A couple of weeks ago, we hightailed out of the snowy northeast and headed towards warmer weather in Texas. Now we know that Texas isn’t known as a famous spring break destination. But, guess what? It should be.
From feasting on delicious gas station tacos to strolling along San Antonio’s Riverwalk, we had one amazing experience after another. And now we are sharing all of our recommendations. We’ll tell you about our time in Hill Country and Burleson where we enjoyed cities, historical sites, state parks, and more.
Segment One: Hill Country, Texas
Our first stop in Texas was Hill Country. We stayed at the Jellystone Park Hill Country for 5 days, and it was the perfect basecamp for exploring the region. You can check out our complete review of the campground here.
But our first really amazing Texas experience actually took place before we even arrived in Hill Country. Turns out everything really is bigger and better in the Lonestar State. Including gas stations.
That’s right. A gas station was our first off the hook Texas experience. People told us that Buc’ees was unlike any other gas station out there. But we had to see it for ourselves to understand why folks go gaga over this place. Let’s talk about the bathrooms. They’ve actually won awards for cleanliness. Seriously…look it up. Then there’s the food. Tacos, pulled pork, brisket, and a jerky bar for starters. There’s also a fudge bar, and the legendary Beaver Nuggets. All our Texas people told us we would fall in love…and we sure did.
We did do more than eat at gas station rest stops during our time in Hill Country. Here’s a brief overview of our highlights. You can listen to the podcast episode to hear more details about each location.
San Antonio
San Antonio may have been our favorite stop of the whole Texas trip. The Alamo was a memorable experience for the whole family, but ONLY because we did the guided tour. We highly recommend it, even though the guide told us it wasn’t kid friendly. You know what’s not kid friendly? Reading a bunch of plaques on crumbling, old walls. The tour brought the location to life and taught us so much about Texan history. We also had a lovely afternoon strolling along the Riverwalk. This place certainly falls into the category of really touristy things that you should not miss.
Fredericksburg
We were lucky enough to have Kate Dunbar give us a personal tour of the Fredericksburg area during our visit. If you missed it, Kate did a whole podcast episode on Fredericksburg a little while ago, and you can see all her recommendations here. Our day consisted of a visit to Wildseed Farms to soak in the wildflower beauty, and then lunch and shopping in downtown Fredericksburg. Our boys begged to go to the National Museum of the Pacific War, and we ended up spending hours in this phenomenal place.
Austin
Our listeners know we never travel anywhere without our Road Food book, so we had to check out Huts Hamburgers while in downtown Austin. We also bought a fair amount of reading material at BookPeople. And maybe a whoopee cushion or two at ToyJoy. It was hard to pick just one food truck park when there are so many in to choose from in Austin. We ended up at The Picnic where we stocked up on birthday treats from Hey Cupcake.
Segment Two: North Texas
After 5 days in Hill Country we headed up to the North Texas Jellystone in Burleson, just a bit outside Fort Worth. We expected to spend most of our time here at the campground, but there were so many awesome things to check out in the nearby area.
Downtown Burleson
We basically ate our way through downtown Burleson even though we were only at the North Texas Jellystone for four nights. We had the best queso of our trip at Frescos Cocina Mexicana. Takeout from Babe’s Chicken Dinner House was to die for. The Old Texas Brewing Company served up some mean BBQ. And Dwell Coffee and Biscuits sorted us all out in the early morning hours.
Dinosaur Valley State Park
After exploring a lot of urban areas at the beginning of our trip, we were all in the mood for some fresh air and a hike. We are so very grateful that local listeners recommended Dinosaur Valley State Park. Yes, it was pretty cool to see the fossilized dinosaur footprints in the river beds. But besides that, the whole park was just beautiful. We spent hours hiking along the river and splashing in the water.
The Stockyards
The Stockyards was just a day of good Texas fun. If you want to be transported back to the ole west, this is where to go. We took a great walking tour of the Stockyards and learned all about the Chisholm Trail and how Longhorn cattle came to be associated with Texas. After all that learning, we shopped at the Stockyard Station and then watched the daily cattle drive go right through the street. We certainly felt like we were deep in the heart of Texas.
Texas certainly welcomed us with wide open arms, and we had more fun than we ever imagined on our 10-day tour. Now we just have to figure out when we get to go back and see all the stuff we missed.
Make sure to check out Campground of the Week to listen to reviews of the two Jellystone Parks we stayed at during our visit. We couldn’t be happier that the Jellystone Camping Season Kickoff brought us to Texas for our spring break.
Other resources mentioned in this episode:
On this episode of RV Family Travel Atlas, we inducted a new item into the RVFTA Gear Hall of Fame: the Motorola Talkabout Radios MH230R. We have personally owned these since 2015, and use them on virtually every camping trip. We originally got them to communicate with our two older boys, who were getting big enough to make short trips to the playground or camp store by themselves. But they are also handy for a bazillion other camping related situations.
Some couples use them to communicate while backing the RV into a campsite. We love them when we’re camping in a location without cell service. And they are even perfect for when you put the kids to bed and want to hang out at the campfire with friends. Overall, these walkie talkies have been a great value for how much we have used (and abused) them over the last three years.
Thanks for coming on a tour of Texas with us!
We’ll see you at the campground,
Stephanie + Jeremy
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