As a recent study of hotel booking trends pointed out, us Texans prefer to vacation in Texas. Since our last roundup of the state’s most notable lodgings was in 2004, I thought it was high time to revisit the subject. So I drafted a list of 44 hotels that have opened or undergone significant renovations in the last 8 years. I then winnowed that list down and booked rooms (anonymously) at 24 properties across the state to determine my favorites.

Although my full reviews will be available next week (the November issue goes live on TexasMonthly.com on Wednesday and hits newsstands on Thursday), I wanted to go ahead and share my ten favorites (plus the five that nearly made the cut)…

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Tagged: Austin, Comfort, Dallas, Galveston, hotels, Houston, Marfa, Round Top, San Antonio, Talpa, Terlingua, Washington, Where To Stay Now

In one of my favorite descriptions of Marfa, writer David McDannald points out that sometimes it’s “a shadow of a town” and sometimes it’s “a desert Mardi Gras.” At the end of this month, West Texas’s buzziest destination will be lit up like Bourbon Street on Fat Tuesday when hundreds of Austinites and Brooklynites and Portlandiers (okay, and maybe some folks from other parts too) roll in for the seventh annual Trans-Pecos Festival of Music and Love. Held at El Cosmico, hotelier Liz Lambert’s trailer-strewn (and Beyoncé-approved) kibbutz just off of Highway 67, the event will have all the trappings of a true hipster gathering: an “epic” sandlot baseball game, arts and crafts workshops, and Shiner-braised vegan riblets from Frank, along with three days of jam sessions with Ben Kweller, Meshell Ndegeocello, Amy Cook, Brownout, and others. I can only hope that Blondie himself will be making a surprise appearance like Robert Plant did last year.

Tickets, which range from $25 to $130, are available here.

Tagged: Amy Cook, Ben Kweller, Brownout, El Cosmico, Liz Lambert, Marfa, Meshell Ndegeocello, Robert Plant, Trans-Pecos, West Texas