Visiting San Antonio

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The Alamo

San Antonio is one of our family’s favorite places to visit. We’ve been numerous times over the years since Greg and I married in 1996. It was actually where Greg and I spent our honeymoon. All seven days.

I definitely fell in love with San Antonio on our honeymoon. I didn’t want to come back to reality. Of course, I’m not sure many newlyweds actually do want to come back to reality at the end of the honeymoon.

Over the years we’ve taken several trips to San Antonio. It’s about three hours from Houston in a car. Which isn’t too far of a drive with kids. And there’s always Buc-ees to stop at on the way to break up the monotony.

Where to Stay in San Antonio

Over the years we’ve stayed at several different hotels in San Antonio. The fanciest hotel we have stayed at is The Emily Morgan hotel. This is where we stayed at for a week on our honeymoon in 1996. The Emily Morgan is located right next door to the Alamo. The suites are very spacious and the views are especially beautiful at night. Staying at the Emily Morgan allows you to be right in the middle of the action of San Antonio. The room rates at the Emily Morgan are comparable to other Riverwalk hotels and include free wifi, but the parking fee may be the deal breaker when making your decision so be sure to check it out before you book.

Probably our favorite family-friendly hotel chain and place to stay in San Antonio is Drury Inn and Suites. Our family fell in love with Drury hotels way back in 2007 when we walked into the Drury in Amarillo and they handed us hot popcorn! Drury has 8 locations in the San Antonio area (10 if you include the Pear Tree brand too). Over the years we have stayed at several of their locations in San Antonio. Drury hotels offer free wifi, free breakfast, and an evening snack that has been our family dinner more than once!

Our most recent trip to San Antonio took us to The Crockett Hotel. We made a spur of the moment decision to go to San Antonio over President’s Day weekend and on the way there we used the Hotel Tonight app to find a room for the night. We’ve used the Hotel Tonight app several times in the past and have never been disappointed! (give it a try here: Hey! Use my code KMALLOY15 to get $25 off your first HotelTonight booking (if you spend $135 USD+). Get the app: Hotel Tonight)

The Crockett Hotel is within walking distance of Alamo square and directly across from the Riverwalk Mall. We really enjoyed the classic charm of the Crockett and the location to downtown San Antonio. The Crockett offers free wifi and a free breakfast that includes Texas shaped waffles, which were a big hit with the kids!

What to Do in San Antonio

If you’re going to be in San Antonio you must visit the Alamo! It’s literally known around the world! It’s open every day except Christmas. You can go on a guided tour or walk through on your own and look at all of the historical artifacts and mementos from the epic battle of 1836. Our kids enjoyed looking at all of the paintings, maps, and battle weapons as well as reading up on the historical information on the numerous plaques lining the grounds. And of course, a trip to the Alamo wouldn’t be complete without a stop by the gift shop!

Another one of the kids’ favorite places to visit is the Ripleys Believe It or Not Odditorium and the Louis Tussad’s waxworks museum. Both exhibits are directly across from the Alamo and kept our kids entertained for at least 2-3 hours. We started with the waxworks exhibit and the kids had a lot of fun “seeing” and taking pictures with so many famous people! There is an optional section of the waxworks exhibit that features some scarier celebrities that we did skip! If you have young kids or anyone, like me, who does not like to be scared, skip the dark scary stairs leading down!

Our kids enjoyed walking through the Odditorium as well. It’s full of artifacts and other oddities, some of which were collected by Robert Ripley himself in his multiple expeditions and world travels.

Another iconic and must do while in San Antonio is to walk or take a boat ride down the historic River Walk. The River Walk today has restaurants, stores, museums, and other entertainment venues all up and down the banks of the San Antonio River. It’s beautiful both in the daytime and at night. I especially enjoy it between Thanksgiving and New Year’s when it’s decorated for Christmas. We’ve actually made a road trip to San Antonio just to see the River Walk Christmas lights be turned on!

Go shopping at the Rivercenter Mall. If you have a shopper in your group they’re going to love the Shops at Rivercenter. There’s a giant IMAX theater, plenty of restaurants, over 100 stores to shop at, and they are currently adding more. It’s a good place to cool off during the summer and warm up in the winter. We love popping in and grabbing a bite to eat or a drink to go. The mall also hosts The Battle for Texas Experience. It’s an immersive experience museum housing hundreds of artifacts from the Alamo and Texas history. You can get a discount on a family 4 pack.

Our must on places to eat in San Antonio is Casa Rio! It was the first restaurant on the River Walk. We ate there on our honeymoon and try to stop by and eat on every trip that brings us to the downtown area of San Antonio. In fact, we have very fond memories of me, Katie, eating the “tomato salad” at Casa Rio on our honeymoon. I only thought it was a tomato salad. It was actually pico de gallo! I ended up drinking all of my water, Greg’s water, and had moved on to spoonfuls of sugar before we could get the waiters attention to please bring me some milk! LOL It’s one of those things we won’t easily forget. Thankfully I have since learned what pico de gallo looks like and I know not to mess with it!

So our favorite thing to do that is not in downtown San Antonio is to visit Guadalupe River State Park. Guadalupe River State Park is about 36 miles north of downtown San Antonio. If you stay on the north side of San Antonio it’ll take you about 30 minutes to get out to the park. We have spent several warm summer afternoons splashing around and playing in the cool waters of the Guadalupe River. The park offers hiking, biking, and camping, geocaching, and bird watching too. We’ve spent a few nights on the banks watching fireflies too. There’s nothing quite like watching the kids chasing fireflies in the summer next to the river.