What activities do you do in Dallas? (Houston, Fort Worth: for sale, rent)

[aceplace]

Originally Posted by TrueDat

Houston's museum district is impressive, no question. It's something of which H-town should be proud.

But if you visit Fair Park, you can take in the African-American Museum, the Women's Museum, and the Museum of Nature and Science. Supposedly coming next year is the Texas Music Museum. All within walking distance of each other. As for Fort Worth, the Kimbell, Amon Carter, the Modern, and Cowgirl Hall of Fame are all together.

Very true. The entire DFW area is easily accessible to a visitor who wants to take in the sights.

Downtown/Uptown Dallas has many museums to walk around to, not just the art museums I mentioned, but others as well, such as the Holocaust museum, the 6th floor, the Dallas County Historical, the World Aquarium and Zoo, the Latino Cultural Center. Fair Park is another major cluster of museums, as you mentioned, and in less than a year, it will be connected to downtown by light rail. The rail connection to downtown Fort Worth is a good amenity for people who want to see another side of the Metro as well, without having to drive.

For anyone not familiar with Dallas, the Museum of Nature and science is not a single building, but a cultural nonprofit organization that operates several Fair Park museums, such as the Science Museum and IMAX, the Natural History museum and the Planetarium. Fair Park also has a small but entertaining aquarium, not to be confused with the other downtown aquarium. It has a railroad museum, a museum of miniatures, an indoor botanical building, an outdoor botanical garden, the previously mentioned African-American museum, and the Women's museum that TrueDat mentioned.

Fair Park is also a treasurehouse of Art Deco architectire , sculpture and murals.

Dallas' aircraft museums deserve a mention. The Museum of Flight at Love Field is a large facility with many indoor exhibits, as is the American Airlines museum in Arlington. Get there on the TRE rail system. There are also traditional outdoor flight museums such as the Cavanaugh museum.

Many people like to visit the 1880's village at Old City Park, just on the southern edge of downtown. It has many period structures arranged in a village, and gives a good view of how people lived at that time. The typical doctor's office is a gruesome view of what it used to be like.

DFW has plenty of things for a visitor to see, even on foot. Since the vast majority of visitors will drive, all the more things for them to reach.

[DaveG99]

the bickering about the small stuff in this thread makes me sick.

According to some of the people on here a city's greatness is measured by the amount of places to go and look at. If thats the case then Kissimmee Florida would be on top of the list since it has Disney World. I bet you thought Disney was in Orlando didnt you?

Dallas isnt necessarily a tourist city. I know I never came here as a tourist. But I live here because of other factors such as cost of living, weather, etc. I never heard of someone moving somewhere because there was more things to do in a certain city.

Dallas is what you make of it. You can do pretty much any activity you little heart desires. And if the activity isnt available we are centrally located and can fly to any part of the country for a good price.

[aceplace]

DaveG99, the number of museums in a city, its offering of indie, foreign and specialty movies, its roster of restaurants, its schedule of local and roadshow performances, its sports offerings, they all are important reasons for me to live in the city I live in. I've been in smaller metros, such as Phoenix, and the more limited set of urbane offerings becomes noticeable quickly. I moved here from San Francisco when I realized that DFW could offer a comparable level of urban culture as SF, without the economic scarcity and deprivation, or the far left wing ideology.

No, I'd agree that Dallas is not in the tourist trap business. This isn't another Branson, MO, or Myrtle Beach SC, or Cancun. There is a place li nife for towns like that, and a certain percentage of the population goes after it. Large cities can be very interesting in their own right, however, as opposed to beachside or mountainside escapes from the routine of work over a 50 week per year period.

[Lakewooder]

Dallas is what you make of it - yep - and zatires I find plenty to do (really too much) without going north of Mockingbird, much less out of the city limits. If you have a hostile attitude people pick up on that and you won't make friends or even much conversation when you go out...as for malls you complain that there are too many but I believe Dallas only has the Galleria and North Park. No, I don't really go to malls unless I am dragged. NP kind of lost me when they expanded. But every so often I will go for nostalgic purposes.

[CGGirl]

The museums in downtown are nice and I've been to them several times but other than one or two special exhibits, not worth visiting from out of town. I hear the museums and zoo in FW are great but not easily accessible without a car.

A lot of the other stuff you mentioned are also outside of Dallas. I've been to the museums in Fair Park and other than the science museum and the cool baseball special exhibit they had last year, I wasn't too impressed actually.

And regarding Knox/Henderson and Highland Park - that's shopping and eating. Stuff that can be done anywhere. Not really unique which was the other poster's point.

Originally Posted by TrueDat

Not to dismiss Chicago or DC, which do have lots to recommend them, and admittedly Dallas doesn't have grand canyons or crashing ocean waves. But your summation isn't fair to Dallas at all. Here's what I try to do when visitors come to town:

1) The Sixth Floor Museum, an attraction that's very unique to Dallas

2) Other North Texas museums -- especially the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas and the Modern, the Kimbell, and the Amon Carter in Fort Worth -- which are quite good, unique and nationally recognized.

3) Southfork Ranch (cheesy maybe but still. . .)

4) Fair Park (aside from the State Fair), the largest collection of Deco exhibition buildings remaining in the US. In addition, there are the African-American Museum and the Women's Museum, both quite good and under-utilized.

5) This area does a poor job of marketing/branding its ethnic neighborhoods and there are few kitschy architectural cues so residents and visitors alike think they don't exist. But there are some worthy Asian/Middle Eastern shops/restaurants/markets throughout Carrollton and Richardson. Granted, they tend to be in mini-malls and not in "cute," crowded neighborhoods as in the Northeast. But this is similar to newer "Chinatowns" you might find in car-oriented places like Orange County, Calif. or Houston (granted, the Asian areas are much more expansive in those regions). That doesn't make the food here any less tasty or the shops any less interesting. Heading in the other direction, head down to Oak Cliff for a tour of taquerias along Jefferson and/or Davis.

6) The Stockyards in Fort Worth

7) Highland Park Village, built in 1931, and is generally recognized as the first shopping center in America

8) Our Lady of Guadalupe Cathedral downtown. That 19th-century cathedral serves the second-largest Catholic church membership in the US and is absolutely beautiful, especially now that it's been restored.

9) Deep Ellum. Yes, it's often deserted now but it's history is still there for those who want to explore it. As the home or home-away-from-home for such blues legends as Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson (whose "Deep Ellum Blues" became a Grateful Dead standard), the area's buildings are rife with this country's musical/racial history. It's still worth a visit if you're a tourist as there are still some good restaurants/galleries/clubs down there despite the reputation.

10) Now, you can eat/drink your way down Knox/Henderson, from Momo's on one end to Barcadia on the other. (Yes, you'll have to drive between them though). Or take the free trolley up and down McKinney, stopping off at West Village for something to eat/drink. Or walk around the Bishop Arts District in Oak Cliff. Or go to a gallery night in the Dallas Design District.

And beginning next year, with the opening of Park Lane Place (with the largest Whole Foods in the country), the new Performing Arts Center (which supposedly will give Dallas the largest arts district in the US), the new Cowboys stadium (perhaps the most state of the art stadium in the country), and, with luck, the redevelopment of Deep Ellum thanks to the opening of the new DART Line, there will be more places to go.

Does this compare with DC or Chicago? Maybe not, but to say there's nothing here worth visiting/enjoying is just not correct.

[CGGirl]

Momof2 - Never heard of Canton. Is that in Dallas? If not, that's my point. I'm talking about things tourists could come do without having to rent a car. In NY and DC, there are flea markets every weekend. With the weather as good as it is here, I would have thought there would be more.

[mysterymachinebl]

Originally Posted by CGGirl

The museums in downtown are nice and I've been to them several times but other than one or two special exhibits, not worth visiting from out of town. I hear the museums and zoo in FW are great but not easily accessible without a car.

If you take the TRE to FW, there's a trolley/shuttle from the train station that will drop you off at the zoo.

[aceplace]

Originally Posted by CGGirl

The museums in downtown are nice and I've been to them several times but other than one or two special exhibits, not worth visiting from out of town.

The museums in downtown Dallas maintain guest logbooks where people write their impressions. Many out of town visitors think that they are definitely worth visiting from out of town.

I hear the museums and zoo in FW are great but not easily accessible without a car.

You're mistaken. Besides, the vast majority of local visitors drive. There is plenty of transit available to reach the DFW attractions, of course.

A lot of the other stuff you mentioned are also outside of Dallas. I've been to the museums in Fair Park and other than the science museum and the cool baseball special exhibit they had last year, I wasn't too impressed actually.

Perhaps your interests and level of boredom are not characteristic of the general population. It doesn't matter what you personally like, but what the majority of the population finds interesting.

And regarding Knox/Henderson and Highland Park - that's shopping and eating. Stuff that can be done anywhere. Not really unique which was the other poster's point.

Dallas has a caliber of shops that you only find in the 4 or 5 largest USA metros... the sort of shops that you're not going to find in 99% orf the metro areas. Think about what you're saying... would you disparage Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills because you could also find the same shops on 5th Avenue in NYC? That would be absurd. You say Anyplace? I could name hundreds of metros that don't have what Highland Park has and would make a liar out of you.

[CGGirl]

My point was that I don't view shopping as a pasttime. I never shop retail anyway. And where I lived in Maryland, we had just about every store that you guys have here and more. Definitely many more discount stores for designer clothing.

I used to live a mile or two from Tiffany's, Neiman Marcus, Saks, Versace, MaxMara, Christian Dior, Jimmy Choo, Cartier, LV,etc etc. And they were just down the street from less pricey stores like Jcrew, Pottery Barn, Filene's Basement, TJ Maxx, Loehmann's, Ann Taylor etc.

As far as Rodeo Drive, I've been there. Stayed at a hotel where I could easily walk down the street and go to a few bars, get groceries and toiletries at the CVS down the street, walk to the restaurants at night, etc.

I just think that many people who are only used to the South might think Dallas is great. Considering I spent all of my life except the last 2 in NYC, Philly, DC, Miami and those types of cities on the East Coast (and throw in a couple of trips to L.A), I just think that the cultural and active activities are lacking here in Dallas.

[CGGirl]

Oh, and two of my pet peeves are that there is no H &M and no Trader Joe's here.