San Antonio, Texas

Just look for the key under the rock.

From South Padre Island we traveled the four and a half hours to San Antonio. This time we found a rest area with very, nice clean restrooms. And it does indeed rain in Texas, since we drove through some hard rain today, but it had stopped by the time we got to our Air BnB in San Antonio and the rest of our time there was sunny and beautiful. 

Our Air BnB here was owned by a corporation, not by a single owner and it showed. There were no personal touches in the place at all, just a lot of white, modern and minimalistic. I am not saying it was a bad choice, but the kitchen didn't even have a dish cloth or towel. There were two 65-inch TVs and a very comfy bed so no complaints there. It was also extremely clean, always a plus. It was located in a condo complex in the Blue Star Arts district. There was street parking, but we did have to call in each day to let someone know we were parking there to avoid a ticket. Another odd thing was that the key fob was located underneath a rock in front of the building. They sent us a picture of the rock. We did have trouble with that fob at one point and we left the condo unlocked after that. The entire complex was gated, and our fob worked on that gate, so we were pretty confident no one was going to break into our condo. And aside from the TVs there was nothing to take.

The Blue Star Arts District was a great place to stay. It was within walking distance of the famous Riverwalk which we could follow all the way to downtown. There were numerous restaurants and bars in the area, too. The Hop-on, Hop-off Trolley also had a stop right near the condo for those times we didn't feel like walking the 2 miles on the Riverwalk.

The San Antonio River Walk is a very well-known attraction. It is a man-made drainage system that winds to and through the bustling downtown area, lined with shops, hotels, restaurants and bars, all with access to the River Walk. In keeping with our custom, there are many public restrooms along the walk as well.  

 

  

The River Walk ultimately lead to the Alamo. While we understand the significance and the origin, etc., we found the free museum underwhelming. There were some attractions that included a fee, including a guided tour.  

We highly recommend the hop on/hop off trolley tour of San Antonio. We bought our ticket at a kiosk downtown with a very helpful woman. She patiently answered our questions and suggested that we buy a boat ride on the famous riverwalk boats along with our trolley ticket, it was a two for one ticket so very affordable. She also told us exactly where to catch both the boat and the trolley. Both tours were so informative and fun.

We also went up in the Tower of America which is a large tower much like the space needle in Seattle. There is a restaurant and bar one floor below the lookout deck. You are able to go out on the deck and get beautiful views of San Antonio.

We walked the Riverwalk many times while in San Antonio and wanted to share a few more photos with you. It really is such a beautiful walk and each time we travelled on it, we saw new, different things.

On our trolley tour we had learned of a Mexican Market that looked interesting so the next day we took the trolley back to the market and enjoyed shopping for some authentic Mexican items. It was a very colorful place as would be expected. (The trolley ticket was good for two days)

There were also some old, lovely, historical neighborhoods surrounding the Riverwalk. The closest to our condo was the King William. We took advantage of that proximity and, of course, took photos.

A mural near our condo:

This brings an end to our tour of San Antonio. We really enjoyed the beauty we found here and think it ia wll worth a trip. We said Goodbye to Texas and started our trip North.