where to go in Hill Country??
 

Hello. We will be travelling from London, UK to visit San Antonio sometime in early February. We have heard that the Hill Country outside San Antonio is nice, but would like some more information. Are there any scenic drives through the area? Is it mostly visiting towns and villages? How far is it to drive there from San Antonio? Is it possible to combine it with a day trip to Austin? Thank you very much for your help.

No "villages" in Texas!! Dont evena ask while you are in the great State!!Kerrville and Fredericksburgh are well worth a an overnight visit.If you are driving from Austin westward to the HillCountry then to SanAntonio to the southeast.See www.texashighways.com and do some archival searches.

Enchanted Rock and Frederickburg are nice places to visit. We like Inks Lake State Park, too. In the summer, Perdenales Falls offers a nice getaway from the heat.<BR>Of course, George W Bush lives out there too! Stop by and say Howdy!

I don't know if they're still publishing it, but I have a book called Back Roads of Texas. It's a large paperback, probably pretty inexpensive. You could probably pick it up in a bookstore in San Antonio.<BR><BR>My favorite places in the Hill Country are along the Guadalupe and Pedernales rivers. New Braunfels and Fredricksburg are old (for the US) German towns that have gotten touristy, but are still nice to visit.<BR><BR>In eary February, you won't see as much green as there is a month later. If you like cave tours, there are some pretty good caves in that area because of the porous limestone. I've been to Natural Bridge Caverns a couple of times, and my husband has liked Inner Space, which was discovered in the process of building a highway.<BR><BR>You can do a nice Hill Country drive in a day, but I wouldn't try to visit the HC and Austin on the same day. It's possible, but you will feel rushed.

San Antonio is on the doorstep of the Hill Country. You can do easy day trips to Fredricksburg (more touristy these days but still enjoyable), to the LBJ museum, etc. Probably too much to do that and Austin in one day. Maybe better to plan a &quot;loop&quot; n which you tour the Hill country one day, stay in Austin that night and explore there the next day, work your way back down I-35 toward San Antonio, maybe with a stop in New Braunfels (another German town) or historic Gruene (pronounced &quot;green&quot;), or the previously mentioned Natural Bridge caverns. There are lots of small,inexpensive places to stay along the way. February is not a busy time so I wouldn't worry about reservations ahead of time - just meander until you find a place you like. If you are into such things, there is a large outlet center between Austin and SA in San Marcos, and another smaller one in New Braunfels - both right along the I-35 highway.

A good resource for daytrips is Shifra Stein's Day Trips from San Antonio: Getaways Less Than Two Hours Away (Shifra Stein's Day Trips)<BR>by Paris Permenter, John Bigley. Enjoy!<BR>

Many thanks to all of you for your suggestions.