The outdoor adventures and attractions you need to experience in San Antonio, Texas: Your travel guide

Travel Goals Podcast

In this immersive episode of the Travel Goals Podcast, host Portia Jones and producer Luke Jones explore San Antonio, Texas, uncovering its lesser-known

Key takeaways

• The River Walk is not just a tourist attraction but a living ecosystem with deep historical roots and one of the largest urban ecological restorations in U.S. history.
• San Antonio's cultural events—like St. Patrick's Day, Fiesta, Pride, and Day of the Dead—are uniquely tied to the River Walk, making it a year-round celebration hub.

Main topics

• River Walk exploration and history
• Six Flags Fiesta Texas rollercoasters and park experience

Notable quotes

"We call it deep in the heart of Texas. And it's a city that's unique in the United States." – David Gonzalez, Visit San Antonio

Conclusion

San Antonio emerges as a multifaceted destination where history, nature, and high-octane adventure converge.

Transcript preview

Speaker 4 (0:08) Are we going on that? Speaker 7 (0:10) I don't think I am, no. Speaker 4 (0:12) It's terrifying. Speaker 4 (0:29) Welcome to Travel Goals, the podcast that helps you travel better with deep dives into travel topics and destination inspiration. I'm your host, Portia Jones, and this is episode three of our San Antonio, Texas podcast series in partnership with Visit San Antonio. On this episode, we'll explore some of the best outdoor adventures, activities, attractions, and thrills in San Antonio, packed with historic sites. San Antonio blends Spanish, German and American roots with a distinctive cowboy meets culture energy. Whilst it's famous for its Tex-Mex food, sports and being home to the Alamo, there's so much else to do here as well. Walk or bike along river trails, go to your first rodeo, ride coasters at Six Flags, explore an atmospheric cave system and meet friendly giraffes at a wildlife park and also explore San Antonio's crown jewel, the Riverwalk. Let's get exploring. Speaker 4 (1:31) With 24 scenic kilometres of below street-level pathways following the San Antonio River, the city's famed river walk is the gold standard of waterside struts where you can escape the urban buzz beneath a shaded canopy of 400-year-old cypress trees. Constructed in the late 1930s, this network of landscape paths is below the street and connects bars, restaurants, museums and high-end boutiques. Here, you can walk, bike or boat along the surprisingly wildlife-rich stretch of Waterway and learn more about the architect Robert H.H. Hugman's vision for creating the Venice of Texas by hopping on a narrated cruise. We caught up with a local to find out more about one of the city's most beloved places. Speaker 3 (2:18) I'm David Gonzalez, Vice President of Media Relations for Visit San Antonio, here helping bring our friends from across the world, especially from the UK, into our big city. Thank you guys for being here. San Antonio, for those that don't know, we're in the center of Texas. We call it deep in the heart of Texas. And it's a city that's unique in the United States. And the Riverwalk ties it all in. It's just the center of the city and that goes back to the indigenous times. That's why the Spanish came to San Antonio because they saw all these great indigenous populations living across the river area of the city. And because of that, you have the UNESCO World Heritage Site with the only one in Texas and one of 26 in the US. We have five unique historic missions all located along the river. with three very distinct sections of the river. You have the main downtown area that is the entertainment, the that hotel lobby aspect of the city it's all in that downtown 20 and a half miles but then in more recent years it was expanded to include a northern section that we call the museum reach where you're able to find the majority of our large cultural institutions and then you go south of the downtown area we call that the mission reach and that is actually a pretty cool story because it has been cataloged as the largest urban ecological restoration in the history of the united states they've returned this area that was once just a desolate ditch into this beautiful planted wildlife area where more than 10,000 wild animals came back to that area after this restoration. And it's beautiful to walk or to bike. And if you go further long enough, you can walk to each of our four missions that are part of the National Park Service. And really that part of the river goes back to the historic part of the San Antonio, where you can still find families from the Spanish conquest more than 300 years ago that still live in that area. Where families by their last name can tell. My family was part of this mission or my family was part of this mission because of my last name. So it's a pretty unique aspect where you can see the past of San Antonio, but also see into the future as the city develops and the great, powerful growth of our city. Speaker 4 (4:22) It's an amazing area and one of our favorite parts. What I'm really curious about is you've obviously mentioned. As a river, it's got a long history. But how did it get developed? Speaker 3 (4:32) It's actually kind of a tragic history in a lot of ways because it goes back to the 1920s. The San Antonio River is not your straight up and down river. It is a serpentine river that has various curves, especially in the downtown area of San Antonio. So with heavy waters, it could flood the downtown San Antonio area. And the city looked at a lot of different options of what to do. Should they cover it and make it a tunnel and just make it part of the street? Because it's not at street level. It's one level below street. Should they raise it? Should they make it all straight? What should they do? About in the 1940s and 50s, they finally decided to follow a plan by a gentleman named H.H.Hugman, an architect who decided, let's build America's Venice. And that's what they started to do back in the 50s and 60s, where they started putting in hotels and restaurants down on the river level. And it really was the 1968 World's Fair. that was here in San Antonio that really brought it to life where you had this climax of development that started making San Antonio's Riverwalk really something where people wanted to be and go and explore. And from there, it's really grown over the years where now we have parades and events throughout the year that people really want to be here for. We have one of the largest St. Patrick's Day parades on the river here in San Antonio. From there, we go on to our 11-day party with a purpose called Fiesta. where we have a great parade that happens there on the river level as well as two additional parades on the street levels. We also have our LGBT Pride River Parade that happens in the beginning of June or end of May. And then we also have a fabulous Day of the Dead celebration, which are the largest Day of the Dead celebrations outside of Mexico. That includes a river parade as well. And then you fast forward into Black Friday, the last weekend of November. We have our kickoff for the holidays for Christmas with a beautiful Christmas parade that turns on the Christmas lights all across the river. And it really makes it magical because you have those early evenings so people can cross the river and get on those boats or just walk across the riverbanks and feel the glimmering twilights of the lights on the streets. And we also have caroling on the river all throughout Christmas. Speaker 4 (6:43) Wow, that sounds amazing, the Christmas on the river. It's all lit up at night. I love it during the day, but at night it really is very special. We did the dinner cruise and we were just blown away, just absolutely blown away by all the lights and the ambience. It's such a unique thing to see in a city, isn't it, to have that? river level where, you know, we sat and had cheeky marg the other day right by the water. And I was like, wow, you couldn't have that in the UK. They'd be fishing British people out constantly. Like, we can't be trusted. Speaker 1 (7:12) Go Rio is a local company that operates all of our tour boats on the river. They'll take you around downtown. They'll do private dinner barges, taxi services. They're the only boat operator on the San Antonio River. Speaker 8 (7:24) Please remain seated at all times. Please keep everything inside the handrails. Right in front of us here is the Robert Huglin Bridge, completed back in 1941. However, we like to call this our Selena Bridge. Back in 1997, they produced the Selena movie here. Jennifer Lopez was the star. By the way, my name's David. We'll be together about 25, 30 minutes, two miles. If you have any questions... Speaker 4 (7:48) San Antonio Riverwalk boat tours are operated by Go Rio San Antonio River Cruises, and these electric barges provide 35 to 40 minute narrated historical tours through the core downtown loops, where you'll see bold cypress trees, historic architecture, cultural landmarks, romantic bridges, wildlife, and loads of riverside bars and dining. If Speaker 6 (8:12) you look to the left side of the boat, we're going to be passing by this really tall building. It's going to be known as the Tower Life Building. Now, this building was built here in 1929. It was built by two brothers. They were named the Smith and Young brothers. Speaker 4 (8:25) Our esteemed boat captain just told us that evening is the best time for a boat trip as the whole river walk is illuminated, the nightlife is buzzing, and you can even book a dinner cruise for a floating restaurant experience. Sign me up. So we're all dressed up on an open-air electric barge, having Tex-Mex food whilst gliding under these beautiful bridges, past illuminated trees and packed riverside bars and restaurants where you can hear live music. It's giving, it's a small world, but a bit more sophisticated. Speaker 7 (8:59) I'm not sure that's the vibe they're aiming for. It Speaker 4 (9:01) should be. It's clearly the best ride at Disney World. Speaker 4 (9:11) Along with dinner cruises, one of my favourite things to do here is to come to the river walk for a happy hour margarita and listen to the dusk chorus. Speaker 4 (9:28) Considering we're in the middle of a city, there's a surprising amount of wildlife here. Look carefully and you might spot fish, frogs, water turtles and even snakes. The River Walk, especially the Mission Reach section, is also a top birding spot along a major migratory flyway with more than 200 species. Our podcast bird expert is here to tell you more. Speaker 7 (9:51) You can often spot great blue herons, snowy egrets and yellow-crowned night herons along the shallow banks, while mallards, Egyptian geese and black-bellied whistling ducks cruise underneath the footbridges. Keep an eye out for double-breasted cormorants drying their wings, plus red-shouldered hawks, offsprays and the occasional barrelled owl in the treetops. I recommend packing some binoculars and a birding app, just like me and all the cool kids do. Speaker 4 (10:20) But the Riverwalk isn't the only place in San Antonio where you can get up close with wildlife. We ventured outside of the downtown area to meet an expert. Speaker 2 (10:30) My name is Ellery Hest and I am the Animal Husbandry Director out here at Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch. Speaker 4 (10:36) Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch is where you can trade city views for a Texas-style safari and I could not be more excited. if you wouldn't mind just giving me a bit of an overview of the park and what visitors can expect when they Speaker 2 (10:50) come here definitely so we are home to over 800 animals and over 50 different species so upon your arrival you can either choose a private guided