Orientation

Visitor Information

The main office of the City of San Antonio Visitor Information Center is across the street from the Alamo, at 317 Alamo Plaza (tel. 210/207-6748). Hours are daily 9am to 5pm, except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's, when the center is closed.

Publications such as the free Fiesta, a glossy magazine with interesting articles about the city, and Rio, a tabloid focusing on the River Walk, are available at the Visitor Information Center, as well as at most downtown hotels and many shops and tourist sights. Both of these advertising-heavy publications list sights, restaurants, shops, cultural events, and some nightlife, though there's an obvious bias toward advertisers. Also free -- but more objective -- is San Antonio's alternative paper, the Current. Though skimpy, it is a good source for nightlife listings; just don't depend on it for movie schedules, however. The San Antonio Express-News is the local newspaper. It's got a good arts/entertainment section called "The Weekender," which comes out on Friday, though not free, and it's available around town.

Arguably the best state-oriented magazine in the country, Texas Monthly contains excellent short reviews of restaurants in San Antonio, among other cities, and its incisive articles about local politics, people, and events are a great way to get acquainted with Lone Star territory in general. You can buy a copy at almost any city bookstore, grocery, or newsstand.

City Layout

Although it lies at the southern edge of the Texas Hill Country, San Antonio itself is basically flat. As I noted earlier, the city divides into two distinct districts: a compact central downtown surrounded by a Western-style, freeway-laced sprawl. Neither section is laid out in a neat grid system; many of downtown's streets trace the meandering course of the San Antonio River, while a number of the thoroughfares in the rest of town follow old conquistador routes or 19th-century wagon trails.

Main Arteries & Streets -- Welcome to loop land. Most of the major roads in Texas meet in San Antonio, where they form a rough wheel-and-spoke pattern: I-410 traces a 53-mile circumference around the city, and Highway 1604 forms an even larger circle around them both. I-35, I-10, I-37, U.S. 281, U.S. 90, and U.S. 87, along with many smaller thoroughfares, run diagonally, but not always separately, across these two loops to form its main spokes. For example, U.S. 90, U.S. 87, and I-10 converge for a while in an east-west direction just south of downtown, while U.S. 281, I-35, and I-37 run together on a north-south route to the east; I-10, I-35, and U.S. 87 bond for a bit going north-south to the west of downtown. As a result, you may hear locals referring to something as being "in the loop." That doesn't mean it's privy to insider information, but rather, that it lies within the circumference of I-410. True, this covers a pretty large area, but with the spreading of the city north and west, it's come to mean central.

Among the most major of the minor spokes are Broadway, McCullough, San Pedro, and Blanco, all of which lead north from the city center into the most popular shopping and restaurant areas of town. Fredericksburg goes out to the Medical Center from just northwest of downtown.

Downtown is bounded by I-37 to the east, I-35 to the north and west, and U.S. 90 (which merges with I-10) to the south. Within this area, Durango, Commerce, Market, and Houston are the important east-west thoroughfares. Alamo on the east side and Santa Rosa (which turns into South Laredo) on the west side are the major north-south streets. Note: A lot of the north-south streets change names midstream (or should I say mid-macadam). That's another reason, besides the confusing one-way streets, to consult a map carefully before attempting to steer your way around downtown.

Finding an Address -- Few locals are aware that there's any method to the madness of finding downtown addresses, but in fact directions are actually based on the layout of the first Spanish settlements -- back when the San Fernando cathedral was at the center of town. Market is the north-south street divider, and Flores separates east from west. Thus, South St. Mary's becomes North St. Mary's when it crosses Market, with addresses starting from zero at Market going in both directions. North of downtown, San Pedro is the east-west dividing line, although not every street sign reflects this fact.

There are few clear-cut rules like this in loop land, but on its northernmost stretch, Loop 410 divides into east and west at Broadway, and at Bandera Road, it splits into Loop 410 north and south. Keep going far enough south, and I-35 marks yet another boundary between east and west. Knowing this will help you a little in locating an address, and explains why, when you go in a circle around town -- you probably won't do this on purpose, unless you're trying to put a baby to sleep (as one friend of mine successfully did) -- you'll notice that the directions marked on overhead signs have suddenly completely shifted.

Street Maps -- The Visitor Information Center and most hotels distribute the free street maps published by the San Antonio Convention and Visitors Bureau (SACVB). They mark the main attractions in town and are useful enough as a general reference, especially if you're on foot. They even indicate which downtown streets are one-way -- a bonus for drivers. But if you're going to do much navigating around town, you'll need something better. Both Rand McNally and Gousha's maps of San Antonio are reliable; you'll find one or the other at most gas stations, convenience stores, drugstores, bookstores, and newsstands.

The Neighborhoods in Brief

The older areas described here, from downtown through Alamo Heights, are all "in the loop" (410). The Medical Center area in the Northwest lies just outside it, but the rest of the Northwest, as well as North Central and the West, are expanding beyond even Loop 1604.

Downtown Site of San Antonio's three oldest Spanish settlements, this area includes the Alamo and other historic sites, along with the River Walk, the Alamodome, the convention center, the Rivercenter Mall, and many high-rise hotels, restaurants, and shops. It's also the center of commerce and government, so many banks and offices, as well as most city buildings, are located here. Once seedy and largely deserted at night, it has rebounded with a vengeance -- a proliferation of bars and clubs catering to younger crowds even resulted in a city ordinance restraining the volume of outdoor noise.

King William The city's first suburb, this historic district directly south of downtown was settled in the mid- to late 1800s by wealthy German merchants who built some of the most beautiful mansions in town. It began to be yuppified in the 1970s, and, at this point, you'd never guess it had ever been allowed to deteriorate. Only two of the area's many impeccably restored homes are generally open to the public, but a number have been turned into bed-and-breakfasts.

Southtown Alamo Street marks the border between King William and Southtown, an adjoining commercial district. Long a depressed area, it's slowly becoming trendy thanks to a Main Street refurbishing project and the opening of the Blue Star arts complex. You'll find a nice mix of Hispanic neighborhood shops and funky coffeehouses and galleries here.

South Side The old, largely Hispanic southeast section of town that begins where Southtown ends (there's no agreed-upon boundary, but I'd say it lies a few blocks beyond the Blue Star arts complex) is home to four of the city's five historic missions. Thus far, it hasn't been experiencing the same gentrification and redevelopment as much of the rest of the city -- but that could change when the hike-and-bike trail along a stretch of the San Antonio River here is completed.

Monte Vista Area Immediately northwest of downtown, Monte Vista was established soon after King William by a conglomeration of wealthy cattlemen, politicos, and generals who moved "on to the hill" at the turn of the century. A number of the area's large houses have been split into apartments for students of nearby Trinity University and San Antonio Community College, but many lovely old homes have been restored in the past 30 years. It hasn't reached King William status yet, but this is already a highly desirable (read: pricey) place to live. Monte Vista is close to the once thriving, but now less lively, restaurant and entertainment district along North St. Mary's Street between Josephine and Magnolia known locally as The Strip.

Fort Sam Houston Built in 1876 to the northeast of downtown, Fort Sam Houston boasts a number of stunning officers' homes. Much of the working-class neighborhood surrounding Fort Sam is now run-down, but renewed interest in restoring San Antonio's older areas is beginning to have some impact here, too.

Alamo Heights Area In the 1890s, when construction in the area began, Alamo Heights was at the far northern reaches of San Antonio. It has slowly evolved into one of the city's most exclusive neighborhoods, and is now home to wealthy families, expensive shops, and trendy restaurants. Terrell Hills to the east, Olmos Park to the west, and Lincoln Heights to the north are all offshoots of this moneyed area. The latter is home to the Quarry, once just that, but now a ritzy golf course and huge shopping mall. Shops and restaurants are concentrated along two main drags: Broadway and, to a lesser degree, New Braunfels. Most of these neighborhoods share a single zip code ending in the numbers "09" -- thus the local term "09ers," referring to the area's affluent residents. The Witte Museum, San Antonio Botanical Gardens, and Brackenridge Park are all in this part of town.

Northwest The mostly characterless neighborhood surrounding the South Texas Medical Center (always just referred to as Medical Center), which hosts the majority of San Antonio's hospitals and healthcare facilities, is one of the city's more recently established areas. Many of the homes occupied by the young professionals who have been moving here are condominiums and apartments, and much of the shopping and dining is in strip malls (the trendy, still-expanding Heubner Oaks retail center is an exception). The farther north you go, the nicer the housing complexes get. The high-end Westin La Cantera resort, the exclusive La Cantera and Dominion residential enclave, several tony golf courses, and the Shops at La Cantera, San Antonio's fanciest new retail center, mark the direction that development is taking in the far northwest part of town, just beyond Six Flags Fiesta Texas and near the public Friedrich Park. It's becoming one of San Antonio's prime growth areas.

North Central San Antonio is inching toward Bulverde and other Hill Country towns via this major corridor of development clustered from Loop 410 north to Loop 1604, east of I-10 and west of I-35, and bisected by U.S. 281. The airport and many developed industrial strips line U.S. 281 in the southern section, but the farther north you go, the more you see the natural beauty of this area, hilly and dotted with small canyons. Recent city codes have motivated developers to retain trees and native plants in their residential communities.

West Although SeaWorld has been out here since the late 1980s, and the Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort settled here in the early 1990s, other development was comparatively slow in coming. Now the West is booming with new midprice housing developments, strip malls, schools, and businesses. Road building hasn't kept pace with growth, however, so traffic can be a bear.