Things to do / Travel Guide
Geographically speaking, southeast Texas is where the American South becomes the Southwest, and the region properly belongs to both areas. In the western side of the region, in San Antonio and Austin, the architecture, food, and Latino culture are unmistakably and definitively southwestern. Cattle ranches, Old Spanish colonial architecture, and fields lined with wildflowers dominate these areas, and the hills and mesquite trees inspire the traditional visions of the American West.
Towns near the Louisiana border in the eastern side of the region, such as Beaumont and Port Arthur, are better known for a culture that owes its identity more to the Old South. Coastal plains, swamps, and thick forests fill the landscape, and are more similar to what one would expect to find in Louisiana and Mississippi.
The southeastern region of Texas has as its eastern border the long coast of the Gulf of Mexico, from Louisiana to Mexico. On the coast are the large ports of Houston and Corpus Christi, and the resort beaches of Padre Island, Port Aransas, and Galveston. Further inland is the old Spanish-built city of San Antonio, and the traditional settlements, ranches and lakes of the Texas Hill Country. Just an hour north of San Antonio is Austin, the state capital, home to several major universities, and a cultural hotbed for innovation, in both music and technology. The rural area between Austin, San Antonio, and Houston is full of quiet two-lane highways where the rolling hills are well known for their beautiful wildflowers.
Within this triangular section of Texas sits the majority of the state's population, culture, sights, and activities for the visitor. Despite the large and daunting size of the state in which it's found, you can travel from end to end of this region in a matter of a few hours by car. A week exploring just inside the confines of southeast Texas can feel like a visit to multiple different countries, with so many different types of scenery, people, and sites of historical significance and of entertainment.
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