Family Travel

How to Make the Most of Texas Peach Season

How to Make the Most of Texas Peach Season

As summer begins, so will annual pilgrimages to roadside stands and farmers markets where popular varieties of Texas’ succulent freestone peaches arrive in successive waves through Labor Day. Those peaches set a national standard for sweet-ness, and—here’s the really good news—they are mostly reserved for Texans. Read More »

Texas Parks & Wildlife’s Texas Outdoor Family Program Caters to Rookie Campers

Texas Parks & Wildlife’s Texas Outdoor Family Program Caters to Rookie Campers

Texas Parks & Wildlife ranger Immanuel Salas assists Texas Outdoor Family campers in building a fire. Photo: Tiffany Hofeldt Read More »

Balmorhea State Park is Ready for Summer Visitors

Balmorhea State Park is Ready for Summer Visitors

Sometimes the best summer moments are unplanned—a spontaneous road trip, a lazy day at the lake, or an impromptu backyard barbecue. But some of our state’s most memorable summer diversions require advance planning. Balmorhea State Park's star attraction, the pool, reopened March 1 after being closed nearly 10 months for repairs, and visitors are already returning in droves to cool off in the aquamarine water of the world’s largest spring-fed swimming pool. Read More »

Book it to the Big Country for The Children’s Art and Literacy Festival in Abilene

Book it to the Big Country for The Children’s Art and Literacy Festival in Abilene

My children stepped foot in Abilene for the first time in their short lives last June for a quick three-night visit. Now, even though it’s been a year, mention Abilene to them and you’ll get a happy earful of stories. This fond association traces directly to the Children’s Art & Literacy Festival, an annual celebration of all things picture books. Most people know Abilene as the capital of the Big Country, a dusty railroad outpost thick with steakhouses and Churches of Christ. But for three days every June, the festival (known as CALF) cloaks downtown Abilene in an imaginative world of colorful characters and fanciful tales—and ice cream vendors aplenty. Read More »

New Virtual Batting Cages Open in Round Rock

New Virtual Batting Cages Open in Round Rock

Game days at the Dell Diamond just got more exciting with Home Run Dugout Read More »

Watch Out for Tiny ‘Fairy Shrimp’ on Your Next Hike Up Enchanted Rock

Watch Out for Tiny ‘Fairy Shrimp’ on Your Next Hike Up Enchanted Rock

Shallow pools that form after rains on the massive granite dome north of Fredericksburg are among the few places where fairy shrimp are found in Texas. Growing about a centimeter long, the translucent freshwater crustaceans exist on the constant edge of survival, laying eggs that endure the dry season only to hatch when the pools refill with rainwater. Read More »

Family Friendly Spring Break in San Antonio

Family Friendly Spring Break in San Antonio

A San Antonio spring break may conjure images of theme parks and a barge ride along the Paseo del Río, and certainly, those are a few options for family fun, but the city’s new attractions and hidden treasures offer alternative adventures worth exploring. Some are decidedly urban—museums and chef-driven restaurants—while others bring you right into a natural oasis just south of downtown. But all dot the banks of the San Antonio River, the city’s lifeblood for centuries. Read More »

10 Tips for Big Bend  First-Timers

10 Tips for Big Bend First-Timers

Plan to spend at least a few days in the park. You could visit for one day, but why do that when you’ve probably already driven at least a day to get there? Read More »

Ditch the Survival Skills With These 3 Easy Ways to Explore Big Bend National Park

Ditch the Survival Skills With These 3 Easy Ways to Explore Big Bend National Park

BIG BEND National Park can be intimidating. Countless photographs behold the region’s undeniable grandeur, its spectacular amalgam of desert, mountain, river, and sky. But the images also convey vast emptiness—16th-century Spanish explorers dubbed this territory el despoblado, “the uninhabited.” And those scenic photos often overlook the granular details, where scorpions, thorns, snakes, sunburns, and blisters reside. So it’s understandable when the uninitiated knit their brows at the thought of Big Bend, weighing a vacation experience against fears of a survival exercise in the Chihuahuan Desert borderlands. Read More »

Fossils Tell a Story of Vanished Worlds in Big Bend National Park

Fossils Tell a Story of Vanished Worlds in Big Bend National Park

The northbound road through Big Bend National Park winds between scab-colored volcanic hills and the baking white flats of the Chihuahuan Desert. During the day, little moves out here but the wind; the heat presses down heavy and hard on the rock shelves. The landscape feels frozen, dry, and dead. In a word, timeless. Read More »

12 Texas Trips for 2019

12 Texas Trips for 2019

A new year and an empty calendar. Does inspiration know any finer muse? When it comes to travel, the arrival of January fuels daydreams of adventures and far-flung exploration—at least it does in the halls of a travel magazine. Here we explore 12 new and evolving travel opportunities across Texas, everything from cold springs to hot fiddling and craft beer to modern art. And with the exception of two—McAllen’s MXLAN festival in July and the Festival of Texas Fiddling in December—these ideas aren’t tied to a specific date, making them worthy of a trip any time of year. Start marking up that calendar now. Read More »

The Presnall-Watson Homestead in San Antonio Welcomes Hikers, Bikers, and Equestrians

The Presnall-Watson Homestead in San Antonio Welcomes Hikers, Bikers, and Equestrians

Aseemingly incongruous site greets Saturday afternoon visitors at the Presnall-Watson Homestead, a rambling 19th-century farmhouse along the Medina River in south San Antonio. Kids on bicycles kick out tricks as horseback riders in cowboy regalia round the corner, creating a surprising mash-up of three centuries crammed into one. Read More »

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