Hotel at a Glance: Loyd Park On Joe Pool Lake

These cabins sit on nearly 800 acres of tree-filled Texas land on the western shore of Joe Pool Lake. One- and two-bedroom cabins sleep 4 or 6 guests, respectively, while the super-spacious 18-room Loyd Lodge is made to host massive group gatherings of up to 66 people. There’s no shortage of activities to enjoy here with friends and family. Here are a few of the possibilities:

• Swim and sunbathe on the beach.
• Go hiking on the wooded trails that wind throughout the park.
• Rent a kayak or canoe to take out on the 4.9 mile paddling trail.
• Challenge your companions to a game of volleyball or softball.
• Cook a meal in your cabin: It’s equipped with a stovetop, oven, refrigerator, microwave, and cooking utensils. You can eat at your dining table or outside in the picnic area.
• Venture into the city: Both Dallas and Fort Worth are about a 30-minute drive away.

Greater Dallas: Historical Parks and Rejuvenated Urban Districts in North Texas

Though some know Dallas only for the massive AT&T Stadium (which is actually in Arlington), the city is also an enclave of arts and nature, overflowing with botanical gardens, art galleries, and live theater. Historic Main Street connects many of the city’s recently rejuvenated urban districts, as well as the popular Main Street Garden, a block-long public park surrounded by architecturally significant buildings. Locals come here to picnic on the expansive lawn or watch a movie under the moonlight in the summer and fall.

A short walk from downtown Dallas, you’ll find horse-drawn carriages clopping along brick streets in the city’s historic West End district, which dates back to the 19th century. This part of the city also contains Dealey Plaza, where President Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963. At The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, housed in the former Texas School Book Depository, you can visit the spot where Lee Harvey Oswald is believed to have shot at Kennedy’s presidential motorcade.

Joggers and bikers can zip through the fashionable Turtle Creek neighborhood, located about 4 miles west of downtown, via the Katy Trail, which follows an old interstate railroad. Back near downtown Dallas, the 277-acre Fair Park is the location of North America’s largest Ferris wheel and seven museums and four performing-arts centers, many of which are inside art-deco buildings built for the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition.

Fort Worth: Western Hub with Bustling Downtown

Once a market for buying and selling cattle, sheep, and hogs, the Fort Worth Stockyards is today a historical district where the smell of smoked meats from barbecue joints and country music from rowdy honky-tonks fill the air. It’s the best place in the city to go for an authentic Texas experience. You can still watch drovers on horseback parade herds of cattle down the main drag en route to a live auction. Live musicians accompany line dancing at the site of a famous 19th-century gunfight, and at a nearby rodeo center, modern-day cowboys demonstrate bull riding and barrel racing during two-hour exhibitions.

In the cultural district—about a 10-minute drive south—world-class museums stand along tree-lined brick boulevards. Acclaimed as one of the most striking architectural designs of the modern era, the Kimbell Art Museum houses ancient artifacts, a painting thought to be Michelangelo’s first, and early Ninja Turtles sketches. At the free-to-the-public Amon Carter Museum of American Art, you can survey a collection of American works, including several paintings from the Hudson River School.

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