24 hours in San Antonio--quick trip report

We had a little over 24 hours in San Antonio in mid-November. We managed to see a lot and do a lot in that time, so I thought I’d give a quick recap for others who plan to visit.

Transportation from the airport—We took a cab because we’d read here that for two people it was about the same price as a shuttle. Not so. Cab was around $30 including tip, so the shuttle would have been cheaper.

Hotel—La Mansion del Rio—Thanks to the tip from a forum member, found an excellent price at visitsanantonio.com using one of their price code deals on the website. We’ll definitely stay here if we return because it was a great location and a nice hotel.

Sightseeing—We mainly walked and walked. Loved Riverwalk (especially the quieter, less-touristed parts) and probably walked many parts the typical tourist doesn’t get to. We also walked to and around the King William district (an interesting walk but the area was smaller than we’d anticipated). And, we walked at night (felt safe enought o us when walking) to eat at Mi Tierra in Market Square and also walked there during the day to quickly stroll through the shops. Even though we typically enjoy historic sites, the Alamo didn’t do it for us at all, and we didn’t see much of the attraction. La Villeta was also a quick stop, and we weren’t too enamored. I should also say that we are not typically shoppers.

Eating—We were looking for moderately priced restaurants with local flavor. Our favorite was Acenar in a quieter part of Riverwalk where we ordered some more unusual things that are not found in the typical Mexican or Tex-Mex restaurant. We had a dinner at Mi Tierra, and it was fine. But, we have some pretty similar and authentic restaurants at home in Minneapolis, and we didn’t find the food all that special. The place is huge, so I wouldn’t worry about not getting a table. We walked to the Gunther House for breakfast, but by the time we got there, it was nearing lunch time, and after taking a look at the menu we decided to move on to Azuca instead. The Gunther House had typical foods, and we’ve eaten in other restaurants in vintage house before so that wasn’t a huge draw for us. Azuca at the edge of the King William district was where we went when we decided we were getting a tad sick of the Tex-Mex food. Perhaps we made the wrong menu choices, but we weren’t overly impressed. However, other customers’ food looked good, and our dessert was fabulous.

All in all, we had a nice time and will return (we’d stopped in on the way to visit relatives in Texas) for a day again. For us, we really felt that a little more than a day was about perfect to see the city itself (not the surrounding missions or outlying area). Of course, as with all trip reports, this is subjective, and we based our opinions on other places we’ve visited and seen before.