PH Travels: San Antonio itinerary

Join Preservation Houston in March 2027 for a visit to San Antonio, exploring the architecture, neighborhoods and historic places that tell the story of one of Texas’ oldest and most distinctive cities. This working itinerary offers a preview of the experiences we’re planning for the trip. Details will continue to evolve as arrangements are finalized, and this page will be updated as the schedule takes shape.

Day 1: Arrival and welcome

Thursday, March 18 — Arrive in San Antonio and settle into Kimpton Hotel Santo, our home for the next three nights. The contemporary hotel incorporates buildings from the historic German-English School, founded in 1858, bringing together traditional 19th-century architecture and thoughtful new construction.

This evening, meet your fellow travelers for a welcome reception before our first group dinner at Maverick Texas Brasserie in Southtown, where French brasserie traditions meet Texas ingredients and live-fire cooking.

Day 2: Reinventing the city

Friday, March 19 — Spend the day exploring downtown San Antonio and the River Walk through a Preservation Houston lens, tracing the layers of architecture, planning and preservation that have shaped the historic center from the Spanish colonial era to the modern skyline.

Our morning walking tour will take us through the heart of downtown, with special attention to the evolution of the River Walk, which grew from the city’s response to a devastating 1921 flood into one of San Antonio’s defining public spaces. Along the way, we’ll discover unexpected treasures including Howard Cook’s San Antonio’s Importance in Texas History, a monumental New Deal fresco cycle inside the historic federal building on Alamo Plaza.

From downtown, we’ll board a private charter for a cruise along the San Antonio River to the Pearl, where a historic brewery complex has become one of the city’s most ambitious adaptive reuse projects. After lunch at Best Quality Daughter, chef Jennifer Hwa Dobbertin’s playful take on Asian American cooking in a 1904 house, we’ll explore the Pearl and learn more about the transformation of this landmark industrial site.

This evening, we’ll enjoy an exclusive look inside the 1929 Tower Life Building, a landmark Gothic Revival skyscraper now being converted from offices to residences. We’ll end the day with dinner at Biga on the Banks, chef Bruce Auden’s acclaimed contemporary American restaurant overlooking a quiet bend in the San Antonio River.

Day 3: Architecture across the centuries

Saturday, March 20 — Today we’ll venture beyond downtown to explore how San Antonio has built, adapted and preserved places across nearly three centuries.

We’ll begin at Mission Concepción, dedicated in 1755 and one of the country’s oldest surviving unrestored stone churches. Then we’ll leap forward more than 250 years at Confluence Park, where a remarkable contemporary pavilion by Lake/Flato and Matsys uses sculptural concrete petals to provide shade and collect rainwater, making the architecture itself part of the park’s lesson in sustainability and the San Antonio River watershed.

Next, we’ll enjoy a special architectural tour of the San Antonio Museum of Art, focusing on the transformation of the late-19th-century Lone Star Brewery into a home for the arts. After time to explore the collection, we’ll head to La Fonda on Main for lunch. With roots dating to 1930, San Antonio’s oldest continuously operating Mexican restaurant is a beloved local institution known for its historic setting and inviting shaded patios.

In the afternoon, we’ll enjoy special access to an architecturally distinctive private home. This evening, we’ll explore King William, where an extraordinary collection of 19th-century houses reflects the neighborhood’s German heritage and San Antonio’s early preservation movement. We’ll conclude the day at Liberty Bar, a proudly idiosyncratic San Antonio institution housed in the former St. Scholastica Convent, a distinctive pink landmark on South Alamo Street.

Day 4: Confluence and connection

Sunday, March 21 — Our final morning brings us to Hemisfair, where the ideas of confluence and connection have shaped both the site’s history and its future.

Created for HemisFair ’68 under the theme “The Confluence of Civilizations in the Americas,” the fairgrounds dramatically reshaped the southern edge of downtown. Today, Hemisfair is being transformed again, with new parks, restored historic buildings and development reconnecting the former fairgrounds with downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods. We’ll explore the evolving district and consider what it reveals about changing approaches to urban planning, preservation and public space.

We’ll finish our weekend over brunch at Rosario’s, a Southtown favorite founded by restaurateur Lisa Wong in 1992, before departing for Houston.