#21 best destination in the world

 

Texas State Capitol, Austin

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Best time to travel: March-May, Sept-Nov
Walk difficulty: Easy
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Houses the offices and chambers of the Texas Legislature and of the Governor of Texas
  • Constructed from 1882 to 1888
  • A $75 million underground extension was completed in 1993

Hamilton Pool Preserve, Texas Hill Country

Hamilton Pool and Falls

Best time to travel: late March-April
Ease of travel: Moderate
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Natural pool that was created when the dome of an underground river collapsed due to massive erosion thousands of years ago

San Antonio River Walk

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Best time to travel: Jan-April, Nov-Dec
Walk difficulty: Easy
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • City park and network of walkways along the banks of the San Antonio River, one story beneath the streets of San Antonio, Texas.
  • Walks along the city’s five Spanish colonial missions, which have been named a World Heritage Site, including the Alamo

Alamo Mission in San Antonio

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Best time to travel: Jan-April, Nov-Dec
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Historic Spanish mission and fortress compound founded in the 18th century by Roman Catholic missionaries
  • The site of the Battle of the Alamo in 1836, where American folk heroes James Bowie and Davy Crockett died
  • One of the early Spanish missions in Texas, built for the education of local American Indians after their conversion to Christianity
  • The mission was secularized in 1793 and then abandoned

Santa Elena Canyon, Big Bend National Park

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Best time to travel: April-June, Oct-Nov
Walk difficulty: Easy
Ease of travel: Moderate
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $$

  • The Rio Grande, which meanders through this portion of the Chihuahuan Desert, has cut deep canyons with nearly vertical walls through three uplifts made primarily of limestone
  • Species that inhabit the park include cougars, coyote, roadrunner, fox, and mexican black bears
  • Big Bend has the darkest skies in the contiguous United States, and thousands of stars, bright planets, and the Milky Way are visible on clear nights

Lost Mine Trail, Big Bend National Park

Best time to travel: April-June, Oct-Nov
Walk difficulty: Moderate
Ease of travel: Moderate
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $$

  • The park named after a large bend in the Rio Grande/Río Bravo
  • Park activities include scenic drives and stargazing
  • The area has a rich history, from archeological sites dating back nearly 10,000 years to more recent pioneers, ranchers, and miners
  • Geological features in the park include sea fossils and dinosaur bones, and volcanic dikes

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Best time to travel: Feb-April, Sept-Nov
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Art museum located in Houston, and one of the largest art museums in the United States
  • The permanent collection of the museum spans more than 6,000 years of history with approximately 70,000 works from six continents
  • The largest part of the museum’s collection lie in the areas of Italian Renaissance painting, French Impressionism, photography, American and European decorative arts, African and pre-Columbian gold, American art, and post-1945 European and American painting and sculpture

Houston Museum of Natural Science

Best time to travel: Feb-April, Sept-Nov
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Natural history museum located in Houston, established in 1909
  • The museum complex consists of a central facility with four floors of natural science halls and exhibits, the Burke Baker Planetarium, the Cockrell Butterfly Center, and the Wortham Giant Screen Theatre

Dallas Museum of Art

Best time to travel: Sept-Nov
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Art museum located in Dallas, whose collection is made up of more than 24,000 objects, dating from the third millennium BC to the present day
  • It is one of the largest art museums in the United States
  • Collections include art from Africa, America, Ancient Mediterranean, Asian, Contemporary, Decorative Arts and Design, European, and Pre-Columbian/Pacific Rim

Port Aransas Beach

Best time to travel: mid March-early May, late Oct-mid Nov
Walk difficulty: Easy
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • 6-mile sandy beach area popular for surfing, swimming, and sunbathing

Guadalupe Peak, Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Best time to travel: April-June, Oct-Nov
Walk difficulty: Hard
Ease of travel: Moderate
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Highest natural point in Texas, with an elevation of 8,751 feet above sea level, located in Guadalupe Mountains National Park
  • The peak rises more than 3,000 feet above the arid floor of the Chihuahuan Desert
  • The peak can be climbed by a maintained stony trail (4.25 miles each way) with a 3,000 feet elevation gain

Space Center Houston

Best time to travel: Feb-April, Sept-Nov
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Science museum that serves as the official visitor center of NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston
  • The Johnson Space Center is the home of Mission Control and astronaut training
  • The center opened in 1992, and displays over 400 space artifacts, including the Mercury 9, Gemini 5, and Apollo 17 space capsules

Six Flags Fiesta Texas, San Antonio

Best time to travel: Jan-April, Nov-Dec
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Theme park located in San Antonio, opened in 1992, originally built to become a destination musical show park with its focus on the musical culture of the state of Texas
  • The park’s Landmark is the Scream drop tower ride which stands 205 feet tall and can be seen from all around the park as well as outside the property

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

Best time to travel: Sept-Nov
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Art museum of post-World War II art in Fort Worth, with a collection of international modern and contemporary art, founded in 1892
  • The majority of works in the collection are dated in between 1945 and present
  • Various movements, themes, and styles are represented, including abstract expressionism, color field painting, pop art, and minimalism, as well as aspects of new image painting from the 1970s and beyond, recent developments in abstraction and figurative sculpture, and contemporary movements in photography, video, and digital imagery

Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, Dallas

Best time to travel: Sept-Nov
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Museum, opened in 1989, located on the sixth floor of the Dallas County Administration Building (formerly the Texas School Book Depository) in Dallas, overlooking Dealey Plaza
  • The museum examines the life, times, death, and legacy of United States President John F. Kennedy and the life of Lee Harvey Oswald as well as the various conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination
  • The museum’s exhibition area uses historic films, photographs, artifacts, and interpretive displays to document the events of the assassination, the reports by government investigations that followed, and the historical legacy of the tragedy
  • In 1999, the Zapruder family donated the copyright to the Zapruder film to The Sixth Floor Museum, along with one of the first-generation copies made on November 22, 1963, and other copies of the film

Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth

Best time to travel: Sept-Nov
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Museum opened in 1961, located in Fort Worth, whose permanent collection features paintings, photography, sculpture, and works on paper by leading artists working in the United States and its North American territories in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
  • The greatest concentration of works falls into the period from the 1820s through the 1940s
  • The collection is particularly focused on portrayals of the Old West by Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell, artworks depicting nineteenth-century exploration and settlement of the North American continent, and masterworks that are emblematic of major turning points in American art history

National Museum of the Pacific War, Fredericksburg

Best time to travel: April-June, Oct-Nov
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Located in Fredericksburg, the boyhood home of Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz
  • Nimitz served as commander in chief, United States Pacific Fleet (CinCPAC), and was soon afterward named commander in chief, Pacific Ocean Areas, during World War II
  • The site includes the Admiral Nimitz Museum, which is housed in the old Nimitz Hotel and tells the story of Nimitz beginning with his life as a young boy through his naval career as well as the evolution of the old hotel

Chinati Foundation, Marfa

Best time to travel: March-April, Oct
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Contemporary art museum located in Marfa, and based upon the ideas of its founder, artist Donald Judd
  • It was Judd’s goal at Chinati to bring art, architecture, and nature together in order to form a coherent whole