Yeehaw! Need suggestions for Texas: S. Padre area to Austin

I can only suggest things in Austin from a visit on a work trip. I stayed a couple nights before my event at the Firehouse hostel (they have private rooms). The website indicates it's been remodeled since I visited (may not meet your "no historic" criteria though). The speakeasy bar there is pretty fun even if you don't stay, the secret door is just off the reception area. I had a fun movie/dinner night at the Alamo Drafthouse theater. I enjoyed the LBJ presidential library and the tour of the state capitol, but I'm a state government/history geek. I had an excellent po boy at Turf and Surf Po Boy (4th and Lavaca) but cannot for the life of me remember the BBQ place I ate (I do remember it was good). This is a decent Austin event guide: https://do512.com/

Well, finally someone has asked about Austin and I am able to offer some opinions.

I live on Lady Bird lake and the greenbelt. I think that it is called the Walker greenbelt. You can walk from one end of the greenbelt to the other but it would take a few hours. I am talking about walking from I H 35 to Mopac or you can decide on shorter walks.

The original and first Whole Foods is in Austin. it is a very large one and worth checking out Check out the Bob Bullock State Museum which will give you the History of Texas. And do not forget the University of Texas.

There are so many very good barbecue restaurants that I would hesitate to recommend one. Everyone has a favorite but I live close to the Iron Works Barbecue. Coopers on Congress, downtown, is also very good and popular. Both places have lots of personality and are what R S and others would call authentic..

The Broken Spoke is a good place to honky tonk. I do not know if they have early shows. You might be able to get some good country fried steak or chicken there.

Check out Central Market either north or south for early shows.

The Austin Chronicle is our weekly entertainment paper and you will get some music ideas just from the ads. You can look at the Austin Chronicle on line.

I am going to send you to booking.com for hotels I would be glad to advise you when you have something in mind.

In case you do not want to walk around the greenbelt, you can rent a boat or a canoe and ride the lake which is actually a river. There is also a large oldie boat that offers tours from the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

UPDATE. I went to booking.com and just looked really fast. I found Kasa Lady Bird Lake Austin and I also found a Kasa downtown. They look good to me at really good prices but there were many more very good looking places.

San Antonio get a room on the river of course.

Other things to see ..... google and look at
Fredericksburg (maybe a good stop for the night on the way to Austin).

An extra day in Austin or San Antonio? Under 40 Austin. Over 40 San Antonio.

Not a dang thing to see between Port Isabel and SATX. Sorry. Ehhhh, you will want to stop in Corpus to break up the drive. It has the USS Lexington aircraft carrier you can tour and the Texas State Aquarium (excellent architectural firm on that one). Bay front is sort of pretty.

By the way, I have lived in San Antonio, Harlingen and Corpus.

Agree with previous poster. Fredericksburg is charming. Highly recommend the National Museum of the Pacific War. Lots of wineries in the area, too. Stopped in Luckenbach for a beer and to listen to music in the old post office building. And we've stopped several times for BBQ at The Salt Lick in Driftwood on the way to Austin.

Definitely stay downtown in San Antonio. Very walkable. We really like The Crockett Hotel near The Alamo but it is a historic property.

You'll have a great time. So much to see, do and eat.

take a look at thedaytripper.com. Chet covers Texas from small towns to big cities, recommends places to see and where to eat.

Fredericksburg (maybe a good stop for the night on the way to Austin).

Glad Mr E beat me to it. Stayed there a night after a day of wandering the wineries in the area.

I love that you included the Bremond Block; but it is a short, if very nice block. It's like a teeny tiny King William. There are a lot of places to eat and/or drink close by.

In addition to the Blanton on the UT campus, check out the Harry Ransom Center. It's free, although they gladly accept donations. You can see a Gutenberg Bible, the very first photograph, and whatever else they feel like sharing at the moment. Many of the buildings on the UT campus have museum-quality displays on the ground floor.

https://www.hrc.utexas.edu/visit/

You might enjoy a visit to an H-E-B, the iconic Texas grocery store chain. The one at Exposition and Lake Austin Blvd. is a trip.

https://www.heb.com/heb-store/US/tx/austin/lake-austin-h-e-b-768

Port isabel I can recommend visiting the place the turtles are rehabitated; we also visited a bird sanctuary that had some moderate walking and photo ops of birds available, and also a small family friendly museum that was also interesting for adults.

At San Antonio there is a driving self guided tour of the other historic mission churches outside of town, like a 100 mile circuit, 10 out of 10 recommend if you like history and REALLY old architecture
Some of then have excellent signage that tells you a lot, one or 2 are just piles of rubble, 2 are still used by congregations, and of course, one is the Alamo.

@Estimated Prophet - My mother-in-law always said, "H-E-Bees." Is that what people call it?

Janet - We say "The HEB".

No wrong way to say it!

Sorry for the late response here; have been up to my ears Christmas cookies - today's batch was a catastrophic failure - a husband who tested + for COVID yesterday, and rescheduling all the stuff we had to cancel. I so appreciate all of your suggestions!

Mr. E, thanks much for confirming what I'd suspected about the area between PI and SA. We've explored 2 aircraft carriers before so I think we'll give Corpus a skip. Thanks as well to all of you who suggested a night in Fredericksburg; looks good!!!

Will look for accommodations in both downtown Austin and SA. bostonphil7, I've been using booking.com for years but might mix it up with some direct bookings. It depends on if one can produce a better rate than another.

HEB: I worked on some the cereal packaging we produced for that store brand during my years with a major food company so we're sort of old friends. :O)

Another question? During a search for hotels in SA, I'm seeing a LOT of review comments about road construction everywhere - including downtown - producing confusion and nightmare traffic. It's starting to freak me out. Is it really that bad? Much as I'd like to be on the river, rates for those properties are running really high, and additional valet parking fees don't help. Considering a Marriott Courtyard on S. Santa Rosa with decent rates, less pricey parking, amenities we like and use, and is still an easy walk to the river. It's also rumored to be an easier in-and -out with car than Riverwalk hotels. Still looking...

This San Antonio native only heard HEB, but I can imagine some folks might have said HEB's.

There's so much to see, do and eat in San Antonio that you could spend a lot of time there. I have some favorites below. If you can't get to them all, you can always come back. Some are pretty touristy now, but I remember them when they weren't.

By the way, San Antonio was made a UNESCO City of Gastronomy in 2017: https://www.sacityofgastronomy.org/. It's the 2nd city in the US to receive that designation. Tucson was #1 and so far there are no others yet.

La Villita: https://www.lavillitasanantonio.com/History. San Antonio's first neighborhood.

Institute of Texan Cultures: https://texancultures.utsa.edu/about/. My first job after graduating from UT Austin was there. Its purpose is to show the "diversity, uniqueness and beauty of the many cultures" that have contributed to Texas's "character, through music and dance, food, stories and traditions, religion, artisan skills and ways of life."

Spanish Governor's Palace: https://www.spanishgovernorspalace.org/History-Culture. This building is probably the reason I fell in love with Southwestern architecture.

Schilo's: https://schilos.com/history. Since 1917, the oldest restaurant in San Antonio.

El Mercado, the Farmer's Market, Market Square: https://www.marketsquaresa.com/. Be sure to read the history.

Mi Tierra: https://www.mitierracafe.com/. I went to Mi Tierra late at night when it was a tiny hole in the wall in the early 1960's, especially for the workers at the farmer's market and the stockyards that were nearby. Here's a bit of its history: https://www.mitierracafe.com/our-story/history.

Bexar County Courthouse: https://www.bexar.org/3671/The-Bexar-County-Courthouse. The video shows the massive and fancy building. The foundation was laid in 1891 and the building was finished in 1896. Later additions in 1914 and 1926 used the same native Texas granite and red sandstone as the original. That's helped to keep the Courthouse from burning and destroying valuable historic documents -- like my grandmother's will, written in pencil on lined tablet paper in 1912. She died that year from TB at the age of 35.

There's a good little map here to help with orientation to that part of town: https://www.bexar.org/3185/Bexar-Heritage-Center.

On the left side of the main Courthouse page linked above there's a list of other possible places of interest in town. They include the missions under World Heritage Site. My personal favorite is Espada. This San Antonio Missions National Historic Park website tells more about it as well as the other missions: https://missionheritagepartners.org/meet-the-missions/. Years ago I rode my bike from where my mother lived all the way south to Espada and back on what was then a new bike trail between the missions. According to the Park website there are bike rentals at each of them.

I can't resist mentioning the Hot Wells of Bexar County: https://www.bexar.org/3057/Hot-Wells-of-Bexar-County. I grew up so close to the ruins that my house was on Hot Wells Blvd. I went to Hot Wells elementary (starting in the original 1912 building) and junior high, across the street from my house. A friend whose family lived very near them showed me the ruins in about 1957. It was very spooky with caved-in roofs and derelict bathtubs. The video shows what it used to be like, mostly through post cards, and what it's like now, all cleaned up and turned into an historical location. I saw no derelict bathtubs in the video.

Lo, what schools did you go to in town.

I had a long weekend one February a few years ago, so I don't really know either city.

Austin: I thought was overrated, but the LBJ library is good, and the Capitol is a short free tour, it's a very large but somewhat unattractive building, although the same architect designed the Michigan and Colorado capitols and this is the nicest looking one of the 3 (for what that's worth). I always visit capitols. Maybe unfair but my impression of Austin was that it was primarily a college student party town.

San Antonio: I thought was slightly underrated. The missions were a surprise discovery, but a warning that they are not in great condition. Alamo is as small as everyone says. Winter on the Riverwalk is iffy, we had a chilly drizzle and had it to ourselves. La Mexicana restaurant off the Riverwalk is one of those cheap diner TexMex places I seek out, it's across from the county courthouse. Walk some of the downtown retail streets, a lot of older buildings, nice scale.

The missions were a surprise discovery, but a warning that they are
not in great condition.

Tom, we've explored all sorts of ruins of extant churches and structuires in the Southwest (Chaco Canyon, Canyon de Chelly, Mesa Verde, Bandelier, San Miguel, San Jerónimo de Taos, San Francisco de Asís, etc.) so the condition of the missions isn't a big deal for me. I will skip any which are completely gone and have nothing but a marker but the five San Antonio missions covered under the National Park Service website are very much on my radar.

https://www.nps.gov/saan/index.htm

The one mission with the park service building has some things to see, mostly restoration work IIRC, but I think most of the rest aren't much. There's a bike trail connecting them that may be more satisfying to do than visiting the missions themselves. Not sure what your military experience is but SA is filled with bases, and dominate the town culturally.

Kathy, since no one else responded to your question about driving, I will say that downtown San Antonio is a crazy set of streets. It’s not wild traffic or anything and Google Maps does a fine job - at least this was the case when I drove downtown in the evening, March 2022, as a tourist. Lots of one ways, however not particularly hard.

And in looking for a hotel both then and once earlier this year (can’t remember which month) Google reviews make it sound like the whole town is full of car thieves. I ended up staying further out for other reasons both times, but all the major conventions stay downtown so I wouldn’t worry about that too much.

I think the historical mission trail made an entirely different impression on me than it did Tom, we were there on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in September. There was a taco truck in one parking lot, another church had a couple of girls posing w a professional photographer for what was probably quincinera photos, and one was hosting a carnival for a local congregation.

Signage was great at all stops and represents each place as unique in history

Kathy, staying on tge river is worth the cost. But if you can not, then get out of downtown. You want to be in an area bordered by IH 10, US281, IH Loop 410 and TX46. But not downtown if you are off the river.

Downtown driving to hotel is fine. After that UBER. Driving in the area I suggest is fine but use Google maps to avoid construction.

But not downtown if you are off the river.

Can you explain why, please? We'd be just a couple of blocks from it.

doric8, thanks for the more positive op on the missions. I'm not religious in the least but a big fan of old Southwest churches so I'm sure i'll enjoy them. We're also hikers/walkers so my rough plan is to take the 40 Viva Mission shuttle to the furthest mission (Espada), hoof it north on the hike/bike trail to San Juan and then further north to San Jose and the park's visitor center. From there we can decide to keep walking or grab the shuttle to the next mission. We're looking forward to a warmer ramble that we'd have in a MN winter (altho it was 53 yesterday. Go figure.)

Lo, thanks for that wealth of information!

Not having done it so a speculative recommendation, but I thought biking along the river to see the missions the way to go, if you have the time and the weather cooperates. It is a flat trail and the river has no perceptible valley. Best I can find is this map, see the bottom section for the missions area. I don't remember seeing any shuttles or signs for a shuttle. Are those running in the winter?

https://www.sariverauthority.org/sites/default/files/2019-06/sarip-full-map-2017-web2.pdf

The San Jose Mission is the one with the most to see and the visitors' center.

Hoping the César E Chávez Blvd hotel district just southwest of the Riverwalk meets MrE's approval.

We're looking forward to a warmer ramble that we'd have in a MN winter

So were we, it didn't really work out for us.

Biking the trail is what I hope to pick up in April, since the weather did not cooperate last time. You might want to drop down on the trail area in streetview and check out this area to judge whether walking miles through this landscape will hold you attention for very long.

I want to jump in and add some information about what is going on in Austin.

I live on Waller Creek and it is being rehabbed or "remodeled" or revitalized.

From what I have heard, there are plans to pull water from Lady Bird Lake up to Waterloo Park on 15th street and then. send it rushing back down to the lake creating a River Walk similar to San Antonio.

People will be able to hike and bike or walk along the trails. There are supposed to be exhibits and I do not know what else.

There is a lot of work being down and it is looking good. Supposedly the work will be completed sometime in 2025, supposedly.

And I am hearing something about trails between Austin and San Antonio. Why not. it is only 60 miles.

I am embarrassed to tell anyone that I have lived in Austin since 1972 and have never been to San Antonio. I only travel once a year and it is usually out of state or out of the country. I do not know my adopted state very well.

Hoping the César E Chávez Blvd hotel district just southwest of the
Riverwalk meets MrE's approval.

Let me know how that works out for you.

Kathy: I think it’s worth reading about the flood control aspect of the River Walk.

https://bridgetoanywhere.com/index.php/2022/03/18/san-antonio-river-walk/

Let me know how that works out for you.

????? Elaborate, please.

Mr. E, sorry to take so long to respond. Just got back to this thread tonight. I'll PM you.

I think a couple blocks off the Riverwalk is perfectly fine. That’s what I have done, not south like you are doing, but a couple of blocks northeast and a couple of blocks west. I don’t see the Riverwalk when I’m sleeping. I can walk there in 5 minutes and save a lot of money.

Thanks Eef!