By complete coincidence, the Dallas Mavericks were hosting the Indiana Pacers on the Wednesday night we arrived, and we'd decided before the trip that it seemed too good an opportunity to miss.
I'm not an NBA fan. I'm not really a massive sports fan, full stop. But a night at a Mavs game felt like a pretty great way to kick off a few days in Dallas.
So we dropped our bags at the hotel, made ourselves presentable as quickly as possible and headed for American Airlines Center.
It turned out to be one of the best decisions of the trip.
There is something different about experiencing a game from inside the arena. The music, the lights, the constant entertainment, the food, the noise and thousands of people seemingly incapable of sitting quietly for more than about thirty seconds.
Within a quarter, I was invested. By the final few minutes, I was completely hooked.
It all came down to the final shot, with the Pacers having a chance to win it at the buzzer.
It missed.
Dallas won 107–105, and the place erupted. We'd landed only a few hours earlier and somehow found ourselves right in the middle of an absolute thriller at American Airlines Center. If this was how Dallas was going to start, we were in for a good few days.
So much for easing ourselves into the trip.
Our First Proper Taste of Texas
Thursday morning felt like the real beginning.
We had nowhere we needed to be, no children asking what we were doing next and absolutely no desire to turn four days in Dallas into an endurance event. So we took our time.
Coffee first. Then breakfast. Then finally the conversation we'd been waiting to have since booking the flights:
Where were we getting Texas BBQ?
Texas BBQ had been close to the top of our Dallas list from the beginning, and there was one rule we both agreed on: this was not the occasion for restraint.
Brisket. Pork ribs. Sausage. Mac and cheese. Pickles. Whatever else looked good when we reached the counter.
If you've never had proper Texas BBQ before, there's something wonderfully unfussy about the whole experience. Meat sliced right in front of you, piled onto butcher paper and carried back to a table looking considerably larger than it did when you were pointing at things in the queue.
We ordered far too much, obviously.
But there is something about sitting across from each other with a tray full of brisket in Texas that makes over-ordering feel less like a mistake and more like respecting local culture.
It was exactly the kind of lunch we'd been looking forward to since we started planning Dallas.
The rest of Thursday would take us somewhere completely different.
A Completely Different Pace at Dealey Plaza
Few places in Dallas carry the historical weight of Dealey Plaza.
You know the story. You have seen the footage countless times. You recognise the buildings from documentaries and photographs. But standing there feels different.
We visited The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, inside the former Texas School Book Depository, and for a while the pace of our trip changed completely.
This wasn't something to rush through before moving on to lunch.
The museum tells the story of President John F. Kennedy, his assassination in Dallas on November 22, 1963, and the enormous historical aftermath of that day. Looking out over Dealey Plaza from the sixth floor made the events of that day feel startlingly real.
Outside, we spent some time walking around the plaza rather than immediately moving on. It was one of the quieter moments of the trip, and one that stayed with us long after we'd left.
Wandering Through the Dallas Arts District
From there, we moved into another part of Dallas we'd been looking forward to exploring: its Arts District.
The Dallas Arts District makes a convincing argument for leaving some space in your itinerary rather than bouncing between attractions in an Uber.
We wandered. We stopped when something looked interesting.
We spent time at the Dallas Museum of Art, where the scale of the collection alone makes it easy to lose considerably more time than intended.
And that was becoming a theme in Dallas. We kept allocating an hour to things and emerging two hours later.
By late afternoon, we'd already managed to pack BBQ, one of the most significant historic sites in the country, art and plenty of time wandering the city into our first full day.
We still wanted the cowboy boots, though. Some priorities don't change.
Tex-Mex, Margaritas and a Little Piece of Dallas History
There was never going to be a version of this trip that didn't involve Tex-Mex.
And preferably margaritas. Lots of margaritas.
For dinner, we headed to Mariano's Hacienda, and this wasn't just another excuse for chips, queso and frozen drinks. This was pilgrimage territory.
Dallas restaurateur Mariano Martinez created the world's first frozen margarita machine in 1971 after struggling to keep up with demand for the blended margaritas at his restaurant. Inspired by a Slurpee machine he'd seen at a 7-Eleven, he adapted an old soft-serve machine and changed cocktail history in the process.
The original machine eventually made its way into the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
We, meanwhile, were sitting at Mariano's drinking the thing it was invented to make. Suddenly ordering another one felt educational.
There is something about Tex-Mex that suits a holiday night perfectly.
Chips and salsa arriving before you've properly looked at the menu. Queso that you're definitely going to finish despite insisting you won't. Fajitas still sizzling when they reach the table. Enchiladas covered in cheese. A frozen margarita sweating on the table.
By the end of our first full day we'd gone from brisket and Dealey Plaza to the Dallas Arts District and the birthplace of the frozen margarita machine.
Not bad for a Thursday.
The Dallas Cowboys Tour I Wasn't Particularly Excited About
There are compromises you make when travelling as a couple.
Apparently mine was touring an empty football stadium.
My partner had made it very clear before we arrived that if we were going to Dallas, he was going to AT&T Stadium.
The Dallas Cowboys weren't playing at home while we were there, so his solution was obvious: we'd tour the stadium instead.
I was less convinced.
If you'd asked me before the trip to rank how I'd like to spend part of a Friday in Texas, walking through the locker rooms of an NFL team probably wouldn't have troubled the top ten.
But there was one problem with my argument.
I'd had an incredible time at the Mavericks two nights earlier.
So when he reminded me of that, I didn't really have much left to work with.
We headed to Arlington. And then we saw the stadium.
Okay, AT&T Stadium Is Ridiculous
It's difficult to appreciate the scale of AT&T Stadium until you're standing inside it.
Even completely empty, it feels enormous.
We went behind the scenes, through areas we'd normally only ever see on television, down toward the field and into the world of one of the most recognisable sporting organisations in America.
Depending on the tour, visitors can access areas including the Cowboys and Cowboys Cheerleaders locker rooms, postgame interview room, club spaces and the field itself.
But what surprised me most was that the stadium wasn't interesting only because of football.
There's architecture, technology and a museum-quality contemporary art collection woven throughout the building. AT&T Stadium even runs dedicated art tours.
That was the moment I had to concede that he had been right.
Annoying.
Two major sporting experiences in our first three days in Dallas, and somehow the person who had arrived insisting she wasn't really interested in sport had loved both of them.
Maybe Dallas was getting to me.
Yes, I Bought the Cowboy Boots
There was another Texas experience I had considerably less resistance toward.
Cowboy boots.
I had absolutely no intention of buying a pair when we walked into the store.
At least that's the version of events I'm sticking with.
Then you start trying them on.
There are rows of beautifully made boots in every possible colour and finish, belts, hats and enough Western wear to convince you that perhaps your wardrobe has been missing something all along.
Ten minutes later, I had favourites.
Twenty minutes later, I was rationalising how often I'd wear them back home.
This is how they get you.
Walking back out into Dallas carrying a box containing cowboy boots felt both completely ridiculous and entirely appropriate.
If you're going to embrace Texas, you may as well commit.
Deep Ellum Changed the Energy Again
Friday evening took us to Deep Ellum.
And once again, Dallas changed personality.
Murals cover walls. Music spills out of venues. Neon signs flicker above bars and restaurants. Patios fill up as the sun disappears. There is an energy here that feels younger, louder and considerably less polished than some of the parts of Dallas we'd explored the day before.
We loved it almost immediately.
Deep Ellum is the kind of neighbourhood where making a strict plan feels counterproductive.
We had places saved on our phones, of course.
Then we ignored half of them.
We stopped for a drink because somewhere looked fun. We followed music because we could hear it from down the street. We changed our dinner plans because something smelled better.
At some point another frozen margarita appeared.
Dallas was becoming dangerously good at those.
And because it happened to be Halloween night, the whole neighbourhood felt even more alive. Costumes, packed bars, music and groups spilling between venues turned what would already have been a big Friday night into something considerably more chaotic.
In the best possible way.
It was late when we finally headed back to the hotel.
The quiet night we'd vaguely discussed that morning had never stood a chance.
Saturday Morning Called for a Slower Start
Saturday began considerably later.
No regrets.
We found brunch, ordered coffee strong enough to repair some of the damage from Deep Ellum and decided that this would be our day to experience Dallas without chasing a long list of landmarks.
One of the biggest mistakes you can make on a short city break is treating every day like a competition.
Dallas is spread out. There is a lot to see. You could easily spend four days moving from museum to attraction to restaurant without ever really spending time anywhere.
We wanted Saturday to feel different.
So we headed for Bishop Arts District.
The Side of Dallas We Could Have Spent All Day Exploring
Bishop Arts was probably one of the places that most challenged what we'd imagined Dallas would look like.
Independent boutiques, cafés, restaurants, colourful storefronts, galleries and people actually taking their time.
No giant stadium.
No skyscraper required.
Just a neighbourhood that was very easy to like.
We wandered into shops without needing anything. Stopped for coffee despite already having had coffee. Found things we absolutely did not need to buy.
This was also where the couples-city-break version of Dallas really clicked for us.
You could spend the morning browsing shops, disappear into a long lunch, stop somewhere for a drink and realise you've accidentally spent most of the day within a handful of streets.
And after several days of big-ticket Dallas experiences, we loved having nowhere particularly important to be.
Dallas Wasn't Finished Feeding Us
Food had become one of the defining parts of the trip.
Not because we'd set out to make this a food holiday.
Dallas simply made it very difficult not to.
We'd had the BBQ experience we'd been waiting for. We'd eaten Tex-Mex. We'd worked our way through margaritas with admirable dedication.
But the food story here goes much further than brisket and queso.
Dallas is an enormously diverse city, and that comes through in what you can eat.
Mexican and broader Latin influences are everywhere, alongside steakhouses, contemporary American restaurants and cuisines from communities that have made Dallas home.
By Saturday night, we wanted something a little different from the casual meals we'd been eating.
We went out properly.
The boots stayed at the hotel.
A good dress came out.
Cocktails replaced plastic cups and butcher paper.
And this was another version of Dallas we hadn't really anticipated: polished, stylish and genuinely good for a date night.
The kind of evening where dinner turns into drinks somewhere else because neither of you is particularly interested in going back to the hotel yet.
We'd arrived expecting Dallas to be fun.
We hadn't necessarily expected it to feel this cosmopolitan.
One Last Dallas Sunday
Sunday mornings on the final day of a trip always feel slightly unfair.
You've finally worked out the city.
You know roughly where everything is. You've developed favourite neighbourhoods. There are restaurants you want to go back to and another dozen you've saved for next time.
And then you have to leave.
We weren't flying until later, so we refused to waste the morning sitting around the hotel waiting to go to the airport.
Dallas still owed us brunch.
We took the final day slowly: good food, one last wander and the inevitable conversation about all the things we'd somehow failed to fit into four nights.
There were more museums.
More neighbourhoods.
More restaurants.
More live music.
And apparently several margaritas we'd neglected in our research.
A return trip was beginning to sound less hypothetical.
Dallas Wasn't the City We Expected
Looking back, the funny thing is that Dallas gave us almost everything we'd expected from Texas.
We ate an irresponsible quantity of BBQ.
We drank frozen margaritas.
I bought cowboy boots.
We toured the home of the Dallas Cowboys.
We went to a basketball game.
There was Tex-Mex, live music and enough Texas swagger to make it very clear where we were.
But those aren't the things that surprised us.
The surprise was how much existed around them.
It was walking through an arts district we hadn't known much about before arriving. Spending a quiet afternoon absorbing the history of Dealey Plaza. Losing track of time in Bishop Arts. Following music through Deep Ellum. Dressing up for a Saturday night dinner after spending Friday afternoon standing on an NFL field.
It was the contrast.
Dallas didn't ask us to choose between the Texas we'd imagined and the modern city we discovered.
It gave us both.
Perhaps the best example came right at the beginning.
I'd landed in Dallas insisting I wasn't particularly interested in sport. A few hours later I was standing inside American Airlines Center, completely caught up in the final seconds of a Mavericks game.
Two days later, I voluntarily walked onto the field at AT&T Stadium.
By that point, I probably should have stopped pretending Dallas wasn't changing my mind about things.
We came looking for Texas.
We found plenty of it.
We just hadn't realised how much more we'd find along the way.
