San Antonio - Sea World & other must sees?

[fhjmom]

We go to an event in Austin every summer and DH decided we needed to go a few days early and hit San Antonio before. While I spent a lot of time there in college (dated a guy from SA), I haven't been back with time to do much in years. We know we want to take the kids to the Alamo and to Sea World (my girls are dolphin freaks!) and we may have time for one or two other stops. We will probably have dinner on the Riverwalk one evening. Any other advice on what to see or do that the kids would enjoy? Something off he beaten path would be great. I know there are other missions but which ones do we see if we had to choose only one or two others?

 

What is the cheapest way to do Sea World for the day for a family of 5 (we are not planning on doing the water park, the kids can swim at the hotel)?

 

Oh, and any trip prep the kids could do to make the trip at least a little educational? I have a few Texas-related books so we will probably do a bit of reading on the Alamo and other related events before the trip, but I thought someone might have some good website or book recommendations as well.

 

Thanks!

[chiguirre]

Off the top of my head:

 

A lot of the other missions have mariachi masses on Sundays, I'd like to do that the next time we go to SA.

 

I think there's an IMAX with The Story of Texas at the mall near the Alamo.

 

If you have time to stop in New Braunfels, there's a wild flower park there that was very nice.

 

Check and see if your supermarkets have any coupons for Seaworld. We get them fairly regularly in Houston. I've also seen them in the Sunday Chronicle and even in the free coupon mailers.

 

I don't have links handy for any of this, but I'm sure you can google.

[Ummto4]

Try Natural Bridge Caverns near (I think) New Braunsfel. Just google it. There's also a printable coupon to go with it (again, just google it).

 

When we went to Sea World, we just bought the ticket online. I tried to find a coupon but couldn't find any.

 

HTH

[higginszoo]

We went on the SAS shoes tour a couple of weeks ago, and the kids really liked that. It was free, too! I'm still waiting for my science museum pass to come (I joined the planetarium in Killeen), so that I can use it at the science museum in SA ... though with field trip season and schools getting out, at this rate, we may wait until September. I hear it's a good museum, though. We saw the IMAX movie ... it's a rather fictionalized account, but still entertaining. We did a river barge tour this last time, too, which was informative and a nice break from our walking.

[fraidycat]

Something like this to make SW more educational, perhaps?

 

http://www.swbg-animals.org/just-for-teachers/guides/index.htm

 

http://www.swbg-animals.org/just-for-teachers/classroom-activities/index.htm

[Unicorn.]

Definitely go to Natural Bridge Caverns. New Braunfels does not have a wildflower farm (Fredericksburg does), but there is always Schlitterbahn!

[JLocke41]

This may seem like a stupid idea but check out either of the 2 lifetime fitness gyms there. It's like the Taj Mahal of gyms!

[TexasRachel]

There's a small train that wanders around the park near the zoo. I enjoyed it as a kid. There's a small children's museum that your youngest ones would probably like.

[icul8rg8r]

There's a very kid-friendly water park nearby in New Braunfels (I always mess up the name - and don't say it fast - something like Schlitterbugs or something) that we alsolutely LOVE - one of the best in the country, in my opinion! No visit to San Antonio/Austin area is ever complete until we hit that water park!

[TexasRachel]

Schlitterbahn. Travel channel says its the best water park in the country. They now have three, New Braunfels, S. Padre, and Galveston. With talk of putting one in Corpus. We went once years ago and had a blast. But six flags has a free water park that's pretty good.