Travel Tips for San Antonio, Texas!
Does anyone not like to save money? Here are some quick tips on places to visit and ways to save money while traveling to San Antonio!
First of all, always check the local Groupon options for any city that your going to visit. We got a discount on our scheduled tours by booking them before we left home and using a Groupon. Depending on what attractions your going to visit, the Fun Passes can save you a significant amount of money. We also bought Sea World passes before leaving home and saved a bundle compared to the price you will pay at the gate. We also added the food package to our tickets and it was well worth the cost. The food wrist bands also worked at the “all you can eat” pizza buffet by just scanning the wrist bands. Considering the price of food at these places and the amount of time that you spend there, it’s a deal!
We also tried out the “Lime” scooters. These are LOADS of fun! The scooters are parked on the sidewalk outside places of business. When you need to use one to get from one place to another, you download the app to your phone. You enter a credit card number on the app, scan the scooter with the app and it activates the scooter and keeps track of your time. When you are done, you go into the app and hit “end ride” and the app will ask you to take a picture of where you park the scooter. You leave it on the sidewalk outside whatever business your going to visit and the app will close your ride and send you a total. There was some frustration because we were with a large group and several times it was hard to find enough scooters for everyone. There was also a couple of times that we activated a scooter only to find out that it broken. When you sign out of the scooter they will ask you how your ride went and you can comment and let them know if there was any issues. This was definitely a cheaper and more exciting way to “scoot” around San Antonio than a rental car or an Uber! Side note: These scooters go over 20 mph and you have to be 18 and have a valid drivers license to operate them.
There is a scenic tower, “Tower of the Americas”, with amazing views of San Antonio. There is an observation deck, a bar and also a restaurant in the top of the tower. Tickets to go to the observation deck are like $12.00 per person. Quick tip: If you tell them your going to visit the bar, they will let you in for free and you just have to purchase a drink at the bar and you get to see the observation deck for no additional cost. There is also coupons in the local coupon books for a free appetizer for the bar. So you can save money and get a free appetizer with an amazing view!
There are outlet malls about a half an hour from San Antonio. These are well worth visiting if you up for some shopping! They have both Premium and Tangier outlets, side by side and this offers a huge selection of stores. There was a better selection of stores at these outlets, than any other outlet stores I have visited.
Check out Buc-ee’s. I know that everything is bigger in Texas but this has to be the largest gas station, even for Texas. The inside of the gas station is so big they even have grocery carts for you to use. This is on the way to the outlet malls if you coming from San Antonio.
The River Walk is amazing! During the day and especially at night! They have some wonderful food and great music! If you want to see the River Walk at night and during the day, the boat ride is a must! You can purchase a boat pass that is good for 24 hours from your time of purchase and you can take the boat ride as many times as you want in that 24 hour period. It runs every 15-20 mins all day long. The 24 hour pass was not advertised, someone told us about it and we had to ask.
“Remember the Alamo!” Don’t forget to visit the Alamo. Just down the street from the Alamo is a mall and in the mall they have an IMAX theater. The IMAX offers the “Price of Freedom” which is a 45 minute movie about the Alamo. I highly recommend going to see this before you visit the Alamo. It explains everything very well and brings the experience to life. We also did the audio tour inside the Alamo. It was not very interesting audio. The things you were able to see were mostly self explanatory. Unless you our a major history buff, I personally would skip the audio tour.
On the weekends, in the evenings they have a “FREE” light show on the front of the San Fernando Cathedral. It was enjoyable and you cannot beat the price!
There are some wonderful places to eat. We did not have a bad experience with any of the restaurants we tried. We ate ate the SaltGrass Steakhouse, The Republic of Texas, Little Rhein Steakhouse, Rudy’s BBQ, and of course, Haagen Dazs!
Overall San Antonio is a wonderful city to visit! We spent a week there and I am not sure that we even scratched the surface of places to visit. We had a great time, were able to save lots of money and visited some wonderful places. We hope this post helps if you are in the process of planning a trip to San Antonio or if this is on your list of future trips. Please comment and let us know if you have a favorite place to see in San Antonio!
