For other places with the same name, see Dallas (disambiguation).
Dallas, the ninth largest city in the United States and the third largest in the state of Texas, is an impressive melting pot of culture and character. Boasting high-end luxury hotels, innumerable fine dining spots, and one of the busiest airports in the world, Dallas maintains an upscale ethos reflected by an affluent population, world-class museums, and a shimmering modern skyline. Its history was marred by the infamous assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, but there is more historic and contemporary heritage to be discovered in the city.
As a center of the oil and cotton industries in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Dallas was a classic American boom town and remains one of the fastest growing cities in the nation. Dallas fell victim to its own success in the automobile era, becoming a prime example of urban sprawl as highways strangled its city center, but has been trying to reinvent itself since the turn of the millennium.
Downtown Dallas is undergoing slow urban renewal and expansion. Traditionally bound by a belt of above-ground expressways, consisting of anonymous high-rise towers, and pocked with parking craters, it is now rediscovering walkability, street-level retail, and public transit. Thanks to a new highway deck park built on its northern boundary, it has merged with Uptown, the affluent, young area to its north. Artsy locals flock east over one of those highways to a low-rise neighborhood known as Deep Ellum.
It is in Downtown that you will find most of Dallas' surviving historic architecture and monuments, major cultural institutions, museums and art galleries. It also has several concentrations of restaurants and bars and many upscale hotels for the moneyed traveler to choose from.
North Dallas contains the Park Cities, the most affluent area of the metroplex, as well as several other upscale neighborhoods. It extends north of Downtown to around LBJ, the loop freeway, and far north to Addison. It also encompasses Lake Highlands, a largely residential area bordering Garland on the north and Mesquite on the east. The Park Cities, Highland Park and University Park, are mostly residential but also offer world-class shopping opportunities, and University Park is home to Southern Methodist University (SMU), the Meadows Museum at SMU, and the George W. Bush Presidential Library.
South Dallas includes areas south of the I30 Interstate Highway and the southwestern bank of the Trinity River.
Most notably for the traveler, it includes Fair Park: the annual home of the Texas State Fair, a small collection of year-round museums, and the Cotton Bowl, the venerable football stadium where the University of Texas and University of Oklahoma face off on the gridiron every year during the Fair. The Exposition Park neighborhood across from Fair Park and its DART light rail station is a little hamlet of hipster bars, clubs, and restaurants.
In its west, across the Trinity River, you will find Oak Cliff - a large, low-income, mainly residential district southwest of downtown. North Oak Cliff, or Kessler Park, is another "streetcar suburb" and contains upscale homes of all kinds, from vintage 1930s bungalows to mid-century modern to new contemporary. The Bishop Arts District, centered on Bishop and Davis streets, is one of the city's hottest areas for new restaurants, cafes, and boutiques, and draws an eclectic crowd in which the creative class and the gay community are well-represented - a bit like a slice of Austin in the middle of Dallas.
West Dallas usually refers to the tiny part of the Western part of Dallas just south of the Trinity River, a gentrifying area of the city with several gritty parts. It features the one-of-a-kind Belmont Hotel, which still boasts a decent view of downtown even with newer buildings around it. West Dallas is well connected to the Oak Cliff area, and is in the midst of re-development thanks to the Trinity River Project and the construction of the Santiago Calatrava-designed Hunt-Hill Bridge across the Trinity. West Dallas can also refer to the area around the I-35 corridor bordering Irving, a largely low-income industrial area home to a Koreatown and a row of strip clubs.
Suburbs
Some area attractions often thought of as Dallas attractions are in the suburbs of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
It is virtually impossible to neatly categorize Dallas. It is a wonderful place with an immense and diverse set of attractions, food and people. From the posh, ultra-modern Uptown and Victory developments, to the old-world elegance and upper-crust attitude of Turtle Creek, to the "real life" feel of largely-suburban North Dallas.
The home of Erykah Badu, Stevie Ray Vaughan, the Dixie Chicks, Norah Jones, and St. Vincent, Dallas is an eclectic place with cultural influences from all over the South and West.
Being in the American South, Dallas has a subtropical climate with mild winters, hot summers, and a very wet spring and fall in between. In winter and summer it can also be a very dry place, as it receives warmer, drier weather from the Mojave Desert in the west and the Great Plains in the north.
Winters are generally mild, with average highs in the 50s and 60s F (10-20 °C) and average lows around the freezing mark. It often snows in Dallas a couple of times a year, and there is the rare day when temperatures will not get out of the 30s F (0-5 °C), but for the most part winter is just drier and cooler. There is, however, the danger of freezing rain and ice storms.
Spring and fall bring very pleasant temperatures, but spring is also known for its storms. Because Dallas lies within Tornado Alley, springtime weather can be quite volatile and severe storms often occur. Summers are hot, with temperatures often surpassing 100 °F (38 °C) and mostly low humidity.
Average rainfall in Dallas is 37.1 inches (942.3 mm) per year, and average snowfall is about 2.5 inches (63.5 mm) per year.
See also: air travel in the US
The sprawling Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (IATA: DFW), halfway between Dallas and Fort Worth (equally inconveniently for both), is American Airlines' largest hub and is served by all other major domestic carriers.
Various shared-ride shuttle services are available, with door to door pickup and drop off, costing ~$30 for ~20 miles, which will get you to most places. Like all major airports in the United States, you can easily hail a cab outside of any terminal by following the signs for the taxi stand, and most car rentals and chain hotels have courtesy shuttles.
The DFW Airport DART station is outside terminal A on the lower level and offers a direct light rail connection to downtown. To get there, take an escalator to the airside Skylink tram (fastest way) to Terminal A. If you have baggage to claim, claim it, then take an orange TerminalLink bus on the lower level of any terminal to Terminal A. From there, follow the yellow signs for DART light rail. Once at the station, take the Orange Line to downtown, where you can transfer to any other line. Alternatively, you can take a DART bus in the opposite direction to CentrePort/DFW Station on the TRE and catch a commuter train to downtown. Be aware, however, that the TRE runs only once an hour during most of the day. Using DART is covered in more detail in the Getting Around section.
Love Field is within the city limits, not far northwest of downtown. Due to the city's strategy of promoting DFW only, a rail link has never been built to DAL, but you can take the Love Link bus (DART route 524) from Love Field to Inwood/Love Field Station, served by the Green and Orange Lines. There are also various shared-ride shuttle services available which offer door-to-door pickup and drop off. They cost ~$30 for ~20 miles, which will get you to most places.
Private aviation
As a major hub for American oil & gas industries, and serving as home to several Fortune 500 headquarters and regional offices, Dallas is a major business jet center. There are hundreds of planes based at private airports in Dallas and surrounding areas, including corporate aircraft and privately owned luxury planes. Many of these planes are available through charter operators and air taxi companies that provide shuttle flights, with the most common routes flown between Houston or Oklahoma City.
Air charter brokers such as Alliance Air Charter and Private Jets Dallas offer access to charter planes in Texas across the country. Aircraft can range from twin-engine propeller planes to luxury Gulfstreams and executive aircraft. There are several Dallas-area airports focused on private and business aviation, including Addison Airport (), Dallas Executive Airport, formerly known as Redbird Airport (), Arlington Municipal (), Mesquite Metro (), Lancaster Regional (), Grand Prairie Municipal (), Terrell Municipal (), and more.
Two Amtrak routes serve Dallas/Fort Worth:
From Fort Worth, you can reach Dallas via either Amtrak's Texas Eagle or the Trinity Railway Express (TRE) commuter rail line, which runs from downtown Fort Worth to Dallas with stops in Irving and close to DFW Airport.
Amtrak's long-distance trains are slow and unreliable, and can run hours behind schedule. Most track is owned by the private freight railroads, and while private freight trains are legally required to pull over for Amtrak passenger trains, this is hardly ever enforced. In practice, Amtrak trains frequently pull over to allow long, slow freight trains to pass. Arriving from Houston involves a train change of five or more hours in San Antonio. However, Amtrak offers views and legroom that you can't get while flying and a unique laid back experience that you can't get while driving. If you want to meet people, taking the train is one of the best ways to do it. That being said, if you're short on time, flying is a better option.
To get to Dallas from Oklahoma, take I-35 then I-35E at the fork, or US 75 south. From Houston, take I-45. From Austin, take I-35, then I-35E at the fork. To get here from Louisiana, take I-20 west. Dallas is the junction-point for most cities within a 200- to 300-mile radius, with good road service to and from. Any road map of the United States should have enough information to get you into Dallas with no problems.
The car is by far the simplest and most reliable way to get around Dallas. Local rental companies offer better prices, but national chains offer more convenient locations and return policies. As in most cities, the worst traffic is in the direction of the city center during the morning and away from it in the afternoon. The roads where rush hour is the worst, especially in the mornings, are I-35, US-75 (where what would be a 20-minute trip without traffic can become a 1-2-hour trip with traffic), and the stretch of I-635 between them.
Dallas' street system is built on three nested grids. The smallest grid, running west-by-southwest to east-by-northeast, covers only the central business district and neighborhood of Deep Ellum in downtown. The next-largest grid runs southeast from Love Field through downtown and South Dallas to end at the 7,000-acre Great Trinity River Forest, the largest urban hardwood forest in the nation. The rest of the city and most of the suburbs roughly adhere to a simple north/south by east/west grid of one-mile square blocks.
Dallas Area Rapid Transit, or DART, runs an extensive light rail network and dozens of bus routes. The light rail system hits many tourist destinations around downtown and connects to many of the suburbs, but generally works best for commuters. Buses will get you almost anywhere from the train stations, but are slow, very infrequent during off-peak hours, and not always reliable.
Dallas also has two commuter rail lines: the Trinity Railway Express (TRE), which links downtown Dallas to downtown Cowtown (Fort Worth), and the A-Train, which runs from the end of DART's Green Line to Denton, a northern exurb of both cities.
As Texas culture and the urban sprawl of the Metroplex strongly encourage the use of cars, locals will generally be unable to help you use public transportation, but you can get an excellent trip plan by visiting the DART website, calling their information phone number (+1 214-979-1111 ), or using DART's GoPass app, through which you can also buy and use mobile passes.
Bus drivers will check passes upon boarding, but light rail trains operate on the honor system, with infrequent random pass checks that occur most often during rush hour. This doesn't mean you can ride without a pass - fines for being caught without one can be quite steep.
Ticket type | Valid time | Cost |
---|---|---|
Single Ride | One bus ride; no transfers | $2.50 |
AM Pass | 3AM - noon | $3.00 |
PM Pass | noon - 3AM | $3.00 |
Day Pass | 3AM - 3AM | $6.00 |
Midday Pass | 9:30AM - 2:30PM | $2.00 |
Regional Day Pass | 3AM - 3AM | $12.00 |
The awkwardly named GoPass Tap card is available at many area convenience stores and at Akard Station downtown. It works the same as the other passes, but is reusable - you simply tap it on a card reader as you board or transfer instead of buying a new ticket. The card itself is free, but you must load it with at least $6 (the price of a day pass) to start. You can reload it in the stores that sell it or on the GoPass website, which also has a map of all the stores that sell the card. If you're planning on staying in Dallas for a while and using DART often, the card or the app is your best option. Visit the GoPass site for more information.
Two dockless e-scooter companies operate in Dallas (Lime and Bird) along with the local dockless bike-share company, vBike. Each has a mobile app that can be used to find and rent nearby bikes or scooters. In Dallas, scooter and bike-share is most useful for short trips around downtown and for shortening walks to or from public transit.
Shopping is big in Dallas. In days of yore, folks would come from all over the country to shop in Dallas' exclusive shops.
The major supermarket chains in Dallas are Kroger, Tom Thumb (which is owned by Safeway), Albertson's, and Fiesta Mart. Walmart has several stores in Dallas, most of which are also open 24 hours, and some Tom Thumb and Kroger stores in Dallas are open 24 hours as well. 7-Eleven convenience stores (the first of which was in Dallas) are abundant and open 24-7, but they have limited selection and high prices. Many specialty and organic supermarkets such as Whole Foods Market, Central Market, Sprouts Farmers Market, and Trader Joe's can also be found throughout the area.
Due to its large expat and immigrant population, Dallas also features a large variety of ethnic grocery stores, including Indian, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Russian, and of course, Mexican. These tend to be found in North Dallas, Northwest Dallas, West Dallas, and in the suburbs of Carrollton, Garland, Irving, Richardson, Plano, and Frisco.
Areas with high concentrations of restaurants include the following:
Beltline Road through Addison and North Dallas, just north of I-635, has perhaps the most restaurants per-capita in the U.S. If there is a type of food you like then you can probably find it there.
Greenville Avenue running north to south in East Dallas, has many restaurants along its length, particularly in Lower Greenville.
Knox and Henderson streets (the "Knox/Henderson" neighborhood), off US-75 Uptown have many laid-back, stylish restaurants.
McKinney Avenue is the heart of Uptown, with a wide variety of quality establishments.
The West End in the northwest part of Downtown has a good mix of original local restaurants and successful chain establishments.
The Bishop Arts District of South Dallas, one of the city's more bohemian spots, is full of unusual and innovative restaurants. Dallas has a good number of its own chain restaurants which have become quite successful in the area, offering unique local flavors.
Spring Creek Barbeque. Spring Creek Barbeque has 15 Texas style restaurants across the North Texas area. The menu is very simple. Beef, ham sausage, turkey, chicken, and ribs are available for entrees (you can have combinations also). Side items available are corn, beans, potato salad, cole slaw, and baked potatoes. In addition, fresh homemade bread rolls are served with each dish and more are delivered to your table during each meal. Even with large servings, the most expensive menu is only about $10 so all of the dishes are available at a reasonable price.
Cristina's. Several DFW locations. Lunch specials are very reasonably priced. Service across all of the family owned and operated locations is blindingly fast no matter the location. The chips and salsa are arguably some of the freshest and best in the Metroplex. A unique signature menu item is the "Queso Flameado" where the server melts cheese by fire tableside and then wraps the gooey cheesey goodness in several freshly made tortillas.
Main Street in Downtown has seen major improvements over the last few months, with plenty of places to eat and to play. Highly Recommended. Don't forget to stop by the City Tavern for a longneck or two.
Uptown, the area bound by Haskell on the north, Woodall Rogers Freeway on the south, Turtle Creek on the west and Central Expressway on the east, is where Dallas' beautiful people go to see and be seen. Trendy to the nth degree, this neighborhood contains very upscale fashionable clubs. Some of the hottest clubs, Medici, the Candleroom, and Sense are private. If you want to check out one of these places be sure to go with someone that is a member or have a concierge call ahead for you. Wish and Republic are also cool nightspots, with no membership required. No shorts, jeans, team jerseys, tennis shoes, or flip-flops.
If you're looking to fill a mini-fridge or cooler with your own beverages a bit of planning might be required. Alcohol is only sold in certain parts of the city and in certain suburbs so getting to a liquor store can involve some travel. Also, Texas' liquor laws specify that any store that sells liquor cannot open on Sunday nor stay open after 9PM any other day. Stores that sell beer and wine cannot sell either from midnight to noon on Sunday. A smartphone app that locates liquor stores (and shows their hours) is very useful as many of those stores in the Dallas area tend to be well inside neighborhoods as opposed to along highways, and hotel desk staff can tell you if you're in a 'wet' or 'dry' area of Dallas. Liquor stores can become quite crowded after 8PM (especially on Saturday) and remember to be extra-alert after dark. In 'wet' areas beer and wine is easily and safely available at grocery stores.
For useful information on Dallas' nightlife, food, and music-scene offerings, pick up a free copy of the Dallas Observer, the local alternative weekly, at many places around town (particularly in Downtown) or check out GuideLive (an offshoot of the Dallas Morning News) online.
The heaviest concentrations of hotels can be found in North Dallas along I-635 and North Central Expressway and in Northwest Dallas along I-35E, while Downtown offers more high-end accommodations.
Some travelers may find it more convenient to stay in Irving closer to DFW airport, in Arlington near the amusement parks, or in one of the northern suburbs such as Lewisville, Carrollton, Plano, or Richardson.
Tourists should avoid anywhere south of the Trinity River at night (and maybe even during the daytime), with the exceptions of North Oak Cliff, the Bishop Arts District, and Fair Park. There is little to see outside those areas anyway. South and West Dallas are mostly low-income, high-crime residential and industrial areas: as in any such area, know where you are going, stay there, and don't dawdle or wander, especially at night. Avoid Downtown's Government District at night (the few blocks around City Hall). It's not inherently dangerous, but it has a lot of homeless people running about. Stick to West End and the Arts District. Uptown and North Dallas are generally safe after dark.
Police officers in Texas are kind and helpful for the most part, and they will generally find ways to make you feel safe. Sadly, this does not (always) apply to police officers in Dallas. Texas law can be strict, but the Dallas Police Department is notorious for its ferocious zero-tolerance attitude to even the slightest of misdemeanors. When approached by a local police officer, listen, cooperate, and speak carefully at all times.
Also, avoid driving on the highways after 2AM on weekends, when all the bars have just closed and many tipsy drivers are in a hurry to get home.
In the event that you fall victim to identity theft while visiting Dallas, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) operates a major field office in Dallas.
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