Texas
The Best of San Antonio and the Texas Hill Country
Program No. 22272RJ
Find out why San Antonio and the Hill Country are true Texas as you explore the River Walk and Texas Hill Country, enjoy authentic cuisine and learn about Lyndon B. Johnson.
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7 days
6 nights
14 meals
6B 5L 3D
1
Check-in, Orientation, Welcome Dinner
San Antonio, TX
2
Texas History, Downtown SA, The Alamo, Cathedral
San Antonio, TX
3
Alamo Curation, Witte Museum, San Antonio Missions
San Antonio, TX
4
LBJ's Life and Legacy, River Barge Ride, Free Time
San Antonio, TX
5
LBJ Boyhood Home, Fredericksburg, Pioneer Museum
San Antonio, TX
6
Sam Houston, Briscoe Western Art Museum, Free Time, Farewell
San Antonio, TX
7
Program Concludes
San Antonio, TX
At a Glance
Bold colors, brave battles, big fandangos and bigger appetites — San Antonio stands a breed apart from other American cities. As gateway to the borderlands and crossroads of culture, it showcases the best of North and South, old and new. Experience San Antonio as the embodiment of the strike-it-rich spirit of Texas, a city embracing contemporary culture while paying homage to its storied past.
Activity Level
Keep the Pace
Keep the Pace: Walking up to 4 miles, climbing stairs. Getting on and off motor coach and barges with minimal assistance. Standing in a museum for up to two hours.
Best of all, you’ll…
- Stroll along the landscaped walkways of the River Walk and discover the city's rich history with a visit to the Spanish missions designated as a UNESCO World Heritage cultural treasure.
- Explore Fredericksburg, in the majestic Texas Hill Country, to learn of its rich German heritage.
- Recall the era of LBJ as you learn about his early life and legislative accomplishments, and visit his boyhood home
Featured Expert
All trip experts
Carolina Castillo Crimm
A retired professor of history, Dr. Caroline Castillo Crimm won many local and state-wide awards, including the prestigious Piper Award as one of the best teachers in Texas. Dedicated to Texas and Hispanic culture, her Spanish family came to Texas originally in 1792 although she was born and raised in Mexico City. The author of “De Leon: A Tejano Family History,” she has appeared on PBS and “The History Channel.”
Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.
Gregg Eckhardt
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Gregg Eckhardt is an environmental scientist with 26 years of experience in environmental modeling and analysis, water resource planning and development, state and federal permitting, and water treatment. A senior analyst for the San Antonio Water System, he is involved in the management of the city's water supply and wastewater systems, and much of his work focuses on developing and implementing environmental initiatives. Outside of work, he is active in community education, providing lectures and web-based learning curriculum on regional water resources and environmental history.
Carolina Castillo Crimm
View biography
A retired professor of history, Dr. Caroline Castillo Crimm won many local and state-wide awards, including the prestigious Piper Award as one of the best teachers in Texas. Dedicated to Texas and Hispanic culture, her Spanish family came to Texas originally in 1792 although she was born and raised in Mexico City. The author of “De Leon: A Tejano Family History,” she has appeared on PBS and “The History Channel.”
Bill Perryman
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A fifth generation Texan and an award-winning teacher, Bill Perryman is known throughout Texas for his historical portrayals of heroic figures in Texas and American history and for his teacher trainings, seminars and educational explorations of historic San Antonio. He is the founder of History In Person Theater which is an official arts program for the Texas Commission on the Arts. Bill’s passion for history captivates audiences!
KT Cockerell
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KT Cockerell, a native Texan, loves to share colorful Texas history with visitors. She enjoys the adventure of discovery while leading groups and in her own personal travels as well. She has traveled extensively throughout Europe and locally. KT has been involved with the travel industry for over 20 years. KT and her husband Alan enjoy living in the small rural town of Seguin, where they have raised their four daughters.
Diana Barrios
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Diana Barrios’ cooking-class techniques, spiced with warmth and wit, were honed during her years of weekly cooking segments on San Antonio morning television. Her local celebrity status resulted in guest cooking appearances on National TV shows as "Good Morning, America" and the Food Network. Encouraged by her new friend, Emeril Lagasse, Diana collected family recipes for the "Los Barrios Family Cookbook" that is sold nationally and for which Emeril wrote the forward.
Ken Erfurth
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Ken Erfurth is a life-long resident of San Antonio whose interest in the region’s history, culture, and architecture began at an early age. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston and is a registered architect. He has been conducting educational adventures in San Antonio for various groups for over 20 years. In recent years, Ken has used photography to document the unique visual aspects of his native city and surrounding area. His images have been exhibited and published in multiple forums.
Mary Brennan
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Mary Brennan is dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Texas State University. She has exhaustively researched conservative politics in America and has penned a number of books related to the subject, including "Wives, Mothers, and the Red Menace" that evolved from her curiosity about Joe McCarthy’s wife, and "Pat Nixon: Embattled First Lady." Mary has appeared on numerous radio and TV shows, including CNN’s "The Sixties" and CSPAN's "First Ladies: Influence and Image."
Aimee Villarreal
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Aimee Villarreal has a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and specializes in Mexican American culture and history. With Chicana roots in New Mexico and Texas, she is passionate about the movements for social justice, equity, and sustainable futures surrounding the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. She is the author of the book "Sanctuaryscapes," which highlights the concepts of community, sanctuary, and humanitarianism in native cultures.
Suggested Reading List
(11 books)
Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop
You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.
The Best of San Antonio and the Texas Hill Country
Program Number: 22272
Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
S. C. Gwynne’s Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches.
Judgment Days: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Laws That Changed America
Lyndon Baines Johnson and Martin Luther King, Jr., were thrust together in the aftermath of John F. Kennedy's assassination. Both men sensed a historic opportunity and began a delicate dance of accommodation that moved them, and the entire nation, toward the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Drawing on a wealth of newly available sources -- Johnson's taped telephone conversations, voluminous FBI wiretap logs, previously secret communications between the FBI and the president -- Nick Kotz gives us a dramatic narrative, rich in dialogue, that presents this momentous period with thrilling immediacy. Judgment Days offers needed perspective on a presidency too often linked solely to the tragedy of Vietnam.
As Texas Goes: How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda
Gail Collins, the best-selling author and columnist for the New York Times, visited Texas and discovered that in Texas, where Bush, Cheney, Rove, & Perry had created a conservative political agenda that is now sweeping the country and defining our national identity. Through its vigorous support of banking deregulation, lax environmental standards, and draconian tax cuts, through its fierce championing of states rights, gun ownership, and, of course, sexual abstinence, Texas, with Governor Rick Perry’s presidential ambitions, has become the bellwether of a far-reaching national movement that continues to have profound social and economic consequences for us all. Like it or not, as Texas goes, so goes the nation.
The Alamo Remembered, Tejano Accounts & Perspectives
Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth
Reviled by some and applauded by others, this controversial popular history focuses on factors related to the history of the Alamo. A saucy, journalistic-style read, it provides a perspective on how Texans think, information about the current redesign of Alamo Plaza, and a great bibliography for further study.
Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream: The Most Revealing Portrait of a President and Presidential Power Ever Written
Widely praised and enormously popular, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream is a work of biography like few others. With uncanny insight and a richly engrossing style, the author renders LBJ in all his vibrant, conflicted humanity.
Crown Jewel of Texas, the Story of the San Antonio River
Texas, My Texas: Musings of the Rambling Boy
In a collection of essays about Texas gathered from his West Texas newspaper column, Lonn Taylor traverses the very best of Texas geography, Texas history, and Texas personalities. In a state so famous for its pride, Taylor manages to write a very honest, witty, and wise book about Texas past and Texas present.
Big, Wonderful Thing: A History of Texas
Written by a great story teller, this readable, monumental work is exactly what the title implies: a comprehensive history of Texas complete with wonderful historic photographs and a focus on the stories of individual people. Not for the fainthearted, the time invested in reading this is well-spent. Actually, the book is so readable that devouring it is a pleasure. It has been described as “a must read for Texas aficionados.”
Friedrichsburg: Colony of the German Furstenverein
San Antonio Missions National Historical Park