Dallas

The Dallas Arts District is the city's cultural anchor and the largest contiguous urban arts district in the United States — 118 acres in the northeast corner of downtown, with more buildings designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architects than any single place in the world. The Dallas Museum of Art (free general admission) spans ancient to contemporary collections; the Nasher Sculpture Center pairs a Renzo Piano pavilion with a sculpture garden of Rodin, Calder and Serra; and the Crow Museum of Asian Art rounds out the visual-arts trio. The performance halls are landmarks in their own right — I.M. Pei's Meyerson Symphony Center, the Norman Foster-designed Winspear Opera House and the Wyly Theatre. Just across Woodall Rodgers Freeway, the Perot Museum of Nature and Science fills a striking cube for families. All four DART light-rail lines stop at the district's edge, making it the easiest car-free day in Dallas.

Downtown Dallas reads best from the top of Reunion Tower, the 1978 observation tower whose illuminated geodesic “Ball” is the skyline's signature; its GeO-Deck offers a 360-degree panorama. At street level, Pioneer Plaza stages a sweeping bronze sculpture of a Texas longhorn cattle drive, and Klyde Warren Park — a 5-acre deck park built over a recessed freeway — knits downtown to Uptown with food trucks, lawns and free programming. Nearby, Dealey Plaza and The Sixth Floor Museum tell the story of President John F. Kennedy and the events of 1963, one of the most-visited heritage sites in Texas. The historic West End and the restored Main Street District fill in the downtown core with restaurants, bars and the city's older brick architecture.

Dallas comes alive in its districts. Deep Ellum, just east of downtown, was a cradle of early-20th-century jazz and blues and is now the city's densest creative quarter — hundreds of outdoor murals, independent live-music venues, breweries, tattoo studios and late-night taco joints. Across the Trinity River in Oak Cliff, the Bishop Arts District trades skyscrapers for a walkable grid of indie boutiques, coffee roasters, patio restaurants and small galleries. Uptown, north of downtown, lines the Katy Trail — a rail-to-trail greenway popular with runners and cyclists — with rooftop bars and the vintage M-Line trolley running free along McKinney Avenue. Together they show a Dallas far more strollable than its highway reputation suggests.

Eating is central to a Dallas visit, and the city has a genuine claim on the modern Mexican-American table: the world's first frozen margarita machine was invented here in 1971, when restaurateur Mariano Martinez adapted a soft-serve machine — the original now sits in the Smithsonian. Tex-Mex (enchiladas, fajitas, queso) is the everyday cuisine, backed by serious slow-smoked Texas barbecue (brisket above all) and a fast-rising fine-dining scene. The State Fair of Texas, held each autumn at Fair Park, is its own food phenomenon — Fletcher's corny dogs, an annual parade of deep-fried inventions and the towering Big Tex cowboy presiding over it all. Fair Park itself holds the largest collection of 1930s Art Deco exposition architecture in the United States, built for the 1936 Texas Centennial.

Dallas is a major-league sports city: the NFL Dallas Cowboys play at the vast AT&T Stadium in nearby Arlington, the Dallas Mavericks (NBA) and Dallas Stars (NHL) share the American Airlines Center near downtown, and the Texas Rangers (MLB) play under the retractable roof of Globe Life Field, also in Arlington between Dallas and Fort Worth. Fort Worth itself makes an easy half-day trip for the twice-daily cattle drive at the historic Stockyards and the excellent Kimbell and Modern art museums. Getting around the core is easiest on DART light rail — one of the longest networks in the country — which links downtown, the Arts District, Deep Ellum and both airports; beyond the rail spine, the Metroplex is car-and-rideshare country. Dallas–Fort Worth International (DFW), one of the world's busiest airports and larger than the island of Manhattan, is the main gateway, with Dallas Love Field (DAL) closer in for domestic hops.