Houston-Austin-San Antonio Trip

[GAH]

My wife and I are renting a class B for a test trip in a couple months. We are renting it in Houston and doing the loop to San Antonio, Austin and back to Houston. Trip will be over 6 days. Does anyone have any suggestions for places to stay in these areas? Either near the cities or in state/national parks. We enjoy outdoor activities (hiking, paddle boarding etc..) as well as plan to spend some time exploring the cities.

Any suggestions are really appreciated.

John

[SteveJ]

When we did the River Walk thing in San Antone we stayed for two nights at the KOA on the edge of town. The city bus picks up at the front gate and brings you right to River Walk/Alamo area. No parking hassles, easy peasy. We also jumped off the bus at an H.E.B. store for a few groceries on the way back, utilizing a free transfer.

Lots better than taking the big ol' Roadtrek into city center.

[InterBlog]

I'm assuming from the structure of your request that you will need conventional hook-ups at each location.

There are some state parks worth considering in that loop, but bear in mind that access pressures are formidable. Today's banner on the state park reservation site says, "We are now making reservations for arrival dates up to: 12-10-2018". Reservations for many parks are required months in advance, especially if the intent is to stay on a weekend. Compounding that is the widespread flood damage in your travel area.

That being the case, here are a few that you might want to consider:

Houston - Galveston Island State Park
Austin - McKinney Falls State Park (the visitor center was destroyed by flooding but the rest is open)
San Antonio - Guadalupe River State Park (one camping portion is closed for repairs but I think the rest is open)

Based on personal experience, I generally don't recommend Stephen F. Austin State Park (too heavily damaged by flooding and not that nice to begin with... right now it's listed as "closed indefinitely"). I would normally recommend Brazos Bend State Park, but I don't know what condition it's in after the Hurricane Harvey flooding. The closure advisory on their website doesn't give much detail.

In the event that you have the capacity to dry camp, that opens up less well-known options. But if you are renting, that's probably not likely.

Good luck to you.

[Davydd]

We have stayed at the KOA and taken the bus in to River Walk/Alamo. We have also parked in the surface lot adjacent to the Alamo with our Class B.

Go to Luckenbach, TX outside of Fredericksburg, TX. That's an experience. Fredericksburg is a German themed town.

[GAH]

Thanks for the info. We won’t need full hookups every night. The goal is to experience all things we could encounter once we purchase one for ourselves... and see some new areas.

[kite_rider]

I like the Texas hill country and always stay there when I'm passing through. You might enjoy hiking around the Enchanted Rock State Natural Area near Fredericksburg.
https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/enchanted-rock

If you're into mt biking, you should check out Jimmy's Flat Rock Ranch near Comfort, TX. It's my favorite place to camp since the trails are fun and the camping under the oak trees is really nice and peaceful.
Flat Rock Ranch Comfort TX - Home

Another place that might be interesting, though a bit out of your way is Seminole Canyon State Historic Park.
https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/seminole-canyon
You can hike or mt bike it's trails and there is some interesting history with the early cave paintings. Since you mentioned paddle boarding, I found a neat place to paddle board just up the road from Seminole Canyon down on a tributary to the Rio Grande in Amistad National Recreation Area. It's beautiful flat water paddling around large sandstone (or maybe limestone) cliffs. It's kind of trippy since you can paddle right over to Mexico if you want. I didn't push it since the only people you see in that area are border patrol agents who look like they are bored out of their minds.. From my experience, you will be the *only* person paddle boarding and will likely have the whole place to yourself.

Note that I'm usually travelling through that area 'off season' (around Nov, then Dec and again in March and April). So I've never made reservations for any campground and have had good luck finding boondocking places as well.

The drive from Del Rio, TX to Laredo, TX is interesting if you have friends who are fanatic about building a wall between the US and Mexico. From what I could see, there is no one out there but US border patrol - and they don't seem busy at all.. Not to mention that the Rio Grande has so many twists and turns that it would seem impossible to build any kind of wall without cutting off a huge chunk of US land in the process..

Anyway, have a fun trip!