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San Antonio! This lovely and adventure filled city has so much to offer. From fun family attractions, to a romantic getaway for couples, to bar hopping and clubbing for the party folks, and surprisingly it is super DOG FRIENDLY! So when I started researching for our road trip to San Antonio, I found out that there are many places you can take your dog to, and after some thought, I said "yes we have to take our dog Mr. Clooney!" He usually stays at a friend's house or dog boarding when we travel. We love our dog so much, he's the closest thing we have to a "child," and since he's got such a sweet demeanor and outgoing personality we knew this would be the perfect opportunity for him to travel with us for the first time. It worked out to our advantage tremendously because everyone wanted to talk to us and get to know our dog, so if you're the type that likes to make friends while you travel this is a sneaky way to do it! hahah!
San Antonio is so pet friendly that we had an array of pet-friendly hotels to choose from ranging in price. We
The Famous River Walk
Its like a little Europe right here in Texas chose The Drury Hotel for being recommended and for also being right on San Antonio's river walk, which was important to us. The Drury is a 4 star hotel which is converted from a Bank and has cool relics inside of when it used to be a bank, such as an old timey car in the front lobby, and the same vault/safe in the basement they used to store all the money. We ate free breakfast and lunch there, they also offer free cocktails in the evenings!
So what's so special about traveling to San Antonio, Texas? And what can you do there? So much! Here's our list:
(1) The Alamo: Basically the number one attraction is the Alamo, especially for you history buffs. If you've ever seen the movie "The Alamo", then you know some of the story behind it. It was an important mission/church and the setting for a big battle in the 1800s that was a significant event in the Texas revolution. The battle at the Alamo was between the Mexican troops and the Texas settlers. The Mexican troops won and took over the Alamo, but it was perceived to be such a
cruel and unjust battle that later fueled by anger, the Texan army sought revenge and defeated the Mexican troops and this ended the revolution. Inside the Alamo is a big museum that you can enter and visit with admission price. If you don’t want to go inside and just admire it from the outside you can, its just a big square.
(2) The River walk: This gorgeous area in San Antonio will make you feel like you just got transported to Europe. Its 3 miles of winding underground canals with a paved walk way, surrounded by gorgeous tropical landscaping, restaurants, clubs, and hotels. This is everyone's favorite "attraction" because its such a beautiful relaxing environment, but it's also so fun and lively. You can take little guided canal boat trips, you can walk around and find a nice restaurant to dine at, or at night you can go up and dance at one of many night clubs and bars. If you are a foodie, you'll love this place! There are many pet friendly restaurants for your dogs, we ate at one called "Ritas" which has delicious Mexican food and drinks and was highly recommended. We met up
with some friends there (one of them I actually met on my connection flight back from Spain in 2009!!) that live in San Antonio and basically we all sat there talking for hours enjoying the lively atmosphere over some margaritas and beers. And our dog Mr. Clooney was just eating up all the attention he was getting there too!
(3) Natural Bridge Caverns: This was my personal favorite thing to do in San Antonio!!! Before I go into detail, I first have to mention that this is not a dog friendly place. You can not have dogs going into dark ancient geologically important caverns that are protected! We knew this ahead of time and took our dog to the Bow Wow Camp (situated near the San Antonio airport) and what a lovely place it is! We got Mr. Clooney registered and they do a 1-3 hour evaluation of him. Afterwards, if he passes, he gets to enjoy doggy day care and meet lots of fun doggy friends and play outside. Its a wonderful establishment that I highly recommend you use for your dog, and your first visit is free! Afterwards you can take him to any Bow
Wow Camp in the US (they have them in every city.) .....Now back to the Caverns! You need a car since this is somewhat outside the city (approximately 17 minutes), but it's so worth it! They have many adventure options you can take, such as getting down and dirty slithering through the passages of the caverns and getting up close and personal with them. OR you can take our route and we did a 75 minute walking tour. We brought our tripod and our camera was going off like crazy, the formations down here are incredible!! A once in a lifetime opportunity.
(3) The San Antonio Missions National Park: These are Churches that have lots of history and are essentially ruins, although we were surprised to see that they are still in use till this day! They are working on making these set of churches World Heritage sites. Back in the day they were used not only for worship but also for farming, ranching, and living. They were also used to convert the Natives to Christianity. For this "attraction" you need a car because they are spread out miles apart from each other, but they also have
Natural Bridge Caverns
Our favorite place in San Antonio! It was so cool! bikes you can rent and ride. Don’t forget that in the summer San Antonio gets scorching hot and biking might be a bad idea. The missions we saw were Mission Concepcion and Mission San Jose. There's also Mission Espada, Mission San Francisco, and Mission San Juan. We brought Clooney to see the missions and he really enjoyed the walk down these parks, especially when he got to see other dogs there too.
(4) The best of the rest: San Antonio has so much for you to do no matter what your age and interests are, here's the rest of the attractions: SeaWorld, San Antonio Zoo, Six Flags Fiesta Texas, The Alamodome, Tower of Americas (where you can get a sky high view os San Antonio), The San Antonio Museum, The Majestic Theater, The Botanical gardens, San Antonio Japanese Tea house, Natural Bridge Wildlife Reserve (a petting zoo), Splash town (water Park), and plenty of parks for camping and fishing and bike riding ect.
Some of these attractions (Like Sea World, and Six Flags) actually have free kennels you can keep your dog at for the day while you enjoy the facility, and you get him/her back
when you leave! Is that not dog friendly, or what?!
On our road trip back home, we stopped in Austin to admire the State Capital building. The building itself is huge and reminded us being back in Washington D.C. because it almost looks like the capital building there. All you have to do is park your car and you can walk the grounds all around the building, and it has a big park right in front so you can take a picnic and lounge on a blanket without being disturbed. Afterwards, we ate at an English pub called "the Dog and Duck" which seems to be very popular with the college/urban crowd and has a very Europe-y feeling to it, with lots of choices for beer and lunch such as fish and chips, and of corse it was doggy friendly with a nice patio to hangout at. They also have an excellent turkey club, which I recommend! We've heard from friends that Austin is a very friendly city and that we need to go back to admire the great music scene and festivals that it has. Definitely something we are interested in doing in the near future...
I sense another road trip coming!
Mr. Clooney (our dog) hopes you enjoyed reading our one and only Dog Friendly Travel Blog Entry and that it has inspired you to take your dog on a trip too, whether its San Antonio or any of the other Pet Friendly cities around the World! He says Woof-Woof-Barrrrrrrk-Roof-Roof! 😊
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
I just ran across your blog...
when I answered a question you posted on the Asia forum about malaria in Cambodia. I travel just like you...shorter trips, but every year. My wife and I were in Australia (along with a few other places) last October, celebrating our 40th anniversary. We agree it is wonderful, and intend to return to see more of the country and the people. I just did the Silk Road (high on my bucket list) and the Baltics and Finland (they were on the way home) with my son. Our next destination is Peru, so your blog was very helpful. We plan to go in August 2014, so hope the weather is good then...you were there in September and mentioned that it was the end of the dry season. Anyway, I'm looking forward to reading your blogs about Southeast Asia...I was born in Thailand and lived in the area for 18 years, so if you have any other questions, ask away.