On your arrival into San Antonio, collect your bags and trasnfer independently from the airport to your hotel downtown. We have selected a hotel on the Riverwalk, so this evening you may like to take a stroll and get your bearings. There are lots of dining options along the Riverwalk perfect for an evening meal.

Holiday Inn San Antonio Riverwalk, or similar

Spend the day exploring San Antonio on foot, starting right on your doorstep. The River Walk runs directly past most of the city’s downtown hotels, and this morning gives you time to follow it properly, whether that’s a gentle stroll and breakfast beneath the cypress trees, or a river taxi ride on the different loops and waterways.

From the River Walk, it’s a short walk to the Alamo, the former Spanish mission and site of the 1836 battle that remains central to Texas history. Allow a couple of hours to visit the site and its museum.

In the afternoon, San Fernando Cathedral is worth a visit for its Gothic architecture and its role as one of the oldest active cathedrals in the country, before continuing on to Market Square, one of the largest Mexican markets in the United States, with shops, food stalls and mariachi music most days.

Holiday Inn San Antonio Riverwalk, or similar

This morning there may be time for another breakfast by the river before making your way to the Amtrak station in time for your reserved train. Although the distance is only one mile from the hotel to the station we recommend using a taxi or uber/ride share for this journey. You will have pre-reserved seats for this train which takes around 2½ hours.

On arrival in Austin it is around a mile to your hotel, following the riverside trail, or you can choose to travel by taxi or Uber/ride share if you prefer. You will usually be able to check into your hotel by early afternoon.

In the evening, Austin’s live music scene comes alive. Sixth Street offers the highest concentration of venues within walking distance athough there are also some smaller venues closer to South Congress.

The Line, Austin, or similar

The Line Hotel sits directly on Lady Bird Lake (part of the Colorado River), making it a natural starting point for the day. Begin with a walk along the Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail, which loops the lake and gives a good introduction to how Austinites use the outdoors right in the middle of the city.

Continue up Congress Avenue toward the Texas State Capitol. Allow an hour or so to explore the Capitol grounds and building, one of the largest state capitols in the country, before wandering back down through downtown.

In the afternoon, the Blanton Museum of Art or the Bullock Texas State History Museum are both within walking distance, while you may prefer to continue exploring on foot, whether that’s South Congress Avenue for its shops and cafés, or Rainey Street for a quieter, residential-feel stretch of bars and restaurants.

Top Tip: The Congress Avenue Bridge is just a short walk from your hotel. The bridge is home to the largest urban bat colony in North America and they can be seen emerging in large numbers from under the bridge at dusk.

Of course, by evening you may wish to head out again to Sixth Street or some other music venues.

The Line, Austin, or similar

This morning return to the Austin train station to catch today’s Texas Eagle to Fort Worth, the ranch city neighbour to Dallas. This journey is about 4½ hours, so there is plenty of time to relax in your reserved seat and watch the Texas scenery pass by out the window.

On arrival into Fort Worth it only a short walk to your Downtown Hotel, where you can check-in before exploring the area. You may like to walk to make the short walk to the Water Gardens if you fancy a relaxing afternoon break, or you can head to Sundance Square for a choice of bars and restaurants, with steak houses featuring prominently, as you would expect.

The Ashton Hotel, Fort Worth, or similar

Spend the day exploring the Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District, the preserved heart of the city’s cattle-trading past and once a key stop on the very cattle trail this journey traces. From your hotel it is just a 10 munte taxi or uber/ridshre to the centre of the Stockyards district.

We recommendi timing your morning around the daily cattle drive along Exchange Avenue, when longhorns are still driven down the brick-paved street by drovers in period dress, a tradition that has run twice daily since the 1990s. This also happens in the afternoon each day.

From here, Exchange Avenue itself is worth taking slowly. The street is lined with Western wear shops, saddleries and the Livestock Exchange Building, once the administrative centre of the working stockyards and now home to the Stockyards Museum, where the district’s history as a genuine cattle market is set out in more detail.

After lunch in one of the district’s Western-themed restaurants or saloons, you can continue browsing the shops along Exchange Avenue, visit the museum, or take in Billy Bob’s Texas, billed as the world’s largest honky-tonk and open through the day as well as into the evening.

As the day moves into evening, the Stockyards take on a different character. Exchange Avenue’s saloons and bars fill up, live music starts at Billy Bob’s, and on selected nights the Cowtown Coliseum hosts rodeo performances (check schedules locally), a fitting way to end a day spent tracing Fort Worth’s cowtown heritage.

The Ashton, Fort Worth, or similar

Before departing Fort Worth today there will be some time to complete your exploring. You could catch a taxi to the town of Grapevine, which is good place to try some wine tasting, or alternatively you could make the shorter journey to the Fort Woth Cultural District, where there are several major museums including the Fort Woth Museum of Science and History, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, and the Kimbell Art Museum, many of which have features on the cattle drives of the 1800s.

In the afternoon return to the Fort Worth Amtrak station to follow a different route, the Heartland Flyer to Oklahoma City. This journey is a little over 4 hours, as you cross the state border from Texas to Oklahoma.

You will arrive into Oklahoma Ciry in the evening, it is just a five minute walk to your reserved hotel in the Bricktown District, where you can check-in, before exploring this fascinating city over the next two days.

Hampton Inn & Suites, Oklahoma City – Bricktown, or similar

After breakfast, take a short walk from your Bricktown hotel to Bricktown Landing, where a public ferry operated by Oklahoma River Cruises offers a relaxed way to reach the Stockyards District. The journey takes just over thirty minutes, including passage through a water lock, and the air-conditioned vessels have onboard seating, viewing decks and a small bar and concessions area for the trip.

On arrival at Stockyards Landing, it’s a short walk to the Oklahoma National Stockyards, one of the largest stocker and feeder cattle markets in the country and still a working livestock exchange today. Cattle auctions typically run on weekday mornings, so timing your visit around an auction, if one is scheduled, gives a genuine sense of the market in action rather than a purely historic stop.

Lunch in the district is a chance to try Cattlemen’s Steakhouse, a long-standing local institution, before returning to Stockyard Landing for the return ferry.

The return journey brings you back in the afternoon, leaving time to explore Bricktown itself: its canal-side restaurants and bars, the Bricktown Ballpark, and the wider entertainment district, all within easy walking distance of the hotel.

NB: The Oklahoma River Cruise service to the Stockyards District operates seasonally, from May to November, and from Wednesday to Sunday. Travelling outside this period, or on a Monday or Tuesday, will require a taxi or similar to reach the Stockyards District  Please check locally for sailing schedules, as departure times can vary.

Hampton Inn & Suites, Oklahoma City – Bricktown, or similar

Continuing the Western them of this holiday, we recommend spending this morning at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, one of the most comprehensive collections of Western art, artefacts and history in the country, and only around a ten-minute taxi ride from your Bricktown hotel. Allow a good couple of hours here, maybe longer, since the museum covers everything from cowboy and rodeo heritage to Native American culture and Western film, and it’s easy to lose track of time among the galleries.

Later in the day, take a taxi back to Bricktown for a more relaxed afternoon. The Bricktown Water Taxi is a pleasant way to see the district from the canal, with a forty-five minute round trip gliding past the restaurants, murals and public art that line the water. The boats depart hourly through the summer.

With the rest of the afternoon free, you can continue exploring Bricktown on foot, whether that’s browsing the shops along the canal or simply choosing a canal-side spot to relax before dinner. For those interested in baseball, the Bricktown Ballpark is just a short walk from the hotel, and catching an Oklahoma City Dodgers game makes for an easy and enjoyable alternative for the afternoon or evening.

Hampton Inn & Suites, Oklahoma City – Bricktown, or similar

There may still be time for some last minute shopping, or a visit to the Banjo Museum in Bricktown, before you will need to transfer independently to the Oklahoma City Airport, in time to check-in for your onwards or return flight connection.