Texas Trip Planning

biggiesmalls

biggiesmalls

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
Apologies if this is in the wrong section, couldn't find anywhere else where this question fit easily. I am planning a zoo trip down to Texas, and would love some guidelines on what is reasonable to accomplish in a given time span. Brief bit of info:
  • Looking at 3-4 days and 2-3 nights total
  • No set start/end point, and willing to fly in and out of different cities
  • Will be renting a car at the first airport to drive to different facilities within the state
  • Open to a weekday or weekend trip (likely weekday to avoid huge crowds)
  • Primarily focused on herps, followed by birds, aquatics, and African hoofstock. I can expect to spend 2+ hours in a sizeable reptile exhibit.
With that info in mind, where would you go? Reptilandia Reptile Lagoon in Johnson City (about an hour west of Austin) is my one must-see, and a full day open to close (10am to 5pm) is a requirement.

Past that, I'm thinking the DFW area should be the other major target. Between DWA, Dallas, and Fort Worth, that's a pretty impressive collection. Would it be reasonable to try and fit Reptilandia, DWA, Dallas, and Fort Worth into 3 days? 4? Anything past that?

TIA.
 
If Reptilandia is a "must see" then I would fly into or out of Austin. It's an easy airport to fly in or out of and has good connections if you can't fly direct.

Personally I think fitting DWA, Dallas, and Fort Worth into a day and a half or two days (depending on your flight times) is doable, if ambitious.

Other Austin animal attractions are the Austin Nature and Science Center, Austin Aquarium, Capital of Texas Zoo, and the Austin Zoo - only the Science Center and Reptilandia would be worth your time as the others are not worth it on a short trip like this.

As an alternative you could go south from Austin and stop at Animal World Snake Farm & Zoo, which has another great herp collection. Also in San Antonio area are the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch (safari park, probably one of the better ones), San Antonio Zoo, SeaWorld, etc.
 
SwampDonkey said:
If Reptilandia is a "must see" then I would fly into or out of Austin. It's an easy airport to fly in or out of and has good connections if you can't fly direct.

Personally I think fitting DWA, Dallas, and Fort Worth into a day and a half or two days (depending on your flight times) is doable, if ambitious.

Other Austin animal attractions are the Austin Nature and Science Center, Austin Aquarium, Capital of Texas Zoo, and the Austin Zoo - only the Science Center and Reptilandia would be worth your time as the others are not worth it on a short trip like this.

As an alternative you could go south from Austin and stop at Animal World Snake Farm & Zoo, which has another great herp collection. Also in San Antonio area are the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch (safari park, probably one of the better ones), San Antonio Zoo, SeaWorld, etc.
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Thanks for the guidance!
 
Thinking of the following (either M/Tu/W or Tu/W/Th):
  1. Fly into DFW, aiming to be on the ground around 10:00 AM. Rent a car and head to Fort Worth Zoo for the day before getting a hotel in Dallas.
  2. DWA and Dallas Zoo from 8:30 to 4:00. Afterwards, drive to Johnson City and get a hotel around 8:00. This may be an early night or a herping night, we'll cross that bridge when we get there ;)
  3. Full day at Reptilandia, 10:00 to 5:00. Then an hour drive to Austin and head back to NC.
A bit backwards from what you suggested, but this saves us from 5+ hours of travel to get directly from NC to Reptilandia. Doesn't sound too fun with the goal of getting there by 10 AM :p

Any must-see mammals/birds at Dallas/Fort Worth? I'm excited for DWA's bird collection and Giants of the Savannah/Wilds of Africa, but a quick look at @King of Komodo Dragons species list for Fort Worth doesn't have anything outside of MOLA that catches my eye.
 
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biggiesmalls said:
Thinking of the following (either M/Tu/W or Tu/W/Th):
  1. Fly into DFW, aiming to be on the ground around 10:00 AM. Rent a car and head to Fort Worth Zoo for the day before getting a hotel in Dallas.
  2. DWA and Dallas Zoo from 8:30 to 4:00. Afterwards, drive to Johnson City and get a hotel around 8:00. This may be an early night or a herping night, we'll cross that bridge when we get there ;)
  3. Full day at Reptilandia, 10:00 to 5:00. Then an hour drive to Austin and head back to NC.
A bit backwards from what you suggested, but this saves us from 5+ hours of travel to get directly from NC to Reptilandia. Doesn't sound too fun with the goal of getting there by 10 AM :p

Any must-see mammals/birds at Dallas/Fort Worth? I'm excited for DWA's bird collection and Giants of the Savannah/Wilds of Africa, but a quick look at @King of Komodo Dragons species list for Fort Worth doesn't have anything outside of MOLA that catches my eye.
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That looks like a great route to take for the different places. Are you heading out of Austin that same night or taking an early flight? There are some pretty good and inexpensive hotels near the Austin Airport - avoid the Microtel, it used to be a great option but it has really gone down hill over the last 5 years. The LaQuinta Inn near Dallas Love Field (on John Carpenter FWY) is pretty nice, and just a couple of years old. I would not recommend the Sleep Inn next door to it - I left that place right after checking in.

I have not been to Dallas or Ft. Worth zoos, so I can't really say. I have been to DWA, but that was back in 2013 IIRC, so not recent enough to really give a good opinion. I went to Austin Zoo this past December and I have been to Austin N&SC, but that was back in 2014 when I lived there.
 
SwampDonkey said:
That looks like a great route to take for the different places. Are you heading out of Austin that same night or taking an early flight? There are some pretty good and inexpensive hotels near the Austin Airport - avoid the Microtel, it used to be a great option but it has really gone down hill over the last 5 years. The LaQuinta Inn near Dallas Love Field (on John Carpenter FWY) is pretty nice, and just a couple of years old. I would not recommend the Sleep Inn next door to it - I left that place right after checking in.

I have not been to Dallas or Ft. Worth zoos, so I can't really say. I have been to DWA, but that was back in 2013 IIRC, so not recent enough to really give a good opinion. I went to Austin Zoo this past December and I have been to Austin N&SC, but that was back in 2014 when I lived there.
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Thanks for the help - we're booked! Flying into DFW next Monday to see Fort Worth, then the Dallas facilities on Tuesday, and Reptilandia on Wednesday. Ended up being easier to take a morning flight out of Austin on Thursday, so we're booked at the Hyatt right next to the airport for the night.

Should be a healthy dose of herp pictures being added to the gallery in the coming weeks ;)
 
biggiesmalls said:
Thanks for the help - we're booked! Flying into DFW next Monday to see Fort Worth, then the Dallas facilities on Tuesday, and Reptilandia on Wednesday. Ended up being easier to take a morning flight out of Austin on Thursday, so we're booked at the Hyatt right next to the airport for the night.

Should be a healthy dose of herp pictures being added to the gallery in the coming weeks ;)
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It sounds like a great trip, I look forward to hearing about it!
 
biggiesmalls said:
Any must-see mammals/birds at Dallas/Fort Worth? I'm excited for DWA's bird collection and Giants of the Savannah/Wilds of Africa, but a quick look at @King of Komodo Dragons species list for Fort Worth doesn't have anything outside of MOLA that catches my eye.
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Outside of their respective herp buildings, the bird collections at Fort Worth and Dallas are probably the most interesting parts of those zoos, collection-wise -- with some exceptions, i.e. the south-central black rhinoceroses and swift foxes at Fort Worth (and potentially the kangaroo-rats if they are back on exhibit by the time of your visit) and the dusky langurs and klipspringers at Dallas. Fort Worth has African crowned eagle, African fish eagle, Australian brush turkey, palm nut vulture, satyr tragopan, Storm's stork, as well as some rarer waterfowl and Texas natives, to name a few. Dallas has African white-backed vulture, double-eyed fig parrot, green-cheeked conure, maguari stork, and spur-winged goose.
 
Kudu21 said:
Outside of their respective herp buildings, the bird collections at Fort Worth and Dallas are probably the most interesting parts of those zoos, collection-wise -- with some exceptions, i.e. the south-central black rhinoceroses and swift foxes at Fort Worth (and potentially the kangaroo-rats if they are back on exhibit by the time of your visit) and the dusky langurs and klipspringers at Dallas. Fort Worth has African crowned eagle, African fish eagle, Australian brush turkey, palm nut vulture, satyr tragopan, Storm's stork, as well as some rarer waterfowl and Texas natives, to name a few. Dallas has African white-backed vulture, double-eyed fig parrot, green-cheeked conure, maguari stork, and spur-winged goose.
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Sounds like some great sights - I knew of the fig parrot, but the brushturkey is an awesome surprise! I'm definitely focused on herps for this trip, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't going to make a beeline for the shoebill at DWA ;)
 
Just a brief update to this thread, the trip went fantastic! Great day open to close at Fort Worth, an hour shy of open to close at DWA, and full day at Reptilandia. Ended up skipping Dallas Zoo just because of how impressed we were with DWA - I love a walk-through rainforest, and there aren't many places that do a better job with that. Bit disappointed to miss the Tuatara, but I wouldn't have gotten the fantastic Shoebill pics I did if I didn't stay until close - fair trade IMO.

Reptilandia is without a doubt the best specialist reptile facility in the country, and I say that having seen San Diego, MOLA, St. Louis, etc. The exhibits (100+) are massive, at least half are multi-species, there are some incredibly rare animals, and the detail work on the exhibits is amazing given the huge scale. Given that I went on a Wednesday, I ended up getting the entire facility to myself for the day, and got to spend a great deal of time hanging out with Quetzal, Ari, and Ryu. I'll get into a more in-depth review in a dedicated thread later this weekend, but to make a long story short - definitely worth the trip for anyone within a day's travel time.

Plenty of pics incoming! DWA's shoebill makes for a nice new profile pic ;)
 
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