Reply With QuoteGet out to the Hill Country, Austin and San Antonio for the weekend.
River Walk and the Alamo are fine to while away a few hours.
Or bar hop down 6th Street in Austin
Looks like I'll be working for a couple of weeks near Dallas Fort Worth airport and I'm staying in an airport hotel for the first week (and won't be doing much apart from working).
I'm obviously not coming home for the weekend and reckon I'll be bored of airport hotels for the weekend and second week. I am planning to move into central Dallas for the weekend and second week but know nothing much about the place apart from JFK, oil barons (who live in Southfork Ranch) and the Cowboys (NFL).
Anyone know anything about the place? Are there good/bad areas to stay? Alternatively, what's Fort Worth like? Seems to be about the same distance to 'work'. So I could stay there instead? And apart from going to the Book Repository 6th Floor Museum, any recommendations for things to do at the weekend or evenings?
Get out to the Hill Country, Austin and San Antonio for the weekend.
River Walk and the Alamo are fine to while away a few hours.
Or bar hop down 6th Street in Austin
Home of Gas Monkey if your a fan of cars or the show?
Cheers..
Jase
If you're a film buff the Water Garden as seen in Logan's Run should be crossed off your list.
The Stockyards are worth a visit ("where the Wild West begins").
picked this up but if you make Austin ( great music scene) or San Antonio the Alamo, river walk just a nice town but if you must see the ranch then
https://www.southforkranch.com/visit-southfork-ranch
Dealey Plaza still attracts many visitors, as well as the nearby School Book Depository from where the shots were fired. That building houses the Sixth Floor Museum which is very interesting.
Other places you may find interesting on your visit are the Dallas Arboretum, the Dallas World Aquarium, which is the world's largest freshwater aquarium, the Museum of Art, the Nasher Sculpture Museum, Reunion Tower, which is now being renovated, and Southfork Ranch where they filmed the TV show. If you want to get a feel for Texas and the West go to Ft Worth to visit the FW Stockyards, Log Cabin Village and Billy Bob's.
Some nice hotels in downtown Dallas are The Adolphus, Hyatt Regency Dallas, The Fairmont and The Westin City Center. Other very nice hotels in the Metroplex area are Great Wolf Lodge and Gaylord Texan both in the suburb of Grapevine.
The best restaurant per type of food are:
Mi Cocina - Mexican food
Sonny Bryan's Smokehouse - Barbeque
Snuffer's Restaurant & Bar - Burgers
Celebration - Chicken Fried Steak (which is steak not chicken)
Arcodoro & Pomodoro - Italian food
Last edited by mart broad; 21st August 2019 at 17:53.
I FEEL LIKE I'M DIAGONALLY PARKED IN A PARALLEL UNIVERSE
I worked for a company based in Dallas and would spend 3 weeks every six months out there, I hated the place. Dallas was Just America, no real anything, the other staff would always tell me about this or that great restaurant which was always just another tex-mex you need a car to get anywhere.
I spent a little time in Fort Worth and was much nicer, it just had a chilled, hippy, coffee theme to it that was much nicer.
I stayed in a hotel on the outskirts that didn’t help, but I just didn’t like it sorry.
I recall (someone told me obviously) there was a girl called Debbie..
no idea if she still lives there.
I think Snap-on-Tools have their HO in Dallas.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
When are you going? This time of year the heat and humidity are suffocating! Most days are 37-40C and 80-90% humidity.
Blistering hot, great steaks, lots of yee-haw.
The uniform of choice for males seems to be polo shirts tucked into chino shorts with a belt on. FFS!
Get a photo sitting at the Southfork pool breakfast table, and the Book Depository's worth a visit as mentioned. Otherwise not much to recommend, a pretty dull place!
I spent a year there one week.
Can’t help the OP but I just landed in Houston and am here for work every Thursday for the next 4 in a row so will be exploring.Originally Posted by noTAGlove
San Antonio and Austin are on the list for our last weekend here so thanks for the Heads Up and sorry for the thread hijack!
Austin looks cool and is apparently a bit of an inland Mecca for stand up paddle boarding. Might be worth bearing in mind OP.
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I'd love to see the Alamo (and spend the weekend in either San Antonio or Austin) but it looks like a 4+ hour drive each way which is probably a bit far.
sorry - never heard of him/it/them.
I am a bit of a film buff but I've never seen Logan's Run if those two statements aren't contradictory. If I'm honest, I've always (completely unfairly, I'm sure) tied it up with Blake's Seven in my head!
Surely this is worth the drive for a weekend
https://spacecenter.org
Heading to the US next year and flying into Fort Worth just to head down to Houston and see the space centre (not to mention everything else Texas has to offer)
Thanks both - some useful info here. To be honest I did kind of fear Dallas might be 'Just America'.
I'm beginning to think that a weekend not in Dallas (but not as far as San Antonio) then a week of evenings in Dallas might be the plan. Maybe Fort Worth for the weekend?
Hotel recommendations are fine but I don't get much choice in the matter as I need to pick the from the company travel planning tool (ordered price low to high). I did notice the Gaylord Texas when I was looking at running routes from the hotel I'm staying at for the first week. Basically because I'm still a teenager at heart, I can't turn down the opportunity to log a run on the Gaylord Trail on Strava.
I'm going in about three weeks (unless it gets postponed again).
And I'm planning to go running while I'm there - not far or fast but heat is my kryptonite.
Doesnt appeal to me!
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5...a9df03b63e/amp
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I'd love it and would stay on the coast at Galveston but I've already ruled Houston out as too far to drive - a 9 hour round trip in a hire car listening to rock radio doesn't fill me with joy.
Out of interest, why are you flying into DFW rather than Houston?
Only available options on the sale tickets we picked up. We’re keen to see Dallas, Houston and Austin while we’re there. Happy to have a drive around and see a few of the sites, we’ve got plenty of time and being Australian a few hours in the car is just a short trip down the road for us...
Rent a car, put on some a couple of good podcasts (or a Coldplay CD, just saw your username) and you’ll be there in no time. The space centre is definitely a one off opportunity and something I’d regret not seeing if I’d come so close.
We’re also heading to New York (flying that leg) as well as I have unfinished business at the Intrepid and also hitting up the Smithsonian in DC. All in all should manage to bore the kids rigid. Really think I need to buy a speedy purely in honour of the trip (not that anyone here would talk me out such an idea).
But that’s enough about me, sure you’ll find something to entertain you whatever you decide.
Watching this thread with interest and taking notes.
Last edited by Dean Learner; 22nd August 2019 at 12:15. Reason: It was all yellow.
I'm about 20 years out of date but:
Austin
Sample some of the BBQ at Franklin BBQ - but be prepared to get there early and queue.
6th St is a must just bar hop and listen to the different live bands.
Watch a sunset at the Oasis on lake Travis.
Go 'Clothing optional' at hippie hollow.
Go 'tubing' with a beer cooler at New Braunfelds - better with friends but floating down a river in a rubber tube with a cooler full of alcohol is very relaxing.
I wouldn’t rule out a short domestic flight if you are keen to widen the net OP. I’m bouncing up and down to Seattle for $6 a time with a few avios (we have good friends there) as taxes are next to nothing here in the US.
DFW is a big hub so you could comfortably do some weekend explorations. Then Houston and NASA etc becomes much easier.
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It’s not like driving from London to Liverpool on the M6 on a Friday night.
Big, wide, straight and fairly empty roads, plus all the hire cars I’ve ever had have been like a bed on wheels.
Keep a sense of adventure and go for it!
I spent almost 3 years travelling to and from the Clear Lake/Galveston area every couple of months, and maybe because it’s too familiar, but it’s not that much better than Dallas for a weekend.
As it happens I've started to think along those lines...
It looks like I won't get to Houston on Avios that weekend but I'm looking to see if there's anywhere interesting that I can get to.
Chicago in 2.5 hours.
I’ve not been to DFW except for the airport, but I have been to Houston, Galveston, San Antonio, Alamo. I wouldn’t bust a gut to get to any of them. The space centre was pretty good. I only did the canal walk and Alamo in SA because I was there, otherwise I wouldn’t bother.
If it were me, I’d explore around DFW at the weekend in a car, look for small town America, diners, that sort of thing. There looks to be quite a few lakes or reservoirs in the area. They might be worth a gander.
As you say, make the best of DFW during the week. Even in grotty places, I’ve always found something to discover, perhaps a bar, a restaurant, an odd museum, a western store with some mighty fine stitched boots and belt buckles.
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Some years back when I was making fairly regular business trips to the States which occasionally covered a weekend, this is exactly the approach I took. In particular I can recall a very pleasant couple of days just cycling along the San Diego coastline and around Coronado Island on a hired bike.
In a similar vein I've discovered many interesting local markets, car boots or similar low key activities in several European cities by taking a random ordinary Sunday morning stroll.
I worked at TI for 6 months many years ago. I do regret not travelling around more while I was out there, but I would echo some of the comments about using DFW as a hub - a colleague thought he would pop in a car and drive to Houston one weekend. After 3 hours of driving through nothing much and no sign of the destination he turned round and headed back (but he wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer). There are some great places within 2 or 3 hours flight time.
Some of this info may be out of date, but...
I thought Fort Worth was nice for a visit, but more of a Western theme park (Stockyards) than somewhere to stay for any length of time.
White Rock lake is *the* place to go for a run in Dallas. There’s a track that’s about a 9 mile loop. IIRC you need to have your run finished before 8 am (or earlier) before the heat gets too much. There will be loads of other runners and cyclists there from early in the morning (they also used to hold regular races around the lake - I remember doing a half marathon there - 7am start was a first!)
Dallas people always bang on about their restaurants - more per head than New York, mainly because nobody cooks. There were some good places to eat, with lunch deals being best value. Tex-Mex is nothing like Mexican food you’d get in, say, California - think refried beans in different colours (maybe I had a bad experience in Texas and a good one in California - my favourite place in Dallas was actually a Thai restaurant).
Obviously you need a car to go pretty much anywhere. Texans are super polite (less so on the freeway) , possibly because you never know who has a gun. The ubiquitous “Don’t mess with Texas” stickers provide a warm welcome!
Also worth checking out the music scene. Probably a decade too late now, but when I was there the old blues and soul legends were still touring (many toured the USA but didn’t leave the country). I saw Wilson Pickett and later the Commodores (without Lionel Ritchie) at free concerts, and regret missing BB King when he passed through town.
Lots of top sports teams (I became and still am a Mavericks fan having never had any previous interest in Basketball) but the tickets were expensive.
Enjoy!
Last edited by PhilT; 28th August 2019 at 16:23.
Im sure you are aware it’s an anti-littering slogan, and not them trying to be bad-ass (to use the local vernacular)
Well, I'm here now. Last week I was staying quite close to work (Grapevine) and was basically just hotel/work/hotel/work...
I moved to Fort Worth for the weekend which was a good move. I stayed near Sundance Square and liked downtown FW - plenty of interesting stuff to wander round. Over Sat and Sunday, I went for a run along the Trinity River and then used city bikes to see the Stockyards, Water Garden, Botanic Garden and Kimbell Art Museum. All of which I'd recommend.
This week I've moved into downtown Dallas and would agree with the comment above that it's 'just America'. The hotel itself is fine but everything's so big and far apart round here. There's no real centre or not one that I've found anyway. I did go for a wander last night to Deeley Plaza with its Book Depository and Grassy Knoll. Assuming there's no major crisis with work I should have some time free on Friday before heading to the airport and will go to the 6th Floor Book Depository museum which I've heard good things about but other than that, that's Dallas for me.
This is by far the best thing about Dallas!
http://pecanlodge.com/
Try and find the time to visit, it won't disappoint (book repository is worth a visit too)
If I can squeeze it in, that may be my Friday lunch before I head for the airport.
I did at least make it to Pecan Lodge but there was a 'miss your flight' queue to get in...
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