Known as the Alamo City, San Antonio was founded as a Spanish missionary town in 1718. San Antonio is located in central Texas and only 2 1/2 hours from Houston. This made it the perfect location for a weekend getaway! Accompanying me on this trip was my friend Heather. We stayed for 2 nights back in February.
Where I Stayed
I stayed at 2 different hotels while in San Antonio. I did this because we extended our stay and decided to stay somewhere on the Riverwalk for our 2nd night.
Best Western Premier Historic Travelers Hotel Alamo/Riverwalk
This hotel had small rooms with no views. What was nice was it was walking distance to everything. This hotel had free breakfast in the morning, but cost more than the next one.
For more information and booking, click here.
Courtyard by Marriott San Antonio Riverwalk:
I wish we would have booked this hotel in the first place. It is right on the riverwalk! It is still close enough that you can walk to the Alamo as well. The room was big and neat. For just one night and wanting to be on the Riverwalk.
For more information and booking, click here.
Tower of the Americas
The Tower of the Americas is a 750ft observation tower built in for the 1968 World’s Fair. There is a restaurant and bar at the top called the Chart House. For $12 you get to assess the observation deck and 4D theater ride called Skies Over Texas.
Worth it? not really.
I spent more time getting to the top than I actually sent up there. Maybe if it hadn’t been so cold and windy or in the daytime it could have been worth it. For more information, click here.
The Riverwalk
One of the main attention of San Antonio is the Riverwalk. This is a pedestrian area one block under the street level. You can pretty much access most of the top attention from walking the Riverwalk. The Riverwalk has restaurants and shops. We ate at Casa Rio, and I was not impressed.
For more information on whats going on on the Riverwalk, click here.
BONUS:
If you wanna see the whole riverwalk by boat, there are tours through Go Rio. For only $12 this electric boat will take you down the river for around 35 minutes. Tours start every 15-20 minutes. There are multiple locations along the Riverwalk so it will be easy to find. I will say I would have enjoyed it more if my driver hadn’t hit a wall and I haven’t dropped my new action camera in the water. But other them by sad event, the tour is WORTH IT. Its cheap, easy, and a nice way to see the riverwalk and learn some history.
For more information, click here
The Historic Marketplace
Located at 514 W Commerce St, this is a 3 block outdoor area with shops and restaurants. There are cute little shops with Mexican themed blankets, clothes, and souvenirs. There is a nice restaurant we went to called, Mi Tierra. It was highly recommended Mexican food. We really enjoyed it. You can get a drink and walk around while you shop, which is a plus.
The Alamo
The Alamo is the main tourist attraction for San Antonio. The Alamo is a major part of Texas history. This is the spot where 200 people died, including Davy Crockett in the fight for Texas independence from Mexico. This became a symbol of resistance and rallying cry “Remember the Alamo”.
Entrance to the Alamo is free. This includes the church, the grounds, and an educational video that gives you the history of the Alamo. The guided tour is $25. For more information, click here.
The Lanterns
The weekend I happened to be in San Antonio was the Confucius Wishing Lanterns On the Water event. This event was where people would buy lanterns near the convention center and write their wishes on them and release them into the river so that their wish would come true. Heather and I read that the event was 5-7. We thought if we got there by 5:30 wouldn’t be able to get a lantern to write on, WRONG.
Pro tip– if you really want a lantern to go straight to the convention center. They sell them outside by the water, we learned this afterward. You can also pay them throughout the day at random places on the street, also learned this later.
For more information, click here.
Japanese Garden
Heather looked up the top things to do in San San Antonio and she found the Japanese Garden. I wasn’t really into the ides, but I thought we had some time to kill so why not. I have to say I’m happy we went. This site used to be a rock quarry. What a beautiful way to reuse the space. It is free to enter. For more information, click here.
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