Considering a Trip to the Texas Hill Country? This was our first time and here’s where we went.
Do you crave freedom, open spaces, and fun?
IF you are anything like me then the answer is yes. and…it’s often. It’s this innate desire to be free. To let go of boundaries, get on the road and go do and see something. I crave experiences, moments, and fun. I NEED it, like I need food. Without it, I’m not satisfied.
When I’m not doing something, then I’m often dreaming of what I want to be doing.
So on this illy planned and impromptu trip to the Texas Hill Country we were able to:
- Tour a cave- Longhorn Cavern State Park
- Hike- Longhorn Cavern SP
- Play in a river – Llano River
- Climb Rocks/boulder – Mother Neff State park
- Shop- Fredericksburg
- Dine- Fredericksburg
With spring in the air, I knew it was time for a trip, and spring break was upon us. But WHERE should we go? Well, I didn’t have a lot of time to plan or a lot of time to be away…and being a Texas transplant, I decided, I better take my kids to the Hill country, or else, can I really say that I’m a Texas resident??? No, I couldn’t… But, I can now.
Okay, so this is how story goes.
Me: I HAVE GOT TO TAKE A TRIP, I HAVE TO GO SOMEWHERE.
Also me: I HAVE NO TIME TO PLAN THIS. I’m just gonna have to do it on the fly.
(I did let my sister know about 4 weeks in advance of my plan to take the kids to the Hill Country over spring break)
Mainly because I wanted her to go and she needs a little advance notice…(like when I tried to get her to go to Galveston with about 4 hours notice, that did not work).
…However, I didn’t actually put the trip together until 2 days before, meaning that’s when I started to form a map, and find out what reservations I might need. The day before we left is when I purchased our caving tickets.
There are pros and cons to this method.
Pros:
No commitments
Can add or take away things at any time.
Cons:
Things that do need a reservation ahead of time, you are out of luck. (we could not see Enchanted Rock in Fredericksburg).
Anyway, How did our “On the Fly Texas Hill Country Road Trip” turn out?
AWESOME AND Satisfying 😉
People in our group: 3 adults, 2 kids ages 10 and 5.
Itinerary: None.
I put a map together or potential places to go that I gathered from fb friend recommendations. I knew I wanted hiking, caving, and to visit Fredericksburg for the first time (I needed to know what all the hype was about).
Day one: Drive from Waxahachie Texas area to Longhorn Cavern State Park, then to Fredericksburg for dinner, and that’s as far as the itinerary went.
I sent my map to my sister and told her to edit whatever she wanted, she didn’t edit it.
First decision: Cave. This needed a reservation.
We decided on Longhorn Cavern State Park
It was really beautiful. The cave itself was large, it was not like other caves that I had been in, because it was more of like an underground tunnel that was carved out from a large river. You can research that if you like. Not a lot of climbing up or down or ducking too terribly much. There is of course walking and a short flight of stairs down and back up. I wouldn’t do it twice but once was worth it to me.
Here’s where you buy your tickets. https://visitlonghorncavern.com/
You can do a walking tour or a wild cave tour.
Due to the kids we had with us, we did the walking tour. Would I do the wild cave tour? Not sure, it’s pricey, so I’d want to be sure it is worth the ticket shock. Like is it really that wild? Bc, I don’t really need to pay $100 to crawl for a long time and get a t shirt. So, IDK. I’d investigate further before signing up.
After we did the cave we took the hiking trails at the park. They were nice and tame. They had great old architectural buildings, my sister is an architect so that really interested her. For me, they were just cool.
https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/longhorn-cavern
This park did have a gift shop and a snack bar, so that sustained us since we literally brought NOTHING with us on our trip (we had cave reservations to be at, so when we hopped in the car to leave on this road trip there were no time for stops).
The gift shop had bottled water, but I didn’t want to buy it. I filled up my water bottle water in the bathroom sink, but no one else would drink it! It’s about 2 weeks later now, and I’m fine!
After we left this park, it was around 5 pm. We were headed to Fredericksburg for dinner and had about an hour or so drive.
Well on our way, we came across this: A road crossing a river, with cars parked alongside and people playing in the river. What type of people cross a river like this and don’t stop? I wouldn’t even know…
(our route was from Longhorn Cavern SP to Fredericksburg…this was somewhere by Kingsland believe).
We stopped. And we played. People were playing music (not tasteful music, and was too loud) but ya know, free country and all. We just tuned it out and minded our business. Splashing in the water, looking for minnows, enjoying the Texas sun.
I do wish I had some sandals on, bc, the rocks hurt.
I have these and love them.
They are not “water” sandals but they are my sporty sandals and for the price, they are comfy and work for my needs.
Okay so we stopped at this river for about an hour. We loved it. Then on to Fredericksburg for dinner. Um so, a word of advice. Restaurant options are SEVERELY limited after 8. BUT we ate at Mamacita’s and it was great. Great food, great service, great margaritas.
Onward to Boerne. We stayed here because we didn’t want to pay the price for hotels in Fredericksburg, so we opted for a town nearby. A totally fine decision.
We stayed in the Best Western, it was great, it had a suite. No issues whatsoever.
The next day we headed to Fredericksburg. It was wonderful, tons of shops, free beer, tons of food choices and things to do. We didn’t even scratch the surface of things to see and do in this town.
Lunch at Burger/ Burger. It was yummy. We shopped till we dropped then drove back to Llano for the night.
Again, we arrived late, we had such a big lunch and the kids were so tired, that we opted for the grocery store for lunchables and treats in our hotel room.
We stayed at the Best Western in Llano, it was fine, but seemed a little iffy on safety…We had NO troubles at all. Just not a fancy place…but it was clean, and honestly that’s numero uno on hotels. (side note, when getting on wifi it said there was and FBI van wireless connection nearby)…I don’t even know.
The next morning it was time to head back to our base camp of home. Before we left we had just a tiny bit of time to explore the town of Llano, it is a great place to play in the river. Our time there was too short.
We didn’t even get to have bbq or pizza, two places we wanted to try…SO you try them and tell me.
Tommy’s Mesquite Flamed Pizza (apparently only open on Friday and Saturday)
Well when you are living the road trip life you can’t stay anywhere for too long… so ONWARD.
On our journey home we wanted to stop at one more place. We decided on Mother Neff State Park. It was beautiful. Loved the trails, the scenery and the rocks. I was able to do bouldering in one place. This is scaling a large boulder without a rope attached. It’s dangerous. And I wasn’t scaling a super large boulder BUT had I of slipped I could have really gotten hurt, so thankfully, that did not happen.
- We hiked
- Bouldered
- My niece got her junior ranger badge here.
It was a great last place to explore. I would like to go back…and I would recommend it.
And
that wraps up our spring break road trip. It really was a road trip because we planned it all on the road and didn’t commit to anything but our guided cave tour.
Cheers.
Remember, get out of your comfort zone, go explore, make memories, have fun!