Route 66 and Texas Hill Country Road Trip

Ten nights from Dallas to Fort Worth, self-guided, down a stretch of Route 66 and through the Texas Hill Country, with the flights included.

Two very different halves. The first follows the Mother Road through Oklahoma and the Panhandle, and the second drops into the hill country west of Austin, which has more in common with Provence than with the rest of Texas.

Dallas opens it, then Oklahoma and the Route 66 landmarks: Lucille’s Service Station, Ann’s Chicken Fry House and the state’s own Route 66 museum at Clinton. Amarillo follows, with the vintage roadside signs and long stretches of the original concrete surface still in place. Santa Fe comes next as the landscape turns to desert, mountain and mesa, then Fredericksburg in the Hill Country, a German-founded town now known for its wine, bakeries and beer gardens. Highway 16 carries the route to San Antonio for the Tex-Mex, then Austin, with the live music and the swimming holes at Krause Springs, Blue Hole and Hamilton Pool, and Fort Worth to finish.

Flights to Dallas and fully inclusive car hire for the driving portion are included; fuel, most meals and the museum admissions are not, and the accommodation arrangements were not confirmed on the operator’s page, so they are worth settling in writing at booking. The price shown is per person. Spring and autumn are the seasons, since Texas and Oklahoma in July and August are extremely hot and the swimming holes are at their busiest. Eleven days covering this much of two states means some long days behind the wheel, though the roads are straight, empty and in good order, which is most of what Route 66 driving amounts to now.