Since we have only lived in Texas a little over a year we have been enjoying exploring many different cities and towns that are within driving distance of Austin.  We have been to small cities like Brady, TX and to much larger ones like San Antonio.  One of our favorite places to visit is Grapevine, TX which is about 30 minutes southwest of Downtown Dallas (and a 3.5 hour drive from Austin).  We really enjoy visiting Grapevine because there are a lot of fun activities for families, and once you are there you are only a 20 to 30 minute drive away from Fort Worth and Dallas which are also great cities to visit.  I actually came across Grapevine when I was searching for a kid friendly hotel near Dallas and the hotel is what I am going to talk about today!

Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center is one of our favorite hotels because it is such a beautiful place and it is a really fun family friendly resort.  Throughout the year there are many different themes at the resort like Halloween, Christmas, Summer, etc, and since we are coming up on Thanksgiving and Christmas I am going to focus this review on the winter activities that the hotel offers.

We stayed last year at Gaylord Texan for three nights over Thanksgiving.  This was our first hotel stay since the start of the pandemic so even though we were all very excited to stay somewhere outside of our home I was still a bit nervous about what to expect.  We decided to stay over Thanksgiving because we heard about the fun Christmas/Holiday activities and the amazing decorations at the resort.  My family is really into Christmas and we pretty much fill every weekend in December with multiple holiday themed activities so this was right up our alley.  

When we drove over the bridge and up to the hotel we could immediately tell we were in for a treat.  The hotel grounds were beautiful with a lake right across the street and they had decorations lining the entrance.  There is a large parking garage on the property, however it is a bit of a walk to the entrance so if you are staying I definitely recommend that you drop your luggage off at the entrance and then go park the car.  They have both valet and self parking available for a fee.  We did self-parking and even with the crowds we were always able to find a parking spot and we just used our room key to enter and exit this garage which was convenient.

When we first walked into the lobby we immediately felt the holiday vibe and were in awe of the huge atrium.  I was excited about the atrium because one of my two year olds favorite things to do is just walk around and explore so knowing we would have a safe indoor space for this was perfect for him.  I especially appreciated this indoor space when he woke up at 5:30 a.m. one morning and I had to take him out of our room so he would not wake up the rest of my family!  The atrium has this feeling like you are outside because the sun is shining in, but you are still protected from the weather or temperature outside.    

There were so many decorations to look at and walkways to explore.  A few of my family’s favorite decorations were the model trains, the huge lighted Christmas tree, and the water fountain.  Our two year old watched one of the model trains go back and forth for 20 minutes and for my son it must be entertaining if he stops moving for more than one minute!  There are also multiple restaurants, cafes and bars in the hotel.  As you may expect at a resort like this the prices at the restaurants are definitely on the higher side and if you are buying food for your entire family it can add up very fast.  Since there is a small refrigerator in the hotel room we brought some snacks and food for breakfast and purchased most of our meals outside of the hotel.  There are many restaurants within a 10 minute drive and we enjoyed exploring Grapevine a bit when going out for meals.  However, we did appreciate that there were many different restaurant options if we did need to purchase something at the hotel.  As we all know with kids it seems like someone is always hungry!  I did visit the Mission Plaza Marketplace a few times early in the morning to pick up my coffee (because coffee is a must for me!) and I could also get a few snacks for the kids here as well.  There are also multiple shops right in the hotel.  They have clothing stores, a toy shop, and few other stores to explore with souvenirs for purchase.

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There are also so many holiday themed activities that your family can take part in during your stay at Gaylord Texan.  They have everything from Escape Rooms, to Pictures with Santa, to Snow Tubing, and so much more.  You can easily fill your days at the hotel.  Most of the activities at the resort have a separate fee, but there are a few that are free (for example they had a balloon artist there where you could get a free balloon).  One nice thing to mention is that you do not need to be staying at the hotel to enjoy the holiday festivities.  If you would like you can just visit for the day to check out the decorations or take part in a few of the fun events.  There is a fee for parking and you can find more details on that here: Hotel Overview.  

When it comes to the hotel activities I definitely recommend doing your research in advance so you can decide before you go which activities you think would be the best for your family.  Just like the food at the hotel the prices for the activities are on the higher side so if you try and do them all you will end up spending a lot of money and depending on the ages of your children they may not all be worth it.  In my opinion most of the activities that you purchase tickets for are geared for children 4 and up (some like the Escape Rooms are even better for older children). Not to say that your little ones would not enjoy some of them, but just something to consider when purchasing tickets.   When we went last year we purchased tickets for the hotel scavenger hunt, the Art Studio painting, and the I Love Christmas Movies walk through (it does not look like they are offering the I Love Christmas Movies attraction this year).  For our family the scavenger hunt and painting at the art studio were both great activities for our eight year old.  Our entire family got to participate in the scavenger hunt which is a self lead hunt that takes you around the entire hotel to find clues.  Our two year old had no idea what was going on, but he still enjoyed looking at all of the decorations while we ran around the hotel.  Then my eight year old and I had fun painting our canvases at the Art Studio.  We each picked a different design and had a nice time painting and talking. 

The Christmas Festivities at Gaylord Texan start on November 12th and go through January 2nd.  They have already posted a list of all of the activities coming up here:https://christmasatgaylordtexan.marriott.com/all-activities. They also list the price for each event and in some cases if you purchase tickets for multiple attractions you get a discount.  I noticed a few new ones like Breakfast with Charlie Brown and Friends (my kids would love this because they are huge Charlie Brown fans right now) and the Mission: Save Christmas Featuring Elf.  Like I mentioned previously you do not need to be staying at the hotel to participate in these activities.  You can even just go to the hotel to walk around and look at the decorations (you only have to pay for parking).  We saw many people coming all dressed up to have a nice meal or families to take pictures with Santa.  I will say though if you do decide to book a few nights at the hotel I do not think you will be disappointed.  We were really happy with the cleanliness of our room as well as the customer service.  Our room looked over the atrium so we got to watch people walk around and see the Christmas trees and decorations from above.

I hope you get a chance to check out Grapevine, TX and Gaylord Texan to enjoy all of the holiday charm!  We have already been back again over the summer to enjoy the summer festivities and I have no doubt we will make a trip again in the future.  Every time we go we seem to find something different to explore.