10 Travel Mistakes to Avoid in San Antonio

Catching a taxi from San Antonio International Airport offers a quick way into the city, but you’ll save money by using a shuttle or city bus instead. Several hotels in San Antonio offer a free airport shuttle service, so be sure to check on possible transport options when booking your place to stay.

Bus route number 5 runs between the airport and downtown daily from 5.30 am to 9.45 pm, with one-way tickets costing only a little more than a dollar. The bus trip to downtown takes about 30 minutes. If you're arriving early and hope to spend the day exploring the city, you could buy a day pass giving you unlimited bus trips for just a few bucks.

San Antonio is a fascinating city for history buffs, but there’s plenty to enjoy in the great outdoors in addition to those historic churches and The Alamo. Brackenridge Park offers the perfect escape from the tourist crowds with its walking paths and green spaces. You’ll also find the Japanese Tea Garden and San Antonio Botanical Garden within the park’s 340 acres.

The city is surrounded by some of the most scenic landscapes of Texas, including the vast Hill Country with its wildflowers and wineries, lakes and rivers. Explore the 40 miles of biking and hiking trails of Government Canyon State Natural area or go for a subterranean adventure at Natural Bridge Caverns, with guided tours available through the limestone caves. 

If you’re wanting to explore downtown San Antonio, it’s best to avoid using a car. The streets are narrow and difficult to navigate with a vehicle, and it’s easier to walk around. You could also go for a pedal-powered tour by renting a bicycle or making use of the city’s bike share service.

A scenic way to get around is to catch a river shuttle barge operated by Go Rio. Shuttle boats run about every 60 minutes, starting at 10 am. The boats ply the river through downtown north to the Museum Reach section of the River Walk. Single trip and day pass tickets are available.

San Antonio has diverse dining choices for hungry visitors well beyond the city’s Tex-Mex favourites and tourist-oriented River Walk restaurants. With its mix of cultural influences including Mexican, Spanish, German, French and Native American, San Antonio’s vibrant food scene has even been formally recognised, earning the city the title of a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy.

A fun foodie hotspot is the Pearl Brewery District, a former brewery turned farmers’ market and food centre. Intriguing places to eat there include Botika, which serves Peruvian-Asian dishes, and Cured, an award-winning restaurant famous for its artisanal cured meats. San Antonio also hosts feast-filled events for food lovers including the Culinaria Wine and Food Festival, the Annual Mole Throwdown, which celebrates Chicano and Latino cuisine and culture, and the popular Fiesta San Antonio, a carnival of food, parades and parties.

The Alamo is San Antonio’s most famous landmark with an outsized place in Texas history as the site of an important battle in the fight for independence from Mexico. Some visitors might therefore expect to find a site as large as The Alamo's legacy, but this is not the case.

The Alamo's small size, combined with its lure as a historic site, makes it a busy place, so try to visit in the early morning or late in the day to avoid the crowds. It’s also worth a visit after dark, even though it’s closed to visitors at 5.30 pm. Pass by the Alamo at night to see its exterior lit up with a warm glow that’s hauntingly beautiful.

Downtown San Antonio is a convenient location to stay, but hotel prices are at a premium here. Budget-minded travellers will find better value accommodation if they’re willing to look beyond the city centre.

King William district, about a 30-minute walk from downtown, is a more affordable area that’s also home to many regal-looking 19^th-century homes, so it's worth wandering around the area if you're staying here. The Pearl district is also worth a look, especially with the neighbourhood’s ongoing transformation from an industrial area into a creative and culinary hub. Families planning to visit Six Flags Fiesta Texas theme park could save money and travel time by checking into a hotel in Northwest San Antonio.

A visit to San Antonio could not be complete without first trying a puffy taco – a classic Tex-Mex dish that was born in the city in the 1950s. Puffy tacos are made with corn tortilla shells fried just so to create a puffy shape, which then forms a bed for a tasty mix of spicy beef or chicken, avocado, beans and veggies.  

The dish was created by the Lopez brothers who ran Ray's Drive In, which is still around today. Another Lopez brother branched out to open Henry’s Puffy Tacos, another popular puffy taco spot among many around San Antonio. Puffy tacos are so well-loved here that the mascot for a minor-league baseball team – the San Antonio Missions – is a puffy taco who dances and cheers with glee.