Things to Do in San Antonio: Tours, Tickets & Day Trips

Ranked by traveller reviews: 1) a city tour with the Alamo and a River Walk cruise, 2) the haunted ghost bus tour, 3) the haunted history ghost walk past the Menger Hotel and the Alamo, 4) the Hopscotch immersive art experience, 5) the San Antonio Zoo and Brackenridge Park, 6) the hop-on-hop-off trolley, 7) the small-group World Heritage Missions tour, 8) the downtown and River Walk walking tour, 9) Natural Bridge Caverns and 10) the Hill Country and Fredericksburg excursion.

Plan two to three days. Day one: the Alamo first thing (reserve the free timed ticket), a River Walk boat cruise, lunch on the river, La Villita and Hemisfair, the Tower of the Americas at sunset and the Pearl District. Day two: Mission San José’s visitor centre and church in the morning, cycle or drive the Mission Reach to Concepción, San Juan and Espada, Market Square for lunch, the McNay or Witte Museum, then the San Fernando Cathedral light show and a ghost tour. Day three: Natural Bridge Caverns and the Wildlife Ranch, SeaWorld, or Fredericksburg’s wineries.

The Alamo church and grounds, the four Spanish missions (San José is the ‘Queen of the Missions’), the entire River Walk including the Museum and Mission reaches, the Japanese Tea Garden and Brackenridge Park, the Pearl District, Market Square, La Villita, the Yanaguana Garden at Hemisfair, the King William historic district, the Southtown First Friday art walk, the ‘San Antonio: The Saga’ projection on San Fernando Cathedral (Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 9pm), the San Antonio Botanical Garden’s free days and the Blue Star Arts Complex galleries.

Fredericksburg and the Hill Country wineries (75 minutes; tours from about $85), Natural Bridge Caverns and the Wildlife Ranch (30 minutes), Gruene and New Braunfels for river tubing and the oldest dance hall in Texas (40 minutes), Bandera, the ‘cowboy capital’ (one hour), Austin (90 minutes), Enchanted Rock (90 minutes), Lost Maples in autumn (two hours) and the Guadalupe River’s swimming holes. Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels is the classic summer day out.

Dinner on the River Walk followed by a lit-up boat cruise, the San Fernando Cathedral’s ‘Saga’ light show, a ghost bus or the haunted walk past the Menger Hotel and the Alamo, the Pearl District’s bars and Hotel Emma, the St. Mary’s Strip for live music, a Spurs game at the Frost Bank Center, the Majestic Theatre, Southtown’s First Friday, the Tower of the Americas at night and, during Fiesta in April, ten days of parades and river floats.

Winter is mild (highs around 65°F) and the River Walk’s holiday lights — two million of them from late November to early January, with the Ford Holiday River Parade — are the city’s prettiest season. The Alamo, the missions and the museums are crowd-free, the Spurs play at home, the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo runs for three weeks in February, and Fredericksburg’s German Christmas market is an hour away.

SeaWorld San Antonio and Six Flags Fiesta Texas, the DoSeum children’s museum, the San Antonio Zoo and the miniature train in Brackenridge Park, the Witte Museum’s dinosaurs, the River Walk boat cruise, the Alamo, Natural Bridge Caverns and the drive-through Wildlife Ranch, the Tower of the Americas, Hopscotch’s interactive rooms, Morgan’s Wonderland, the Japanese Tea Garden’s koi and waterfalls and Schlitterbahn in summer.

March to May, when the weather is warm and Fiesta San Antonio fills ten days in April, and October to November. Late November to early January is lovely for the River Walk lights. Summer is hot (highs near 100°F) with the theme parks in full swing; winter is mild and quiet.

Yes — the 35-minute narrated cruise through the horseshoe bend of the River Walk is the best introduction to the city, cheap (a few dollars from the Go Rio docks at the Shops at Rivercenter and Aztec Theatre, or included in most city tours) and prettiest in the evening when the lights come on. Combine it with the free Alamo and a River Walk dinner for the classic first night.