Fun Stuff to Do With Kids in San Antonio, Texas
Dec 03, 2024
As newish Texans, our family has started exploring different cities in this enormous state. Recently, we road tripped to San Antonio for a long weekend. Here's an overview of what we did, ate, and saw as a family of six.
Before you read on, in case this is the first time we're meeting, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Marisa and I'm a native New Yorker (Long Island), lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for nearly nine years, and now call myself an Austinite. My husband and I have four boys, currently ages 11, 11, seven, and five. I'm an ex-corporate working mom turned entrepreneur working mom and run Mama Work It, an organization supporting women in the juggle of mom life, work life, wife life, fill in the blank life and Marisa Lonic Coaching & Consulting, where I work with companies and individuals delivering anything from global conference keynotes to executive coaching to guided meditations.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming. This may surprise you (or not), but being the planner in the family, I actually despise planning vacations. Sure, I'll put some thought into dates, a hotel, maybe even an event while we're there, but a daily itinerary-no thank you. A vacation should be a vacation from my life, so I'd rather not plan. But, also, I'd like a bit of a plan otherwise it could be chaos with four kids. So, similar to other trips, this one was half planned, half winging it. And that was just fine.
What sparked our visit to San Antonio? First, it was the game. With four athletic boys, we decided going to an NBA game would be a fun night out. The problem in Austin is that we don't have any NBA (or NFL or MLB) teams. So, San Antonio it was. And even better, seeing the team we root for: The Golden State Warriors (you can take the kids out of the Bay, but not the Bay out of the kids). Another reason we decided to extend our trip to three days was that we were on Thanksgiving break, aka a week off from school. This seemed like a great way to kick off the break without breaking the bank and still make it home to host Thanksgiving with plenty of time.
I didn't really know what to expect. San Antonio has never really been on my bucket list of cities to visit. I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived. We parked in a centrally located garage for a very reasonable rate of just $10 and took a walk along the river. Yes, there is a beautiful river that runs through the city and has gorgeous architecture surrounding it. Most of the locations along the river are hotels and restaurants, but many of the buildings are older and intricate. I would highly recommend taking the river boat tour. It was about 30 minutes long and a nice way to see the river sites if your kids aren't down for walking the whole time. Mine weren't.
Besides our major event of seeing the Warriors take on the Spurs (by the way, so many Warriors fans there so we were in good company being the visiting team), some other sights we stumbled upon over the weekend were Brackenridge Park, Mission San Juan, the Pearl, and of course, the Alamo. Before we get into each of these places, let me first highlight some of the restaurants/food we tried that I would highly recommend.
Rita's: this place is definitely a bit of a tourist trap, but was a fun and kid friendly spot to eat right on the river walk. Our server was funny, cracking dad jokes, and having fun chatting with our kids.
Cookie Plug: a fun and unique treat that consists of a cookie/cake mix. The choices were fun, and the consistency was like a dense brownie, but in lots of unique flavors. They even had keto options, although the woman working there told me not to bother and just get the real deal.
The Cove: After our first day of eating too much fried food, I was looking for a healthier option that still had options the kids wouldn't complain about. We found The Cove, and it was a great spot to grab a beer (it seemed like they had about 50 different options to choose from) and some food while the kids enjoyed the playground. There was also live music, which was cool. Our middle guy got autographs from one of the bands playing. This was my first experience eating vegan nachos and it did not disappoint.
Licks: Never have I ever had goat cheese ice cream. Well, I guess I can drink to that now. Licks' ice cream flavors were nothing short of awesome. In true fall theme, I had the sweet potato and goat cheese flavors, and both were delicious. The rest of my family was pretty boring and all ordered mint chocolate chip, which was also amazing, although the kids didn't appreciate the cacao bites instead of sugary chocolate chips you normally would get in this flavor. That's ok, I ate them.
We wanted to stop by Voodoo donuts before leaving, but didn't make it there. No big deal since Austin has one of those, but if you haven't been, definitely check it out. The creativity in donut flavors is insane.
Back to some sights. We took a short hike in Brackenridge Park. It was pretty and shady (which I bet you would appreciate a lot more if you were visiting when it's super hot). I think it could have been more peaceful if our kids were still in the stroller stage to be honest. There was a fair share of complaining happening on the trail.
Close by, there's the San Antonio Zoo. We heard good things, but weren't up for a day of walking after our hike experience, so we opted for the little train ride next door. For $7 a person, you can go on a 15-minute train ride through Brackenridge Park and see all the parking lots, a little bit of nature, and a golf area where people practice their tee.
Mission San Juan was a quick stop where we walked around, checked out the mini museum, and said a prayer in the church. The priest let us know if we were going to explore other missions that Mission Concepcion would be a good one since there was a movie to watch about the history and a café/play area on premise. We didn't make it there, but the city has a number of missions to see if you're interested in exploring. Since our oldest kids had studied the missions in California the previous year, we thought it would be cool to see one in Texas.
The Pearl was a cool spot to hang out, and we did for longer than we anticipated. After our Licks' ice cream, we hung out in one of the many family friendly park areas where the kids played in a very intense cornhole tournament. There's a lot of cool, industrial architecture around to observe, and everything is very clean and feels high end. The Culinary Institute of America is there, as well as, the chic Hotel Emma. We probably would have eaten somewhere nearby, but we were too full from The Cove and Licks, so we didn't dine here.
Finally, we couldn't leave the city without visiting the Alamo. It was indeed our last stop before hitting the road home. You can buy tickets for a guided tour or just walk around for free. We did the latter since our kids probably wouldn't have lasted through a tour by that time. There are lots of historical facts you can read about the Alamo all around and a documentary they were showing in one spot too where you could sit down for a bit. Additionally, if you need a free restroom while you're site seeing, the Alamo is it. The bathrooms were super clean and a great place to stop before heading home.
Overall, San Antonio was a cool city to check out. I'm glad we spent a few extra days there instead of just heading home after seeing our Warriors play. If you visit, be sure to drop me a line and let me know!
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