Second year! Went last year when it was super cold! This…read moreyear we went on a Friday at around 6 pm! We enjoyed all the activities! A lot of space for a toddler to run around too - not sure if bigger kids/teens will enjoy it, but they added laser tag and bullride for extra $$$ Santa and Grinch photos were free! Plus we found an Elf on the Shelf! We did grab some food to eat before coming in which I would recommend if you want to save some money. Overall, planning to check it again next year! Dont forget to keep an eye on their discounted tickets online and on IG!

Yee-Haw... This place is lit... UP!…read more Old West Christmas Lights is located on Hwy 46 just west of Boerne inside Enchanted Springs Ranch which is a known for private events and movie sets. Perfect venue for an Old West or Tex- Mex party no matter what time of year! It's just a short drive through lighting display, then you will be directed to park on the ranch land. Be sure to turn your radio on to their station for holiday tunes before you hit the light tunnel which is really cool. Corral the family for a short walk into the Old West town covered in lights for an evening of fun and adventure. Plenty of photo ops available everywhere you turn. Lots of children's activities including a scavenger hunt, hands on cookie and ornament decorating, face painting to just to name a few. One of the best activities as a family is making smores by the campfire... and there are several fires around the old west town to keep you warm just like in the old days. Oh I also found in one of the saloons, one of the best Santas that I have met! OWCLF offers food, drinks, smores kits, as well as vendors for your holiday shopping, so bring some cash with you. I've been to Old West Christmas Light Fest in 2018 & 2019 with different friends. Looking at reviews it was located here in 2017 as well. I tell everyone about it as I love the old west town, especially the Jersey Lilly reproduction (you gotta do your research on Judge Roy Bean, Law West of the Pecos). The one suggestion I would like to share with both OWCLF & ESR, please add some old west interactive characters. That is pretty much the only thing that was missing at this event. Yes, I would highly recommend this event, and actually have been doing for the last month, totally worth the drive out there, for sure. Happy Holidays in Hill Country!

Really neat place. Not huge but really nice. The grounds are also nice and it has a pretty good…read moreview overlooking Kerrville. If you are in the area, it is worth a visit.

The correct name is really the Museum of Western Art. It used to be the Cowboy Artists Museum. By…read moreany name, it is still worthy of a visit! Open daily except Mondays, it is a short drive from downtown Kerrville. The grounds are beautiful and a winding drive leads you to the entranceway, where realistic western bronzes beckon you inside. There are several galleries inside (allow at least 90 minutes to go through), and the artwork by craftsmen and women who devote their artistic career to preserving the legends of the West are captivating and impressive. In addition, if you have young children (probably best under 12), there is a hands-on interpretive section of the old west sure to make this visit turn from a gloomy "why did we come here" look to excitement. A small gift shop offers up prints and other western memorabilia. In addition, there are a number of special exhibitions throughout the year.

11/06/22 We're back!!…read moreOur last visit was in 2018. Thankful they have the same setup - you can buy tickets ahead of time, park at the Olmos Creek shopping center on the day of the event and get shuttled in. Parking at the venue and the neighborhood is near impossible. Ab least eight bbq teams were competing. You are given 4 vote tickets upon entry (1 each for brisket, chicken, salmon and beans) to place in the team bucket of your choice. My votes went to Hillel, a first time contestant. College students. Their chicken was delicious. Beans as well. My brisket and salmon votes went to Shegatz, a previous winner for chicken. The layout is well-planned. The bbq teams are lined up down one path. They set out portions of each of their offerings. No sacrilege meant here, but one of the team names is Burnt Offerings. Amusing. Another was Rabbi-Q. One stand was giving away cookies - sugar, chocolate and blacks and whites. All good. One vendor selling hats, toys and other items. Drinks by tickets only. $5 beer, $3 sodas and $1 water. Not bad. Of course all the bbq and beans was free, included in the admission. There is a separate kiddie corral. Great place for the kiddos. Live music by an 80s cover band. Pretty good several dancers. Most of the bbq teams were providing free bourbon and other liquor shots. Whew! Go next year. Usually held in early November.

It returns Sunday, November 6. If u love BBQ u don't want to miss this event. Visit the website at…read morewww.txkosherbbq.com for all the info u need to know. 1 ton of Brisket, Chicken, Salmon, and Beans will be served up All- U-Can-Eat style to all those attending. The food is amazing. The 20 Pitmasters compete for the Coveted Grand Champion Belt Buckle and $2,000 cash prize. Come early, come hungry. The Kiddie Korral is amazing too for the kids.

I saw that they are having an event this past Saturday for the 250 America birthday celebration. I…read moredecided to go check it out since we were headed to Bandera. They do have a Groupon which is more than half price. The lady was very welcoming and sweet. We were inside the museum and she would call us telling us what performance is starting outside. There is really cool and interesting pieces to admire. We made our way out to the back. They were serving complimentary hot dogs, chips, lemonade and a cake to celebrate. The time when we were there seems all the locals were there. All attention was on us. From getting up to give us their seat to asking us where we are from to ask if we would like more food. It made us feel so special! I had couple of questions on where to find places they did not hesitate to answer and even call each other to get me more information. It was a real memorable morning a this museum!

Relatively small but well run and effortlessly charming museum. Frontier Times is just a couple…read moreblocks outside of downtown Bandera, and contains a wealth of items mostly from the Old West up though the early 20th Century. It's a really great display of Americana. One of the rooms is sure to please any dedicated equestrian as it contains several beautifully crafted saddles and sets of riding gear. Other rooms house collections of old books (*everybody* carried a Bible back then), pictures of family relatives long gone, Wurlitzer-style pipe organs, long-gone paper currencies, even a pair of stuffed cougars named Charlie and Sally! While there we also adopted *cough cough* a stuffed longhorn which was promptly named 'Chisholm'. Since there was also an art exhibit going on, we got a chance to watch a couple big-name Western scene painters like Jack Moss and David Godfrey at work. Definitely worth a visit the next time you're in Bandera!

We decided to drive to Kerrville from San Antonio to check out the renaissance festival on the…read moreopening weekend. Tickets were $16.95 per person which is somewhat comparable to other Renaissance festivals we've visited. All of the performers and staff were very engaging and friendly which is always nice. The shows aren't really my thing as they're a bit cheesy and overdone but they're great for kids. I enjoyed walking to all of the different booths and seeing all of the items available. I did think the food and drink within the festival were over priced. Only canned beer was available and still it was $6-$10 per can, $10 for a funnel cake and other items were even more expensive. They did have wine but it was served in a small plastic cup and definitely not cheap. While it was an interesting experience, it was a one time thing for me!

Very overpriced, after $50 for admission we barely had any cash left for food and then had to find…read morean atm. Music was the best part about this, the kids area should've been free. This could've been so much better if planned with families in mind.

Nice little tour of the property with a lot of rich history. The restoration work is really…read morebeautiful. Nice thing to do as you walk around town. They are only open for tours on Tue/Thurs so plan accordingly. Worth it!

I've lived in Kerrville for over 16 years but have never visited the Mansion. Hearing of the…read morespecial Christmas tours this week, a friend and I decided to go. This special tour benefited the Hill Country Youth Orchestra; having played in the San Antonio Youth Orchestra, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make a small donation and take a tour to boot. As expected, the Mansion was decorated for the season; the garlands wrapped around the banisters were particularly beautiful. We started on the second floor, which resembles a large ballroom, with a short video presentation on the history of the place and its occupants throughout the years. A short presentation by a docent followed whereupon we were free to look around to our hearts content. Then it was down to the first floor where the two highlights were a beautiful parquet floor and a chandelier which was an original fixture of the building. There were hand-blown bulbs of colored glass which, unfortunately, could not be lit lest they burst. Then it was into the kitchen for cookies and wassail; those who wished could step out into the garden with its beautiful hand-crafted fountain. Of particular interest was a glass-pane door flanked by two large pineapple statues, the symbol in the South of hospitality. If you're in Kerrville, try to avail yourself of a tour of the wonderful home, especially if you have children with you. They can see first hand what life was like more than a century ago and come away with memories of this beautiful place.

Went there on a bus tour at the end of June. Friendly people, but the bar gets super overwhelmed…read morewhen it is too busy. Not even a smile or thank you when they finally get to you. I was very uncomfortable with the fact that one of their members video tapes all the alcohol purchases on his tablet. It is a little worrisome as I don't know what is to become of all the footage. I don't mind being taped on a proper video security system; in fact, it is expected. I emailed the Exalted Ruler when I got back to the hotel and nearly 3 weeks still no response. Next time I am in the area I would probably drive to New Braunfels, one of our other stops. At least they smiled and made us feel welcome.

Great Hamburger Night on Wednesdays and they're now offering BLT's as well. Comfortable relaxing…read moreatmosphere.

This is a very nice museum in the Texas Hill Country. We had attempted to come here once before but…read moreit had been closed. We were happy that on this attempt we were able to go inside and see the gallery. The price is $7 a person unless you are a first responder or military. The docent did a good job of explaining the layout of the museuem and pointed out some interesting facts about the building itself as well. There are a few different sections of the library such as the painting galleries, the open floor in the beginning and the Texas history section where children can explore and interact with the exhibits. It's not a large museum but there were a lot of paintings and statues to look at. Definitely recommended. Parking is easy and there are also statues outside as well.

I suppose that as a born and bred Texan I should be ashamed to admit that I don't care for western…read moreart--well, I'm not; I just don't care for it. As I child I was inundated with images of cowboys fighting Indians which disturbed me as I'm a member of the Nez Perce Tribe. And then there were pictures of cowboys sitting by the campfire, riding the range, sitting atop a bucking horse--on and on and on. Ho Hum! So it was with some trepidation that I went with a friend to the MOWA today. He is an artist and I went mainly for the purpose of listening to him comment on the finer points of the art--shading, lighting, etc. And I was ready to see row after row of heroic cowboys slaughtering the heathen Redskin. What I found was pleasantly surprising. Yes, Native Americans were well represented, but in only one sculpture was there the typical cowboy and Indian fight. In fact, one large painting portraying the Native American ceremony of Summoning the Buffalo was as moving as it was beautiful as I remember participating in such a ceremony with I was a child. The collection is not vast but the quality of all the artwork was excellent; they were framed artfully and lit properly. Of particular interest was a wagon made by the Studebaker company--yes, the same Studebaker that generations later produced automobiles. And there are docents ready and willing to add greatly to your experience. No need to go on a group tour; these folks are there every day to make the West come alive. A word needs to be said about the building. It was the last public project designed by the noted architect, O'Neil Ford whose well-known projects in San Antonio consisted of La Villita, the Tower of Americas and Trinity University to name a few. While the exterior is indeed stunning with its heavy wooden beams and stacked limestone retaining walls, the interior has 23 boveda domes made of lightweight Mexican brick (a sample is available for handing). As you can see from the attached photo, the domes are art in themselves. So the next time you're in Kerrville--or like me, a resident--do visit the Museum of Western Art. Take it from one who doesn't particularly care for the genre--you'll enjoy it.