Moving to San Antonio Forums

San Antonio Info · Joined: 05 Jan 2007 Posts: 17 Home Country: usa

SAN ANTONIO TOURISM GUIDE

San Antonio's dogged preservation of its past and avid development of its future guarantee that there's something in town to suit every visitor's taste. The biggest problem with sightseeing here is figuring out how to get it all in; you can spend days in the downtown area alone and still not cover everything. Walkers will love being able to hoof it from one downtown attraction to another, but the sedentary needn't despair -- or drive. One of the most visitor-friendly cities imaginable, San Antonio has excellent and inexpensive tourist transportation lines, extending to such far-flung sights as SeaWorld San Antonio and Six Flags Fiesta Texas and including a "Sightseer Special" line, with stops at the Alamo, the San Antonio Museum of Art, the Witte Museum, and the San Antonio Botanical Gardens, among other attractions.

Before you visit any of the paid attractions, stop in at the San Antonio Visitor Information Center, 317 Alamo Plaza (tel. 210/207-6748), across the street from the Alamo, and ask for their SAVE San Antonio discount book, including everything from the large theme parks to some city tours and museums. Many hotels also have a stash of discount coupons for their guests.

Alamo Trolley Tour

This is a good way to sightsee without a car. The trolley tour touches on all the downtown highlights, plus two of the missions in the south. If you want to get off at any of these sights, you can pick up another trolley (they run every 45 min.) after you're finished. At the least, you get oriented and learn some of the city's history.

ArtPace

San Antonio's cutting-edge contemporary art gallery features rotating shows displaying the work of artists selected by a guest curator for 2-month residencies at the facility. One artist must be from Texas, one from anywhere else in the United States, and one from anywhere else in the world. The result has been a fascinating mélange, including everything from twists on the traditional -- such as a monumental drawing of a winter landscape populated by men in black tracksuits, a lenticular print (an image that shows depth and motion when the viewing angle changes) in which the Alamo vanishes before one's eyes -- to the more cutting edge: an installation of 5,500 pounds of airplane parts or rooftop speakers that sing until the sun sets. Lecture series by the artists as well as public forums to discuss the work have also helped make this a very stimulating art space.

Blue Star Arts Complex

This huge former warehouse in Southtown hosts a collection of working studios and galleries, along with a performance space for the Jump-Start theater company. The 11,000-square-foot artist-run Contemporary Art Center is its anchor. The style of work varies from gallery to gallery -- you'll see everything from primitive-style folk art to feminist photography -- but the level of professionalism is generally high. One of the most interesting spaces is SAY Si, featuring exhibitions by talented neighbourhood high-school students that might include collages or book art. A number of galleries are devoted to (or have sections purveying) arty gift items such as jewelry, picture frames, and crafts.

Brackenridge Park

With its rustic stone bridges and winding walkways, the city's main park, opened in 1899, has a charming, old-fashioned feel, and serves as a popular centre for such recreational activities as golf, polo, biking, and picnicking. The Japanese Tea Garden (also known as the Japanese Sunken Garden), created in 1917 by prison labour to beautify an abandoned cement quarry is one of the largest in the world in the 1880s and 1890s. (The same quarry furnished cement rock for the state capitol in Austin.) You can still see a brick smokestack and a number of the old lime kilns among the beautiful flower arrangements, lusher than those in most Japanese gardens. After Pearl Harbor, the site was officially renamed the Chinese Sunken Garden, and a Chinese-style entryway was added on. Not until 1983 was the original name restored. Just to the southwest, a bowl of limestone cliffs found to have natural acoustic properties was turned into the Sunken Garden Theater. A 60-foot-high waterfall and water lily-laced ponds are among its lures. Across from the entrance to the San Antonio Zoological Gardens, you can buy tickets for the Brackenridge Eagle (tel. 210/734-7183), a miniature train that replicates an 1863 model. The pleasant 2-mile ride through the park takes about 20 minutes (tickets $2.50 for adults, $2 for children 3-11; opens 9:30am daily, weather permitting, closes generally when zoo gate closes).

Buckhorn Saloon & Museum

If you like your educational experiences accompanied by a tall cold brew, this is the place for you. With its huge stuffed animals, mounted fish, and wax museum version of history, this collection fulfills every out-of-stater's stereotype of what a Texas museum might be like. It's not nearly as funky as it was when it was in the old Lone Star brewery -- all those dead animals seem out of place in this modern space -- but it's still got exhibits like the church made out of 50,000 matchsticks and pictures designed from rattlesnake rattles. The facility includes a re-creation of the turn-of-the-century Buckhorn saloon, a curio shop, and a transported historic bar. Lots of people seem to like this place, but others think it's a bit pricey for what you get.

Casa Navarro State Historic Site

A key player in Texas's transition from Spanish territory to American state, José Antonio Navarro was the Mexican mayor of San Antonio in 1821, a signer of the 1836 declaration of Texas independence, and the only native Texan to take part in the convention that ratified the annexation of Texas to the United States in 1845. His former living quarters, built around 1850, are an interesting amalgam of the architectural fashions of his time: The restored office, house, and separate kitchen, constructed of adobe and limestone, blend elements from Mexican, French, German, and pioneer styles. Guided tours and demonstrations are available; call ahead to inquire.

Fort Sam Houston

Since 1718, when the armed Presidio de Béxar was established to defend the Spanish missions, the military has played a key role in San Antonio's development, and it remains one of the largest employers in town today. The 3,434-acre Fort Sam Houston affords visitors an unusual opportunity to view the city's military past (the first military flight in history took off from the fort's spacious parade grounds) in the context of its military present -- the fort currently hosts the Army Medical Command and the headquarters of the Fifth Army. Most of its historic buildings are still in use and thus off-limits, but three are open to the public. The Fort Sam Houston Museum, 1210 Stanley Rd., Bldg. 123 (tel. 210/221-1886; www.cs.amedd.army.mil/rlbc; free admission; open Wed-Sun 10am-4pm), details the history of the armed forces in Texas with a special focus on San Antonio. The U.S. Army Medical Department Museum, 2310 Stanley Rd., Bldg. 1046 (tel. 210/221-6277 or 221-6358; www.ameddgiftshop.com/museum.htm; free admission; open Tues-Sat 10am-4pm), displays army medical equipment and American prisoner-of-war memorabilia. The oldest building on the base, the Quadrangle, 1400 E. Grayson St. (no tel.; free admission; open Mon-Fri 8am-5pm, Sat-Sun noon-5pm), an impressive 1876 limestone structure, is centred on a brick clock tower and encloses a grassy square where peacocks and deer roam freely. The Apache chief Geronimo was held captive here for 40 days in 1886. Free self-guided tour maps of the historic sites are available in all three buildings. Anyone wishing to visit the fort must enter through the Walters Gate (take the Walters St. exit off I-35) and present a driver's license.

HemisFair Park

Built for the 1968 HemisFair, an exposition celebrating the 250th anniversary of the founding of San Antonio, this urban oasis boasts water gardens and a wood-and-sand playground constructed by children (near the Alamo St. entrance). Among its indoor diversions are the Institute of Texan Cultures and the Tower of the Americas. Be sure to walk over to the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center and take a look at the striking mosaic mural by Mexican artist Juan O'Gorman. The Schultze House Cottage Garden, 514 HemisFair Park (tel. 210/229-9161), created and maintained by Master Gardeners of Bexar County, is also worth checking out for its heirloom plants, varietals, tropicals, and xeriscape area. Look for it behind the Federal Building.

Institute of Texan Cultures

It's the rare visitor who won't discover here that his or her ethnic group has contributed to the history of Texas: 26 different ethnic and cultural groups are represented in the imaginative, hands-on displays of this educational centre, which is one of three campuses of the University of Texas at San Antonio. Outbuildings include a one-room schoolhouse, an adobe home, a windmill, and the multimedia Dome Theater, which presents images of Texas on 36 screens. There are always a variety of heritage festivals and kid-friendly shows and events such as pioneer life reenactments, holography exhibits, ghost-tale storytellers at Halloween, and the like; phone or check the institute's website for a current schedule. An excellent photo archive here, open to the public by appointment, holds more than 3 million images. Call tel. 210/458-2298 for information on using it.

King William Historic District

San Antonio's first suburb, King William was settled in the late 19th century by prosperous German merchants who displayed their wealth through extravagant homes and named the 25-block area after Kaiser Wilhelm of Prussia. (The other residents of San Antonio were rather less complimentary about this German area, which they dubbed "Sauerkraut Bend.")

The neighbourhood fell into disrepair for a few decades, but you'd never know it from the pristine condition of most of the houses here today. The area has gotten so popular that tour buses have been restricted after certain hours. Anyway, it's much more pleasant to stroll up and down tree-shaded King William Street, gawking at the beautifully landscaped, magnificent mansions. Stop at the headquarters of the San Antonio Conservation Society, 107 King William St. (tel. 210/224-6163; www.saconservation.org), and pick up a self-guided walking tour booklet outside the gate. If you go at a leisurely pace, the stroll should take about an hour. Only the Steves Homestead Museum and the Guenther House are open to the public; figure 2 more hours if you plan to visit both.

La Villita National Historic District

Developed by European settlers along the higher east bank of the San Antonio River in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, La Villita (the Little Village) was on the proverbial wrong side of the tracks until natural flooding of the west-bank settlements made it the fashionable place to live. It fell back into poverty by the beginning of the 20th century, only to be revitalised in the late 1930s by artists and craftspeople and the San Antonio Conservation Society. Now boutiques, crafts shops, and restaurants occupy this historic district, which resembles a Spanish/Mexican village, replete with shaded patios, plazas, brick-and-tile streets, and some of the settlement's original adobe structures. You can see (but not enter, unless you rent it for an event) the house of General Cós, the Mexican military leader who surrendered to the Texas revolutionary army in 1835, or attend a performance at the Arneson River Theatre. Walking tour maps of these and other historical structures are available throughout the site. It'll take you only about 20 minutes to do a quick walk-through, unless you're an inveterate shopper -- in which case, all bets are off.

Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum

This museum has got a knockout setting on a hill north of Brackenridge Park with a forever view of the city, and it's in a sprawling Spanish Mediterranean-style mansion (built 1929) so picturesque that it's constantly used as a backdrop for weddings and photo shoots. The McNay doesn't have a world-class art collection, but it has a good one, with at least one work by most American and European masters of the past 2 centuries. And the Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts, including costumes, set designs, and rare books, is outstanding. The McNay also hosts major traveling shows. It'll take you at least an hour to go through this place at a leisurely pace, longer if it's cool enough for you to stroll the beautiful 23-acre grounds dotted with sculpture and stunning landscaping. It's also well worth taking the time to view the 15-minute orientation film about oil heiress and artist Marion Koogler McNay, who established the museum. And, of course, there's a gift shop.

Market Square

It may not be quite as colourful as it was when live chickens squawked around overflowing, makeshift vegetable stands, but Market Square will still transport you south of the border. Stalls in the indoor El Mercado sell everything from onyx paperweights and manufactured serapes to high-quality crafts from the interior of Mexico. Across the street, the Farmer's Market, which formerly housed the produce market, has carts with more modern goods. If you can tear yourself away from the merchandise, take a look around at the buildings in the complex; some date back to the late 1800s.

Bring your appetite along with your wallet: In addition to two Mexican restaurants, almost every weekend sees the emergence of food stalls selling specialties such as gorditas (chubby corn cakes topped with a variety of goodies) or funnel cakes (fried dough sprinkled with powdered sugar). Most of the city's Hispanic festivals are held here, and mariachis usually stroll the square. The Museo Americano Smithsonian (MAS), scheduled to open on July 4, 2005, should provide a historic context to an area that can seem pretty touristy -- though no more so than any Mexican border town.

Museo Americano Smithsonian

Anyone who's visited Market Square in the past few years has seen the bland white structure at its entryway, the Centro des Artes, turn vivid shades of raspberry and lime. The building is slated to open on July 4, 2005, as a showcase of Hispanic arts and culture in Texas. It's appropriate that among the first exhibits of this Smithsonian affiliate is "Our Journeys/Our Stories: Portraits of Latino Achievements," a traveling show created by the Smithsonian. Using photographs and biographical profiles of 24 individuals (from Nobel Laureate Mario Molina to singer Celia Cruz) and one family, the exhibit traces Latino experiences, traditions and ideals in the U.S.

San Antonio Botanical Gardens

Take a horticultural tour of Texas at this gracious 38-acre garden, encompassing everything from south Texas scrub to Hill Country wildflowers. Fountains, pools, paved paths, and examples of Texas architecture provide visual contrast to the flora. The formal gardens include a garden for the blind, a Japanese garden, an herb garden, a biblical garden, and a children's garden. Perhaps most outstanding is the $6.9 million Lucile Halsell Conservatory complex, a series of greenhouses replicating a variety of tropical and desert environments. The 1896 Sullivan Carriage House, built by Alfred Giles and moved stone-by-stone from its original downtown site, serves as the entryway to the gardens. It houses a gift shop (tel. 210/829-1227) and a restaurant (tel. 210/821-6447) offering salads, quiches, sandwiches, and outrageously rich desserts, open Tues to Sun from 11am to 2pm.

San Antonio Central Library

San Antonio's main library, opened in the mid-1990s at a cost of $38 million, has a number of important holdings (including part of the Hertzberg Circus Collection, scattered when it lost its museum home in 2001) but it is most notable for its architecture. Ricardo Legorreta, renowned for his buildings throughout Mexico, created a wildly colourful and whimsical public space that people apparently love to enter -- by the second month after the library opened, circulation had gone up 95%. The boxy building, painted what has been called "enchilada red," is designed like a hacienda around an internal courtyard. A variety of skylights, windows, and wall colours (including bright purples and yellows) afford a different perspective from each of the six floors. A gallery offers monthly exhibits of paintings, photography, textiles, and more.

San Antonio Missions National Historic Park

Remember the Alamo? Well, it was originally just the first of five missions established by the Franciscans along the San Antonio River to Christianize the native population. The four other missions, which now fall under the aegis of the National Park Service, are still active parishes, run in cooperation with the Archdiocese of San Antonio. But the missions were more than churches: They were complex communities. The Park Service has assigned each of them an interpretive theme to educate visitors about the roles they played in early San Antonio society. You can visit them separately, but if you have the time, see them all; they were built uncharacteristically close together and -- now that you don't have to walk there or ride a horse -- it shouldn't take you more than 2 or 3 hours to see them. Currently, you have to follow the brown signs that direct you from the Alamo to the 5 1/2-mile mission trail that begins at Mission Concepción and winds its way south through the city streets to Mission Espada, but in the late 1990s ground was broken for the $17.7 million Mission Trails Project, designed to create a 12-mile hike-and-bike route along the San Antonio River and improve signage along the driving route. Parts of it -- especially the biking trails -- are already operational, but the entire project won't be completed until late 2006 and the signage is currently still rather confusing.

The first of the missions you'll come to as you head south, Concepción, 807 Mission Rd. at Felisa, was built in 1731. The oldest unrestored Texas mission, Concepción looks much as it did 200 years ago.

San José, 6701 San José Dr. at Mission Road, established in 1720, was the largest, best known, and most beautiful of the Texas missions. It was reconstructed to give visitors a complete picture of life in a mission community -- right down to the granary, mill, and Indian quarters. The beautiful Rose Window is a big attraction, and popular mariachi masses are held here every Sunday at noon (come early if you want a seat). This is also the site of the missions' excellent visitor centre. If you're going to visit only one of the missions, this is it.

Moved from an earlier site in east Texas to its present location in 1731, San Juan Capistrano, 9101 Graf at Ashley, doesn't have the grandeur of the missions to the north -- the larger church intended for it was never completed -- but the original simple chapel and the wilder setting give it a peaceful, spiritual aura. A short (.3-mile) interpretive trail, with a number of overlook platforms, winds through the woods to the banks of the old river channel.

The southernmost mission in the San Antonio chain, San Francisco de la Espada, 10040 Espada Rd., also has an ancient, isolated feel, although the beautifully maintained church shows just how vital it still is to the local community. Be sure to visit the Espada Aqueduct, part of the mission's original acequia (irrigation ditch) system, about 1 mile north of the mission. Dating from 1740, it's one of the oldest Spanish aqueducts in the United States.

San Antonio Museum of Art

Several castle-like buildings of the 1904 Lone Star Brewery were gutted, connected, and transformed into a visually exciting exhibition space in 1981, which also offers terrific views of downtown from the multiwindowed crosswalk between the structures. Although holdings range from early Egyptian, Greek, Oceanic and Asian to 19th- and 20th-century American, the prime reason to come is the $11 million Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Latin American Art, opened in 1998. This 30,000-square-foot wing hosts the most comprehensive collection of Latin American art in the United States, with pre-Columbian, folk, Spanish colonial, and contemporary works. You'll see everything here from magnificently ornate altarpieces to a whimsical Day of the Dead tableau. Computer stations add historical perspective to the collection, which is a nationwide resource for Latino culture. If any of this sounds appealing to you, allot at least 2 hours for your visit.

San Antonio Zoological Gardens and Aquarium

Home to more than 700 species, it has one of the largest animal collections in the United States. But, although the zoo has expanded and upgraded its exhibits many times since it opened in 1914, the cages are small, the landscaping looks droopy, and some of the animals seem depressed. Still, kids who haven't recently been to SeaWorld or the San Diego Zoo will get a kick out of many critters (the Lory Encounter is especially popular), and parents will appreciate the fact that they won't run into an expensive gift shop around every corner.

San Fernando Cathedral

Construction of a church on this site, overlooking what was once the town's central plaza, was begun in 1738 by San Antonio's original Canary Island settlers and completed in 1749. Part of the early structure -- the oldest cathedral sanctuary in the United States and the oldest parish church in Texas -- is incorporated into the magnificent Gothic revival-style cathedral built in 1868. Jim Bowie got married here, and General Santa Anna raised the flag of "no quarter" from the roof during the siege of the Alamo in 1836. The cathedral underwent major interior and exterior renovations in 2002; its most impressive new addition, a 24-foot-high gilded retablo (gradine), was unveiled in 2003.

SeaWorld San Antonio

Leave it to Texas to provide Shamu, the performing killer whale, with his most spacious digs: At 250 acres, this SeaWorld is the largest of the Anheuser-Busch-owned parks, which also makes it the largest marine theme park in the world. If you're a theme park fan, you're likely to find the walk-through habitats where you can watch penguins, sea lions, sharks, tropical fish and flamingos do their thing fascinating, but the aquatic acrobatics at such stadium shows as Shamu Adventure, combining live action and video close-ups, and Viva, where divers and synchronized swimmers frolic with whales and dolphins, might be even more fun.

You needn't get frustrated just looking at all that water because there are loads of places here to get wet. The Lost Lagoon has a huge wave pool and water slides aplenty, and the Texas Splashdown flume ride and the Rio Loco river-rapids ride also offer splashy fun. Younger children can cavort in Shamu's Happy Harbor and the "L'il Gators" section of the Lost Lagoon or take a ride on the Shamu Express kiddie coaster.

Nonaquatic activities abound, too. You can ride the Steel Eel, a huge "hypercoaster" that starts out with a 150-foot dive at 65 mph, followed by several bouts of weightlessness, or Great White, the Southwest's first inverted coaster -- which means riders will go head-over-heels during 2,500 feet of loops (don't eat before either of them). It's well worth sticking around for the shows offered in the evening during the peak summer season or the Halloween activities held on October weekends -- if you're not too tuckered from the rides.

Six Flags Fiesta Texas

Every year brings another thrill ride to this theme park, set on 200 acres in an abandoned limestone quarry and surrounded by 100-foot cliffs. In 2004, Tornado, an extremely wet and wild tunnel and funnel tubing experience, joined the Superman Krypton Coaster, nearly a mile of twisted steel with six inversions; the Rattler, one of the world's highest and fastest wooden roller coasters; the 60-mph-plus Poltergeist roller coaster; and Scream!, a 20-story space shot and turbo drop, to name just a few. Laser games and virtual reality simulators complete the technophile picture. Feeling more primal? Wet 'n' wild attractions include the Lone Star Lagoon, the state's largest wave pool; the Texas Treehouse, a five-story drenchfest whose surprises include a 1,000-gallon cowboy hat that tips over periodically to soak the unsuspecting; and Bugs' White Water Rapids.

If you want to avoid both sogginess and adrenaline overload, there is a vast variety of food booths, shops, crafts demonstrations, and live shows -- everything from 1950s musical revues to the laser-fireworks shows (held each summer evening). This theme park still has some local character, dating back to the days when it was plain old Fiesta Texas: Themed areas include a Hispanic village, a western town, and a German town. But when it came under the aegis of Six Flags -- a Time Warner company -- Looney Tunes cartoon characters such as Tweety Bird became ubiquitous, especially in the endless souvenir shops.

Southwest School of Art and Craft

A stroll along the River Walk to the northern corner of downtown will lead you into another world: a rare French-designed cloister where contemporary crafts are now being created. An exhibition gallery and artist studios-cum-classrooms (not open to visitors) occupy the garden-filled grounds of the first girl's school in San Antonio, established by the Ursuline order in the mid-19th century. Learn about both the school and the historic site at the Visitors Center Museum in the First Academy Building. The Ursuline Sales Gallery carries unique crafts items, most made by the school's artists. You can enjoy a nice, light lunch in the Copper Kitchen Restaurant (weekdays 11:30am-2pm, closed national holidays). The adjacent Navarro Campus, built in the late 1990s, is not as architecturally interesting, but it's worth stopping there for its large contemporary art gallery -- and for the Art*O*Mat [sic], a converted vending machine selling local artists' work for $5 a pop!

Spanish Governor's Palace

Never actually a palace, this 1749 adobe structure formerly served as the residence and headquarters for the captain of the Spanish presidio. It became the seat of Texas government in 1772, when San Antonio was made capital of the Spanish province of Texas and, by the time it was purchased by the city in 1928, it had served as a tailor's shop, barroom and schoolhouse. The building, with high ceilings crossed by protruding viga beams, is beautiful in its simplicity, and the 10 rooms crowded with period furnishings paint a vivid portrait of upper-class life in a rough-hewn society. It's interesting to see how the other half lived in an earlier era. Be sure to ask a staff member to explain the symbols carved in the grand wooden entryway to the complex.

Steves Homestead Museum

Built in 1876 for lumber magnate Edward Steves, this Victorian mansion was restored by the San Antonio Conservation Society, to whom it was willed by Steves's granddaughter. Believed to have been built by prominent San Antonio architect Alfred Giles, and one of the only houses in the King William Historic District open to the public, it gives a fascinating glimpse into the lifestyles of the rich and locally famous of the late 19th century. You can't enter without taking a 30- to 45-minute-long docent-led tour, which is fine, as you don't want to miss the great gossip about the Steves family that the Society's very knowledgeable volunteers pass along.

The Alamo

Visiting San Antonio without going to the Alamo is like visiting New York and not going to the Statue of Liberty. You can do it, but it would be wrong. Don't expect something dramatic, however. If you've never been to the Alamo before, you'll likely be surprised to discover that Texas's most visited site -- and the symbol of its turmoil-filled history -- not only is rather small, but also sits smack in the heart of downtown San Antonio. Still, you'll immediately recognise the graceful mission church, if only from having seen endless images of it from the moment you landed in any Texas airport. Here 188 Texas volunteers turned back a much larger army -- its numbers vary depending on the Texas chauvinism of the teller -- of Mexican dictator Santa Anna for 13 days in March 1836. Although all the men, including pioneers Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, were killed, their deaths were used by Sam Houston in the cry "Remember the Alamo!" to rally his troops and defeat the Mexican army at the Battle of San Jacinto a month later, securing Texas's independence.

The Daughters of the Republic of Texas, who saved the crumbling complex from being turned into a hotel by a New York syndicate in 1905, have long maintained it as a shrine to these fighters. More recently, however, additional emphasis has been placed on the Alamo's other historic roles, including as a Native American burial ground: The Alamo was actually founded on a nearby site in 1718 as the Mission San Antonio de Valero, and many converted Indians from a variety of tribes lived and died there. The complex was secularized by the end of the 18th century and leased out to a Spanish cavalry unit; however, by the time the famous battle took place, it had been abandoned. A Wall of History, erected in the late 1990s, provides a good chronology of these events.

Little remains of the original mission today: Only the Long Barrack (formerly the convento, or living quarters for the missionaries) and the mission church are still here. The former houses a museum detailing the history of Texas in general and the battle in particular, and the latter includes artifacts of the Alamo fighters, along with an information desk and a small gift shop. A larger museum and gift shop are at the back of the complex. There are also a peaceful garden and an excellent research library (closed Sun) on the grounds. All in all, though, the complex is fairly small. You won't need to spend more than an hour here. Interesting historical presentations are given every half-hour by Alamo staffers; for private, after-hour tours, phone tel. 210/225-1391, ext. 34.

The River Walk (Paseo del Rio)

Just a few steps below the streets of downtown San Antonio is another world, alternately soothing and exhilarating, depending on where you venture. The quieter areas of the 2 1/2 paved miles of winding riverbank, shaded by cypresses, oaks, and willows, exude a tropical, exotic aura. The River Square and South Bank sections, chockablock with sidewalk cafes, tony restaurants, bustling bars, high-rise hotels and even a huge shopping mall, have a festive, sometimes frenetic feel. Tour boats, water taxis, and floating picnic barges regularly ply the river, and local parades and festivals fill its banks with revelers.

Although plans to cement over the river after a disastrous flood in 1921 were stymied, it wasn't until the late 1930s that the federal Works Project Administration (WPA) carried out architect Robert Hugman's designs for the waterway, installing cobblestone walks, arched bridges, and entrance steps from various street-level locations. And it wasn't until the late 1960s, when the River Walk proved to be one of the most popular attractions of the HemisFair exposition, that its commercial development began in earnest.

There's a real danger of the River Walk becoming overdeveloped -- new restaurants, hotels, and entertainment complexes continue to open at an alarming pace, and the crush of bodies along the busiest sections can be claustrophobic in the summer heat -- but plenty of quieter spots still exist. And if you're caught up in the sparkling lights reflected on the water on a breeze-swept night, you might forget there was anyone else around.

All the streetcars stop somewhere along the river's route. The River Walk Streetcar Station at Commerce and Losoya is accessible to travelers with disabilities.

Tower of the Americas

For a quick take on the lay of the land, just circle the eight panoramic panels on the observation level of the Tower of the Americas. The 750-foot-high tower was built for the HemisFair in 1968. The deck sits at the equivalent of 59 stories and is lit for spectacular night viewing. The tower also hosts a rotating restaurant with surprisingly decent food (for the revolving genre) as well as a thankfully stationary cocktail lounge.

Witte Museum

A family museum that adults will enjoy as much as kids, the Witte focuses on Texas history, natural science, and anthropology, with occasional forays as far afield as the Berlin Wall. Your senses will be engaged along with your intellect: You might hear bird calls as you stroll through the Texas Wild exhibits, or feel rough-hewn stone carved with Native American pictographs beneath your feet. Children especially like exhibits devoted to mummies and dinosaurs, as well as the EcoLab, where live Texas critters range from tarantulas to tortoises. But the biggest draw for kids is the terrific HEB Science Treehouse, a four-level, 15,000-square-foot science centre that sits behind the museum on the banks of the San Antonio River; its hands-on activities are geared to all ages. Also on the grounds are a butterfly and hummingbird garden and three restored historic homes.

Note: The museum recently acquired the wonderful Herzberg Circus Collection, and parts of it are regularly incorporated into the museum's exhibits.

Yanaguana Cruises

Maybe you've sat in a River Walk cafe looking out at people riding back and forth in open, flat-bottom barges. Go ahead -- give in and join 'em. An amusing, informative tour, lasting from 35 to 40 minutes, will take you more than 2 miles down the most built-up sections of the Paseo del Río, with interesting sights pointed out along the way. You'll learn a lot about the river -- and find out what all those folks you watched were laughing about. The company also runs a non-narrated shuttle.


Regions South America North America Middle East Europe Eastern Europe Asia Pacific Africa Cities Our North America website will come soon - meanwhile, please enjoy our city forums ! Others Contact Us Advertise with Us Policy San Antonio News Send This Page