10 Best Places to Visit in Texas For A Memorable Vacation

From Austin’s music scene to Big Bend’s wild beauty, discover the best places to visit in Texas for your next epic vacation this year.

Texas hit me like a plot twist. I thought I knew what I was getting (tumbleweeds, cowboys, maybe a country song or two?) and then I ended up in a museum that looked like a spaceship, talking about modern art with a man in snakeskin boots. That’s how Texas works.

I’ve driven it end to end, sometimes for work, sometimes for an excuse to eat brisket four times a day. Somewhere between the Hill Country’s vineyards and the Gulf’s humidity, I stopped trying to make sense of it and started enjoying the beautiful mix of it all.

So if you’re figuring out the best places to visit in Texas, or plotting where to go for a Texas vacation that’s equal parts music, desert, and perfectly smoked meat, this list is a good place to start.

Bring sunscreen and leave room for tacos.

Before you start packing snacks and arguing over playlists, here’s a map. Texas isn’t necessarily a state you “swing through”, you cross it deliberately, with patience, a plan and a full tank. This map lays out all ten stops from west to east, so you can actually see how far apart everything is and maybe accept that in Texas, a “quick drive” can still take half a day.

1. Big Bend National Park

The thing about Big Bend is that you start driving toward it thinking you’re doing a normal road trip, and then at some point you realize you’ve accidentally entered a National Geographic spread. It’s enormous, nearly a million acres of desert, canyons and mountains pressed up against the Rio Grande.

You can hike the Santa Elena Canyon, where cliffs rise like giant bookends and the river divides Texas and Mexico in a single glittering line. Or you can drive the Ross Maxwell Scenic Road, a name that doesn’t begin to prepare you for what’s ahead, meaning vistas so vast you’ll start questioning what “scenic” even means.

Come sunset, pull over anywhere and wait. The desert turns gold, then pink, then that dark that makes city dwellers whisper, “Oh, so that’s what stars look like”.

Big Bend isn’t easy to reach but that’s its best feature. For anyone outdoorsy looking for the best places to go in Texas, this is the spot to put on your list that makes every mile worth it.

2. Terlingua

Terlingua looks like a place you end up, not the kind you plan for, if that makes sense? It’s a half-ghost town, half-desert commune just outside Big Bend, and somehow it runs entirely on beer, dust, and good intentions. You’ll know you’re close when you spot a rusted VW bus under a sky too big to photograph, that’s basically the town welcome sign.

It used to be a mercury mining town until the mines ran dry and everyone left. Then, decades later, artists, wanderers, and a few retirees with impressive tolerance for heat came back and stayed. Now Terlingua’s population hovers somewhere around 100, and it feels like everyone knows everyone.

If you’re lucky, you’ll hit town during the Terlingua Chili Cook-Off, where hundreds of people gather in the desert to argue about beans like it’s theology. Otherwise, you drift between the Starlight Theatre (restaurant, bar, and local performance venue in a crumbling adobe) and La Kiva, an underground bar built into a cave that feels one tequila shot away from an archeological discovery.

Sunsets here are absurd, because the desert flares up like it’s on stage for one last encore, and at night the Milky Way just unapologetically takes over.

3. Marfa

I didn’t plan to like Marfa, I thought it would be one of those overhyped art towns that exist mostly for Instagram and people who own linen jumpsuits. But somewhere between the desert light and the silence that hums louder than traffic ever could, Marfa got under my skin.

The drive alone feels like a filter for the unserious, simply because it’s several hours from anywhere that sells cold brew, and by the time you arrive, your playlist has looped three times. Then — out of nowhere — this tiny West Texas town appears, scattered with art installations that make no sense and somehow all the sense. The Prada Marfa installation sits in the middle of the desert like a cosmic joke, and Donald Judd’s Chinati Foundation feels like someone turned minimalism into religion.

What you do in Marfa is mostly nothing, and that’s the point. You drink coffee at Do Your Thing, drift between galleries, and end up watching the sky do its nightly color show. If you’re lucky you might catch the Marfa Lights, those mysterious floating orbs no one can fully explain: aliens? Heat shimmer? Small-town marketing genius? Who cares, they’re magic.

Marfa may not be the obvious answer when you think of the best places to visit in Texas, but it might be the one that sticks with you longest.

4. Fredericksburg & the Hill Country

Leaving Terlingua for the Hill Country is like stepping into a different planet, one with trees, wine, and cell service. The road climbs and folds until it drops you into Fredericksburg, a town probably built by an architect who loved both Texas and Germany too much to choose.

The main street is all half-timbered façades and tasting rooms. You can fully expect to walk into any boutiques here and somehow leave with lavender honey, a candle shaped like a cowboy boot, and a mild buzz from Grape Creek Vineyards. But the real magic is outside town, where the Willow City Loop turns into a wildflower fever dream each spring and the Pedernales River slides past cliffs that look borrowed from a painting.

You can spend an afternoon climbing Enchanted Rock, which looks just as mystical as it sounds. It’s not the easiest hike, but the view from the top, wide and quiet and full of that big Texas air, makes the sweat worth it.

The Hill Country is one of the best places to vacation in Texas if you need the illusion of a slower life. You picnic, you float, you drink wine that’s surprisingly good.

5. San Antonio

San Antonio is the grown-up in the Texas family. It’s older, calmer, and sneakily beautiful. You walk the River Walk expecting a tourist trap, and somehow end up staying for hours because it’s just… very nice. There’s water, shade, margaritas that don’t taste like syrup, and a breeze that feels like mercy in this state.

The Alamo is here, of course, and yes, you should see it, partly for the history and partly because you can’t say you’ve been to San Antonio without doing it. The Pearl District, a former brewery turned food-and-design heaven, is full of chef-driven restaurants, indie shops, and a weekend farmers market that looks curated by someone with impeccable taste.

Dinner at Mixtli will ruin all other tacos for you, and you’ll forgive it. Then, when you’ve eaten enough to question your choices, head to the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park at sunset, four centuries-old churches scattered along the river, glowing like someone dimmed the whole world just for them.

6. Austin

Austin is where Texas pretends it’s a different country, and somehow pulls it off. You drive in expecting cowboy boots and barbecue, and you get that, sure, but you also get thrift stores that double as music venues and people paddleboarding with their dogs on a Tuesday.

You’ll start with breakfast tacos at Veracruz All Natural, wander through the vintage racks on South Congress, and somehow end up at a backyard concert where someone’s playing a banjo through a synth pedal. Later, you can cool off in Barton Springs Pool, that cold, spring-fed oasis that proves the universe occasionally gets things right.

Night is when Austin shows off, as there’s live music everywhere, in bars, in parking lots, sometimes in places that don’t even look open. Grab a drink at Continental Club or Hotel Vegas, and you’ll understand why people call this the “Live Music Capital of the World” without rolling their eyes.

If you’re mapping out the best places to go in Texas, Austin is your recalibration point: a reminder that the state can be wild and weird and creative all at once (and still hand you perfect brisket at 2 a.m).

7. Dallas

Dallas is glossy and unapologetic. You notice it first in the skyline, all sharp glass and confidence, then in the restaurants where “casual” still involves reservations and someone’s watch costs more than your car.

I came to Dallas expecting flash and got… depth, somehow. Sure, there’s shopping at Highland Park Village and rooftop cocktails at The Joule, but there’s also the Dallas Museum of Art, which is free and excellent, and the Nasher Sculpture Center. You can walk from one to the other, pretending you’re cultured, and then immediately undo the illusion with brisket at Pecan Lodge.

At night, Deep Ellum steals the show: murals, live music, dive bars that have seen things. Grab a beer at Adair’s Saloon, write something on the wall, and accept that you’re now part of Dallas’ long tradition.

8. Palo Duro Canyon

You don’t really understand how vast Texas is until you find yourself staring into Palo Duro Canyon. The second-largest canyon in the United States, it’s the kind of place that makes you forget to talk, but the wind does most of the work anyway.

I got there just before sunset, when the red rock walls start glowing like they’ve been plugged in from the inside. Trails run down into the canyon floor, and Lighthouse Trail is the showpiece, a six-mile round trip that ends at a rock formation shaped like a torch because nature has a flair for symbolism. The hike is dusty, hot, and absolutely worth it. Bring more water than you think. Then bring more.

You can camp here, or if you’re allergic to tents and bugs, grab one of the stone cabins built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. They sit right on the canyon rim, which means sunrise comes straight through the window whether you like it or not.

Palo Duro isn’t one of the obvious best places to visit in Texas because it’s too remote for that, but that’s the point. It’s where you go to feel small in a good way, like the planet’s still got secrets and you’ve just stumbled onto one.

9. Guadalupe Mountains National Park

The first time you see the Guadalupe Mountains, you realize Texas isn’t flat, it’s just been hiding this part from you. The range rises straight out of the desert near the New Mexico border, all sharp ridges and pale limestone.

Climbing Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas, is the obvious thing to do, but “obvious” doesn’t mean easy. It’s an eight-and-a-half-mile round trip that feels twice that in the midday heat. I started early, smugly hydrated, and still questioned every life decision somewhere around switchback number fourteen. But then you reach the top, 8,751 feet up, and the whole Chihuahuan Desert stretches beneath you.

The McKittrick Canyon Trail is another favorite, all steep walls and hidden maples that turn unexpectedly red and gold in the fall, as if Texas decided to try autumn just for fun.

Of all the best places to visit in Texas, this one might be the most humbling, but also the most honest. You earn every view, every lungful of dry air, and every sore muscle. And when the sun starts dropping behind El Capitan’s massive cliff face, you’ll understand why people chase isolation out here like it’s a kind of faith.

10. Caddo Lake

Caddo Lake is a beautiful fever dream someone had about the Deep South: Spanish moss, cypress trees rising straight from black water, air so thick it feels like it’s listening. You half expect a paddle steamer to glide past, or an alligator with opinions.

The lake straddles the Louisiana border, part swamp, part forest, and entirely its own world. There are cabins on stilts, trails that loop through the state park, and boat tours that will take you deep into the stunning maze of bayous where your phone signal (and maybe your sense of time) disappears.

The locals talk about ghosts and legends, and some swear the lake is haunted, while others say it’s just the light playing tricks through the moss. Either way, it’s a fitting ending for a Texas trip that started in the desert and ended in something that feels half-real, half-story.

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