Dallas is a big city, and to some it may seem difficult to find fun things to do in Dallas Texas… but they’re out there!

We have been there a few times and I want to tell you about the things to do in Dallas Texas that we have discovered! These include some fun attractions, like the Dallas Zoo, Southfork, the Dallas Aquarium, and more.

If you are planning a Dallas vacation, you will also need a few places to eat at, and a place to stay in, so I will tell you about a few great restaurants to try and few hotels to consider (including downtown hotels and Bed & Breakfasts).

Before I continue, when I say “Dallas”, I do mean the Dallas area and that will include other cities too. Now on too… 

Things To Do In Dallas Texas

Dallas Aquarium

The first of our favorite things to do in Dallas Texas is a visit to the Dallas Aquarium (aka Dallas World Aquarium), which is a fascinating place.

They have a big aquarium with an underwater tunnel and several cool exhibitions, like the “Rainforest” (South American jungle), “South Africa”, and “Mundo Maya” (Mayan civilization).

My kids love the Dallas Texas Aquarium. I think yours will too.

Dallas Zoo

Another of my kids’ favorite things to do in Dallas Texas is a visit to the Dallas Zoo.

The Dallas Zoo is near downtown Dallas. It covers about 95 acres and has around 1800 animals! The Dallas Zoo also has a very nice area for little kids.

If your kids like animals, take them to the Dallas Zoo. They’ll have a good time!

Water Parks

There are at least three water parks in Dallas Texas.

Two are two Hawaiian Falls water parks, one in Garland and the other in The Colony. The third is Bahama Beach water park, south of downtown Dallas.

The Dallas Texas water parks are really great in Texas’ hot summers!

Horseback Riding

Horse back riding was one of my favorite things to do as a kid. I had a horse named Dusty and had lots of fun riding her. My kids also like horses a lot, but they don’t get to do horse back riding as often I did.

I was so happy when I discovered the Double D Ranch where we could all do horse back riding in Dallas Texas. There is much more than only horseback riding to do though.

I think it is a great place for kids to get the Texas experience!

Six Flags

Six Flags near Dallas Texas is called Six Flags Over Texas in honor of the flags of the six nations that governed Texas. It is located in Arlington, about midway between Dallas & Fort Worth.

Six Flags has a free-fall tower, a wooden roller coaster, several steel roller coasters, trains, and many other rides that my kids love.

A day at Six Flags is always a fun day in my kids’ lives! I like it too, but these days I check out roller coasters carefully before I get on them!

JFK Assassination Site

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dealey Plaza, Dallas Texas on November 22, 1963. The shots were supposedly fired from the 6^th floor of the Texas School Book Depository building. Today, the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza is located in this building.

I think a visit to the museum is worthwhile since the death of Pres. Kennedy had such a profound effect on our country.

Southfork Ranch

If you were old enough to watch the TV series “Dallas” back in the 80s, a visit to Southfork Ranch will be a treat.

Since the end of “Dallas”, Southfork Ranch, the Ewing home, has been turned into a tourist attraction. It is located in Plano, about 20 miles northeast of downtown Dallas.

We have been there several times… We once took my parents there. They were big Dallas fans and loved Southfork Ranch. We also went there a couple more times for my kids’ Taekwondo tournaments.

I must honestly say that my kids couldn’t really be bothered because they never watched the show. However, my wife and I enjoyed every visit to Southfork!

TopGolf Dallas

If you like golf or mini-golf, TopGolf Dallas is a great place to go spend a few hours!

I think of TopGolf as a golf entertainment center!

They have several different types of point-scoring golf games to play, including a huge mini-golf course. They also have a bar and a restaurant that serves great meals. You can even host parties there.

This is a place that grown-ups and kids can enjoy. If you haven’t been to TopGolf yet, give it a try. I think you’ll like it!

Great Wolf Lodge

Great Wolf Lodge is a fantastic waterpark in Grapevine, towards the northwest of downtown Dallas.

I won’t say too much here, but I urge you to read why Great Wolf Lodge is something you do not want to miss when vacationing in Dallas.

These are some of our favorite things to do in Dallas Texas. There are of course many more… the Dallas area is huge… and I will be adding more of the best things to do as I discover them. So return to this page often!

I hope you have a lot of fun while visiting Dallas! We do!

Do you want to have some serious fun? Check out Six Flags Over Texas! It is a theme park in Arlington, TX (about mid-way between Dallas and Fort Worth). This place will rock your world!

Six Flags Over Texas has more than 40 rides to choose from… that’s right, 40 rides!

The rides range from something as mild as the “Bugs Bunny Spirit of St Louie”, which is great for little kids, all the way to the new “Texas Giant” that will blow your socks off! 

The New Texas Giant

The new Texas Giant is a wooden rollercoaster with a difference… it has a steel track! This means a super smooth ride!

I had the privilege of attending a special event to celebrate the opening of the Texas Giant. It was a magnificent day and I got to ride it 3 times. What a thrill this was! Take a look at this…

That first drop is HUGE, but fun. There are many adrenalin-pumping twists and turns and three tunnels to go through. I came off my first ride on the Texas Giant thinking, “I have to do this again!”

Other Rides

Another of my favorite rides is Batman. This is one of those rides where the seats hang below the track and your feet hang free. To me, that is a special sensation that makes for a very thrilling ride. I know my kids agree with me on this one!

To get wet on a hot day, I think the Aquaman Splashdown is a great ride. The El Aserradero is a fun water-ride too.

For younger kids, there are rides like the Mini Mine Train, Sylvester & Tweety’s State Fair-Is Wheel, Wile. E. Coyote’s Grand Canyon Blaster, and more. They are all a lot of fun!

Shows

For a break in between rides, there are also several shows to see at Six Flags Over Texas. A good one to to see is The Crazy Horse Saloon’s Big Time Revue.

Food

There are all kinds of food to eat at Six Flags, like hamburgers & fries, ice cream, pizza, barbecue, Chinese food, hot dogs, and so on. It will certainly fill up a few hungry tummies after a day of fun.

We also ate a few of the cookies with the Six Flags logo on them. I’m sure they contain more sugar than what I’m supposed to eat, but they are yummy for sure!

If you want a day of rip-roaring fun, head over to Six Flags Over Texas! It is a blast!

Hint: You can save yourself some money on the entrance fee by buying tickets online.

I know that Six Flags San Antonio (a.k.a Fiesta Texas) is a blast! I know because every summer my kids nag me, “C’mon Dad, let’s go to Six Flags”… again… and again… and again.

If you don’t know what Six Flags San Antonio is, it is a really cool amusement park with many roller coasters and water rides of varying thrill-levels, a nice wave pool, and several other fun things… all-in-all, a kids’ paradise!

I don’t mind going at all. Yes, it can be somewhat costly, and it can be a tiring day, but we all have so much fun that it is certainly worth it. 

I want to tell you about things we learnt when preparing to go to Six Flags San Antonio. It doesn’t help much if you plan to go, but you don’t know how to get there, so I’ll tell you about getting there. To get in, you’re going to need tickets, and we’ve discovered that there are different ways to go about getting tickets to Six Flags.

Once we’re in the park, we usually do things in a particular way that makes sense to us, and I think it will help you too. We head towards the Water Park first, but on our way there, we often go on one of the many Rides.

Sometimes we go to Six Flags Fiesta Texas for the whole weekend. In such cases we like to stay in one of the hotels near Six Flags.

Visiting Six Flags San Antonio

Preparing to go

Since you’ll typically go to Six Flags San Antonio in the summer and this is Texas, you could expect it to be quite hot. So prepare around that.

Take plenty of sunscreen. (If you forget sunscreen, you can buy it in the park.) It’s also a good idea to take hats for everyone, especially for the smaller kids. Also take river shoes (water shoes) with you. The pathways between rides and pools can get very hot.

Six Flags doesn’t allow you to take a cooler inside, so you’ll have buy all your food and drinks inside. The food and drinks are fairly pricey.

To save a little, we make sure we eat something before arriving at the park. 

Getting There

Getting to Six Flags San Antonio is quite easy. Six Flags is located north-west of downtown San Antonio. Going north from downtown San Antonio on Hwy 87, take the Fiesta Texas exit immediately after Loop 1604. At that point the park will be on your left.

I’m sure by then the kids would’ve spotted it and announced their discovery quite excitedly!

Getting Tickets

The easiest way to get tickets is by simply buying them at the ticket booth… this is also the most expensive way, as we’ve discovered!

Since then I noticed discount coupons on Diet Coke cans. I seem to recall seeing people in line at the ticket booth with discount coupons clipped from local newspapers. Hotel lobbies often have brochures for local attractions that contains coupons. My kids like rummaging through those!

If you think you might be going to Six Flags San Antonio more than once in the season, I think a season pass is definitely worth it! A weekend pass may also be a good option if you anticipate going two days in a row over a weekend.

You can also buy tickets online at the Six Flags San Antonio website – a cool way to avoid long lines at the ticket booths!

Once You’re In The Park

Once we’re in the park, the kids are chomping at the bit, ready to go.

So our first step is to find a spot that will have shade throughout the day. This acts as our “home base”. If the kids run off to go ride something, they know where to return to. If you have smaller kids, I’d suggest you pick a spot in the water park at the Texas pool.

After that, buy a few bottles of water. Make sure the kids drink water regularly. We always have to remind our kids to drink water. We usually get a “but Mom…”, but it only takes one crying, dehydrated kid at the end of a long day to avoid that mistake forever!

Six Flags also has great lockers – at a fee of course . I don’t mind spending the $7 if it means I can also have fun without worrying about our valuables.

The Water Park

The Water Park usually opens an hour after the rest of Six Flags. Since we usually get there about 15 to 30 minutes after opening time anyway, we don’t have to wait long for the Water Park to open. Just enough time for one or two roller coaster rides!

Once we get in, we head for the Texas pool and set up our “home base”. Then the kids take off!

If you have smaller kids, they can have lots of fun in the Texas pool. There is also a “little kids” section right at the entrance to the Water Park.

Other than several great water-slides, the Water Park also has a “river” that you could just go round-‘n-round on a tube… wonderful if you’re just looking to relax and cool down!

If you go up the stairs to behind the water-slides, there is a great “water playscape” that my kids simply love!

The Rides

Six Flags has many roller coasters of varying thrill-level. I’m not going to attempt to describe all of them to you.

I can however tell you that there are rides ranging from mild ones that will delight little kids, all the way to roller coasters and other rides that will freak out the greatest thrill-seekers!

My elder son is now in the latter category… 

I have to admit that I’m a little weary when it comes to roller coasters, but recently my elder son managed to drag me onto the Superman. Whoa! What a ride that was! We got right back into the line and rode it a second time!

Hotels Near Six Flags

There are several hotels near Six Flags San Antonio Texas. Instead of squeezing it in here, I decided to tell you more about that on a separate page covering hotels. This way I can give you a fairly decent idea on what to expect at each of them. Read about the hotels near Six Flags in San Antonio.

SeaWorld San Antonio has a great variety of different activities ranging from their famous animal shows and exhibits to water rides and roller coasters.

If you’re hot, you can cool off in the wave pool or do some water rides.

If you want a little action, the rollercoasters will give it to you.

If you’re getting tired and want to sit down for a while, an animal show will keep you entertained.

All of this makes SeaWorld one of our FAVORITE San Antonio family attractions! 

Our Favorite Activities

We usually drive to SeaWorld San Antonio for a day. By the time we get there, at least one of us needs to go to the restroom. So we turn to the left immediately after going through the gates, where there are restrooms about 50 yards further.

Since we’re just about there after the restroom stop, we then continue to the left to Dolphin Cove, where there are several Atlantic Bottlenose dolphins in a pool where they van be viewed from close-up.

Behind Dolphin Cove are the Sharks. The shark tank is very cool and my kids love this exhibit.

After the sharks we head back towards the main gate and on to the rest of Sea World’s fun stuff…

Lost Lagoon

The Lost Lagoon is all about water fun. It’s a great place to hang out on a hot day.

The Wave Pool is a great place to stay cool, but there are also several other water rides to keep the kids happy.

We hang out here for about an hour before we hit the rollercoasters and shows.

Shamu Show

Along with the late Keiko (Free Willy), Shamu has to be one of the most famous Orcas in the world!

Shamu, along with a handful of other Orcas, play with their trainers in a show that delights everyone. It is very obvious that the trainers have a very close bond with the whales.

The Shamu Shows are amazing. My kids always sit in the splash zone! They love to get wet! We see Shamu every time we visit Sea World.

(Hint: Try to see the evening show if you can. It is even more stunning than the day shows.)

Great White Rollercoaster

The Great White rollercoaster is by far my favorite rollercoaster at SeaWorld San Antonio!

The seats are suspended below the rails, so your feet hang free. This thing twists and turns and make you feel like you’re a fighter pilot on a serious mission!

Unfortunately the height requirement to ride the Great White is 54″ and my youngest son can’t ride it yet. (There are usually a few tears over this…) He has one more inch to go, and he can’t wait!

Journey To Atlantis

Journey To Atlantis rollercoaster is one of SeaWorld San Antonio’s newest rollercoasters and is a lot of fun too.

You sit in a single boat-like car that makes a steep climb, rotates through 360+° in such a way that you go backwards through the next stage. Then you rotate through another 360+° to face forward for the final downhill and through water to arrive quite wet at your destination!

Luckily my youngest can ride this one. He likes the part where you go backwards because it feels like your stomach stays behind.

Sea Lion Show

The Sea Lion shows are a lot of fun and delight young and old.

The show we saw is called The Cannery Row Caper. It’s a very funny show featuring two “detective” sea lions investigating the disappearance of fish from the cannery.

My wife, in particular, enjoyed the sea lion show a lot.

Steel Eel Rollercoaster

The Steel Eel is a rollercoaster that doesn’t go upside-down and doesn’t twist, but it goes up and down at incredible speeds. It’s a high-energy ride that leaves you quite pumped by the time it finishes.

This is the fastest ride that my youngest can ride, and he loves it. I let him go one or two extra times to make up for him missing out on the Great White.

Other things we like to do in SeaWorld San Antonio are watching the Ski Show ang going through the Penguin Encounter. The Penguin Encounter is very well done. They created an Antarctic habitat behind a glass wall where the penguins live. You can see them swim underwater in their pool. These little suckers can swim!

If you have smaller kids, Shamu’s Happy Harbor is a great place for them to play!

SeaWorld San Antonio Tickets

I bought our last SeaWorld San Antonio tickets from their website. It’s a little cheaper than at the gates, and you avoid standing in line. I also upgraded our day tickets to season passes once we were there and knew we’d like to come back regularly. It only cost a few dollars extra.

SeaWorld San Antonio certainly has something for young and old. It truly makes for a great day of fun!