I will be spending about 12 days in Texas in mid-late September this year
and intend to visit Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. I would like advice on
what are the must-see places in those cities and where are good places to
eat etc.

Thank you in advance

Daniel Shurz

Space Center Houston (NASA) is a good place to visit.  Galveston Island is
nice.  If you can get to Corpus Christi or South Padre Island, you would enjoy
that too.

In San Antonio go to the River Walk.

Keith Frank

: I will be spending about 12 days in Texas in mid-late September this year
: and intend to visit Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. I would like advice on
: what are the must-see places in those cities and where are good places to
: eat etc.

Texas has a Tourist bureau in Austin that is worth contacting.  I seem to
recall seeing the exact address in the FAQ for this newsgroup.  They will
send maps and brochures for those cities that will help you plan your
trip and be fun reading.

You didn't mention how you are travelling between cities but I recommend
you have a car once you get there, no matter if you drive or fly.  Those
three cities are roughly at the corners of a taller-than-wide triangle.
The base (SA-HOU) is 200 miles.  The height of the triangle is about 250
miles.

Houston:  Astrodome game.  Astroworld amusement park (if kids present).
          NASA Johnson Spacecraft Center well south of the city, not far
          from Galveston; good museum and visitor center.  Back in Houston,
          several really nice museums.  The Natural Science museum and
          planetarium in Hermann Park has one of those 100mm, 360-degree
          theatres (or whatever they are called).  There are boat rides
          on the ship channel starting from downtown (reservations needed)
          and, if that is not your tea, a restaurant overlooks the Turning
          Basin of the ship channel (Shanghai Red's) that is a very nice
          and an unusual dining experience.  While down in the vicinity of
          the ship channel, go to the San Jacinto Monument at the site of
          the defeat of the Mexican Army when Texas won independence from
          Mexico (a few months after the disaster at the Alamo) and became
          a nation.  That's right - a NATION.  The battleship Texas is
          moored nearby and open to public inspection.
San Antonio:  Too much to list.  This is the top tourist attraction in Texas.
          The Alamo and the Riverwalk downtown.  The Institute of Texana.
          The Whitte and McNay museums, Brackenridge Park, the Missions
          along the San Antonio River south of the city (Mission Trail).
          The Missions are all part of a National Historic Site, sort of
          a National Park without places to camp, run by the US Park Service.
          But there is a mass every Sunday at San Jose Mission that is great.
          For starters, the padre is a comedian.  And he does it in three
          languages; Latin, English, and Spanish.  It has a small
          congregation that is always outnumbered by the tourists.  Get there
          30 minutes early to get a seat in the small chapel.  The Hill
          Country west of the city is the REAL Texas.  Visit the LBJ Ranch,
          go to Fredricksburg and see the old German settlements (they still
          speak German in Fredricksburg) and the museum dedicated to Admiral
          Nimitz, a hometown boy.  Go to Austin, only 80 miles north of
          S.A.,  to see the Capitol, the main campus of the U. of Texas, the
          lakes to the west of the city, bunches of stuff!  Austin is the
          most sought-after assignment in Texas; it's called Silicon Gulch.
Dallas:   You must be tired by the time you get here but they have a great
          Arts museum downtown (so does Houston - near Hermann Park), (so
          does Ft. Worth, about 30 miles west of Dallas). Lots more in
          Dallas but I'll just mention JR's ranch, which is basically the
          place they filmed the exterior shots for the TV show "Dallas"
          now a bit of a tourist trap.

The rule of thumb on those three cities is:
   Dallas - Commercial and banking center of the state.  A bit uptight.
   Houston - Oil capitol of the world, major port, and wild and free.
   San Antonio -  Old Spanish/Mexican Texas with a lot of tradition
          and no small amount of inherited oil wealth.  A bit snooty
          appearing but really quite friendly.  A very heavy population
          of Mexican descent (>50%), and other "minorities".  WASPs are
          the real minority but they love their city.

Subject: Texas

DS>Message-ID: <dms1002.93.000AF...@hermes.cam.ac.uk>
  >Newsgroups: rec.travel
  >Organization: University of Cambridge

DS>I will be spending about 12 days in Texas in mid-late September this year
  >and intend to visit Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. I would like advice on
  >what are the must-see places in those cities and where are good places to
  >eat etc.

DS>Thank you in advance

DS>Daniel Shurz

        Send me your postal address (along with your e-mail address) and
I will get Texas tourism information sent to you.
        I can give you pointers on Dallas and San Antonio from
experience.

*************************************************************************** *
*       Lloyd Colston                   lloyd.cols...@mgmtsys.com          *
*       617 SE Second Street            fax: 918 825 2727                  *
*       Pryor, OK 74361-5421 USA        phone:  918 825 6514               *
*************************************************************************** *

---
 þ QMPro 1.52 þ If you aim at nothing, that is what you will hit.

Dallas -- 6th Floor of TX Book Depository -- JFK Memorial
Fort Worth
    --- Musuems (Kimbell, Modern & Amon Carter)
    --- Zoo

Howard Marc Spector
Dallas, TX
h...@metronet.com

 -=> Quoting keithfrank16 Jun 94  14:52:55ow.com to All <=-

 ke> From: keithfr...@dow.com
 ke> @Newsgroups: rec.travel
 ke> @Subject: Re: Texas
 ke> Date: Thu, 16 Jun 94 14:52:55 PDT
 ke> @Organization: The Dow Chemical Company
 ke> @Message-Id: <2tpsk5$...@raven.dow.com>
 ke> @Mime-Version: 1.0
 ke> @Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

 > I will be spending about 12 days in Texas in mid-late September this year
 > and intend to visit Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. I would like advice on
 > what are the must-see places in those cities and where are good places to
 > eat etc.
 >
 > Thank you in advance
 >
 > Daniel Shurz

 ke> In San Antonio go to the River Walk.
 There is also Fiesta Texas, that is very good I have been told..
Check out Nasa in Houston and visit Galveston if you have time.
If you can get an AAA guidebook, you can find all the good eating places.

... Here I am again, open mouth, insert foot, echo internationally!
--
|Fidonet:  Sam Amsler 1:382/1201
|Internet: Sam.Ams...@hub.ima.infomail.com
|
| Standard disclaimer: The views of this user are strictly his own.

point to consider- you are aware, right, that mid-to-late september is still
pretty much summer here? think 90 degrees at 3pm. maybe more. also, massive
humidity in houston and san antonio, say 80 percent, with occasional rain,
but if you're from the uk you won't mind that... [grin]

sp...@bga.com

 article <2tpsk5$...@raven.dow.com>,  <keithfr...@dow.com> wrote:

There was a recent request of info about a trip to Texas...I missed the
original  aritcle and mistakenly discarded the replies, but here goes a
response...

Daniel,
Unfortunately, I missed your intial query about your trip to Texas on;
nevertheless, from the replies, I surmised that you're planning a trip to
Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio in September. As someone suggested in the
newsgroup, Houston and San Antonio are very hot and humid in
September...San Antonio is well worth any discomfort; Houston is (in my
surely-biased opinion) not. San Antonio is a very beautiful city with an
interesting culture. I'm sure that Houston would be interesting for a day
or two (if for nothing more than looking around such a big city and perhaps
taking in some of their international restaurants), but it's really just a
big, hot, humid, poorly planned (too spread out, roads always under
construction, etc.) city. The Johnson Space Center would be a nice,
near-Houston road trip.

If you're really wanting to take in a U.S. beach, go for a South Carolina,
North Carolina, or Florida beach sometime. If you want to include a Texas
beach in your trip, you should drive to the Corpus Christi or South Padre;
definitely avoid Galveston (it's just not that nice of a place to swim...on
the other hand, walking along the sea wall is nice).

I hope that I haven't sounded too negative so far. I lived in Texas for 6
years, and think that it is a wonderful state...truly incredible! It's just
that I never seemed to enjoy any of my visits to Houston.  (I'm sure that
Houston _does_ have a lot to offer...I probably just never had the right
tour guide.) I also (as indicated above) found San Antonio to be a
wonderful place to visit---the missions, the River Walk, (and for more
tourist-type things: Fiesta Texas and Sea World) are all really neat.
Dallas is also interesting. The J.F.K. stuff, etc., Six Flags, a Texas
Rangers baseball game, good restaurants...It's a more glitzy city than S.A.
or Houston and a little more expensive.

Hey, if you want a feel for the Texas ranch life, consider an excursion to
the King Ranch.

Now, Austin is where I lived, and I just wanted to suggest that you
seriously consider working in a stay in Austin. It is a city of about
500,000 people; it's the state capital; it's right on the eastern edge of
the beautiful Texas Hill Coutry; it's the home of The University of Texas;
it is full of wonderful live music (many bands playing on any given
night---from blues, to alternative music, to country, to jazz); it has many
wonderful restaurants; it has nice Bed and Breakfasts as well as the usual
variety of hotels and motels; and it's right on the way (IH35) from S.A. to
Dallas. If you do it, "must-dos" are:
*Have a drink (food not that great) at The Oasis. It's west of town. The
drive there provides a feel for the Hill Country. You sit out on a deck
hanging from a cliff a few hundred feet about a beautiful lake. Get there a
couple of hours before sunset and settle in for great, relaxing view.
*Eat at Fonda San Miguel's (a wonderful interior Mexican restaurant).
*Have BBQ at the County Line on the Lake (on the way to The Oasis).
*Have brunch at Kerbey Lane Cafe (go to the one on Kerbey Lane).
*Walk around campus (perhaps check out the LBJ museum).
*Have a late-night meal (on the deck on the lake) at The Lodge on Lake
Austin
 Blvd.
*Walk around 6th street after 9:00pm on Thurs.-Sat. nights...watch the
 people, check out a little music, poetry readings, etc.
*Pick up The Austin Chronicle at most any convenience store around campus
 and find some local music to suit your taste.

Anyway, whatever you decide to do (even if it's to stay in Houston the
entire time :) ), I hope you really enjoy it.

steve

-------------------------------------
Stephen M. Miller (smmil...@emn.com)
P.O. Box 511, Bldg. 54D, 7th Floor
Eastman Chemical Company
Kingsport, TN 37660
(615) 224-7350

Stephen M. Miller
Eastman Chemical Company
P.O. Box 511
Kingsport, TN 37662
(615) 224-7350
smmil...@emn.com

|: I will be spending about 12 days in Texas in mid-late September this year
|: and intend to visit Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. I would like advice on
|: what are the must-see places in those cities and where are good places to
|: eat etc.
|
|Houston:  Astrodome game.  Astroworld amusement park (if kids present).
|          NASA Johnson Spacecraft Center well south of the city, not far
|          from Galveston; good museum and visitor center.  Back in Houston,
|          several really nice museums.  The Natural Science museum and
|          planetarium in Hermann Park has one of those 100mm, 360-degree
|          theatres (or whatever they are called).

Sorry I'm coming into this discussion so late, but I have a few additions.

NASA is in Clear Lake, south-southeast of Houston by 25 miles or so.
Galveston is another 28 miles south (on I-45) of Clear Lake.
The Space Center has created a new visitors center named "Space Center
Houston" and is, I've heard, quite a good visit now.  I've not made it there
yet.  Not far from NASA (east on NASA Road 1) is the Crazy Cajun and
Shrimp Hut restaurants.  Great food, decent price.

In Galveston, about the only must-do is Moody Gardens, which includes a
glass pyramid housing a walk-through rain forest with live animals.
I went in the evening at about 9pm, and while my fiance and I had to
hunt quite a while to see the animals, it made it that much better.  Cheap
and a good time, if you are into nature things. About $6, I think.

About the museums in Downtown:  Then Museum of Natural History is excellent,
with the adjoined Burke Baker Planetarium having not only planetarium
shows, but also laser light shows which are extraordinary on the dome
ceiling! (See the Pink Floyd show -- "Laser Floyd".)  An IMAX theater is
also at this complex and is worthwhile.  Check the museum for showings...
And get there early for any show!  The museum is off of Main St, as
are other art museums.  (Hermann Park is the museum district of
sorts.)  All shows run about $5.  Downtown has great restaurants, like
the Pasta Warehouse (don't have the address).

Dallas -> Houston       take I-45 south (270 mi)
Houston -> Clear Lake   take I-45 south (25 mi), NASA Rd 1 exit east
Clear Lake -> Galveston take I-45 south (28 mi), to 61st, exit west

-Brent
--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------- --+
| Brent Burton, bre...@math.tamu.edu                                         |
| System Administrator, Department of Mathematics                            |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------- --+

smmil...@emn.com (Stephen M. Miller) writes:
|
|[Houston is] really just a
|big, hot, humid, poorly planned (too spread out, roads always under
|construction, etc.) city.

Yep.  Living in Houston is not fun, since it always seemed like I had
to drive 45 minutes to do anything interesting.  However, once you
get close to downtown there are lots of things to do, so I think it'd
be a worthwhile place to visit.

| [Austin ] "must-dos" are:
|*Have a drink (food not that great) at The Oasis. It's west of town. The
|drive there provides a feel for the Hill Country. You sit out on a deck
|hanging from a cliff a few hundred feet about a beautiful lake. Get there a
|couple of hours before sunset and settle in for great, relaxing view.

That is a definite must-do.  If you'll be there during the warm
afternoon, take a visit to Zilker Park/Barton Springs.  Nice cool swimming.

-Brent
--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------- --+
| Brent Burton, bre...@math.tamu.edu                                         |
| System Administrator, Department of Mathematics                            |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------- --+