Dallas

Glass towers, a glowing ball-topped tower, and beneath it a park built over a city freeway: Dallas loves to reinvent itself. A trip to Dallas takes you to one of the largest arts districts in the U.S., to the sites of the Kennedy assassination, and to restaurants where brisket smokes for hours. A vacation in Dallas also pairs well with a visit to neighboring Fort Worth.

Cotton, Oil, and a Dark Day

In 1841, the trader John Neely Bryan settled at a ford of the Trinity River, and the city grew with cotton, the railroad, and later the oil boom in East Texas. Banks, insurance companies, and trade made Dallas the financial center of the Southwest. The city became known worldwide on November 22, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was shot at Dealey Plaza. Later, the TV series "Dallas" and the Dallas Cowboys created a different image. Today, the Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area is one of the fastest-growing in the U.S., home to numerous corporations and an air travel hub.

Sights in Dallas

The Sixth Floor Museum, in the former school book depository at Dealey Plaza, documents the Kennedy assassination at the very spot where Lee Harvey Oswald is said to have waited; a white X on Elm Street marks where the shots hit, and just steps away stands Philip Johnson's simple John F. Kennedy Memorial. Reunion Tower, with its illuminated sphere, offers an observation deck high above the city. Klyde Warren Park, built on a deck over the Woodall Rodgers Freeway, connects Downtown with Uptown and, with its food trucks, yoga classes, and concerts, serves as the city's living room. Fair Park, site of the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition, holds one of the largest collections of Art Deco buildings in the U.S., and in the fall the State Fair of Texas draws crowds there with its giant cowboy, Big Tex. The Dallas Arboretum on White Rock Lake is especially worth a visit in spring during the tulip bloom.

Arts District and Museums

The Dallas Arts District in the north of downtown spans about 30 city blocks and is considered one of the largest contiguous urban arts districts in the country. The Dallas Museum of Art, with free admission, ranges from ancient art to Mondrian, while the Nasher Sculpture Center, designed by Renzo Piano, shows Rodin, Giacometti, and Richard Serra in a sculpture garden. The Crow Museum of Asian Art, I. M. Pei's Meyerson Symphony Center, and the red Winspear Opera House by Foster + Partners all sit right next to one another. The Perot Museum of Nature and Science delights families with dinosaurs and hands-on experiments. The campus of Southern Methodist University is also home to the George W. Bush Presidential Library.

Neighborhoods for Strolling

Uptown, with historic McKinney Avenue, where a free vintage streetcar runs, is the neighborhood for restaurants and bars. Boutiques and patio restaurants line the area around Knox Street. Deep Ellum, east of downtown, was already a center of the blues in the 1920s and is now the go-to nightlife district, with murals, live music clubs, and breweries. Bishop Arts in Oak Cliff charms with small shops and cafés, and the area around Vickery Meadow and Lower Greenville shows just how international Dallas has become. The area around University Crossing near SMU has a distinctly student feel.

Eating in Dallas

Dallas restaurants reflect the Texan love of meat and Tex-Mex. Barbecue with brisket, ribs, and spicy sausages is on offer in Deep Ellum and beyond, and the best spots often have a line at lunchtime. According to legend, the frozen margarita was invented in Dallas in 1971, when a restaurateur converted a soft-serve machine. Chicken fried steak with cream gravy, fajitas, and queso are as much a part of the local cuisine as steaks at upscale steakhouses. Add to that Vietnamese, Korean, and Indian restaurants in the suburbs, which are well worth a detour.

Getting Around, When to Go, and Day Trips

The huge Dallas/Fort Worth airport lies between the two cities and is connected by the DART light rail and the TEXRail train; Love Field, near downtown, is the home base of Southwest Airlines. The DART network is one of the longest light rail systems in the U.S., but for trips out to the suburbs a car is often more convenient. The best times to visit are spring and fall; summers get very hot, and spring thunderstorms can be severe. Fort Worth, with its Stockyards and daily cattle drive, is easy to reach on the Trinity Railway Express, and day trips also lead to Grapevine with its historic Main Street or to the lakes in the surrounding area. For sports fans, a Cowboys home game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington is an experience.