this is a great ride, love how easy the b cycle rentals work, and the church history was fascinating.
A must see for anyone interested in the settlement of the south west and the influence of the Spanish in our culture.
The Mission Trail is a fun learning experience. If you are old or young the Mission Trail is full of history and fun things that you may have known about Texas but forgot. This is a fun thing to do when you are looking for something different and quiet.
These are 4 beautiful missions that tell the history of the Spanish colonization and introduction of Christianity to the area. They ranged from rustic and rudimatary to beautiful and well apportioned. The national Park Service has done a great job of addressing the story of the area from religion to agriculture to education, etc from a historical perspective without getting bogged down in the obvious political swamp. You can drive the trail, or bike it using your own bike or convenient, city provided bike rental. From downtown San Antonio it is about 16 miles round trip along the river.
We took a bus tour to see several of the missions. What we didn't realize was that it wasn't a hop on/hop off tour. We simply drove to the site, our driver gave us a quick run down on each mission, and we moved on. I would recommend spending more time at each mission and actually going in.
I'd ride my bike from one end to the other a few times. It is a great tour of the city and its history.
This trail links the missions of San Antonio. Plan to spend half a day on a leisurely drive to each of the missions. Also, stop along the drive to visit the Espada aqueduct near the Espada Mission. There are also walking/biking trails in the area if you would like to spend more time exploring this historic area. We were surprised that the paved River Walk Trail parallels the Mission Trail and extends from this area north into the heart of San Antonio. We plan to return one day and rent bikes to ride on the Mission Trail.
Everyone knows the Alamo but there were others in the san antonio area and if you have a car, i highly recommend it. Some of them are more impressive than the Alamo is some ways.
There’s a lot to do in San Antonio. The most famous attraction in town is, of course, The Alamo. The Alamo is an old Spanish mission made famous by the battle during the Texas Revolution in 1836. But, there are a number of other beautiful Spanish missions to see as well, most of which can be found on Mission Trail. There’s Mission Concepcion, Mission San Jose, Mission San Juan Capistrano, and Mission Espada. While the Alamo is typically packed, you’ll find the other missions much less bombarded with tourists, and you can walk the grounds much more comfortably and at peace. Plus, it's hard to get a good picture of the Alamo that isn't filled with 40 other people. That's not a problem at these other missions.http://www.griswolddad.com
Weather did not permit us to ride bikes as planned so we drove the mission trail. They are so beautiful and so much history. Would love to visit again. The bike trails are so nice and the Missions and grounds are gorgeous.