Dallas and Fort Worth
We’ve compiled the best of the best in Dallas and Fort Worth - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
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We’ve compiled the best of the best in Dallas and Fort Worth - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
You can root root root for the Rangers (or a visiting team if you must) in this open-air, fan-friendly ballpark that opened in 1994. It's designed to look old-fashioned, with redbrick and granite facade and a home-run porch in right field, but the amenities are thankfully modern. If you're not in town when the Rangers are, consider a tour of the park through admission to the Legends of the Game Museum, which celebrates America's pastime with famous players' gear, photos, and artifacts.
Architect Louis Kahn's most famous American building was this museum, composed of six long concrete vaults with skylights running the length of each. Here are top-notch collections of both early-20th-century European art and old masters, including Munch's Girls on a Bridge and Goya's The Matador Pedro Romero, depicting the great bullfighter who allegedly killed more than 6,000 of the animals without sustaining an injury. The museum also exhibits Greek and Roman antiquities, African and pre-Columbian art, and has one of the largest collections of Asian art in North America.
The billionaire Bass brothers of Fort Worth are to be thanked for what may be the most eye-pleasing juxtaposition of scale: rather than tear down several blocks of brick buildings to accommodate the twin towers of their giant City Center development, they created Sundance Square by restoring the area as a center of tall-windowed restaurants, shops, nightclubs, and offices. Tourists mingle effortlessly with the business crowd during the day, and at night the mood is laidback and down-to-earth—much like the city itself.
Fair Park also contains six major exhibit spaces (many of which are closed Monday or Tuesday): the
A short walk from the Kimbell, west of Downtown Fort Worth, this museum's collection of American art is centered on Remington and Russell mostly, though in recent decades the curators have incorporated works by many late-20th-century artists. The photographic collection, among the largest in the United States, spans the history of the medium, from 19th-century daguerreotypes to 21st-century digital prints.
The Dallas Cowboys call this state-of-the-art stadium home, designed to seat about 80,000 (with flexibility for 10,000 more) near Rangers Ballpark. The giant stadium features a retractable roof that can open or close in 12 minutes and partially close to resemble the distinctive roof of the team's old Texas Stadium. The roof is supported by two arches that rise 320 feet above the field. Those arches also hold in place the biggest wall of video screens in NFL history.
Dallas's tallest building, at 920 feet, is visible for miles at night, thanks to the green argon tubing that outlines its 72 stories. Visitors can access Downtown's maze of underground tunnels from the building's basement. The tunnels, a welcome climate-controlled escape, include dozens of restaurants, delis, drugstores, gift shops, and florists.
You can't miss the two 48-foot limestone angels on one side of this multipurpose building, which unabashedly fills a city block. The hall opened to great fanfare in 1998 and it continues to draw acclaim for its classic architecture, sight lines, and acoustics. It hosts four resident companies and various touring shows, as well as the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, held every four years. Free public tours are Saturday mornings at 10:30 if event schedules permit.
The renowned honky-tonk has been a cattle barn, airplane factory, and department store. It's now home to live music, eating, drinking, shopping, playing, and live bull riding. Daytime's probably the best time to visit if you've got children in tow; nighttime is much rowdier.
Test your navigational skills and patience in this human maze patterned after Old West cattlepens. For a fee you can race against the clock or someone else, but it's free to stand on the observation deck and watch others wander through the wooden maze.
A pair of 19th-century Chinese guardian lions from the Qing Dynasty is the first clue you've arrived at the Crow Collection (across the street from the Nasher Sculpture Center). The private gallery—a tranquil, intimate space—showcases the remarkable Asian art collection of philanthropists and native Dallasites Trammell and Margaret Crow. The museum also hosts traveling exhibits and displays treasures from China, Japan, India, and Southeast Asia. Don't miss an 18th-century carved sandstone facade from an Indian home.
This lovely attraction is composed of 66 acres of gardens and lawns in White Rock Lake Park. Spend an hour or two here to escape the noise and traffic of the city, walk nature trails, admire sculpture, and recline in soft, manicured grass. The annual Dallas Blooms event, in early spring, boasts spectacular displays of tulips, daffodils, and other blooming bulbs. Fall delivers more than 150,000 autumn flowers as well as great displays of pumpkins and other gourds.
This multipurpose center offers performance spaces for the Dallas Opera, Dallas Theater Center, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Texas Ballet Theater, and Anita N. Martinez Ballet Folklorico. The complex consists of an opera house, an indoor theater, and an open-air theater. A 10-acre, on-site park is designed to tie the spaces together and attract the public to the site regardless of performance schedules.
Renowned architect I. M. Pei is responsible for the striking inverted-pyramid design of City Hall. The modern structure is set on a seven-acre plaza that features reflecting pools and a stunning bronze Henry Moore sculpture.
It may be difficult to imagine Dallas without its shiny skyscrapers, far-flung suburbs, and miles and miles of highway, but Heritage Village at Old City Park allows visitors to experience what life was like in Big D before 1910. The museum, set on 13 acres just south of I–30 and Downtown Dallas, consists of 38 restored buildings, furnished inside and out as they would have been (way) back in the day. You'll also meet a couple of donkeys, a cow, some chickens, and other barnyard animals. Visitors can tour structures such as a log cabin, an antebellum mansion, a schoolhouse, a church, a farmhouse, and a shotgun shack. The re-created Main Street features a sturdy bank (rebuilt on site brick by brick), a print shop, a general store, and a saloon, where you may be able to order an ice-cold root beer, play a game of cards or checkers, and even catch a gunfight that spills into the street. Docents are in period costume and stay in character, describing in detail their daily lives and challenges.
Housed in a series of white limestone galleries built off a central barrel vault, this museum remains one of the city's greatest cultural institutions. The permanent collection covers a lot of territory, from the arts of Africa, Asia, and ancient Greece to a painting collection with works by artists as diverse as esteemed colonial painter John Singleton Copley and contemporary German painter Gerhard Richter (part of a strong and growing contemporary collection). A popular draw at the museum is an installation that re-creates rooms in the Mediterranean villa belonging to Texas swells Wendy and Emery Reves. The Center for Creative Connections, designed for families, allows patrons to interact with art and artists.
The Fort Worth Zoo is a huge draw in the area, but the Dallas Zoo shouldn't be overlooked. The Wilds of Africa section re-creates the habitats of animals such as African penguins, chimpanzees, saddle-billed storks, and okapi (zebralike cousin to the giraffe). When it's not too hot or too cold, you can ride a monorail (for a fee) through the Africa exhibit to gain a treetop perspective and to learn more about the animals. Zoo North, the older section of the zoo, includes some exhibits that haven't been changed in decades. But other sections are modern and interactive, especially the tiger habitat and the children's zoo. A fabulous aviary allows children to feed birds, some of which will perch on your hand or shoulder. There's also a petting zoo, pony rides, giant fish tank, playground, and stream for jumping and splashing in. The DART red line stops just outside the zoo's entrance.
In South Dallas, this 277-acre National Historic Landmark has the largest collection of 1930s Art Deco architecture in the United States. It is also home to the State Fair of Texas for three weeks each fall. Within the park, you'll find the Museum of the American Railroad, the Dallas Aquarium, the Texas Discovery Gardens, and the Museum of Nature and Science.
Among the 23 gardens here are the Lower Rose Garden, whose classical design was inspired by the Villa Lante gardens in Bagnaia, Italy, and the Oval Rose Garden, where many Texas roses grow. The Japanese Garden is beautiful in fall, when the leaves on the maples begin to turn, and in spring, when cherry and other blossoms burst forth. Also on-site is a 10,000-square-foot conservatory.
This museum has interactive exhibits, a planetarium, and an Omni IMAX theater.
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