A couple of months ago, I decided to take a day trip to Dallas, TX to enjoy some time to myself. It was such a fun and peaceful trip that I decided to take another day trip, this time to San Antonio, TX. I originally wanted take this trip back in November, but had to postpone it and April felt like the right time to make it happen.
I grew up taking trips to San Antonio with family, traveling with my high school choir, and amusement park days with friends in college. However, I haven't had a chance to check out everything the city has to offer. I also hadn't taken a trip to San Antonio solo until this day trip. Since I was going alone, I decided to challenge myself to visit at least one new location or activity in addition to revisiting a couple things I've enjoyed in past visits –– only spending $50 for the entire day trip.
Did I manage to stick to my $50 budget? Continue reading to find out!
Sunday Morning
I started my morning by waking up at 6:15 AM to be ready to drive to San Antonio at 7:00 AM. It takes just over an hour to drive to San Antonio and I wanted to get there around 8:30 AM for breakfast before starting my first activity of the day around 9:30 AM.
Breakfast at The Haven Southtown
After moving to Austin, I learned that there's an apparent "rivalry" with San Antonio for the best breakfast tacos. There are few foods in this world that I enjoy more than tacos and tacos in the form of breakfast is as ideal as food can be. As a child, I watched a show on PBS called Postcards from Buster –– a spinoff of the show Arthur. The show featured Buster traveling the United States and a few other countries to experience food and culture with one episode featuring San Antonio and a restaurant that was known at the time as Taco Haven.
A few years later on a trip to San Antonio with my family for a choral showcase that I participated in during a TCDA conference, my parents took me to the restaurant for breakfast and I knew I wanted to return one day. This day trip to San Antonio was that day! The restaurant has since changed their name to The Haven Southtown, but the food is just as good as I can remember. I ordered a chorizo con huevo taco and a migas con huevo taco. That migas taco was SO GOOD! At roughly $3 per taco and $3 for a bottle of orange juice plus tax, I spent a total of $10.57 (not including tip) at The Haven Southtown.
San Antonio Missions National Historical Park + The Alamo
As I researched free and low-cost activities to do in San Antonio, I came across the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. I didn't realize that this was even a thing, and made this my first activity of the day so I could start with a completely new experience. Plus, it's free to visit! The park opened at 9:00 AM and I made my way over there right after breakfast to be one of the first visitors of the day.
After familiarizing myself with the Historic Mission District, I decided to start at Mission San Juan where Sunday Mass was just about to end as I arrived. There are walking and bike trails that connect all of the missions, but I chose to drive to each one. This really would've been a perfect day to walk or bike to the different missions, so I will keep that activity in mind for the future when I can return with friends. There was an event at Mission Espada that left almost no parking, so I went to Mission San José and I was amazed by the size of what was left of the mission and how much more interactive the grounds were. I was able to enter different rooms and stepped briefly into the church to get a few pictures in the hour before Mass was set to start. If you keep up with my blog, you know how much I love going to museums or anything similar to a museum. Any opportunity to learn about the history of the world around me is always time well-spent in my book, and there was plenty of opportunities in the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park!
After starting my morning at the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, I drove back towards Downtown San Antonio to park near the River Walk and go to The Alamo which is part of the national park.
River Walk Parking
In an attempt to find parking along the River Walk that is close to The Alamo and close to the starting point of my third activity of the day, I chose to park at Platinum Parking Crockett Street Parking Garage. You can pull a ticket when you arrive or reserve parking ahead of time online. It cost $15 for up to 4 hours of parking. I arrived early enough to get a great parking spot and was easily able to navigate my way through the Shops at Rivercenter and to the street, but made a left turn and walked in the opposite direction away from The Alamo when I just needed to go to the right and it would have been directly in front of me.
The Alamo
I've been to The Alamo only once before and my memory of it is pretty vague because it was nearly 15 years ago. The night before my trip to San Antonio, I made sure to reserve a time to go into the Alamo Church because a reservation is required and reservations are free. However, I got there at noon and the line was already long. It really isn't any different on the inside than the missions I visited earlier (with the exception of bullet holes in walls) and I decided just to get some exterior pictures instead as the sun beamed down.
The San Antonio Missions National Historical Park cluster was far less crowded and much larger with free, easy access parking. The Alamo is most famous in the history books and gets all the attention, but I've realized there isn't a true need to go more than once. For now, I'm going to hold onto the vague memory I have from my first visit. There's currently an expansion project in the works, so I think the most opportune time to further explore The Alamo is once it's finished.
Sunday Afternoon
My afternoon was dedicated to lunch and exploring the River Walk. The restaurants and shopping are always a highlight on my River Walk promenades and it was even better during this day trip to San Antonio because it was the first time I ever went when it wasn't 90 degrees or hotter outside!
Lunch at Mengerita Tacos
Keeping with my theme of eating tacos in San Antonio, I got tacos for lunch from Mengerita Tacos. This restaurant is located in the historic Menger Hotel directly across from The Alamo. As a fast-casual lunch spot, you can enjoy tacos outside on the Alamo Plaza at their patio. I chose to eat my tacos indoors because I don't like to eat outdoors if I can help it. I ordered The San Antonio (barbacoa) and The De Zavala (fajita chicken) tacos and both were tasty! At approximately $5-$6 per taco plus $1.50 for a small fountain drink, I spent a total of $14.34 (not including tip).
Cruising the River Walk
From Mengerita Tacos, I walked through the Shops at Rivercenter and down to the River Walk to take a 30-35 minute Go Rio River Walk narrated tour. It's $14.50 + tax per ticket (comes out to $15.70) and not time or date specific when you order online, so you can get tickets at any time if you know you plan to eventually take a ride on the river. Tickets expire after one year when getting them in-person from a ticket booth. To get a sense of what lines are like at the ticket booths, I opted to get tickets in person rather than order online. The line was very short and I think I waited longer to actually purchase my ticket than I did to get on the boat. The Historia Ticket Booth was closest to The Alamo which also means it was the booth closest to where I parked at the Shops at Rivercenter –– the second largest mall in the city. I've taken this tour multiple times and it never gets old! I love seeing the artwork, the restaurants, the unique architecture of buildings lining the River Walk, that amphitheater stage that was featured in Miss Congeniality, and the iconic "Selena Bridge".
After the tour, I briefly walked around just to continue soaking in the perfect weather and see what's around. Once I was ready to head back home, I went back to the parking garage to get in my car and drive back to Austin.
Wrap-Up
First and foremost, look at maps ahead of time so you can have a general sense of direction about where you're going in San Antonio. They have this wagon wheel design for their streets and GPS doesn't always do a great job of giving you an idea of when and where to turn. However, driving in circles was to my benefit because it helped me figure out which missions I wanted to visit! It also was a good thing I figured out where to park ahead of time because I was also walking the opposite direction from The Alamo when I got to the River Walk a recognized it once I reoriented myself based on what I already knew about the map.
Second, the tacos in San Antonio are worth the drive any day of the week, but Sunday mornings are probably best to avoid traffic. There's an ongoing "I-35 Taco Battle" between Austin and San Antonio and the latter is the clear winner. San Antonio offers a greater variety of tacos that are twice the size of the ones in Austin all for the same price. I'm almost certain it's very difficult to find a bad taco in San Antonio!
So how much was my grand total for the day? In total, I spent $55.71 which is just over my $50 budget. In the end, it was a fun day of visiting San Antonio alone without breaking the bank! I'm not sure where my next day trip will be, but I'm looking forward to wherever and whenever that is!
Feel free to leave comments below, tweet (@KimiThoughts), or leave a post/message on Facebook (@KimisTravelThoughts) to share your memories from trips you've taken to San Antonio!