm imagining I would love eating there.

So.......what is there to see and do (I know about the Alamo and Riverwalk, and we can go to Sea World since we get free tickets to Busch Gardens or Sea World each year -DH is military). What good places to eat. What places are cool to visit within driving distance (maybe Austin or ?)? Where is your favorite place to stay, etc.

 

[Planogirl]

San Antonio has tons of museums and historic sites. The museums range from those exploring culture to a children's museum to art of all kinds. The historic sites include old German homes and wonderful old missions that DS even found palatable when he was just a young kid. These missions are frankly more interesting and authentic than the Alamo for most people.

As for things to do, there's a Six Flags park, a Ripley's/wax museum, boat rides on the river, carriage rides, ghost tours, a decent zoo and so on. There's of course lots of great restaurants and shopping too.

Nearby is Hill Country with nice old German towns, the original Schlitterbahn, caves, wildlife safaris, tubing down the rapids, lakes, more shopping and so on. There's definitely plenty to do in the area IMO.

As for hotels, it really depends on what you want. Around Alamo Plaza are some neat old hotels like the Menger and the Susan B Anthony. Close by is the old venerable Gunter which has the distinction of being a several story hotel that was moved to its present location. Next to the the Rivercenter are two highrise Marriots. Along the river, is the Hyatt, the Hilton and many more good hotels both chain and local.

Personally I would check out some websites to get an idea. I like http://www.sanantoniocvb.com/ and tripadvisor.com . Good luck!

 

[Michigan]

It's been years since I lived in Texas but in my opinion San Antonio is one of the most beautiful cities in the U.S. The riverwalk is fantastic and most of the things to see and do there are free.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I will not tell why, but a very good and interesting place to eat is "The Magic Time Machine" which is on the North Loop. They have a large variety of good food.

 

[Kristineamb]

Don't forget Six Flags Fiesta Texas and Schlitterban (#1 waterpark in the US!) in nearby New Baunfels, TX!

 

[dbenlee]

Don't forget Six Flags Fiesta Texas and Schlitterban (#1 waterpark in the US!) in nearby New Baunfels, TX!

Schlitterbahn is a lot of fun if you like water parks. We just returned from a long weekend in San Antonio and went to Fiesta Texas (the Six Flags park) and we were very disappointed in it. We have been to several other Six Flags parks and had a great time, but this park seems to be suffering from the problem that the Six Flags corporation is suffering from. This particular park is starting to show its age and is in major need of refurbishment.

As always, we completely enjoyed at visit to Seaworld. The River Walk is always fun too. There are several great restaurants along the River and lots of shopping too. The boat ride along the river is fun also.

We stayed at the Radisson Hill Country. Its about 2 miles from Seaworld and they offer a complementary shuttle from the hotel to Seaworld every 15 minutes starting about an hour before opening until about an hour after closing.

There is also the Alamo right next to the River Walk area and plenty of museums and other things to do. Its a lot of fun!!

 

[Hound 109]

San Antonio has tons of museums and historic sites. The museums range from those exploring culture to a children's museum to art of all kinds. The historic sites include old German homes and wonderful old missions that DS even found palatable when he was just a young kid. These missions are frankly more interesting and authentic than the Alamo for most people.

As for things to do, there's a Six Flags park, a Ripley's/wax museum, boat rides on the river, carriage rides, ghost tours, a decent zoo and so on. There's of course lots of great restaurants and shopping too.

Nearby is Hill Country with nice old German towns, the original Schlitterbahn, caves, wildlife safaris, tubing down the rapids, lakes, more shopping and so on. There's definitely plenty to do in the area IMO.

As for hotels, it really depends on what you want. Around Alamo Plaza are some neat old hotels like the Menger and the Susan B Anthony. Close by is the old venerable Gunter which has the distinction of being a several story hotel that was moved to its present location. Next to the the Rivercenter are two highrise Marriots. Along the river, is the Hyatt, the Hilton and many more good hotels both chain and local.

Personally I would check out some websites to get an idea. I like http://www.sanantoniocvb.com/ and tripadvisor.com . Good luck!

I agree with virtually everything here. (except i'm not familiar with a Susan B. Anthony hotel - is it the St. Anthony?)

I love the Menger Hotel & the La Mansion.

If you look in the Disneyland Board, there's a "Western United States" section where recently ALOT of info on SA & New Braunfels was discussed. Fleshes out some of what is suggested above. Have fun.

hound

 

[mamacatnv]

Having just returned from a 10 day tripto SAT and the surrounding areas (we had never been to Texas before)I can tell you that we just had the best vacation we have ever had, (including WDW )here are some of our activities:

We stayed in New Braunfels at the Schlitterbahn Resort at the Rapids - A little spendy, nothing fancy, but the proximity to the water park, Austin & San Antonio was great and I am so glad we chose that instead of Riverwalk area. If we had of stayed in SAT I would have chosen the Drury Inn and Suites Riverwalk. It was a very beautiful hotel and located right on the riverwalk.

We thoroughly enjoyed Schlitterbahn and understand why it is the #1 park in the country - we had a blast.

What we did, was every other day water park/outside activity. We did stay away from the park on the weekends also. We also split up some of the days with mornings/eves at the waterpark and went to another activity in the afternoon.

We went to the Alamo and The San Fernando Cathedral where we got a tremendous history lesson and walked away with a much better understanding of not only Texas history but US history as well. We found the visit to the Alamo to be somewhat emotional. We had a fantastic lunch at a small vendor "Jacinto" located in Market Square.

The Riverwalk was okay - we are not really into the bar/shopping scene but we did enjoy seeing it and taking the boat tour. We enjoyed the architecture of the surrounding buildings much more. The walk itself is very pretty, lots of stone, water features and plants.

We also visited:
Sea World
The Natural Bridges Caverns (absolutely awesome experience)do both tours!
The WildLife Safari adjacent to the caverns
The Snake Farm - where the kids were allowed to hold and play with baby Lemurs.
LockHart, TX where we had BBQ at Blacks and wandered around looking at some of the beautiful brick buildings. The court house was phenomenal!
Congress Ave. Bridge in Austin to see the bats at sunset.
The Outlet Stores in San Marcus
Gruene, TX for shopping & sight seeing plus a soda at the dance hall.
Cabellas in Buda(because we had never seen one, only the catalog )
Toobing the Comal River

We had some wonderful meals at:
The Salt Lick in Driftwood (went there 2 times)
The Gristmill in Gruene
Blacks in Lockhart
Mamacitas
Whataburger (yummy)
Union Street Station in New Braunfels
We also had Frozen Custard which was new to us, we liked it.

There was a ton more things we never got around to doing. Some of it was due to the heat and some was just because we were having so much fun at the water park. The heat/humidity really wiped us out since we are from a high dessert climate with almost no humidity.

I would highly recommend a visit to the area. We encountered warm, friendly people everywhere we went and thoroughly enjoyed a visit to the great state of Texas! If the waterpark is not of interest, I would suggest fall or spring to avoid the heat. Sweltering doesn't even quite describe it.

 

[Planogirl]

I agree with virtually everything here. (except i'm not familiar with a Susan B. Anthony hotel - is it the St. Anthony?)

I love the Menger Hotel & the La Mansion.

If you look in the Disneyland Board, there's a "Western United States" section where recently ALOT of info on SA & New Braunfels was discussed. Fleshes out some of what is suggested above. Have fun.

hound

OMG, would you believe that I meant the Emily Morgan? Talk about two totally different women. I plead sleepiness with a bit of wackiness thrown in.

 

[Chris2597]

I have lived in SA for over 30 yrs. The city and sourrounding areas have a full variety of things to do. The above posters gave you some very good advise. We have stayed at the Schlitterbahn resort and it is a blast. The kids loved it. The park is amazing, if you like waterparks.
My suggestions are:
Riverwalk hotel for part of your a stay
explore the riverwalk, hemisphere, La Villita, Institute of Texan cultures, Alamo, Market Square all in the downtown area.
SeaWorld
Fiesta Texas
Schlitterbahn (spend a couple of days at the resort)
Gruenne Texas (Grist Mill is excellent for lunch or dinner)
Wine tasting and shopping in Gruenne
Tubing
San Marcos Outlet Mall


Good Eats:

Downtown:
Mi Tierra (Market Square)
Tower restaurant ( a bit pricey)
Pioneer Flour Mill (great breakfast, pretty good lunch, interesting place)
Planet Hollywood
Hard Rock Cafe

Around town:
Bill Miller Barbecue (decent food, very reasonable)
Taco Cabana (fast, decent food, cheap eats)
Alamo Cafe
Papasito's
Zio's Italian
Chuy's Mexican restaurant
Jim's coffee shop (good breakfast)
Magnolia Pancake House (breakfast and lunch)


If you have any questions, PM me.

 

[splashmtnfan]

Also, may not be your cup of tea, but Schulenberg is not very far away and the "Painted Churches" tour is very nice. I would also say look at things in Austin which is very pretty.

 

[Hound 109]

OMG, would you believe that I meant the Emily Morgan? Talk about two totally different women. I plead sleepiness with a bit of wackiness thrown in.

& for those who don't know....Emily Morgan was (i believe) a beautiful mullato woman from the Texas revolution. AKA the "Yellow Rose of Texas", she alledgedly kept Santa Anna (ahem) "occupied" in his tent the afternoon that the Texians attacked (victoriously) during San Jacinto.

She is much revered here in Texas (& has a hotel named after her).

The link where lots of New Braunfels & San Antonio info was discussed & offered (restaurants etc.) is here:

www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1491308

& since I mentioned the St. Anthony......a very nice hotel, a block off the Riverwalk, has a wonderful lunch buffet. (so does the Gunther Hotel & the Menger btw.)

hound -

 

[kctwinmommy]

It sounds like you've got a ton of great info here, I just wanted to add that I loved going into town there when I was stationed at Lackland, in 1995. It was a great city, lots to see and do. I really want to go back again and enjoy it without the time restrictions I had then.

The other thing, since you said your DH is military, it's a very military friendly city. There are several based right around it, so they're used to the military being there. They have a large USO facility in the city too, so they might have discounted tickets and things for you there. It's worth a check!