San Antonio 4th July

San Antonio Fourth of July Weekend

How to spend Independence Day in Texas
By Katie Sagal

San Antonio is a wonderful place to spend the Fourth of July - it's bursting with firework displays, special events and historical adventures. Here are 10+ fun things to do in July.

There are few states as patriotic as Texas, so you know there’s bound to be plenty of 4th of July fun in San Antonio. If you’re looking for San Antonio 4th of July ideas, check out some of these local activities and fun things to do in San Antonio in July, including...

  • 4th of July Celebration at Woodlawn Lake Park
  • SeaWorld San Antonio Fireworks Spectacular
  • Six Flags Fiesta Texas 4th of July
  • Independence Day at the Alamo
  • and more...

4th of July Celebration at Woodlawn Lake Park

This is San Antonio’s official 4th of July celebration and it’s a great thing to do during your trip. It’s fun for the whole family and has great attractions like live entertainment, games and activities for kids, 1k and 5k fun runs, and a parade. And of course, fireworks! It’s the must-not-miss event of the season!

SeaWorld San Antonio Fireworks Spectacular

pink-flamingo-seaworld-san-antonio

If you're visiting SeaWorld San Antonio on this vacation, be sure to stick around in the evening for their amazing fireworks. Don’t arrive at the last minute, either. You’ll get to enjoy festive live entertainment and family-friendly activities in the hours leading up to the fireworks.

If you want to make your visit special, consider upgrading your ticket to enjoy an all-you-can-eat picnic, as well as reserved seats to see the fireworks. SeaWorld San Antonio tickets are available with a Go City® pass for San Antonio. The picnic upgrade is separately priced and is not included on the pass.

Six Flags Fiesta Texas Coca-Cola July Fest

Six Flags Fiesta Texas

Another great theme park option for family fun, Six Flags Fiesta Texas hosts its very own 4th of July celebrations. The Coca-Cola July 4th Fest boasts the largest fireworks display in the region, so it’s a smart choice for fans of the pyrotechnic arts. Hang out in Rockville for festive activities, games, prizes (including free season tickets!) and Coke product sampling.

Insider Tip: Present a can of Coca-Cola alongside your regular admission pass and receive early access to select rides! Eligible rides include the Wonder Woman Golden Lasso Coaster, Batman the Ride, Poltergeist, SCREAM, and Hustler.

Explore More Texas History

beautiful-texas-hill-country-ranch-bluebonnets

If you want to get into the spirit of learning about American history around the 4th of July – more specifically, the history of the great state of Texas – then a visit to Texas Hill Country is a top option. Celebrate our nation with a tour of the LBJ Ranch. You'll get to explore the amazingly diverse heritage of the region and see some beautiful countryside to boot.

Independence Day at the Alamo

alamo-san-antonio-texas-usa

How appropriate, right? Visit the Alamo for a bevy of patriotic events, including a reading of the Declaration of Independence. Plus, there are folk music performances, musket demonstrations, and a performance by Fort Sam's Own 323d Army Band. The whole event is free and family-friendly.

This is a good option for those looking to reflect on the history of Independence Day. If you have time and love the neighborhood, check out a few local activities throughout the various Alamo Plaza attractions, and the historic Battle for Texas: The Experience.

Explore the River Walk

san-antonio-river-walk

San Antonio’s River Walk neighborhood is the perfect place to stroll around on the 4th of July before you head off to see the fireworks. You’ll find everything from artists and craft vendors to street musicians to food trucks. If it’s a really hot day, hop aboard a San Antonio River Cruise!

This 30-minute excursion is a great opportunity to see the sights along the riverfront, and to cool off in the sultry Texas July heat. However, if you're visiting later in July, check out the Summer Artisan River Walk Show, filled with artwork and artisan wares for sale.

Go Rio San Antonio Cruise tickets are available as an option with a pass by Go City.

4th of July Fireworks in the Garden

If you're searching for a unique fireworks experience, head to the San Antonio Botanical Garden. In addition to offering acres of inspiring flora from across Texas and around the globe, this hidden gem of San Antonio also knows how to party. Head to the Botanical Garden on the day itself to enjoy fireworks over a beautiful setting.

Fireworks usually begin at 9pm, but you're welcome to explore the garden during the day. This event is included with regular admission to the San Antonio Botanical Garden.

Market Square Freedom Fest

Market Texas

This free event is a favorite among locals. The Freedom Fest is filled with fun, food, and a totally festive atmosphere, and takes place in the historic Market Square. Spend some time here exploring their many shops and stalls, and soak up the historically Mexican culture. There is an impressive slate of live entertainment lined up, too, featuring everything from local favorites to well-known stars.

Trader's Village Independence Day Celebration

Lastly, this kid-friendly event is perfect for families visiting San Antonio who want to enjoy holiday festivities during the day. You'll find loads of fun free activities for kids, like face painting, chalk drawing, balloon art, a magician, and even the chance to ride a mechanical bull.

Insider Tip: The first 3,000 guests get a free American flag!

Save on admission to popular Fourth of July attractions

There you go - plenty of fun ideas for things to do in San Antonio in July to help you plan your Independence Day itinerary. Remember, many of these great ideas are included on the Go City® San Antonio pass, where you can save up to 50% on combined admission vs paying at the gate. We hope you consider adding a few of these popular options to your upcoming plans. Enjoy!

Discover our full line-up of San Antonio attractions including the Natural Bridge Caverns Discovery Tour and San Antonio Zoo.

So go grab a San Antonio pass and go exploring!

Katie Sagal
Go City Travel Expert

Continue reading

DoSeum in San Antonio
Blog

Best Museums in San Antonio

Learning is one of life's many joys, but for many of us, it takes until adulthood to feel like that. When you're younger, learning can feel like a drag. After all, school gets in the way of all your life-learning experiences. How can you learn how to perfect a kickflip when you've got math? Learning to style pigtails? Sorry, write another book report on Of Mice and Men. Ugh. School, right? But now you're an adult, and what do you learn? Work's hardly stimulating your brain. Where can you turn for some of that sweet, sweet knowledge? Put down that book, you square, and head to a museum! These monuments to history, knowledge, and discovery come in all shapes and sizes, serving you with a hearty helping of information. San Antonio has its fair share of museums, so no matter your desires, you're sure to find one just for you. But which are the best? Read on, discover our picks of the best museums in San Antonio, and then brave the outdoors to see them. Including: Buckhorn Saloon and Texas Ranger Museum San Antonio Museum of Art The Alamo & Long Barrack Museum Witte Museum and more! Image courtesy of JustPixs/Shutterstock Buckhorn Saloon and Texas Ranger Museum Let's kick things off with some bucking buckaroos! If you're the kind of person that yearns for the Old West, minus the rampant diseases, daily chance of death, and general horror, then boy, do we have a museum for you! Take a trip back to Texas' hat-tipping past at the Buckhorn Saloon and Texas Ranger Museum! The Buckhorn Museum traces its heritage back to the late 1800s. The founder of the saloon started collecting bones, antlers, and other natural artifacts from hunters and tradespeople passing through. Now, you can see more than 500 species of preserved wildlife, some as old as ten thousand years old! The antler display alone is worth a whole picture album, so get snapping. Then, enter the adjoining Texas Ranger Museum to get a better look at life on the frontier. Created to bring law to a lawless place, you can now get up close and personal with their gear. You'll find hundreds of authentic ranger artifacts, from weapons and badges to their hats and coats. Even people with a passing interest in the old west will consider these two the best museums in San Antonio, so add them to your itinerary and go see them for yourself! Image courtesy of AbeSnap23/Shutterstock San Antonio Museum of Art Looking for something a little more...visually appealing? Then you're probably in the market for an art museum. In which case, how does gazing at over 30,000 artistic objects from over 5000 years of human history sound? Good? Well, take yourself to the San Antonio Museum of Art, then, because that's where you'll find them. You'll find historical delights from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, as well as art from Asian and Latin-American History. But that's not all, because they're joined by contemporary pieces courtesy of some of the best modern artists around. You'll even find exhibits dedicated to Texan artists! If art is your thing, the San Antonio Museum of Art should be a must-visit on your vacation. The Alamo & Long Barrack Museum The Alamo is one of the most famous places in America. For more than 300 years, five different armies have been positioned there, and the flags of six different nations have been hoisted atop it. Perhaps most famously, it was the arena for the Battle of the Alamo, where Mexican troops retook the fortress before US coalition forces eventually retook it, finally declaring Texas a US State. So, there's a lot of history here. Why not explore it and visit this hallowed ground for yourself? You've got plenty of options during your visit. You could take a guided tour of the fort and surrounding area, or go your own way with an audio tour. You'll find the Alamo Church and the Long Barrack Museum on the grounds too, where you can learn more about the armies, and the people within them, which called the fortress home. You can even participate in recreations of famous moments from the Alamo, if you're so inclined. Courtesy of Kit Leong/Shutterstock Witte Museum Prefer your history of the natural sort? Well, why not head to San Antonio's largest museum and go exploring? With over 10 acres of space dedicated to everything from science to history, the Witte Museum is one of the best museums in San Antonio! Explore the Naylor Family Dinosaur Gallery, where you'll encounter skeletons, excavate dinosaur bones, and learn about giant dinosaur footprints. Did you know that Texas was covered in water 90 million years ago? Well, you will do when you go! At H-E-B Body Adventure, you'll explore the human body like never before. Over four floors, you'll learn about its limits, and its goings on from the inside out. And at the Kittie West Nelson Ferguson People of the Pecos Gallery, you'll learn about the lives and travails of Tecan prehistoric hunter-gatherers. Gaze upon life-sized recreations of their camps, how they created artwork within caves, and what they did to survive. The DoSeum Bringing the little ones along with you on your vacation? Then treat them to a museum made just for them! The DoSeum is San Antonio's museum for kids, and it's a great place to open their minds. Part museum, part classroom, they'll learn all about themselves, their world, and what lies beyond. Fun is the name of the game here, so don't expect any stuffy classrooms where they'll be bored. Instead, DoSeum aims to make learning fun, with interactive exhibits and workshops that will help them develop interests in science, art, and writing. It might not have much for us grown-ups, but with plenty to keep your kids engaged, you'll get away with doing something for yourself right after! And those are our picks for the best museums in San Antonio! Now take that newfound knowledge and go out to change the world! Or, at least, flex your superior intellect to your colleagues. If you're looking for more fun things to do during your vacation, check out Go City. With our Explorer Pass, you can see San Antonio's best bits, as well as some of the best museums in the city, at your own pace!
Dom Bewley
New Year fireworks light up the Tower of the Americas in San Antonio.
Blog

New Year's Eve in San Antonio

San Antonio is a city that knows how to throw a party, and its New Year’s Eve celebrations are no exception. We’re talking gala dinners, lavish balls, live music (played loud!) and some of the biggest and best firework displays in Texas. And that’s not all: there are oodles of top-notch attractions to keep you entertained all day long in the Alamo City, before you hit the River Walk bars and restaurants in the evening, from the San Antonio Missions and historic Alamo itself, to the observation deck that tops the soaring Tower of the Americas. Suffice it to say, San Antonio is packed with way more landmarks than even the most dedicated sightseer could possibly fit into a single day. Our guide picks out some of the best to make your New Year’s Eve in San Antonio go off with a bang. Morning: Delve into Texan History San Antonio is chock-full of historic treasures, with the Alamo and San Antonio Missions being far and away the biggest ticket items. Set aside a full morning for either one of these bucket-list beasts and we promise you will not be disappointed. The 1836 Battle of the Alamo is etched into San Antonio’s very DNA. You can delve into the iconic Mission-turned-garrison’s rich history and discover its pivotal role in the conflict, as well as paying tribute to American folk heroes Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, who met their end here. Take a guided tour of the battlefield to hear how the massacre unfolded and view the epic collection of Alamo artifacts donated by pop legend Phil Collins in 2014. Once the biggest private collection of its kind, it boasts priceless treasures including an original Bowie knife, and a leather pouch and rifle owned by Davy Crocket. Choose the San Antonio Missions tour if you want to dive even deeper into the Spanish influences that shaped the city. This epic 3.5-hour extravaganza takes in multiple missions and other architectural marvels. Step inside the 200-year-old Mission Concepción – an ultra-photogenic IG addicts’ dream of Spanish and Moorish architecture that’s only the oldest unrestored stone church in the US. Here’s where you can ogle original frescoes and explore the various nooks (sanctuary, nave, granary) once used by Franciscan friars. The tour also calls at the (even older) Mission San José with its beautiful baroque rose window (La Ventana de Rosa), and the Espada Acequia, an extraordinary feat of 18th-century engineering that is one of the oldest working aqueducts on the planet. Afternoon: A Visual Feast Hit up the colorful San Antonio River Walk for lunch. This epic urban ecosystem is the cultural, artistic and social artery of the city, a broad and lively waterway that’s liberally lined with fine bars and restaurants. So you’ll have no difficulty finding somewhere great to eat, though you may well struggle to choose just one place! There’s so much to do down here that you could easily fill a leisurely afternoon. Stroll the River Walk Public Art Garden near the intersection of Market and Alamo Streets for eye-popping sculptures and installations from contemporary local visual artists. Explore the lavish mansions in the King William Historic District. Or just soak up the atmosphere and take in the views on a sightseeing river cruise. You could also spend your New Year’s Eve afternoon ticking off any one of stacks of other top-tier attractions in and around the Downtown area. Go wild at San Antonio Zoo, where you can meet the majestic lions of Big Cat Valley, say ‘hey’ to resident hippos Timothy and Uma, and spy spectacled bears snoozing in their grottoes. Or get your culture fix at the San Antonio Museum of Art, housed inside the former Lone Star Brewery, where the story of five millennia of human history is told through Roman and Egyptian antiquities, Latin American and Asian art, and much more. Look out for highlights including 1530 painting The Holy Family by Giuliano Bugiardini and an extensive collection of elaborately decorated Iranian pottery. And, if being in an old brewery has whet your appetite for a taste of the good stuff, hit up the original Texas brewstillery, Ranger Creek, where the tour and tasting experience includes samples of beer and bourbon straight from the barrel. Just remember though: New Year’s Eve is a marathon, not a sprint. And it isn’t even evening yet... Evening: The Best of San Antonio’s Party Scene Nighttime options abound for your New Year’s Eve celebration in San Antonio. Start your evening with dinner on the River Walk where cuisines run the gamut from fine dining seafood restaurants to dirty burgers and Tex-Mex. Perennial favorites here include Joe’s Crab Shack, Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steakhouse, and Boudro’s Texas Bistro. Or hit up the Southtown Arts District for hip oyster bars, trendy taquerias and some of the best modern American fare in town. Try Little Em’s, Bliss and Bar Loretta for the win. Suitably stuffed, it's time to get your party shoes on. There will be events going on at all the major players in town, with live music, dancing and general merriment all included in the price of entry. Check listings for the likes of The Pearl, the Grand Hyatt, Hotel Emma and the historic Menger Hotel for some of the grander shindigs. Live music bar Howl at the Moon’s New Year’s Eve parties are the stuff of legend, and proximity to the River Walk means great views of the midnight fireworks, making this one of San Antonio’s most popular options. And if views of the firework displays are at the top of your wish list, the River Walk is by no means your only option. There’s an annual party and pyrotechnics show in Hemisfair Park and, for completely uninterrupted views, the observation deck at the Tower of the Americas – 750 foot icon of the San Antonio skyline – glass of champagne in hand, is hard to beat. Do bear in mind that bars everywhere will be packed and events ticketed, so you should book well in advance if you plan to attend a specific party. Save on activities and attractions in San Antonio Save on admission to San Antonio attractions with Go City. Check out @GoCity on Instagram for the latest top tips and attraction info.
Stuart Bak
Stuart Bak
San Antonio
Blog

San Antonio Memorial Day Weekend

Visiting this Texas city is a great choice for Memorial Day weekend - San Antonio has a bustling river walk area, exciting parades and plenty of historical attractions.
Katie Sagal

Have a 5% discount, on us!

Sign up to our newsletter and receive exclusive discounts, trip inspiration and attraction updates straight to your inbox.

Thick check Icon