A complete guide to two of Texas's most diverse and exciting cities
We used this book a LOT during our week vacationing in San Antonio. I found that their recommendations were right on the mark, for places to see and things to do, and restaurants. We'd already done our airline, rental car, and hotel reservations, so we didn't need the book for that. But we did their recommended downtown walking tour one day, and it was just like having our personal tour guide with us as we read about each stop. The first night we found our way to a Tex-Mex restaurant that they recommended, and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
Other days we drove to outlying towns that were also recommendations, and we never would have discovered them on our own without that book. This book is a Must if you are going to vacation in San Antonio and/or Austin and haven't been there before!
This book was very helpful on my recent 3 day trip to Austin. I used many of the suggestions (Austin Motel, Duck Adventure, Bat tour) and found them to be right on the mark. It was a good investment and made the trip much more organized.
This book served its basic purpose, however did not contain many specifics, for instance: it mentions to do a self guided walking tour of the King William District but they only give you the main street in the King William District--directions for a walking tour would be nice since there are several areas that aren't very worthy of a tour.
The worst part of this book, however, was that the main San Antonio map had a critical HWY missing! It appears that HWY 151 was extended to HWY 90 several years ago, but the book has it stopping at the 410. This provided us with several overdriven directions until we discovered the error. I usually like Frommers but I think this one needs a little tweaking.
These frommer guides are well put together, at least the writers seem to have actually visited these two cities. Im very familiar with both cities and i have to say for the tourist, Austin does not hold a candle to San Antonio..it's sort of like comparing Baton Rouge to New Orleans. I mean dont get me wrong id rather live in Austin, but if your going to these cities for fun, spend like two days in Austin, then make your way to San Antonio...fast,,,the riverwalk alone is worth spending several days. As for this guide, I like the way it's layed out and the ratings of sites is very accurate. The hotel and restaurant guides are pretty basic, but it gives you an general overview. If you have never visited this area...be sure to ride out into the Hill Country, all the German Heritage and scenic vista's is not to be missed...
I took this guide on a first time visit to San Antonio and found it invaluable. Not only was it up to date with info on the latest hotels, attractions, and restaurants, but it contains lots of asides containing interesting information on the different sites that added to our enjoyment at visiting these sites. A first rate job!