Discover Dallas

Dallas offers a range of reasons to stay: the history of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Art Deco architecture, gardens and open spaces, as well as experiences at the zoo and in museums. A self-guided tour of margaritas is another distinctive city theme. Which of these you include in your plans can shape the focus of your trip.

History, Architecture and Museums

The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza is located in the former Texas School Book Depository building. It documents the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and his legacy. The main exhibition, titled “John F. Kennedy and the Memory of a Nation,” is on the sixth floor. A visit to the museum therefore takes you to a specific historic site and offers an opportunity to reflect on Kennedy’s legacy.

Fair Park offers its own perspective on art and history: it is home to one of the world’s largest collections of 1930s Art Deco architecture. The park’s museums and gardens also bring art, history and nature to life. Visitors can take a motorized outdoor tour through Fair Park; availability may vary.

Gardens, Wildlife and Special Insights

The Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden spans 66 acres of display gardens on White Rock Lake. It also hosts seasonal outdoor festivals. Since individual events may change, it’s worth checking the schedule if a festival is important to your plans. A garden visit and seasonal programming offer different ways to experience the same destination.

At the Dallas Zoo, the habitats on display range from the African savanna and South American rainforests to the Australian Outback. The Monorail Safari takes visitors on a 20-minute guided ride through six African habitats; its operation may vary. The Gorilla Trail and Giants of the Savanna in Wilds of Africa offer a different experience, explored at your own pace. The contrast between a guided ride and exploring independently can help you tailor your zoo visit to the kind of experience you want.

When available, visitors to the Perot Museum of Nature and Science can watch paleontologists and fossil preparators work on fresh fossils from the field in real time. The opportunity to see this work may change. The museum complements the experiences at the zoo and gardens with a look at how fossils are prepared.

Open Space and Regional Connections

Dallas County’s open space preserves include 21 areas covering a total of 4,166 acres. The county program offers opportunities for hiking, biking and kayaking. This gives you the option of spending time outdoors alongside visits to museums and landscaped gardens. For the open space preserves it manages, the county lists sunrise to sunset as visiting hours; check these hours before your visit.

Spring Creek Park Preserve is one example: its unpaved trails wind through a prairie along Spring Creek. The trails and their surroundings offer a different kind of visit than the display gardens on White Rock Lake. Hiking, biking and kayaking are options available through the open space program as a whole; the prairie and unpaved trails described here are at Spring Creek Park Preserve.

For regional connections, the Trinity Railway Express links the downtowns of Dallas and Fort Worth, with stops at several stations in between. If you’re considering this connection for your trip, check the schedule in advance. DART Rail lines connect the Dallas region and provide access to jobs, healthcare, education and entertainment. Both descriptions refer to regional rail connections; they don’t replace planning for individual attractions.

Margarita Mile and Choosing a Hotel

The self-guided Margarita Mile takes visitors to margaritas at restaurants and bars in Dallas. The drink’s history also includes an invention: in 1971, Mariano Martinez and Frank Adams developed the world’s first frozen margarita machine. The tour thus connects a culinary theme with a specific milestone in Dallas’s margarita history.

When choosing a hotel in Dallas, you can start by considering which experiences you want to define your stay: museums and architecture, gardens and seasonal events, the zoo, open spaces or the culinary tour. These themes offer different approaches to planning, without requiring one type of outing to take center stage.

Discover more destinations

Discover more destinations: Lancaster, Mesquite, Carrollton, Richardson, Garland, Addison, Desoto, Grand Prairie, Rowlett, Duncanville, Dallas, Irving, Hutchins, Seagoville, Farmers Branch, Balch Springs, Coppell, Cedar Hill.

For the broader travel overview: Texas.