Jump to a day
Stops, in order
An oil-boom Art Deco city on Route 66 — a spectacular new riverfront park, a villa art museum, and the Greenwood district's hard, essential history.
The capital of the Sooner State — a moving memorial to the 1995 bombing, a great cowboy museum, and a working stockyards.
The Metroplex — Dallas's gleaming arts district and the site of the Kennedy assassination, and Fort Worth's genuine cowtown with a twice-daily cattle drive and a jewel-box art museum.
A friendly stop on I-35 — the Magnolia empire of 'Fixer Upper' fame, a Columbian mammoth dig, and the birthplace of Dr Pepper.
Texas's capital and the self-styled Live Music Capital of the World — the biggest statehouse in the country, a spring-fed swimming hole, a bridge full of bats, and the best barbecue anywhere. A full, fun stay.
The Space City — NASA's Mission Control, a superb museum district, the meditative Rothko Chapel, and some of the most diverse food in America.
A historic Gulf island — Victorian mansions, a pleasure pier, wide beaches, and the memory of the deadliest disaster in American history.
The Sparkling City by the Sea — an aircraft carrier, a Gulf aquarium, and the longest undeveloped barrier island on earth.
The Alamo City — the shrine of Texas independence, the beloved River Walk, and a chain of Spanish colonial missions that are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Hill Country's lake district — a constant-level lake in a granite basin, a river-carved cavern that was a Confederate powder mill and later a dance hall, and the pink granite quarry that built the Texas Capitol.
German Texas in the middle of the Hill Country — a main street of biergartens and peach stands, the best World War II museum in the country, and a bald granite dome to climb at sunset.
One of America's wildest, least-visited parks — mountains, canyons, and the Rio Grande under some of the darkest skies in the country — plus the improbable high-desert art town of Marfa.
The far western tip of Texas, twinned with Juárez across the Rio Grande — a binational border culture, mountain views, and the oldest mission in the state.
The roof of Texas — an ancient fossil reef rising from the desert, the state's highest peak, and a canyon that blazes with fall color. The last stop before New Mexico.