My wife and I are going to be vacationing in San Antonio next week and we would like to take a day trip out to the Hill Country and stop in Fredericksburg.

Does anyone have any recommendations on any "must-see" stops, towns, attractions, restaurants, etc. on our way to and from Fredericksburg?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

There's a lot of nothing along US281 from SA to Johnson City - driven the route many times and the only reason I've ever stopped was for fresh peaches from a roadside stand.

In Johnson City, you can visit the LBJ ranch. On US290, just West of 281 is a place called Wildseed Farms - /www.wildseedfarms.com/ not sure if they have anything in bloom, but in the spring it's a great place to see acres of beautiful flowers, shop for Hill Country gifts, etc.

In FB is the Nimitz WWII Navy Museum (never been).

Ditto J62's reply, and even Fredricksurg itself has been getting some mixed press lately, mostly because it has been so "disneyfied" that the authentic feeling gets lost amid the tourist stuff.

I was in Fredricksburg recently (and for the first time) and I can't understand what the attraction is. If you like walking up and down the street looking at shops then I guess it's okay.

I like Becker Vineyards

http://www.beckervineyards.com/

and the Lincoln Street Wine Bar

http://www.lincolnst.com/

We enjoyed the Nimitz Museum and the George Bush Gallery (part of the museum). It's worth a few hour visit if you are interested in that sort of thing.

http://www.nimitz-museum.org/

I had a similar reaction to Fredericksburg our last trip Labor Day Weekend. At one time it was an unspoiled antique center/Hill Country town, but IMHO, those days are long, long gone. I had to laugh at the "walking up and down looking in shops comment". Exactly--half of Dallas and Austin were there doing just that! Now if you are going for the scenery around the area, or to hike nearby Enchanted Rock, I could understand stopping off there too, but not as a destination in itself.

I hesitate to mention this as it's still unspoiled for the most part and I'd hate that to change, but I would think people would find little Gruene (near New Braunfels) far more entertaining. There are a very few little shops, (Cactus Jacks especially) a nice restaurant (Grist Mill) overlooking the river, nearby tubing which you may enjoy watching for a few moments, but a terrific music venue too--historic Gruene Hall. This little town is so very very Texas!

If you decide to do Fredericksburg, the Homestead is one of the nicer shops there. We took the back way (281 to Blanco then a county road toward Luckenbach and Fredericksburg) up and back, driving through Luckenbach. We need to find the "to do's" there for another trip because it wasn't readily apparent...but what Willie Nelson fan could get that close and not drive in! You'll see a sign for Luckenbach town center or something like that--it's almost a driveway going in...the center self is just off the county road.