Texas

RIVER TOWN – Few cities have taken advantage of their natural geology as well as San Antonio, where the Riverwalk winds along the course of the San Antonio River below street level. Shop, eat, and watch artisans at work. Most of all, stroll as if life were one long siesta.

GO BATTY – Join the crowds one evening around dusk to see the nightly flight of a million or more Mexican free-tail bats from beneath the Congress Avenue bridge in Austin. When the bridge was rebuilt in 1980, engineers unintentionally created perfect bat-sized spaces underneath, and the bats promptly moved in. It’s estimated that they eat 3,000 pounds of insects every night. Call the “bat hotline” at 512-416- 5700 for more information.

MELTING POT – The town of Castroville was founded and populated in the 1800s by immigrants from the Alsace region of France, and it shows in the architecture and restaurants. At the Chamber of Commerce, pick up the map for a self-guided walking tour of the town’s unusual architecture, cottages built by the residents in the style of the European villages they left behind. Find out more at www.castroville.com.

COMIN’ DOWN – The drive from Carlsbad, N.M., to El Paso, Texas, is spectacular, especially if you time it to arrive at El Paso in the evening. As you come through the Guadalupe Pass, the city lights of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, are laid out below like a carpet, in sharp contrast to the high desert and mountain scenery you’re leaving behind.