My family loves to explore new cities in Texas and we are lucky it is such a large state with so many places to see.  Over the holiday break we decided to take a day trip to Fredericksburg, TX.  It is a neat place for the entire family because they have the Pioneer Museum, shopping, awesome places to eat, and a park right in the middle of Main Street.  What more could you ask for?

We started our morning off at the Pioneer museum which was a huge hit for our kids and honestly my husband and I really enjoyed it as well.  It is a perfect mix of fun, education, and the outdoors.  My eight year old was especially interested because he had been learning about Pioneers in school so he enjoyed going in and out of the buildings and seeing how Pioneers lived.  One thing we learned right away was that homes and doorways were much smaller back then.  My husband and I, both being over 6ft tall, had to watch our heads a few times!

In my opinion the price for the Pioneer museum was very reasonable and you can find all of the pricing details here: http://www.pioneermuseum.net/pioneer-museum–gift-shop.html.  Once you purchase your tickets you can explore at your own pace.  This was perfect for our kids because our two year old was able to run around and go in and out of each building (he especially liked the school house) and my eight year old followed the map and went through the entire museum reading all of the notes along the way.  There are many different buildings to explore such as a one-room school house, a log cabin and a barn.  You can walk through them and get a real feel for what things were like back then.  Many of the buildings also have speakers which play a recording telling you all about the history.  I found the entire visit very engaging and it was a great experience for our entire family.  I would allow at least one hour to go through the entire museum so you have plenty of time to see it all.  There is also a cute gift shop to check out at the end.

After we left the Pioneer museum we decided to walk towards the park in the middle of Main Street.  There are many shops to walk in and out of if you want to do some shopping while you are there.  We saw everything from high end art stores, to gift shops, to Christmas shops, to clothing stores.  There were also plenty of ice cream shops and candy stores which I am sure most kids would enjoy (I know mine did!)  Once we got to the Markplatz (the Market Square) which is like a park with benches and statues (and a neat water wheel) we were pleasantly surprised to find a large playground.  Since our kids were not super excited about the shopping part of the day they were very excited to see the playground. There were two play structures catering to different ages and it had a shade cover which is a great thing for hot days.  There were plenty of kids enjoying running around and parents enjoying a little break.  

My kids could have stayed all day playing on that playground, but after about an hour we decided to do a little more exploring.  We walked into a few more shops and then we decided to grab something to eat.  There are a lot of restaurants to choose from and many are German restaurants since that is the theme of the town so you have plenty of choices.  We decided to stop into the Altdorf Biergarten (https://www.altdorfs.com/) because it had a nice selection of food, and also German plates to try.  They also had both indoor and outdoor seating (with live music outside) which is great for us because we try to sit outside whenever possible. We liked our lunch at Altdorf (especially the soft pretzel. Yum!) and we will definitely go back.  One other special thing about this restaurant is they have a well in the middle of the restaurant covered with a plastic window so kids (and let’s be honest grownups) can look down and see inside.  Our two year old loved that and it kept him entertained.  After lunch we stopped and got the kids some ice cream, which of course they loved, and walked back to our car.

Fredericksburg, TX is a wonderful day trip and we will be back because I still have more shopping to do!  It is one of those towns that can cater to a family day out or a grown ups only visit because there are many different options for things to do.  I always enjoy exploring different shops with interesting items to look at and I appreciate when there is a playground where my kids can run around and burn some energy.  Texas is such a fun state because there are so many big and small towns to explore and I can’t wait to continue to see more!

A few important items to note if you would like to take a trip to Fredericksburg:

-There is plenty of free parking around.  The parking directly on Main Street fills up fast, but you can usually find parking on the side streets or there is a free lot at the Visitor Information Center (https://www.visitfredericksburgtx.com/plan/visitor-center/)

-There are public restrooms available in a few places such as the Pioneer Museum, the Visitor Information Center, and the Marktplatz.

-If it is a hot day, definitely bring a lot of water because you will be walking around a lot and it does get warm.

-Most of the shops close around 5:00 p.m. daily and hours vary so try and get there early or call the store in advance to make sure they are open if you have a specific place you want to visit.

-If you are visiting with kids I highly recommend visiting the Pioneer Museum.  It was the highlight of our day for sure!