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Family Adventures in San Antonio, Texas
Discover the best family adventures in San Antonio! Join our adventure-loving crew as we explore the Alamo City!
Texas or Bust!
Experiencing a total solar eclipse is a bucket-list item for me, so I started planning for the April 2024 event in early 2023. I was looking for a fun Texas city close to or inside the path of totality, and San Antonio fit the bill perfectly! Plus, San Antonio has a rich heritage and culture, great food, and unique experiences I knew the girls would enjoy.
We stayed in the Embassy Suites on the northwestern corner of the city near I-10 and SR- 1604. I picked the location specifically for the eclipse. We could view it from the comfort of the pool or easily get on a major road if we decided to travel outside the city more. The hotel was lovely and I have zero complaints. It didn't take us more than 30 minutes to reach the Alamo and Riverwalk area and less than an hour to reach Natural Bridge Caverns.
Our Family Adventures Through San Antonio
Early April was a great time to visit San Antonio! The weather was mild - upper 60's to upper 70's every day. Crowds were low just about everywhere we went.
Our completed itinerary for our family adventures in San Antonio is outlined below.
Day 1 - Buckhorn Saloon and Texas Ranger Museum
On our first day, we had an early non-stop flight to San Antonio. The San Antonio airport was on the smaller side and was easy to navigate. We picked up our rental car and drove to our hotel with no issues. Luckily, we were able to check-in early and get situated before heading out on our first adventure!
I try to keep our first day adventures on the milder side, so we planned a visit to the Buckhorn Saloon and Texas Ranger Museum for our afternoon. The Saloon and Museum are located in the same building. You only need a ticket to go through the Museum. The Buckhorn Saloon has a deep history in San Antonio. The Saloon was opened in 1881 by a 17-year old bartender from a local hotel. Travelers did not have a lot of money for drinks, so he began to accept horns and antlers in exchange for a free beer. The collection grew into one of the world's most unique and largest collections. The Buckhorn Saloon is rumored to be where Teddy Roosevelt recruited the Rough Riders and where Pancho Villa is rumored to have planned the Mexican Revolution. The Saloon is still open to order a beer (or a hamburger).
You do need a ticket to go through the Museum. You start off with the Buckhorn Museum. The Museum starts with a collection of mounted wildlife, with over 520 species from all over the world represented. Moving upstairs, there are lookouts over the Saloon and more animal exhibits, including a display of crazy antlers.
There is also an exhibit for the "Carnival of Curiosities" (mysterious and "mind boggling" phenomena) and for the "American Sideshow" (oddities from the PT Barnum circus).
The Museum continues with the Texas Ranger exhibits. Here you see replicas of historic buildings and priceless historic artifacts that span more than a century of Ranger history.
The girls enjoyed walking through the Museum. In all, we spent about 1.5 hours there. Then we walk about a block to the River Walk. River Walk is a special pedestrian walkthrough along the San Antonio River and located below the street level. There are restaurants and shops the line the sidewalks. It is a great place to enjoy lunch and people watch! We visited the area several times throughout the week. The girls loved watching the ducks and pigeons.
We topped off the afternoon yummy Voodoo Doughnuts before heading back to the hotel.
Day 2 - SeaWorld San Antonio
On our second day, we came, we saw, and we covered every inch of SeaWorld San Antonio! The San Antonio SeaWorld is a 416-acre marine mammal park, oceanarium and animal theme park. It is in the same location as the Aquatica water park and Discovery Cove. I purchased season pass BOGO tickets during a Black Friday holiday sale, but I have also seen great Fourth of July sales and other holiday ticket sales.
The park opens at 10:30 am, but the rides were not open until after 11 am (and even then, some of the thrill rides rotated operating hours, likely due to staffing shortages). So we enjoyed the sea lion show followed by a race across the park to catch the orca show. These shows brought back my childhood memories of visiting SeaWorld. After the shows, we rotated through every roller coaster and thrill ride. We had the "Quick Queue and Reserved Seating" upgrade, so we were able to bypass most lines. The park was not crazy busy, so we probably would have been fine without the upgrade.
The Seven Seas Food Festival takes place February through May, so it was in full swing. It is much like the Disney version, except SeaWorld offered a beverages / food sampler lanyard for advanced purchase. Simply get the lanyard punched every time you order.
From roller coasters and amazing shows to the Food Festival, we covered just about everything before the park closed at 6 pm. It is not the grand SeaWorld I remember as a child, but it was still an awesome day.
Day 3 - The Alamo
On day 3, we took in a little history and learned all about the Alamo. There are different ways to see the Alamo - guided tours, audio guides, and on your own (entering the church is free, but there is a fee to visit the exhibits). We opted for the guided tour. I pre-purchased tickets on the website before we arrived. There was also an option to purchase tour tickets on site when we arrived.
We had a fantastic guide that corrected all the "wrongs" we thought we knew about the battle and the fort. Our biggest misconception was that the church is only a tiny piece of what the Alamo actually is. Most of the fort was destroyed, so we have come to recognize the church as "the Alamo" today. The church was a Spanish mission from 1755-1793. Soon after the mission closed, a Spanish Calvary company established a fort that became known as the Alamo. During the Mexican Revolution, the Spanish and Mexicans fought for control of the Alamo, and the Mexican army occupied it from 1821-1835. During this time, the Republic of Mexico invited immigrants to settle in Texas (many of whom were Americans). In October 1835, there was a rebellion to push out the Mexican government and form an independent Republic of Texas. The rebels held the Alamo until 1836, when the Mexican General Santa Anna led a 13-day attack on the Alamo. This attack is now known as the Battle of the Alamo. By the end of the battle, all 187 Texan men at the Alamo died. The Battle of the Alamo was used as inspiration in later battles and helped the Texans force Santa Anna to concede Texas to the rebels. "Remember the Alamo!"
After our guided tour, we enjoyed a musket demonstration on the lawn behind the church, lunch on the Riverwalk, and some retail therapy, before arriving to a flat tire on our rental. Luckily, it was a quick swap out and we were back up and mobile again.
Day 4 - Natural Bridge Caverns
On day 4, we ventured outside the city a little to discover the hidden treasurers of the Natural Bridge Caverns. Natural Bridge Caverns is the largest commercially operated cave system in Texas. It gains its name from the 60-foot natural limestone bridge near the entrance of the caverns. The first cavern was discovered 1960 by 4 college students from St. Mary's University that were working with the landowners to explore the area. Today, Natural Bridge Caverns is registered as a National Natural Landmark.
There are 2 different cavern systems you can visit today, as well as above-ground activities. We purchased a combined ticket for both cavern tours before our visit on the website. We arrived a little early for our first tour, so we started with some gem mining. This is a favorite of my girls! You select a bag of sand and gems in the store and proceed outside to the sluice.
After counting their precious gems, we started our first cavern tour -- the Hidden Wonders Tour. The Hidden Wonders cavern is the newest cavern discovered on the property. It has updated lighting, a huge natural ballroom, and an automated belt that you ride out of the cavern.
After completing the Hidden Wonders Tour, it was time for our Discovery Tour. Both tours were beautiful, but I found the formations in the original cavern to be more awe-inspiring.
We finished our day at Natural Bridge Caverns by conquering the challenging ropes course for an added adrenaline rush! In all, the caverns are not to the scale we have seen at Mammoth Caves NP, but they were beautiful and definitely worth a visit.
Day 5 - Ripley's
We left this day open during our planning as a "catch-all" for making up any activities we wanted to go back to. I was not sure how long we would need for SeaWorld or if eclipse traffic would be crazy already. Since we covered everything in SeaWorld during our visit, we turned today into a kids's choice day. We walked by the Ripley's attractions when we visited the Alamo, so the girls wanted to go check them out. I purchased a combined 4-attraction ticket online that morning.
We started with Ripley's Believe It or Not. Ripley's was started by Robert Ripley, who traveled around the world searching for "extraordinary people," unusual artifacts, and "unbelievable" things. In 1918, a cartoon was featured in the New York Globe that featured 9 unbelievable athletic feats from Ripley's collection. The cartoons took off and launched the "Believe It or Not" catchphrase. The first Ripley's Believe It or Not opened in 1933 at the World's Fair in Chicago.
From there, we moved next door to Louis Tussaud's Waxworks. In the late 1700's Madame Tussaud began creating wax models. Her works were later put on exhibit in London. Today, there are many branches of the Madame Tussaud galleries. 250+ years later, her great-grandson piggybacks off the family name with a line of Louis Tussaud wax museums. These are terrible in comparison!!! The girls still enjoyed posing with superheroes and celebrities, but I was not impressed.
The wax museum is in the same building as the Ripley's 4D Movie Theater. We always enjoy a good 4D movie. And this one lived up to our expectations. Then we moved next door to Ripley's Illusion Lab. We all had a great time here. It was very hands on, so we spent a while going through all the exhibits.
After a day filled with oddities, 4D movies, wax look alikes, and illusions, we had dinner along the River Walk before heading back to the hotel. At this point, we were crossing our fingers for tomorrow's cloud cover and hoping the weather would cooperate. We talked about chasing better weather for the eclipse, but decided against it. Our goal was not to drive anywhere on eclipse day and to just enjoy the experience.
Day 6 - Total Solar Eclipse
We spent eclipse day relaxing by the pool. We had 2.5 minutes of totality without the hassle of driving, finding parking, and trying to get back to San Antonio. The less than perfect weather didn't stop us from reveling in an extraordinary total solar eclipse! The girls made scientific observations included shifts in local wildlife patterns (the birds started circling the sky right before totality and the moths started flying around) and intriguing temperature variations. And the dFor an extra special treat, we could watch the Six Flags fireworks illuminating the distance during totality for an incredible finale!
The Family Verdict
We loved San Antonio! It was clean, traffic was a breeze, and we never felt unsafe. This was not our typical fact-paced and action-filled adventure. However, we were heading to San Antonio for the specific purpose of watching the eclipse and we did not want to load up our days. In all, everyone had a great time and San Antonio made the list of places we could see ourselves living.
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