From rollercoasters to rodeos – your guide to the ultimate family holiday in San Antonio, Texas

Telegraph

04-03-2025

When sightseeing with children, parents must become social chefs, carefully seasoning holiday itineraries to ensure everyone is happy. The good news for those looking to travel as a family is that San Antonio, Texas, is a destination with all the right ingredients for success.
The best way to get your bearings in this beautiful city is with an open-air Go Rio boat tour of the leafy San Antonio River Walk – complete with a tide of family-friendly jokes as you float through the beautiful heart of this 300-year-old city.
From here, you'll be spoilt for choice, even for a week-long trip. San Antonio is known as the Theme Park Capital of Texas, boasting more than 160 rides across an impressive collection of parks, from Six Flags Fiesta Texas with its towering rollercoasters (headlined by the infamous Iron Rattler) to AR's Entertainment Hub with its indoor bumper cars and virtual-reality games and Schlitterbahn, considered be be among the world's best water parks. Then there's the extraordinary Morgan's Wonderland, which is hailed the world's one and only ultra-accessible theme park, with its autism-friendly sensory playgrounds, four-seater ziplines and wheelchair-compatible swings. The park is seasonal, so check dates on the website.
If you're on foot after your River Walk cruise, it's a simple stroll through San Antonio's typically sun-drenched heart to the Shops at Rivercenter – home to two of the best downtown family attractions: the Sea Life Aquarium San Antonio and Legoland Discovery Center. The former is packed with engaging child-friendly exhibits and underwater tunnels, while the latter is an opportunity to get hands-on with millions of Lego bricks in the company of trained master-builders, before checking out the jaw-dropping Lego reproduction of the city itself.
If learning is your priority, San Antonio has you covered too. The main children's museum – the DoSeum – is designed as a place where play and teaching overlap for kids of all ages, from the self-explanatory Spy Academy and Musical Staircase to the impressive Imagine It – an innovative area dedicated to teaching youngsters how to construct and write good stories. There's even a space called Little Town – exactly like a mini city, with shops, building sites, an airport, bank and post office – which is designed for babies and toddlers to explore in tiny cars.
While the DoSeum justifiably gets the lion's share of attention, don't sleep on San Antonio's other family-friendly favourites, including The Buckhorn Museum, where you can learn all about the Lone Star State's pioneering past, before sitting down to a Texas-style family feast in the cowboy-themed restaurant.
When it comes to Texas history, however, one site stands out above all others. The Alamo, a fortified Spanish Mission which saw a history-altering battle between Texan settlers and the Mexican Army in 1836, remains the number one free attraction in the entire country, with an on-site museum providing basic introductions to the Wild West legends involved in the battle, such as famed frontiersman Davy Crockett. Opened in February 2025, the San Antonio Missions National Historic Park combines the Alamo with four neighbouring historic Missions, to create Texas's only Unesco World Heritage Site.
For kids with energy to burn (and sun cream judiciously applied) San Antonio has plenty of outdoor spaces to enjoy too, from sprawling Brackenridge Park – which also contains the city's world-class zoo and its 3,500 animals – to the San Antonio Botanical Garden, with its 38 acres of beautifully landscaped grounds, including the Family Adventure Garden (think treehouses to play in, water features to splash in, and a maze to explore).
With its rich history, thrilling theme parks and fascinating cowboy culture, San Antonio is a city that promises unforgettable experiences for families – particularly if you can time your visit to coincide with one of the big annual events that take place throughout the year, from the epic Stock Show & Rodeo each February to the otherworldly Dias De Los Muertos Festival in October – an occasion which young fans of Disney's Coco will immediately adore – and the Tejas Rodeo Company's weekly rodeos up in Texas Hill Country, between March to November. And if you want to get any more hands-on and get your feet in the stirrups, a day or two at a dude ranch like Rancho Cortez with its Lassoo Lessons will get you hollering like a proper cow girl or boy.
Whenever or however you visit San Antonio, the only problem you will face – like the heaped plates of spicy Tex-Mex being served all over town – is that there is simply too much good stuff to get through.