San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, Texas, United States

5TimGinMN 5:00 PM Mar 4, 2020

Awesome Missions and VIA Missions Bus Route is a Great Bargain
As others have said this is one of the must see places in San Antonio. After visiting the Alamo, we went into a tourist information shop across the street and found out they have a special city bus (VIA) route that stops at all 4 of the missions that are in a string to the south of downtown. A bus pass for the whole day (good for all city buses) was only $2.75 each and we could get off an on at each mission. A much better bargain than the "tourist" buses. Since it was the mission route their were mostly adventuresome visitors on the bus. We did ride a regular route for one leg as it parallels the mission route and the driver stopped and said it would stop at the next mission. He also made sure we knew that we had to get back on the right route number to get to the next mission or back to downtown. Very helpful. If you don't need your hand held, this is the "route" to go!

4Shawn H 5:00 PM Sep 23, 2022

Hot History
We went on the Mission Trail to see all the Missions in the San Antonio area from south to north first thing in the morning in July as they started to open. It was silly hot in San Antonio while we were there, but plenty of sunscreen and starting early helped a bit. Several of the missions have inside areas and visitor centers which helped break it up. The missions were a wonderful look at colonial history, with informational signs and enough of each one left that you got a sense for how these places felt and worked in their time. The fact that several of the historic churches are still in use only enriches the experience. The heat of the summer also added to our appreciation of what it would have been like scratching out an existence here before AC. We planned our Mission trail trip for a day that ended in a walking tour of the Alamo in downtown San Antonio, a site that bridged the history between the original missions and the Texas Revolution. The missions are a treasure and I hope they are preserved for centuries to come.