How to Time Your Trip to Dallas

Recall the devastating John F. Kennedy assassination or the entertaining Ewing clan in "Big D," which welcomes visitors year-round with myriad sight-seeing and entertainment options.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Travel Clothes
• Local Guidebooks To Texas
• Maps
• Airline Tickets
• Travel Services
• Cameras
• Film

General Considerations

1. Know when to go. Spring and fall have the nicest weather, despite a little rain. Interesting events happen year-round.
2. Check out the seasonal events listed in Section 2, below, and compare your schedule with what's happening in the part of town you'll visit.
3. Get there. The Dallas/Fort Worth Airport is served by most airlines and is the home base for American and a hub for Delta. Southwest and a few other airlines fly into Love Field, located near downtown. Amtrak trains pull into Union Station, downtown.
4. Check the weather forecast just before you travel. Pack for whatever the climate might bring, keeping in mind the Texas saying, "If you don't like the weather just wait a while, because it'll change."

Attractions and Seasonal Events

5. Visit the state fair in September and October. See livestock contests, cooking and sewing competitions, concerts, carnival rides and a 52-foot papier-mâché statue called "Big Tex" that's famous for bellowing out "Howdy" to the crowds.
6. Welcome the new year at the Southwestern Bell Cotton Bowl football game every January 1. The night before, watch the New Year's Eve parade wind from the Arts District to the West End Historic District.
7. Cheer your favorite team - or all six of them. Dallasites can keep an eye on a local team in every major sport: football's Dallas Cowboys, hockey's Dallas Stars, basketball's Dallas Mavericks, baseball's Texas Rangers, and soccer's Dallas Burn and Dallas Sidekick.
8. Remember John F. Kennedy at the annual November 22 ceremony, held at the John F. Kennedy Memorial at Main and Market Street.
9. Visit the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, which occupies the floor in the former Texas School Book Depository building believed to be the one from which Lee Harvey Oswald fired the fatal shots into President Kennedy's motorcade in 1962. Displays at one of Dallas' most visited sites examine JFK's life, his legacy, the assassination and major conspiracy theories.
10. Tour the Dallas Arts District for a look at The Dallas Museum of Art, Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas Theater Center and Artist Square.
11. Reminisce about the Ewing family's foibles at the real Southfork Ranch in nearby Parker. Memorabilia from the 1980s "Dallas" TV show is on exhibit.
12. Browse in the specialty stores and galleries in the West End MarketPlace.
13. Shop 'til you drop. It's a major activity in Dallas, where there are more shopping centers per capita than in any other major U.S. city.