United States · Texas

Dallas

  • Population:~1.3M (city), ~8.1M (Dallas–Fort Worth metro)
  • Timezone:CT/CDT
  • IATA:DFW

Overview

Dallas is the commercial and cultural heart of North Texas and the anchor of the Dallas–Fort Worth “Metroplex” — the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States. Known for big skylines and bigger Texas hospitality, it holds the largest contiguous urban arts district in the country, the birthplace of the frozen margarita, the State Fair of Texas, and a Tex-Mex and barbecue culture that defines the city's table.

Travel

Dallas has a business-town reputation and spends most of a visit disproving it. The case rests on three things. The first is the Arts District, the largest contiguous one in the country, where a free art museum, a sculpture centre, a symphony hall and an opera house sit within a few blocks of each other in buildings by an improbable concentration of Pritzker-winning architects. The second is the neighbourhoods, which are where the city actually spends its evenings — Deep Ellum's murals and live-music rooms east of downtown, the Bishop Arts District's independent shops across the river in Oak Cliff, walkable Uptown along the Katy Trail. The third is the table: this is Tex-Mex heartland, the frozen margarita machine was invented here, the barbecue is serious, and the State Fair each autumn is a deep-fried institution the whole state turns out for. Downtown itself is compact, with a deck park built over a sunken freeway stitching it to Uptown, and a light-rail network — one of the longest in America — connecting the centre, the Arts District and the airports, though the wider metroplex is unapologetically car country. Fort Worth, half an hour west, is the twin with the opposite personality and worth a day of its own.

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.

Frequently asked questions

A surprising amount. Dallas has the largest contiguous urban arts district in the United States, it is the birthplace of the frozen margarita machine (invented here in 1971), and it is where the integrated circuit — the microchip — was invented in 1958 by Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments. Add the State Fair of Texas, a skyline crowned by Reunion Tower's lit-up “Ball”, and big Tex-Mex and barbecue traditions, and the city has more going on than its business-town reputation suggests.

Diplomatic missions in Dallas

1 embassy based in this city, grouped by region.

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