Since I flew in the morning my conference started and flew out the evening after it ended there wasn’t tons of time to explore San Antonio in between unfortunately. However I did use most of my free time to walk around the River Walk, as well as a quick trip to the Alamo. I had heard mixed reviews about San Antonio before my trip. One of my aunt’s said a friend who worked at a travel agency received calls all the time about San Antonio. On the other hand one of my friends said there wasn’t much besides the River Walk and that was overrated. Beyond that though I really didn’t do any research before my trip (which is quite rare for me).
Now I didn’t have a chance to explore much besides the River Walk, but I really liked what I saw. To me the River Walk seemed just very picturesque. It sort of seemed like it could be a part of Disney World (and I mean that in a good way) with the variety of architecture, the bridges, and the foliage just all sort of perfectly put together. I appreciated all of the historical buildings such as the Alamo and the Cathedral of San Fernando just off the River Walk. San Antonio has a lot of history dating back before the U.S. was even founded. With more time I would want to explore more of the historical buildings downtown and do more search to see what San Antonio has to offer besides the River Walk.
The one caveat I will say about the River Walk was that farther from the center and the Alamo there became dramatically less people around. This was especially true when the restaurants and shops on the river level ended. I also noticed a lot less people on the street level when we weren’t close to the Alamo or the Convention Center. This seemed to be the case on both a Sunday and the weekdays. The center of the River Walk was bustling and full of people, but beyond that it changed pretty quickly. For someone who likes to just wander and explore it was something I wanted to mention. I definitely at times felt like I wouldn’t want some of my female co-workers walking alone at night, even closer to some of the main hotels. I wouldn’t say it’s anything to affect someone’s trip to San Antonio, but something I definitely picked up on.
I think for me I’d like a trip back to San Antonio and I’d be very curious in exploring more outside the River Walk, especially exploring restaurants and other historical sites. I wouldn’t put it super high up on my to-do list, but that’s probably more out of inconvenience. There aren’t any direct flights that I could find from South Florida to San Antonio, so it was a bit of a long trip. If you’re more conveniently located (flying, driving distance, or road tripping) I think it could be a really nice long weekend trip. Check out the pics of the River Walk (plus some Alamo pics) from my short trip below!
