A Weekend Getaway in the Central Texas Hamlet of La Grange
April 15, 2024 | By
March 19, 2024 | By Cat Cardenas
February 14, 2024 | By Luis G. Rendon
October 24, 2023 | By Michael Corcoran
September 19, 2023 | By Sarah Thurmond
May 30, 2023 | By Clayton Maxwell
February 28, 2023 | By Melissa Gaskill
November 23, 2022 | By June Naylor
October 27, 2022 | By Matt Joyce
August 25, 2022 | By Paul McDonnold
June 30, 2022 | By Kathryn Jones
May 26, 2022 | By Sarah Thurmond
April 28, 2022 | By Jacqueline Knox
March 24, 2022 | By Laurel Miller
January 27, 2022 | By John Nova Lomax
October 28, 2021 | By June Naylor
September 23, 2021 | By Kimya Kavehkar
December 21, 2020 | By June Naylor
It’s rarely too chilly for a stroll by the sea. Even during the winter, the Texas Gulf Coast enjoys mild weather on most days.
February 27, 2020 | By Kimya Kavehkar
January 30, 2020 | By John Lumpkin
December 27, 2019 | By Jen Hamilton Hernandez
November 27, 2019 | By June Naylor
October 29, 2019 | By Dan Oko
The southern span of the Post Oak Savannah in East Texas evolved out of ancient woodlands of oak and hickory that once stretched from Canada to Central America.
September 30, 2019 | By Daniel Blue Tyx
The Texas Butterfly Festival promises visitors “the best butterflying in America.” It might seem like hyperbole were the claim not backed up by the fact that the Rio Grande Valley contains a greater diversity of butterflies than anywhere else in the country—more than 300 species and counting, or roughly 40 percent of the butterflies in North America. You can see a great deal of them at the festival, which takes place the first week of November at the National Butterfly Center in Mission. All of those butterflies—condensed within a region that’s easy to traverse over a weekend—make a fall tour of the Valley a must-do on any Texas bucket list
August 29, 2019 | By Clayton Maxwell
Lubbock may not be the first city that comes to mind when considering the arts in Texas, but maybe it should be. The High Plains town that nurtured many of Texas’ most exalted musicians—Buddy Holly, Waylon Jennings, Joe Ely, Terry Allen, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore to name a few—must have some creative fairy dust blowing through its Caprock winds. The visual arts are now finding fertile soil here, too. Just walk through the galleries and workshops of the Lubbock Cultural District, and you’ll get a whiff of the artistic freedom inspired by the city’s wide-open spaces and 265 days of sunshine a year—a freedom that also comes from a cost-of-living low enough that artists don’t sweat the rent. Like the wildly spinning wind turbines you pass on the drive into town, the “Hub City” is generating energy worthy of attention. If you are one of those travelers who buzzes through Lubbock on your way to New Mexico or Colorado, consider staying for the weekend to see what you’re missing.
July 31, 2019 | By Alex Temblador
Growing up in Wichita Falls, I noticed my hometown didn’t attract many visitors. Downtown was full of empty aging buildings. Restaurants opened and closed every other year, and stores in the mall changed constantly—none offering the fashionable choices found in bigger cities like Dallas. Locals were content with driving more than two hours to Dallas for entertainment or one hour north to Oklahoma to
June 24, 2019 | By Michael Corcoran
Seguin’s mix of Hispanic and Czech/German culture can be heard in the Mexican polka “Viva Seguin,” made famous in the early ’40s by Santiago Jiménez Sr. It’s an instrumental about a lyrical town, with a beat everyone can dance to.
June 4, 2019 | By John Lumpkin
Could there be a better way to experience a town comprised of at least 70 percent saltwater than to get to the water as fast as you can? With 41 square miles of Redfish Bay inside its city limits, Aransas Pass offers just that—
a self-described “Saltwater Heaven” building on its revival after Hurricane Harvey’s destruction in 2017.
April 30, 2019 | By Matt Joyce
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.
February 19, 2019 | By Allison McNearney
Founded in 1872 by the Houston and Texas Central Railway, Ennis is a product of two pillars of Texas’ 19th-century economy: cotton and the railroad. While Ellis County is no longer a top cotton producer, the railroad still plays a role in connecting Ennis’ thriving manufacturing industry with the world.
January 28, 2019 | By Daniel Blue Tyx
The business loop of US 77 running through Harlingen is called Sunshine Strip, and the name couldn’t be more accurate. Harlingen boasts February highs of around 73 degrees and an average of only three days of rain for the entire month. For decades, snowbirds from across the United States and Canada have made the city a winter home; the airport even has seasonal direct flights from Minneapolis, Chicago, and Denver.
December 21, 2018 | By Paula Disbrowe
Located in the heart of Texas, just off I-35 between Waco and Austin, Bell County is far enough from hipster joints and the urban hustle to provide a dose of small-town Texas—but close enough for a weekend getaway. For barbecue enthusiasts, Belton’s stellar smoked meat purveyors provide reason enough to exit the interstate. But the area’s appeal goes well beyond brisket: There is camping, fishing, and boating on Lake Belton; hiking in state parks; craft beer, and a free-spirited creative community; and plenty of shopping in nearby Salado. It’s a diverse community where the camouflage population of Fort Hood intermingles with co-eds.
Early on, Belton’s location on Nolan Creek fueled its growth. In the 1870s, most businesses were devoted to cotton and the numerous cattle drives on the Chisholm Trail. After a fire destroyed Belton’s business district in 1879, locals rallied to build the town’s first cottonseed oil mill (and more gins to follow). The best way to appreciate the area’s charms and understand its rich history is to spend a weekend soaking it all up.
October 30, 2018 | By Michael Corcoran
When you’re known as “the birthplace of Texas freedom,” you have a lot to live up to. Gonzales doesn’t disappoint, celebrating its past like Austin does its live music scene. This town of 7,628 has the only state-designated Texas History Museum District, plus there’s a Pioneer Village of cabins, blacksmith shops, a barn, a church, and a smokehouse that embodies the 1800s. A few miles outside of town, a monument marks the site of the battlefield where the first shots of the Texas Revolution were fired in 1835. The actual cannon is on display at the Gonzales Memorial Museum; flags depicting it with the defiant “Come and Take It!” slogan, which taunted Mexican troops, are omnipresent reminders that Gonzales might as well be nicknamed the “Live Texas History Capital of the World.”