I am looking for fun area to take my kids this summer I'm thinking the Texas area. We have never been there and would like to go. My children are 10,8 and 5. Any ideas. Thanks

Ginger,

I have only been to Texas on two occasions, both short. First was Dallas/Ft. Worth and second was to San Antonio. I loved San Antonio. My favorite part was driving the Missions Road to see the four other missions besides the Alamo. The Alamo was actually the least interesting, in my opinion.

Happy planning!

Sandi

"The Texas Area" covers an area larger than France, so, unless you're planning on spending a month doing little but drive around for hours, you'll have to pick a specific area of Texas you'd want to visit.

This means you'll have to pick a specific type of activity you're looking for. The Big Bend region, for instance, has great desert hiking but not a lot of ocean to swim in! If you could be more specific on what you hope to experience, we can be a lot more helpful in telling where you to go to experience it.

Texas in the summer will be sweltering almost wherever you go, so you'll have to decide if your family can handle an entire vacation in a lot of heat.

I vote for San Antonio & Austin -- both are a lot of fun, and they're only about an hour or so apart. If you do a search you should be able to find my San Antonio & Austin trip report from May-June of this year re: restaurants and fun things to do in both cities. Highly recommend both.

One place I noticed that looked like it would be fun if I were a kid again is Arilington (between Dallas & Ft. Worth). There's a water park, Six Flags over Texas, and my favorite: The Ballpark at Arlington where the Texas Rangers play. Have fun.

Check out www.traveltex.com for a lot of good information and some freebies. It is HOT until middle of September (100's).
Don is right about Arlington for amusement parks. You can go to the Stockyards in Fort Worth, Fair Park in Dallas, plus a lot of other fun things.
Austin has the state capitol, river, Barton Springs for swimming, LBJ Library. (3 hours south of DFW)
San Antonio has a lot of fun places: 2 amusement parks, Alamo, Mission trail (mariachi mass at Mission San Jose at noon on Sundays), La Villita, River ride, Riverwalk, site of HemisFair, etc. (1 3/4 hours south of Austin)
Houston has NASA which is most interesting (about 30 minutes south of city), ship channel, new baseball park, Astroworld (about 3 hours drive from San Antonio).
Galveston, Corpus Christi, South Padre have nice beaches for swimming in the Gulf.
East Texas towns like Jefferson have old south feel. West Texas has the desert, Big Bend, MacDonald Observatory, El Paso.
Paul was right about Texas being big but it is bigger than he stated. To cross Texas from El Paso to Texarkana is like driving from from Paris, France to Warsaw, Poland.
The Hill Country is fun to see the scenery & tubing down the Guadalupe.

Thanks to all for the ideas. If we do end up going I will let you all know .

New Braunfels is a good base for a summer vacation with kids. There are several condo complexes with rentals, some on the Comal River. The Schlitterbahn Water Park is there and you could easily spend 2 days there. Also tubing on the Comal River is fun, particularly if you have younger childres. Yo are close enough to San Antonio to do day trips to Sea World, Fiesta Texas, the Alamo and Riverwalk. Ditto for Austin to see the Capital. It's nice after a day of hectic sightseeing in Austin or San Antonio to return to a condo in New Braunfels where it's a little quieter. We have stayed at the Camp Warnecke Estates condos and Inverness condos there for several summer vacations. They are directly on the comal river and also have a pool. They are located about 2 blocks from Schitterbahn. If you want something a little less pricey The Other Place is also on the Comal but offers more of a "cabin" type of accomodation. It is in a great location though. The chamber of commerce has some discount coupons for condo rentals also. It will be hot in Texas in the summer so I would try to plan something involving water activities. Good Luck!

There aren't any. Just a bunch of pretentious rednecks. Try Florida.

Now, Nick, shame on you. Texans are very friendly and the state has a lot of interesting things to see and do. Don't get all your info from tv, we aren't all like Dubya.

oh, sorry--Pete. Those 4-letter common names are so hard for us pretentious people.

Hi Ginger:

I'm a native Texan. Grew up in San Antonio. Lived in Dallas and Houston. A great place my husband and I went to celebrate our 3rd yr wedding anniversary was: Stonewall Ranch. It's in a town called Stonewall near Fredericksburg, Texas. Call Fredericksburg visitors center or chamber of Commerence for information. We went back in April 99 had a great time. It's a big ranch with animals and you there is a 2/1 bath seperate house. It was inexpensive but don't recall. Family takes you around the ranch to pet and feed the animals. Wife makes great bread and treats. You can hike, relax, read, sit under the stars or do whatever you like. Threre is no TV or phone. Fredericksburg is a nice town with good places to eat and shop. San Antonio is a couple hours drive and worth it. Alot to see and do. The summer is so so hot. Can get into the 100's. I'd suggest the fall or spring when it's cooler to do things outside. Where do you live now? If you need more info, please feel free to e-mail me.

A trip to Texas wouldn't be complete without taking your kids to the JFK Sixth Floor Museum/Memorial in Dallas. While it's not exactly "fun", our entire family found it riveting.

Definitely take in a Rangers Game in Arlington. The stadium is beautiful, similar to those in Cleveland and Baltimore.

Touring Austin would be educational and timely for your kids; not only is the State Capitol tour excellent, the governor's mansion (of George W. Bush!) is beautiful!

San Antonio is just plain fun, with tons to do. The Holiday Inn Express near the riverfront is clean, convenient and cost-effective. Plus, they had delicious breakfast burritos on their continental breakfast buffet!

While Houston in August in too humid to do much outdoors, (Six Flags there is very run-down, IMHO) I highly recommend taking your kids to Spacecenter Houston. Their tour is quite comprehensive and their "hands-on" center was both enjoyable and educational for the kids.

You'll obviously have to cover quite a few miles if you do all the above, but we did all of it (and more) in one of our cross-country vacation adventures. Enjoy!

Nice posts everybody. Real information that real people can use. Thanks.