San Antonio River Walk
The San Antonio River Walk is a made up of a network of cypress-lined paved paths, quaint stone bridges and lush landscapes that gently wind through the city, offering both locals and visitors a chance to take in the beautiful natural scenery and soak up the city views. The pathway runs along the San Antonio River, which symbolizes the heart and soul of the city and gives access to several of San Antonio's top attractions, restaurants, hotels and other forms of entertainment. The River Walk features a section called The Museum Reach, which is a 1.33-mile extension that hosts a range of visual and audiovisual works of art, terraces landscapes with native plants and pedestrian access to the San Antonio Museum of Art and the historic Pearl Brewery complex. Visitors can explore the San Antonio River Walk by foot or bicycle, using the city’s bike-share program known as B-Cycle.
The Alamo
The Alamo Mission in San Antonio is commonly called The Alamo and was originally known as Misión San Antonio de Valero. It was founded in the 18th century as a Roman Catholic mission and fortress compound, and today is part of the San Antonio Missions World Heritage Site in San Antonio, Texas, United States. It was the site of the Battle of the Alamo in 1836, and is now a museum in the Alamo Plaza Historic District.
San Antonio Zoo
With more than 8,500 animals on 56 acres, there's plenty of fun for the whole family. The San Antonio Zoo was first established with a donation from George W. Brackenridg in the 1800s. Two of the first cageless exhibits in the U.S. opened here in 1929 and the bird collection is one of the world's largest.
The zoo's annual attendance exceeds 1,000,000. It also runs non-animal attractions, such as the 2 ft (610 mm) narrow gauge San Antonio Zoo Eagle train ride, which first opened in 1956 and utilizes three Chance Rides C.P. Huntington locomotives.
Bandera Texas Day Trip
Bandera is on State Highway 16 fifty miles northwest of San Antonio in east central Bandera County. A townsite plat for the settlement, designated county seat at the formation of Bandera County in 1856, was filed with the first county commissioners' court that year by John James, Charles DeMontel,qqv and John Herndon. The site, on a cypress-lined bend of the Medina River, had been occupied by Indians, then by white campers making shingles. The town and county were named for nearby Bandera Pass. The founders formed a partnership in 1853 to build a town and water-powered lumber mill. They recruited immigrant workers from Upper Silesia by way of the Polish colony in Karnes County. These workers arrived in 1855, and each family received purchase rights to town lots and farmland.
McNay Art Museum
The McNay is easily San Antonio’s most beautiful museum, and although the average guest’s age at the annual galas hovers near August temps, view this not as a problem, but an opportunity. Get your friends in on the ground floor now, and y’all could be running the board in a decade. The original building, the barely modified 1920s Spanish Colonial Revival home of its namesake heiress and arts patron, and the new Jean-Paul Viguier-designed addition, sit on 23 acres of sculpture-dotted rolling green in the heart of Alamo Heights/Terrell Hills. Modern masterpieces by the greats, from Gauguin to Renoir to O’Keeffe (and including a significant Picasso collage) are still the heart of the collection, but the sharp eye of Chief Curator Rene Barilleaux is shaping the growing post World War II collection to fit the light-filled new wing. The McNay also has a notable collection of works on paper, including prints by Goya, Picasso, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Jasper Johns, and an outstanding theater-arts collection and library.
Natural Bridge Caverns & Canopy Challenge
Come on down (way down) at the largest underground attraction in Texas! Daily guided tours allow guests to explore large underground chambers and see huge formations. The largest room is bigger than a football field. Above ground, discover rocks, minerals, and rough-cut gems at the Natural Bridge Mining Company Sluice. The Canopy Challenge will test your agility on over 40 different obstacles while you are on our 4 story, 60 foot high Adventure Course. Then you can fly across the scenic Texas Hill Country on our zip-lines! (Canopy Challenge is open daily but weather dependent.)