Our writers-at-large have clocked countless hours and hundreds of thousands of miles exploring Texas in their more than 85 collective years writing about the state. Their expertise is put to good use in this month’s cover story (Page 42) on what to do and where to go in 2022 for our annual travel bucket list. In addition to their 22 expert picks, I asked them to share their personal travel resolutions for the new year:
Roberto José Andrade Franco: I enjoy a good cigar. Often, when visiting family, I would go with my brother and father to Vitola’s—a cigar lounge in downtown El Paso that also has over 100 different brands of whiskey. It’s been too long since we’ve been there, so I hope to return sometime in 2022.
John Nova Lomax: As a fan of architecture and Texas history with an appreciation for the spooky and macabre, a weekend in the Quarters at Presidio La BahÃa checks a lot of boxes for me. And maybe, just maybe, I could conjure tragic Col. [James] Fannin’s ghost and ask him what the heck he was thinking with all that lethal dithering.
Clayton Maxwell: Last year I tried to hike the South Rim in Big Bend but couldn’t finish because I was still fatigued after a bad case of COVID-19. In 2022 I’m going back, now stronger and with my daughter, and we are going to complete that spectacular loop.
Joe Nick Patoski: There is nothing like a cruise along a Texas highway—especially a road some distance from the cities and suburbs—to clear the head and get the mind wandering. There’s some consensus State Highway 16 is the state’s most scenic highway, and while I’ve driven most of it in small chunks, I’d really like to cruise the entire 541 mile stretch from Zapata to just south of Wichita Falls.
Emily Roberts Stone
Editor in Chief