Travel & Outdoors
January 20, 2013
Find That Food
Contributing photographer Wyatt McSpadden on traveling across Texas to capture Mexican food on film.
Travel
The best of Texas travel including news, trip guides and destinations.
Travel & Outdoors
January 20, 2013
Shore ’Nuff
The best beaches in Texas for—among other summertime pursuits—shelling, strolling, birding, fishing, treasure hunting, turtle herding, solitude, and surfing, dude.
Travel & Outdoors
January 20, 2013
Miles and Miles of Texas
Writer-at-large Suzy Banks, executive editor S.C. Gwynne, senior editor Michael Hall, and new-media director Charlie Llewellin talk about hitting the road for this month’s cover story.
Travel & Outdoors
January 20, 2013
On the Road Again—Panhandle
South from Amarillo to Tulia, east to Turkey, west to Silverton, and north, through Palo Duro Canyon, to Amarillo.
Travel & Outdoors
January 20, 2013
On the Road Again—Hill Country
West from Dripping Springs to Johnson City, south to Blanco, southeast to Fischer, east to Wimberley, and north to Dripping Springs.
Travel & Outdoors
January 20, 2013
On the Road Again—Big Bend
South from Alpine to Study Butte, west to Presidio, north to Marfa, and east to Alpine.
Travel & Outdoors
January 20, 2013
Happy Trails
Where to eat, what to do, where to shop: a great weekend in Houston.
Travel & Outdoors
January 20, 2013
San Francisco
Beat the crowds; do some Spade work.
Travel & Outdoors
January 20, 2013
Las Vegas
No good food? Don’t bet on it.
Travel & Outdoors
January 20, 2013
The Best of Small-Town Texas
Where to stay. Where to play. Where to eat. Where to shop. What to see. From Abram to Yoakum, a special report on our favorite down-home destinations.
Travel & Outdoors
January 20, 2013
Radio
Play-by-play coverage of high school baseball in Alpine, polka and Pan-American music in El Campo: More than a dozen reasons not to touch that dial.
Texas History
January 20, 2013
Cemeteries
Simple wooden crosses in Terlingua, carefully delineated stonework in Jefferson: Five great graveyards that run the gamut.
Texas History
January 20, 2013
Squares
A masterpiece of courthouse architecture in Waxahachie, a handsome jail of native stone in Marfa: Significant structures line the streets of five terrific town centers.
Music
January 20, 2013
Music Clubs
Old country and western in Mingus, zippy zydeco in Bridge City: The shows always go on at these ten tuneful spots.
Travel & Outdoors
January 20, 2013
Hotels
Big, breezy porches in Port Aransas, the only heated pool for miles in Marathon: You’ll get more than just a bed and breakfast at these ten appealing places to stay.
Travel & Outdoors
January 20, 2013
Shops
Elegant antebellum furniture in Jefferson, Latin American folk art in Smithville: Where the buys are in two dozen communities.
Travel & Outdoors
January 20, 2013
Museums
Bronzes by Remington and Russell in Orange, Quanah Parker’s trail bonnet in Canyon: Ten spaces that excel at the art of exhibition.
Sports
January 20, 2013
Sports
Hot hurdling in Giddings, super six-man football in Gordon: Ten towns that got game.
Travel & Outdoors
January 20, 2013
Small-Town Texas Directory
Abram Cemeteries Albany Museums Alpine Restaurants, Sports, Radio, Music Clubs Archer City Hotels Athens Folks Bandera Museums, Music Clubs, Radio, Folks Bay City Radio Big Spring Hotels Blanco Shops Blessing Hotels Boerne
Travel & Outdoors
January 20, 2013
Memphis
It’s music to your ears.
Travel & Outdoors
January 20, 2013
Los Angeles
Los Angeles How the West is fun.
Travel & Outdoors
January 20, 2013
Get Outta Town!
These five weekend getaways will make you want to do just that.
Travel & Outdoors
January 20, 2013
New Orleans
The Big Easy isn’t hard for families.
Travel & Outdoors
January 20, 2013
The 40 Best Small-Town Cafes
Our exhaustive, exhausting, strictly scientific (and lamentably fattening) survey of the finest home cooking around, from Maxine’s on Main, in Bastrop, to El Paraiso, in Zapata.
The Culture
January 13, 2013
Saving the Broken Spoke
The legendary honky-tonk is getting some help from an unlikely source: Transwestern, a giant real estate developer.
Travel & Outdoors
January 1, 2013
Embracing the Pass
Was I giddy from the altitude or just happy to be strolling the sidewalks of El Paso?
The Culture
January 1, 2013
Everything Must Be Perfect
A night behind the velvet ropes.
The Wanderer
December 13, 2012
Sneak Peek: The Wanderer Goes To…
While the first issue of 2013 is en route to newsstands and your mailbox (because you are a Texas Monthly subscriber, right?), here's a little preview of some of the sights, sounds, and tastes I discovered while on assignment in...can you guess which Texas town? (Click through
Travel & Outdoors
December 1, 2012
A Field Guide to the Pearl
Where to eat, shop, and stay at the Pearl complex in San Antonio.
Travel & Outdoors
December 1, 2012
Cliff Notes
With three days in Dallas’s historic Oak Cliff, my mantra was “Shop, eat, repeat.”
The Wanderer
November 7, 2012
Bookmark This: Two Great Texas (Life)Style Blogs
Meet Texas Style & Substance and The Diego Files.
Travel & Outdoors
October 31, 2012
It’s Fine Bayou
Patrolling the placid waters, historic B&Bs, and treasure-filled antiques shops of Jefferson.
The Wanderer
October 19, 2012
Travel + Leisure’s 101 Places Every Traveler Should Know: Which Texas Destination(s) Made the Cut?
In the November 2012 issue of Travel + Leisure, the magazine's editors have compiled a list of 101 places around the world that they say "define the traveler's core curriculum right now." One Texas destination has made the list. Can you guess what it is? Click
The Wanderer
October 13, 2012
The State Fair of Texas: Football + Fried Food
This time last year, I was leaving the Cotton Bowl along with thousands of football fans who'd made the annual pilgrimage to watch the 106th Red River Rivalry, one of the highlights of the State Fair of Texas. While throngs of UT
Where to Stay Now
October 12, 2012
Where To Stay Now 2012: The Ten Best New (Or Improved!) Texas Hotels
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
The Wanderer
October 11, 2012
Coming Soon: Where To Stay Now 2012
So I’ve been MIA from the blog lately, but I think I have a pretty good excuse, as I’ve been busy putting the finishing touches on a Texas travel feature for our November issue. For the latest installment of “Where To Stay Now,” I picked up where
Travel & Outdoors
September 30, 2012
Toast of the Town
The best way to visit Houston is one neighborhood at a time. Let’s start with Montrose.
The Wanderer
September 17, 2012
Sneak Peek: The Wanderer Goes To . . .
For the October installment of the Wanderer, I spent three days exploring a Houston hood with a colorful history (a 1973 Texas Monthly article called it “the strangest neighborhood in Texas”) and a colorful array of shops, restaurants, and watering holes. Can you guess
The Wanderer
September 17, 2012
Spotted in Bandera
For my first official outing as the Wanderer, I got to play cowgirl for a few days in Bandera, the (self-proclaimed) Cowboy Capital of the World. As I was busy riding horses, two-stepping, and eating fried delicacies, I managed to take nearly
The Wanderer
September 6, 2012
Choose Your Own Texas Adventure
The first column I wrote for Texas Monthly appeared in the March 2000 issue. The article was titled “Voting Rites,” and I argued that the Voting Rights Act, which Lyndon Johnson had proposed to a joint session of Congress 35 years earlier, was the greatest accomplishment of his
Travel & Outdoors
August 31, 2012
Cowgirl Up!
From horseback riding to grilling my own ribeye, three days in Bandera brought out my inner Dale Evans.
Art
August 29, 2012
Houston: James Turrell’s Skyspace
During a recent trip to Houston, I decided to make an early-bird dinner reservation so I could get over to the Rice University campus in time for the evening viewing of James Turrell’s Light Epiphany. Open since June, the site-specific “skyspace” was commissioned to mark the
The Wanderer
August 27, 2012
Marathon: Get Outta Town
For many travelers, this far West Texas town is a last-chance pit stop before heading south to brave the wilds of Big Bend National Park. But, this past spring, after driving 407 miles (that’s roughly 7 hours and 143 country songs) from Austin to
The Wanderer
August 27, 2012
Marfa: Trans-Pecos Gathering of Music + Love
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
The Wanderer
August 22, 2012
Roadside Attraction: Wild Boar Farms
WHAT: Wild Boar Farms, a roadside farm stand worth pulling over for. WHERE: Stonewall, at the northeast corner of Hwy 290 and Luckenbach Road. WHY: For starters, the head farmer’s name is Daniel Bacon. That’s as good a reason as any to patronize this long, wood-paneled structure, which
The Wanderer
August 22, 2012
Wandering Around the Great State of Texas
If you’ve already picked up your copy of Texas Monthly‘s September issue, you’ve noticed that the magazine has undergone a top-to-bottom redesign. In the new Touts section, you’ll find the debut of my Texas travel column, the Wanderer (or, as my colleagues like to call
Travel & Outdoors
June 30, 2012
Fort Davis
Fort Davis.
Travel & Outdoors
May 31, 2012
How to Beat the Heat
Without having to travel too far.
Travel & Outdoors
May 31, 2012
A Q&A With Justin Carrasquillo
The Los Angeles–based photographer spent more than twenty days driving all across the state and tells us what he saw.
Travel & Outdoors
May 31, 2012
Historic Downtown Galveston
Historic downtown Galveston