When we road trip, we almost always go north or to the east. I don’t think we have road tripped to the west past New Orleans, LA in years and years. This summer we had the opportunity to head west and visit San Antonio, TX because we won a Visit San Antonio Sweepstakes through Mother of All Trips.

We had such a wonderful time wandering the city and visiting the many family friendly places. Even though we did go to several paid attractions, there were an awful lot of free things to do as well. These are our favorites:

Visit the San Antonio Missions National Park – Heading to the Alamo is a must if you are in San Antonio, but it is not the only mission around. This national park is made up of several missions that still hold church services on their beautiful grounds. The kids will love wandering around the wide open grounds and you should get some amazing photos! Be sure to stop at the Visitor Center first and pick up the Junior Ranger Booklet before you start exploring.

Walk the bridges of the Riverwalk – What child doesn’t love walking over a bridge? I certainly haven’t met one yet! We loved exploring the Riverwalk and the kids mostly enjoyed the many bridges. Anytime we saw a bridge, we had to cross to the other side of the river. Be sure to keep a tight hold on your little ones. The Riverwalk gets very crowded and there are no guardrails!

The Witte Museum is free on Tuesdays from 3-8pm. At the Witte Museum you can learn more about Texas history. We had a hard time dragging the kids away from the HEB Science Treehouse where there is lots of hands on activities for exploring science. It was very crowded when we were there but the kids were still able to play plenty.

Brackenridge Park – We visited Brackenridge Park as a side trip on our way to San Antonio Zoo which is located there. There are lots of great places to walk, a beautiful Japanese Tea Garden and great picnic spots.