Texas Itinerary

[YorkshireT]

I went to Texas, 16 years ago mind, San Antonio is very nice, not the best place I’ve been for the rest of it to be honest. Some of it is quite ugly and Houston is bonkers - the shops are off 16 lane highways and you sort of come off and go through underpasses to get to them. Imagine all the shops and restaurants running directly off the I5. Just a bit weird. Nice Zoo.
Remember going to Kemah Boardwalk.
Due to some bad weather coming in, we decided to divert to Louisiana at one point which I enjoyed more than Texas.

[munmun]

Not sure if it will fit into your itinerary but we stayed on route to Big Bend at Fort Davis. We choose this small one horse town because it is close to the Mc Donald observatory which sits on the top of a small mountain outside the town.

You can visit in the day and look at the facilities, telescopes etc but if you at the right time it has an amazing dark sky programme. They have something called Star Parties where they have an open amphitheatre where a lecturer with laser pointer talks about the sky, stars, constellations etc and they have mobile telescopes set up where you can view planets.

For us this was fascinating, Fort Davis also has a a historic fort area which was interesting. Accomodation is limited, a few small restaurants, once you get out to this area and Big Bend you wont find any chain restaurants etc but it was fascinating.

At Big Bend we stayed at Big Bend Casitas. They are small cabins but well furnished and comfortable with small kitchens, beautiful to sit on the porch and look at the night sky. There is an adventure tour company on site and with them we rafted the Rio Grande and went into Big Bend which was truly fascinating.

Hope this helps. We did a self organised tour in and out of Austin, was a great road trip.

[munmun]

Originally Posted by YorkshireT

I went to Texas, 16 years ago mind, San Antonio is very nice, not the best place I’ve been for the rest of it to be honest. Some of it is quite ugly and Houston is bonkers - the shops are off 16 lane highways and you sort of come off and go through underpasses to get to them. Imagine all the shops and restaurants running directly off the I5. Just a bit weird. Nice Zoo.
Remember going to Kemah Boardwalk.
Due to some bad weather coming in, we decided to divert to Louisiana at one point which I enjoyed more than Texas.

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Interesting, I thought Texas was fascinating but we drove the back roads, wine country, cowboy country and the less know National Parks. Didn't see one 16 lane highway or visit Houston or Dallas. One large American city is similar to many others with just a few differences so we avoided them, tried to find the less known Texas.

[smithlane]

Originally Posted by capecoralfl

We did a Texas road trip last September- flying into Houston (BA Club class - which was fab, and picking up a Grand Cherokee Avis rental car covering 1000 miles in our 3 week trip). We really enjoyed Austin, San Antonio and Houston (Austin was my favourite, hubby loved San Antonio) and we did the usual stuff (Riverwalk, the Alamo, Congress bridge, Barton creek, etc). We did a mixture of Airbnb and Hilton/Hyatt hotels. We also visited Galveston to get some beach/ coast time but would not rush back as it was just a long stretch of pretty boring open coastline and unattractive touristy buildings.
We also spent a few days in Sugarland and Katy in Houston (both cute towns).
Having been all over the US we were used to the size of the place but Texas is truly HUGE. Have a great time planning your trip.

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Sounds amazing! We would probably do the same as you with the mixture of AirBnB and hotels. With 2 teenagers we can’t be in the same room for longer than a few nights. It worked well for us last year in California.
Galveston really doesn’t sound that appealing, it surprises me they don’t make more of their coastline. I’ve not heard of Sugarland or Katy so will look into those as a possibility instead

[smithlane]

Originally Posted by YorkshireT

I went to Texas, 16 years ago mind, San Antonio is very nice, not the best place I’ve been for the rest of it to be honest. Some of it is quite ugly and Houston is bonkers - the shops are off 16 lane highways and you sort of come off and go through underpasses to get to them. Imagine all the shops and restaurants running directly off the I5. Just a bit weird. Nice Zoo.
Remember going to Kemah Boardwalk.
Due to some bad weather coming in, we decided to divert to Louisiana at one point which I enjoyed more than Texas.

See more...

I think you’re the first person I’ve come across that didn’t love Texas YT. We love the great outdoors so won’t spend too much time within big cities themselves. I had read that Houston was crazy busy so that’s why I didn’t choose to stay there. That does sound bonkers having shops off of 16 lane highways, makes LA sound tame!

[smithlane]

Originally Posted by munmun

Not sure if it will fit into your itinerary but we stayed on route to Big Bend at Fort Davis. We choose this small one horse town because it is close to the Mc Donald observatory which sits on the top of a small mountain outside the town.

You can visit in the day and look at the facilities, telescopes etc but if you at the right time it has an amazing dark sky programme. They have something called Star Parties where they have an open amphitheatre where a lecturer with laser pointer talks about the sky, stars, constellations etc and they have mobile telescopes set up where you can view planets.

For us this was fascinating, Fort Davis also has a a historic fort area which was interesting. Accomodation is limited, a few small restaurants, once you get out to this area and Big Bend you wont find any chain restaurants etc but it was fascinating.

At Big Bend we stayed at Big Bend Casitas. They are small cabins but well furnished and comfortable with small kitchens, beautiful to sit on the porch and look at the night sky. There is an adventure tour company on site and with them we rafted the Rio Grande and went into Big Bend which was truly fascinating.

Hope this helps. We did a self organised tour in and out of Austin, was a great road trip.

See more...

I remember reading about Fort Davis in CrispyA’s report, it does sound amazing! I’m not sure if we can make it work but potentially dropping a night from somewhere else and adding a night on there after San Angelo as it’s a long old drive otherwise.
Really looking forward to Big Bend, it seems to be one of the least visited NPs probably due to its location. Hoping it won’t be heaving with tourists like Yosemite was for us last year. Looking forward to the day we’re not tied to school holidays so we can go in low season 😂

[munmun]

Big Bend definitely wont be heaving with tourists there is so few places to stay, no high rises no chain hotels, no chain restaurants. Interesting local eating places, an underground pizza place an old theatre turned into a restaurant with live cowboy music. Great little local breakfast places.

Be prepared for the stops on the road for immigration, it's really close to the Mexican border so passport checks with armed guards around the car, boot checks etc. All adds to the interest. Lots of driving so you have to love road trips.

[KarenG]

Originally Posted by smithlane

Thank you Karen, I’ve heard great things about Austin!
It’s funny I was thinking of you today as I found your Hawai’i guide you kindly lent me, I’m so sorry I completely forgot I had it! I’ll PM you now as I’ll get it posted back to you ASAP. I’ve read it back to back about 10 times 😂. Have finally decided on Oahu and Maui with a day trip to Big Island but that holiday will have to wait for us to become kid free though in a couple of years!

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Do blue M&Ms make you think of me too 😂 😆

Great choice on the islands. I wouldn’t bother with a day trip to BI unless the volcano comes back to life personally, lots of cost and effort? I get it if you’re seeing the lava though. We missed that by a few months!

[Northtim]

We are (maybe) doing Texas this year. Flights 21 Aug so just depends if they happen or not.

We are flying Singapore Airways from Manchester-Houston return. Flights were £400pp inc luggage which seemed good value.

We only have two weeks so can't get out to Big Bend but itinerary is below (but may change a bit with Covid, most bookings are AirBnB or Hotels with late/low cancellation costs):

Arrive Houston then
2 days Galveston - Chilling
3 Days Dallas - Kennedy Museum/Stockyards/Baseball
1 Day Austin - Bats and Bars
3 Days Lake Travis - Chilling/Boating
1 Day on ranch Bandera
2 Days New Braunfels - Tubing/Waterpark
2 Days San Antonio - Riverwalk/Themepark
2 Days Corpus Christie
1 Night Houston - Nasa

[smithlane]

Originally Posted by munmun

Big Bend definitely wont be heaving with tourists there is so few places to stay, no high rises no chain hotels, no chain restaurants. Interesting local eating places, an underground pizza place an old theatre turned into a restaurant with live cowboy music. Great little local breakfast places.

Be prepared for the stops on the road for immigration, it's really close to the Mexican border so passport checks with armed guards around the car, boot checks etc. All adds to the interest. Lots of driving so you have to love road trips.

See more...

That’s great to hear as we’d be there at peak time. We usually prefer to holiday at the end of August, beginning Sept but with exam results we need to go earlier. I love the more independent restaurants and shops, far more real world America. I still love a Longhorns and Denny’s though 😂
Oh yes I forgot about the immigration I had read that on here, good to be reminded. Will need to make sure our passports are to hand.
Thankfully we both love driving out there!