New Braunfels, TX is a town I heard about many times even before moving to Texas and one that I had on my list for a long time to visit.  We finally made it there this summer for a day trip and I can’t wait to go back soon!  Right when summer break began (before everything got crazy busy) my kids and I had a free weekday so I decided to take them to New Braunfels for a day of exploring.  I did a little research and found that there are so many family friendly activities so we knew it would be a fun day.

We decided to start our day at Landa Park.  We wanted to experience the park before the heat of the day took over.  Landa Park is huge and we only explored a fraction of it.  Since it was a weekday morning we had no trouble finding a parking spot right up close.  Parking was free and there were spaces all around the park. If you go on a weekend I am sure it will be busier so I always recommend going early if you want to easily find a parking spot.   We started our morning with a train ride on the Landa Park Mini Train.  The tickets were $5 per person (children under 1 are free) and it was approximately a 15 minute ride.  The schedule for the train rides vary depending on the time of year and you can find all of the schedule details here: https://www.nbtexas.org/3377/Landa-Park-Attractions .  Something that is special about this train ride is that it does not just go in a little circle, it actually takes you around the park which was a nice tour for us.  We got to see the lake, the pool, the miniature golf course and the playgrounds.  It was a scenic ride and all three of us really enjoyed it.

After the train ride we went over to the playgrounds.  There are multiple different play structures and swings. They even had this neat walkway with musical instruments for the kids to play with and make music!  Swings are my 3 year olds favorite activity right now and there were these neat swings where a young child could ride on the back in a baby swing seat and an older child (or adult for that matter) could ride on the front swing and they are both swinging together.  This was my first time seeing something like that and I thought it was such a great idea! The only downside about the playground setup is all of the play structures are pretty spread out.  This could be tough if you are visiting with multiple children and they all want to try different play structures. It would be hard to keep an eye on everyone at once.  We managed this by visiting one play structure at a time so we could see them all and stick together.  Also, one of the most important things for families with little ones is there are restrooms right in the middle of the park so you do not have to travel too far.  We only scratched the surface of things to do at Landa Park and we already have a list of what we want to do next time we visit!  If you want to see what other activities they offer there you can find those details here: https://www.nbtexas.org/3375/Landa-Park .

After about 2 hours at Landa Park it was getting pretty hot so we decided to head out and go over to the New Braunfels Railroad Museum.  When we are visiting new towns in any state we always check if there is a Railroad Museum because they are such gems in these small towns.  My kids love looking at the model trains and are just fascinated by the setups.  We got lucky because we went right when the museum opened and had the whole place to ourselves.  The gentleman working there turned on all of the trains for us and gave us a lot of good information.  It is not a large museum, but we still spent at least 30 minutes just watching the trains go around and examining all of the little buildings, scenes, and tunnels.  It was also indoors which was perfect for the hot day!  You can tell they plan for little kids to visit because they had small step ladders spread around the trains so kids can climb up to get a better view.  We also found out that on the first and third Saturday every month they have a Kids Run the Train event where they have model trains set up that kids run.  After we admired the indoor model trains we went outside to go see the full size train car museum they had in the back.  There were multiple train cars that you can go inside and explore a dining car or the train’s engine room.  This part was both indoors and outdoors because you walk in between each train car, and they also had restrooms available. We even found out they have a train show coming up in October 2022 (http://newbraunfelsrailroadmuseum.org/nbrr/train-shows/) so we have already marked that on our calendar.  

One of the other great things about this train museum is the location.  It is right near many neat shops and restaurants so after our visit we took a walk around the town.  At this point my kids were getting pretty tired so we did not go into too many stores, but there were plenty we put on our list for next time.  We did enjoy going into Henne Hardware which is Texas’ Oldest Hardware Store.  It was a lot of fun for the kids because they had all sorts of retro toys and different items than you would find in a typical toy store.  Everyone was super friendly inside (which is another reason I love Texas) and they were talking to us about the area.  I could easily spend half a day just enjoying this downtown.  They had plenty of coffee shops (my favorite!) and restaurants as well as clothing stores, bakeries, and kids shops.

Once my little one’s legs were too tired to go on we got back in the car to head home.  Since we went on a weekday morning we found street parking super easy so it was a quick walk back to our car. On our way home we stopped at Buc-ee’s, because it would not have been a complete trip for us if we did not get a brisket sandwich and some candy for the road.  We had a blast during our day in New Braunfels, TX and we will be back soon.  There are so many activities for all ages and unique places to see.  I hope you get a chance to visit this lovely town soon!