The San Antonio River Walk sits one storey below street level because it was built as flood control.
In September 1921 a flood came down the river and killed around fifty people in the city. The engineering answer proposed was to cut a bypass channel, dam the bend that loops through downtown and pave the bend over entirely as a storm sewer. A local architect, Robert Hugman, argued instead for keeping the water and landscaping the channel as a commercial street below the traffic, with shops and walkways at river level and bridges above.
He was ignored for a decade. The Works Progress Administration built it between 1939 and 1941 — twenty-one bridges, stone stairways, seventeen thousand trees and shrubs — and for another thirty years it was a quiet backwater that the city largely ignored until the 1968 World's Fair.
It is now the most visited attraction in Texas, and it works because it is below the street. The traffic is up there and inaudible.
The five missions
San Antonio has five Spanish colonial missions built along the river in the eighteenth century, and all five were listed together by UNESCO in 2015 — the only World Heritage site in Texas. The best known is Mission San Antonio de Valero, which is the Alamo.
The other four run south along a hike-and-bike trail and four of them are still active Catholic parishes with services on Sundays. Mission San José, the largest, has a restored granary and a rose window that is the finest piece of Spanish colonial carving in the country.
The Hill Country
West and north of the city, limestone hills, spring-fed rivers and German settlement towns — Fredericksburg was founded in 1846 by German immigrants and the language survived there into the twentieth century. The wine industry is now substantial, the peaches are famous, and the bluebonnets in late March and April are the reason Texans drive these roads.
The nine below are grouped that way.
Pearl and the north bend
The converted brewery district.
Hotel Emma occupies the 1894 brewhouse of the Pearl Brewery, converted with the cast iron, the boiler and the fermentation tanks left in place, a library of thousands of books and a pool on the roof. It is the best hotel in Texas.
Hotel Emma
Pearl, San Antonio · 5★ · $$$$
An 1894 brewhouse with the tanks and cast iron left in place
Check availabilityThe River Walk and downtown
On the bend.
Mokara Hotel & Spa sits on the river with a spa, a rooftop pool and rooms directly above the walkway.
Mokara Hotel & Spa
River Walk · 4★ · $$$
A spa and rooftop pool directly above the walkway
Check availabilityLa Mansión del Rio occupies a Spanish colonial-style building on the river, once a seminary, with a courtyard and a pool.
La Mansión del Rio
River Walk · 4★ · $$$
A former seminary with a courtyard on the river
Check availabilityThompson San Antonio Riverwalk sits on the river with a design-led interior, a rooftop and contemporary rooms.
Thompson San Antonio Riverwalk
River Walk · 4★ · $$$
Design-led with a rooftop over the water
Check availabilityThe St. Anthony, a Luxury Collection Hotel occupies a 1909 building near Alamo Plaza with a restored lobby and a long history as the city's grand hotel.
The St. Anthony, a Luxury Collection Hotel
Alamo Plaza · 4★ · $$$
A 1909 building with a restored lobby
Check availabilityHotel Havana sits in the King William district in a converted building with a small room count and a bar with a considerable local following.
Hotel Havana
King William district · 4★ · $$$
A small conversion with a bar the city uses
Check availabilityCanopy by Hilton San Antonio Riverwalk occupies a position on the River Walk with reliable rooms and the best value on the water.
Canopy by Hilton San Antonio Riverwalk
River Walk · 4★ · $$
Reliable rooms at the best value on the water
Check availabilityThe Hill Country
An hour west and north.
Hoffman Haus occupies a set of buildings in Fredericksburg with a garden, a small room count and the main street outside.
Hoffman Haus
Fredericksburg · 4★ · $$$
A garden compound off the German settlement main street
Check availabilityCamp Lucy sits on a ranch at Dripping Springs with cottages, a chapel moved from Vietnam and the hills around it.
Camp Lucy
Dripping Springs, Hill Country · 4★ · $$$
Ranch cottages and a chapel moved from Vietnam
Check availabilityWhat we have left off
The bed and breakfasts across Fredericksburg and the Hill Country are excluded, and in German settlement towns they are the traditional option. They are guest houses rather than hotels.
What to do
Walk the River Walk away from the central loop. The Museum Reach north toward Pearl and the Mission Reach south are quieter, longer and better than the restaurant section everyone photographs.
Do the missions by bicycle on the trail rather than by car, which takes most of a day and is flat.
See the Alamo early, and read enough beforehand to know what you are looking at — the building is a chapel and the battle happened across a much larger compound that is now under the surrounding streets.
Eat at Pearl. The former brewery is now a food district with a Saturday farmers' market and the Culinary Institute of America's Texas campus.
Drive the Hill Country for wine and peaches, and go in late March for the bluebonnets, which are a genuine event.
Practical notes
San Antonio's airport is fifteen minutes from downtown. Austin is ninety minutes north and shares the region.
Spring and autumn are best. Summer regularly exceeds 38 degrees. Winter is mild. Fiesta, in April, is the city's biggest event and fills everything.
The River Walk is below street level and the entrances are not always obvious; the stairs are marked on the maps.
Every hotel bookable in San Antonio
Why is the River Walk below the street?
It was built as flood control after a 1921 flood, by the WPA between 1939 and 1941, with the commercial level kept at river height under the traffic.
Are the missions still in use?
Four of the five are active Catholic parishes. All five are UNESCO-listed together.
Downtown or Pearl?
Pearl for the brewery district and the food, downtown for the river and the Alamo. Twenty minutes apart on foot along the river.
How many nights?
Three. One for the missions, one for the river and Pearl, one for the Hill Country.