Lifestyle

5 Charming Texas Hill Country Towns You Need to Experience

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Tony Maples Photography

 

The charming towns of the Texas Hill Country aren’t so simply by landscape. While meandering along the highways and byways through the rolling hills and along river bends, trees (oak and cypress mainly) peacefully shading you from the warm Texas sunshine, you could sense a calm so thick it’s like floating through a dream.

But in reality, such places do exist, and it’s not just in the countryside, with its hiking and bicycling opportunities, or the tubing and boating experiences in the clear cooling waterways. It’s finding a table on the sun-drenched deck of your favorite little restaurant in a small Texas Hill Country town, toasting a craft beer or a Texas wine, and it’s dancing the night away with your loved one on a sawdust floor, to a tune set in three-quarter time.

If you’re looking for some lighthearted, fun-loving small towns of the Texas Hill Country, here is a short list to consider visiting sometime soon:

1. Gruene

5 Charming Texas Hill Country Towns You Need to Experience

Photo: Facebook/Gruene Historic District

Honky tonkin’, dining, fly fishing, and floating are all great things to do in Gruene. Famous Gruene Hall will have you seein’ stars (the musical kind) and kickin’ up your boots while restaurants, coffee houses, and tea rooms will satiate the hunger you’ll feel for genuine Texas Hill Country hospitality (and food!). Your choice of outfitters will have you pulling in the big catch as opposed to braggin’ about the one that got away on the Guadalupe River. And to top it all off, travel the same tributary by innertube…whatever floats your boat!

2. Luckenbach

5 Charming Texas Hill Country Towns You Need to Experience

Photo: Facebook/Chris Williamson Reynolds

Small? We’re talkin’ gulch-like in terms of population, but what the town of Luckenbach lacks in people, it more than makes up for in western style. With two main buildings, blink and you’ll almost miss it, but that’s the real deal in a town with two main buildings and a retired zip code. The old post office/working saloon/general store will hold your interest by day, and the dance hall will keep you twirling on your toes by night. There’s a small general store that sells souvenirs, the best of which carry the town’s motto “Everybody’s Somebody in Luckenbach”.

3. Stonewall

5 Charming Texas Hill Country Towns You Need to Experience

Photo: Facebook/Stonewall Chamber of Commerce

Situated along the Pedernales River, Stonewall’s claim to fame is three-fold: number one is the sweet Texas peaches is produces; number two, it’s home to a few of the very best wineries the state has to offer; and, number three, it’s the birthplace of Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th President of the United States. After sampling a fresh, juicy peach on a hot day in June, you can cool off at the LBJ National & State Historical Parks Visitors Centre, tour the Texas Whitehouse, visit his famed birthplace and the Johnson Family Cemetery (if you’re so inclined) and afterwards you can join the festivities at the Annual Peach Jamboree & Rodeo (3rd full weekend in June!)

4. Comfort

5 Charming Texas Hill Country Towns You Need to Experience

Photo: Facebook/Absolute Charm Real Estate Group

Known for its ample hunting, camping and fishing, Comfort has become a playground for outdoorsmen and women alike. Situated along the Guadalupe River, this picturesque town is at the center of some of Hill Country’s finest scenic road trip routes. Visitors can get there from Kerrville, Bandera and Boerne passing by scenery that is second-to-none, and the town beckons the avid ‘antiquer’, the B. & B. fan as well as the wine enthusiast. Any time is the right time to come to comfort, but if you’re looking for a festivity, the town has several popular events throughout the year, such as their 4th of July Parade, the Scarecrow Invasion in October and Christmas in Comfort. It’s also home to the Treue Der Union Monument, for those of you that are passionate about history.

5. Helotes

5 Charming Texas Hill Country Towns You Need to Experience

Photo: Facebook/City of Helotes

Home to Old Town Market Days (first Sunday of every month, 10 am. – 5 p.m.), the town of Helotes is a real peach. If you like ‘…being within spending distance of a mall, and having enough bars to make a cell phone call…’ (“As Country as She Gets”, Joe Nichols) then visit newly renovated Old Town Helotes, which includes the John T. Floore’s Country Store (one of the hottest Hill Country live music venues), Helotes Creek Winery and El Chaparral Mexican Restaurant to name just a few. Just minutes from that of course are the shopping standards such as Walmart, Target, Kohl’s etc., but the real draw is the town’s annual Cornyval Festival. An annual event, now in its 51st year, celebrating music, fun, games, food, arts & crafts, not to mention the town’s historic relation to corn. Want to know more? Come on out to Cornyval to check it out!

References:

www.gruenetexas.com
en.wikipedia.org
www.texashillcountry.com
www.stonewalltexas.com
www.civilwaralbum.com
en.wikipedia.org