DanM

It is the largest state fair in the country. It is nothing like a county fair except maybe some of the food. On a couple of the weekends, there are college football games hosted at the on site Cotton Bowl. It will be crowded, parking will be a little crazy, and it may be hot. I go about once every five years. It is fun, but about every five years is just right for me.

ChristieP

The best way to get to the State Fair is to ride the DART Train. http://www.dart.org/statefair/statefair.asp Parking is $15 a car on the grounds, so it's significantly cheaper for just one person to take the train.

Here's the State Fair website: http://www.bigtex.com/
It's NOT just a county fair! There are all sorts of shows, food, new cars, a huge midway, etc.

jill_h

re: state fair -- not being familiar with the area, I would NOT rent/drive a car. Attempt the DART train; that'll definitely give you some "culture"!

And I would avoid the State Fair area during Texas/OU weekend. It is a madhouse.

BigRuss

This is Texas - it is relatively flat and spread out. Public transport is not a viable option unless it is a supplement to hiring a car (see below). The DFW Metroplex is physically more than twice the size of New York City because both Dallas AND Fort Worth are nearly as large as NYC and there's a swath of land between the two (the "Mid-Cities") that has various towns (Grapevine is a nice one to visit) that are both undersized cities themselves and bedroom communities for the two main metropolises.

If you're staying by DFW, you cannot ride the DART directly to the state fair. You need to drive to Dallas and take the train from there. The Texas State Fair is about the size of the 49 other state fairs combined (yeah, yeah, Alaska's larger, but its population is one person per 25 caribou).

If you like art museums, you need to check out what the Kimball's special exhibitions are BEFORE going there. The Kimball's permanent collection is weak, but its special exhibitions are excellent. The FW Modern is interesting more for the building itself than the collection. Dallas Arts District has various good museums (DMA, Nasher Sculpture Center, Crow Asian Art Museum).

Texas/OU weekend is Oct 12-13 (the game is the 13th). It's really a YAYhoo festival - the Okies are Okies and the Texas fans are obnoxious twits. The weekend before that is the Grambling State-Prairie View game on Oct 6, which is known for its halftime Battle of the Bands (think of the movie Drumline writ large) because the bands are great and the teams are not (especially Prairie View, a historical stiff).