FIRST TIME to DALLAS

[DannyCruz]

Hello Again Guys!!!

 

So I am doing a lot of travel at the moment, and will be heading to Dallas from November 7th-14th. I'm in need of your advice on hotel accomodations, which neighborhood you'd reccomend I stay, and if you think I'd need a car. Of course, I could use some words on the gay scene too...

 

Any bits of advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Regards,

 

Danny Cruz, NYC

[buckguy]

Have made multiple trips to Dallas in recent years. The Oak Lawn area is rather small, but has a large concentration of restaurants and if you were willing to pay the freight for the historic hotel there (mentioned upthread) and mostly did in-calls, you could get by w/o a car. Downtown has a limited number places to eat outside of the hotels (esp. for breakfast) and not much to see (JFK assasination stuff and not much else). It also seems to lack places to buy sundries outside of hotels. The new convention center is leading to alot of hotel restoration & construction, sometimes you can get very good deals. The West End (restored area, a small scale "festival market place") in Downtown has a lot of chain-type restaurants. The Deep Ellum area further East which has funkier resturants and small music clubs but is too far to walk from most of downtown. The Adolphus Hotel is a restored early 20th century place near the West End & assassination land--big rooms, nice staff, elegant but not pretentious. The Hotel Lawrence is another restored place nearby--much smaller rooms and not such great service.

 

Have stayed in a Sheraton & a Radisson near Stemmons Frwy and both were okay. Lots of hotels from just about every major chain in this area esp. near the Market Center which is some sort of large merchandise mart. Often very good prices. This corridor will put you relatively close to the airport and not far from Oaklawn. Henry Hines Blvd, which parallels the freeway will put you at the main drag for going into Oal Lawn (I think it's Turtle Creek Blvd. or something similar). Besides Oaklawn, alot of gays live in Oak Cliff, an older, less posh area South & West of downtown that has a mix of incomes and races. A few nice restaurants, but not an area for strolling or bar hopping. The only accomodations I know of there look like they go by the hour.

 

The really upscale areas are North of the city and there's a large corridor with 4-star type hotels near I-635 and the North Central Freeway.

[Karl-G]

"Not much to see"???!!! The Dallas Museum of Fine Arts is one of the best in the country with a marvelous collection. Two days at least. Right across the street a new outdoor sculpture garden, the Nasher, opened last week to great acclaim. The symphony hall, one block away, by I.M.Pei, is one of the visually most stunning in the U.S. and a fine music hall. A reconstruction of the London Crystal Palace (YES!!!) is along the expressway going from downtown to the airport, well worth a stop, etc., etc. Plus Forth Worth with THREE excellent small museums is only an hour away.

[DannyCruz]

Buckguy, you're a wealth of information for southern cities. I'm impressed!

 

Karl-G, thanks for your input on the museums, etc. Since this is a work trip, the hope is that I will be busy for the duration of my stay. Then again, we all need a little R&R, right?

 

Thanks again, guys...

 

Danny Cruz, NYC