Del Rio

The warm, watery, and historic border town of Del Rio is an ideal gateway to West Texas and the Big Bend. Located midway up the Texas-Mexico border from the Gulf of Mexico, this city of nearly 50,000 offers outdoor recreation in the form of swimming in San Felipe Springs inside city limits, and the bi-national reservoir that is Lake Amistad, just west of town, a bass-fishing paradise and a magnet for boaters of all stripes. Across the Rio Grande from Del Rio is Ciudad Acuna, a model border town and a vibrant destination for dinner and drinks immortalized in the George Strait hit "Blame It On Mexico." There is plenty of "wild West" lore in ...

The warm, watery, and historic border town of Del Rio is an ideal gateway to West Texas and the Big Bend. Located midway up the Texas-Mexico border from the Gulf of Mexico, this city of nearly 50,000 offers outdoor recreation in the form of swimming in San Felipe Springs inside city limits, and the bi-national reservoir that is Lake Amistad, just west of town, a bass-fishing paradise and a magnet for boaters of all stripes. Across the Rio Grande from Del Rio is Ciudad Acuna, a model border town and a vibrant destination for dinner and drinks immortalized in the George Strait hit "Blame It On Mexico." There is plenty of "wild West" lore in these parts: Judge Roy Bean, the self-proclaimed "Law West of the Pecos," served up drinks and his brand of frontier justice at Langtry, west of Del Rio. Bean's grave is in Del Rio proper, at the Whitehead Memorial Museum. There is also history that's more distant in the past - that of the prolific rock artists who inhabited these parts ten millennia ago - and more contemporary - in the form of legendary rock and roll disc jockey Wolfman Jack, a persona that was born in Del Rio in the early 1960s.

About the Expert

Eric Peterson has written and contributed to numerous Frommer’s guidebooks covering the American West, including Montana & Wyoming, Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks, and Texas.