San Antonio is a beautiful city with a plethora of history, art, and great BBQ. I had an opportunity to visit this past spring and had an amazing time in the city. There are so many free things to see and do, it’s an easy town for a 2 Day, $200 vacation!
The well known Riverwalk shows off this vibrant, revitalized city. With it’s beautiful walkways and bridges, it winds thru the downtown area and is lined with many shops, restaurants, and hotels. There’s even an outdoor theater and a few museums along the path. Not pictured, but I spent a couple hours at the Briscoe Western Art Museum (Free Tues 4-9pm) that resides along the Riverwalk and saw some exquisite representations of the art and history of the American West. One of the more touristy things I did was take a boat ride on the river with Rio San Antonio Cruises: a 35 min narrated, guided boat tour sharing the history and culture around the river.
Cost: $10 (River Cruise ) / FREE (Briscoe Western Art Museum on Tues evening)
North and south of the main downtown portion of the Riverwalk are the Museum Reach (north) and Mission Reach (south). I took a walk along the Museum Reach and got to see a number of various art installations that lined the path (most notable: F.I.S.H. – a school of fishes hanging under freeway underpass that light up at night!), murals, and plazas. You can also watch the water taxis go thru the locks, for a little old-school technical geekery.
Cost: FREE
Of course, you must Remember The Alamo! This historic site, a Spanish mission turned fortress is most widely known for The Battle of the Alamo (Dec 1835), when volunteer soldiers occupied the fort in the early stages of Texas’ war for independence from Mexico.
Cost = FREE (there are donation boxes if you’d like to contribute to the upkeep of the grounds and facilities.)
My surprise find of the trip was The San Antonio Library! The Central branch (600 Soledad St) is a beautiful, artful building that houses a gallery, multiple statues and it’s very own Chihuly Glass sculpture! I really enjoyed seeing the artwork here and walking the grounds outside. They have an amazing collection inside & out.
Cost: FREE
San Antonio has a beautiful Japanese Tea Garden, located in Brackenridge Park that is free to visit. You can walk thru the trails, around the water, and the historic pagoda. Developed in 1840, it was managed for many years (1919-1941) by the family of Kimi and Miyoshi Jingu. However, in response to anti-Japanese sentiment during WWII, the family was removed from the grounds and the name changed to “Chinese Tea Garden” in an attempt to prevent vandalism. In 1984, the name was restored to the Japanese Tea Garden. Brackenridge Park has many walking trails and is home to the San Antonio Zoo. If you have kids: be sure to check out the train rides! I didn’t do either the zoo or train, but I did enjoy a lovely walk thru the park after visiting the Japanese Tea Garden.
Cost: FREE
There was SO much street art in San Antonio! I was able to find all of these interesting gems just by walking around the downtown area near the riverwalk and the library.
Cost: FREE
San Antonio has some amazing food – there was so much to explore here! A few of the stops I made included: Smoke Shack was an amazing little BBQ I found after my walk thru Brackenridge Park – great service and fantastic food! I found a couple fun choices for my afternoon ice cream treat: The House, Boozy Ice Cream, and Brews (yes, it’s alcohol infused ice cream!) and Lick Honest Ice Creams. Coffee and breakfast at the Ocho in Hotel Havana. And, Boudro’s on the Riverwalk: I came here on the advice of a friend who highly recommended the Prickly Pear Margarita! She has good taste, so I knew I couldn’t go wrong and it was delightful! Not Pictured, but worth the visit was the Mexican street food by Chef Johnny Hernandez at La Gloria!
Here’s my itinerary, plus some of the other places you can choose to see when you visit:
My biggest savings came by sitting thru 2 hr timeshare presentation in exchange for $200 Amex Card and $100 hotel voucher. For the record, I did tell them when I was first offered it that I wasn’t interested or in the market for a timeshare, but they said that didn’t matter, so I agreed to attend the presentation. It was an interesting experience, they did a very hard sell with multiple people talking to me, and they did make me sit there for the whole 2 hours. But, I kept saying “No, thank you” firmly and politely. In the end, they did give me my Amex Card (which I used to pay for the hotel) and my hotel voucher, which I’ll use on another trip. However, it would be easy to replicate my trip without the presentation – a recent web search found more than a dozen hotels in the downtown area priced between $47-100/night.
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Visiting other areas of Texas? Check out this Perfect Three Day Guide to Austin for another place to visit!
A reminder, all links are for your convenience only, I am not an affiliate of any company and do not make money off recommending them. I just want to make it easy for you to find them if you’re interested!
Love that there’s alot of free things to do in San Antonio ! =p
Free things are the best when traveling!
I always wanted to check out San Antonio when I get to Texas (eventually), but to do it on $200 in two days then I am gamed! Loving the photos on this post and looks like the city has some history there also. (I want to go there because I heard the beer here is better than in houston or dallas) 😛
I would absolutely believe the beer is better there! There is a lot more history there than you’d expect, so that was a fun surprise. Glad you liked the photos, thank you!
The library is so cool there, did not expect it to be like that at all 🙂 Really like how you break down your spendings, really good to show that you can travel on a budget.
And the graffiti makes the city look so trendy and cool! Very instagrammable place haha.
Between the street art and Riverwalk, there are a lot of Instagram spots!
As a Brit I must admit I have never heard of San Antonio before… but wow it looks great! I would love to see the sculptures in the library as well as the wonderful Japanese Garden. Thanks for sharing and expanding my knowledge of US geography 😀
So glad I could show you a new town! I think the Japanese Garden was the biggest surprise, a very unexpected find.
San Antonio is surely a beautiful place. Nice to see so many places so the list where the Cost is Free. Thanks for sharing!
San antonio looks like a great place for a weekend visit!
Love the concept of getting around for a couple days – amazing to see how much you can do in such a short period of time. Haven’t been to Texas yet but San Antonio looks like a cool place to add to a road trip with lots to do. Clever way to get your hotel paid for. Happy travels.
It would definitely a great please to include on a road trip!
San Antonio looks so colourful and vibrant. It also has an old world charm which makes it so endearing. The Alama with its history and aura of intrigue is a place I would love to experience. The street art is another thing that had my attention riveted. So many sights and experiences to enjoy in two days and that too on a budget. Definitely the makings of a great vacation.
There was such a variety of things to do here, it’s a great place for a vacation! The Alamo was indeed a lovely experience and interesting history lesson.
It’s amazing how much there is to see – and do – in San Antonio, I had no idea. I’ve never been to Texas but would really like to see it since I think it’s completely different from the regions I’ve visited in the US. So good to know that I should put San Antonio on my list. I didn’t expect it to be so cozy – along the riverwalk – and so artsy – the streetart looks great. And Chihuly?! I love his art! And isn’t the horse by Fernando Botero?
Yes, it is! It’s called Caballo Tamaño Grande and he sculpted it in 2008.
Wow, you really got your monies worth here. I would love to visit the site of the Alamo, what an incredibly historic and fascinating place to see.