Thanks jcb for the heads up on the stadium. Do you think I should try to go the morning of the game? It's a 3:15 game. Maybe go in the morning and then stay and have lunch in the stadium before the game? I'm not sure if you do not get the full hour if it is a game day?

Sarge - I did actually get two travel guides to the area. I have been reading up! I think I am to stay in Fort Worth. We can just travel to Dallas for the day and see whatever we can. I probably might not go to the malls since we have most of the stores here in NJ. Maybe just walk around an area with outdoor shopping? Not sure if the uptown area is like that? or if it is all mall shopping?
I will defintely try Joe T Garcia's. We love TexMex food and are looking forward to try it.

For outdoor shopping (and dining too) there is West Village. http://www.westvil.com/ If you have a car it's a very short drive from downtown. If not you can use the McKinney Ave Trolley to get there. http://www.mata.org/map.shtml Grimaldi's has very good pizza. There is also a Mi Cocina for Tex Mex located there. I haven't eaten at that location but I have loved them at other locations.

And Southlake is nice outdoor shopping and dining area also.

If you're staying in FW (good gosh, why? There's not much there, seems you got swayed by the Cowtown shills), then one good Tex-Mex place outside FW is Abuelo's in Hurst -- just take Hwy 183 to Precinct Line Rd and hang a U (you're from Jersey, you can handle). It's better than Mi Cocina.

Oh no, BigRuss, do you think I am better off staying in Dallas and going to FW for the day? So confused! What hotel and area would you recommend we stay? I don't think you ever said. Uptown Dallas?

Seriously, I would stay at Zaza, Crescent, Stoneleigh, Ritz or Melrose. You can walk around a little and your close to everything. Monica Aca Alla, La Duni, Uncle Julio's and Gloria's (my fav) are all very close by, too :)

BigRuss- Not much there? Have you been to Fort Worth? The OP says they are not into museums. So, frankly, what does Dallas have besides restaurants and shopping???

Mers...See what I said? :)

Again, Dallas is more spread out and faster-paced (and if you are there on a weekday, the traffic can be horrendous.)

Fort Worth is smaller, close-in and more laid back.

If you want a "big city" feel, stay in Dallas. If you want a "small town" feel, then Fort Worth is your destination.

Have a great trip!

(PS I live in Arlington, so I have no vested interest in where you stay. :)) )

I'd hardly say FW is small town. And the traffic around FW is as bad or worse because the highways are narrower.

And yeah, I go to FW with a fair bit of frequency. And if I were visiting the area, I'd stay in Dallas. Don't understand the question "what does Dallas have besides restaurants and shopping" -- I don't recall Fort Worth as a city for major sporting events, the State Fair of Texas (which Mers should go to just because, but there are no outlet stores), major concert acts, comedy shows, or even the first cut of the Broadway road shows (although Bass Hall got in on that act this year with the pornographic Spring Awakening -- just what we need to see, future Nazis' first sexual experiences re-imagined on stage).

I can do FW in about an hour if I skip the museums. I go there primarily for the Main Street Arts Festival, but that's in April, not October. If I need to go and do anything fun or entertaining, it's 90% Dallas and immediate suburbs, 10% Tarrant County -- and that includes Rangers games when teams with actual histories of success come to town.

Except hockey and basketball Tarrant County has all of the Sports hot spots since the Rangers Stadium and Cowboys Stadium are both in Tarrant county. The Bass Hall is beautiful and has many Broadway shows and big name performers. I agree with Sarge if you want a "city feel" stay in Dallas if you like a small town feel stay in Fort Worth. Although it is not small, it has a small town charm. Although there is lots of great information on this thread there may be a tiny bit of Dallas verses Fort Worth rivalry. You should go to both and you can decide :) As far as Tex Mex.. there are many, many good choices. Uncle Julio's and Abuello's are both Chains and Joe T's is original and consistent since the 30's. If you choose to go make sure to sit in one of the beautiful gardens and take a walk to the wishing fountain after dinner... and make sure to bring a designated driver because they have the best margaritas around! Let us know what you choose!

See how Txbluesky equates "Tarrant County" with Fort Worth? The stadia are almost equidistant from downtown Dallas and FW, and the fact is that there's nothing else of interest to an outsider in ARLINGTON (the town that houses the two stadia).

Anyway, to answer your question Mers -- stay in Dallas and visit wherever else.

I have lived in both Dallas and Fort Worth (at least 10 years in each) and can vouch for the rivalry/feud/animosity between the two - suffice it to say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder (though objective rating sources may scoff at comments elicited on traffic congestion and quality of the zoos mentioned above) - a more appropriate measuring stick from your region is Dallas is more like NY - the metropolitan feel - while Fort Worth is more like Boston. Neither is better or worse, just different.

To clarify: No, Fort Worth is not like Boston. It's nowhere near as insular, it's certainly not as racist (good luck finding a major city that's more racist than Boston in the US), and it's not filled with self-important d'bags from academe. FW people don't have an inferiority complex viz. Dallasites like Bostonians do viz. New Yorkers. And New York is far superior to Boston, how this is even in question with that rather strange statement from Kyle is perplexing. The FW/Dallas competition is arguable (although from a TOURIST standpoint, which is what you will be, Mers, it is not).

All that said, if this doesn't convince you (or at least the hubby) to go to the State Fair of Texas, nothing will: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddr...-in-Texas.html

Wasn't referring to social norms in the comparison (though North Dallas in not a bastion of open minds in my memory) but a comment on a big metropolitan setting versus a smaller, more relaxed atmosphere. Some tourists like the big city with the glitz and glamour, while others enjoy a more.

You should stay in downtown Dallas, for at least one good reason... all the metro transit lines (rail and bus) converge there, meaning you can go just about anywhere without a car... even take a TRE train to downtown Fort Worth.

Basically, the neighborhoods centered around downtown Dallas are more walkable, have a vaster range of entertainment, better shopping and dining options, better sightseeing, etc., etc. Downtown FW has some good places to eat, but just one theatre (Bass), no museums (just one small gallery with some cowboy paintings), no public sculpture, a difficult ride to the rest of the metro area, and nothing walkable beyond the immediate downtown. When I worked there a few years ago, the area was dead as a doornail on weekdays.

If you want a small town atmosphere, you should stay in a small town... maybe downtown McKinney or downtown Grapevine. FW is not a small town by any stretch of the imagination, but a city with 3/4 million people in the city limits. It has things to see, of course, but it is very limited compared to Dallas county.

you guys are killing me. I keep going back and forth on my decision! So everyone has a different opinion. Honestly, when I figured how much time I had there, it probably doesn't matter if I stay in Fort Worth or Dallas becaue it looks like I will probably only have one day in each city.
I will be flying in on Friday morning and leaving Monday morning. I will allow all day Sunday for the game. So, that leaves me with Friday and Saturday free.
I am thinking I might be better off staying in Fort Worth and spending Friday there, and then I can spend the whole day in Dallas on Saturday. I am guessing it will be easier to drive to the game on Sunday from Fort Worth then Dallas? (not sure on that tough.)

BigRuss - I really do like your way with words, haha. I do see your point that Dallas would be a better place to stay. Maybe next time I come I can stay longer and then it would be more worth it to stay there and take advantage of all it has to offer. By the way, I do love Boston. Although, I usually go in August to catch a few Red Sox games before the college crowd get there! Oh, and even though it does seem quite interesting, it's still a no on the Texas Fair! I never eat fried food - so I might starve! The fried beer does look interesting.

We won't have time to do too much, so we will just touch upon a few areas and come back next year!

I'd disagree with BigRuss about the walkability of Dallas.

The Uptown/Near Oak Lawn area is really an extension of downtown Dallas towards the north and it is quite walkable for several square miles. Walking from, say, the Dallas Arts District along Pearl street and then north along McKinney avenue is an interesting experience with some attractive buildings and frequent changes of urban scenery. You will see block after block of new 4 floor apartment buildings, many restaurants, some shops on the ground floor, and plenty of shopping and walking when you get to the West Village. The area is densely populated enough to support a DART subway station. About a mile north of the West Village is a neighborhood called Knox-Henderson, with shops and restaurants on Knox street and clubs, restaurants and household goods shops on Henderson street.

The area called Preston Center has many shops and restaurants in a walkable area, but is not on the DART rail system. To the north in Plano, you have a very walkable urban village called Legacy Town Center. In Oak Cliff, south of the river, you have an area called Bishop Arts, which is very popular for its restaurants and one-of-a-kind shops.

Many of the DART stations give you access to dense, walkable neighborhoods. In addition to the CityPlace station at the West Village, you have the Mockingbird Station area, the Park Lane station which combines NorthPark mall and a shopping area called Park Lane Place, and the downtown Plano station with its quaint restored main street of shops.

Starting in December, the DART rail Green line will reach Carrollton, which has a downtown worth exploring, and will also have a station at an Asian trade district... about a mile of warehouses subdivided into hundreds of shops selling virtually everything, much of it imported.

Just wanted to give some feedback on our trip to Texas.

After much debate, we ended up staying in Fort Worth. We stayed at the Renaissance Worthington. I was very happy we decided to stay here. It was perfect for what we needed. The hotel was very nice and the rooms were perfect (except for the double beds).
The reason we liked staying here was that after a long day of sightseeing, it was nice to be able to go to your hotel, unwind, and then just walk out the door and have dinner. We were then able to walk around a little after dinner. There was also some kind of Spanish street fair. So there was lots of music to listen to while walking around.

The other MAIN reason that it worked out so perfectly was that we were able to catch a bus to the Cowboy game (like dorkforcemom suggested above). Thank God for the bus! We planned on driving, but then the Texas Ranger baseball game ended up being on the same day. I called the stadium and found out that all the cash parking lots would be closed. I inquired at the hotel about the bus. It was $10 per person. You just parked in a lot not too far from the hotel. The bus dropped you off in Parking Lot 15 and then had non-stop buses running back for an hour after the game. The bus took a back road so we did not hit any traffic at all! The only problem was looking out the window. We drove through areas that had many homeless people. It was so so sad to see how they were living.

The stadium was nice. They had the top closed because it was about 88 degrees out. It was strange being indoors.
They lost the game, but it was a good game to watch anyway.

We had dinner one night at Mi Cocina and that was very good.
The night before, we did head out to Joe T Garcia's. I have to say though that I was very disappointed. I heard so many great things about it, but it was really just average.

We went to the Cowtown Diner for breakfast one morning, and it was very good.

We drove into Dallas for a whole day. I was disappointed in Dallas, but like BigRuss said, there was not a walk around shopping area. Mostly big malls which I can get back home.

Oh, and Sam Moon was also disappointing.

We went to the Stockyards the morning of the game real quick, but mostly everything was closed. We were told they opened up at 11 but nothing was open. Looked interestng though!

I do have to say though, the people of Texas that we ran into were very good looking people! I was impressed!

Good looking, yes, but did you find us hospitable? :)

Glad your trip turned out well. We sure had great weather while you were here. As it turned out, you also happened to be here on a weekend where there were half a dozen college games in town, too. And the state fair. So, you were lucky to catch the bus! :)

Hope you found it nice enough to want to come back some time. :)

Yes sarge56 I did find everyone very hospitable and polite.
We were very impressed by the people.

Maybe we will make it a yearly adventure like we do Boston.
I will need to track down some good TexMex though. I was really looking forward to that.

Oh, and I forgot - Sprinkles Cupcakes were excellent! Especially the Red Velvet cupcakes!

So glad you had an "incident-free" trip - we've had great weather lately, and like the others, hope everyone was gracious and welcoming!