A visit to Dallas would not be complete without an afternoon spent watching American football’s local heroes, the Dallas Cowboys.
Even if you are not a die-hard fan, the sheer spectacle of watching a live game alongside thousands of enthusiastic locals will help inject a bit of the cowboy spirit into anyone.
A good place to start sightseeing in the appropriately named ‘Big D’ is at the site of president John F Kennedy’s assassination. Visit the Sixth Floor Museum, the book depository building from where Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly shot the president.
The museum guides you through the course of events in a lively and interesting way.
If you fancy some doing some shopping in Dallas, the best plan is to take the DART light railway to one of the massive malls such as North Park, on the city’s outskirts. It does take time to get around this sprawling city, but a light railway/bus card for a day’s travel is only $2.
You may prefer to travel farther afield to visit the district of Parker and explore the infamous South Fork Ranch, but don’t expect to see JR Ewing.
Dallas’s Fair Park combines a vast and leafy area with a high-tech ‘edutainment centre’, simply called the Science Place. The centre is host to an IMAX theatre, planetarium and a herd of robotic dinosaurs!
For nightlife, head to the historic district near the Sixth Floor Museum, and dine Tex-Mex-style.
The renovated area known as Deep Ellum is another lively place to visit after dark. This is Dallas’s home of blues, jazz and rock, where the emphasis is on live music. The restaurants and nightclubs here are worth checking out.