Dallas Destination Guide

The City That Runs on Business and Spends on Culture

Dallas is not a leisure city that happens to host business. It is a business city that spent forty years buying itself a cultural life, and it largely succeeded. The downtown Arts District is the largest contiguous arts district in the country, with buildings by Renzo Piano, Norman Foster, Rem Koolhaas and I. M. Pei standing within a few blocks of one another, and the Nasher Sculpture Center, the Dallas Museum of Art and the Meyerson Symphony Center inside them. Around that sits a restaurant scene that has quietly become one of the more ambitious in the South, and a hotel market shaped by corporate demand, which means the rooms are better than the reputation suggests and weekends are often the quiet part of the week.

The planning decision: which airport, and therefore where you sleep

Dallas has two airports and they produce different trips. Dallas Fort Worth International sits well west of the city between Dallas and Fort Worth, handles the international flights and most connections, and runs roughly thirty five to forty five minutes from downtown depending on traffic. Dallas Love Field sits close in, about fifteen minutes from Uptown, and is almost entirely domestic. If your meetings are in Las Colinas or Irving, staying near the airport corridor saves an hour a day. If you came for the Arts District and the restaurants, stay in the city and fly into Love Field where the schedule allows.

The mild months, and a summer that shuts the day down

Late March through May and October through early December are the comfortable stretches, and the autumn is the better of the two. From June into September the heat is severe, with long runs above one hundred degrees and nights that stay warm, and everything sensible happens early or indoors. Spring carries the region's storm season from March into May, with hail and severe weather possible, which is worth knowing rather than fearing. The State Fair of Texas runs at Fair Park from late September into mid October across roughly three weeks and reshapes the city, and the Texas Oklahoma football weekend inside it is the single hardest weekend of the year for rooms.

Where to base, and the case for driving west

Downtown and the Arts District suit conference travelers and anyone here for the museums. Uptown is the walkable choice, with the McKinney Avenue trolley, the restaurants and an easy path into downtown. Highland Park and the streets around Knox Henderson are the moneyed residential side, green and quiet, with the best shopping in the state at Highland Park Village. Deep Ellum holds the live music. Dallas is a driving city and a car or a driver is assumed. Fort Worth, about thirty five minutes west, is a genuinely different place and worth a full day rather than an afternoon.

Stay strategy in a market built for expense accounts

The Mansion on Turtle Creek remains the address, a 1920s residence turned hotel with the dining room that made the city's reputation. Hotel Crescent Court sits in Uptown at the center of the walkable stretch. The Joule, on Main Street downtown, is the design choice and the closest thing to a scene. The Adolphus, open since 1912, is the grand historic room. Out west, the Four Seasons Resort and Club Dallas at Las Colinas puts golf and meeting space near the big airport. In Fort Worth, Hotel Drover in the Stockyards is the most characterful room in the region.

When to begin

Two to three months covers an ordinary business trip or a museum weekend. The State Fair weeks, the Texas Oklahoma weekend and the major convention dates want six to nine months, and rates and minimum stays move sharply across them. Corporate blocks and buyouts should start a year out, since this is a market where large groups compete for the same inventory. Restaurant bookings are straightforward with a few weeks of notice, except for the handful of rooms everyone wants on a Friday or Saturday.

Four experiences worth building the days around

• A full morning across the Arts District, taking the Nasher and the Dallas Museum of Art properly and treating the Piano and Foster buildings as part of the visit.
• The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, done early in the day and given the time it deserves rather than squeezed in.
• A day in Fort Worth for the Kimbell Art Museum and the Amon Carter, which together are stronger than almost anyone outside Texas expects.
• An evening at the State Fair in season, or a night in Deep Ellum for live music across the rest of the year.

Who this trip suits

Dallas suits business travelers first and does that job unusually well. It suits art and architecture travelers, who consistently arrive skeptical and leave impressed. It suits shoppers, sports travelers and anyone attending a conference who wants the surrounding days to be good. It works well for groups and celebrations because the hotel inventory is deep and the service culture is genuinely warm.

When another plan may fit better

This is not a walking holiday. The city is spread out, the distances are real and the day is structured around a car, so travelers who want to explore on foot will be happier in Chicago or New York. Anyone whose trip is really about food should look at Houston, which has the more interesting kitchens. And nobody should book July or August for a trip built around being outside.

Plan it with one accountable advisor

Tell us where the meetings are and we will place you so the drive works rather than fights you, then build the museums, the tables and the Fort Worth day around the gaps. Our corporate travel management covers conference weeks, blocks and recurring team travel, and our luxury leisure travel planning handles the weekend attached to it.