looks like dallas and houston temps are around 60-50...much warmer than our Iowa winters.....where we can get to -20 or so.

Any personal recommendations?

Dallas has much colder temperatures and much more of a winter season than Houston.

Full Service hotels like Post Oak Hilton or Hilton of the Americas. Careful with vagrants who hang around at night time asking for money, always be outside in pairs should take care of this.

The bad part about Dallas is that if you are trying to plan in advance, you won't know the temperatures. So, I would assume you are going to run into cold weather there in Dec. and Jan.

Dallas does get snow and some much colder weather than 50's. They don't get a lot of snow, but it stays cold enough to know it is winter time.

Thanks Shoreline. Was thinking about Hilton Americas as it looked pretty decent. Good call on Dallas, i guess we will head further South..

Appreciate the help!

I don't know about the hotels in San Antonio, but the city is a nice place for a family vacation. Riverwalk, SeaWorld, and Alamo are all fun places.

Yeah, I'd suggest that Dallas is too iffy weather-wise as well - just too far north. So it's a gamble.

Do you want a Hilton proper, or a Hilton-related property? Many more of the latter. All depends on your room space/driving/location tradeoffs.

That said, in Austin, the Hilton (downtown) is very nice. And it's a cool city, particularly for music and eating. San Antonio has the Hilton Palacio del Rio, and the Riverwalk. The former is also very nice, the latter is a bit more touristy than I prefer, but there's plenty to do in San Antonio beyond the Riverwalk. In Houston, the Hilton Americas is fine, but downtown Houston is about business. You'll need to drive to get to much interesting (in my opinion). I like Houston, but you need to dig a bit more to find the good stuff relative to Austin and San Antonio.

You could of course head even farther south, or select among the many Hilton-related properties in those cities, or many more throughout the state. I've found the ESs in Texas, on average, a bit run down relative to other states, I've found the Hampton Inns consistent, if uninspired (but then that's the niche they aim for), I've found the DTs highly variable, and the HGIs consistently better than the Hampton Inns, but also not particularly exciting. But then I think that's the niche they aim at as well.

FWIW.

I have heard nice things about Austin too, have you been treated well as a Diamond there?

My experience has been that Diamonds are treated as well there as at any other decent Hilton in the U.S. Upgrades seem hit or miss. But I've simply stopped anticipating upgrades at any Hilton, and just book the room that I need. If an upgrade happens, that's great. But don't get me wrong - the Hilton Austin is a very nice hotel in a very nice location. I check it first when I'm looking to book a stay in Austin.

Austin is great. San Antonio is great too. Houston, I didn't care as much for.

Any part of Texas can have cold but obviously the farther south you go the less those chances are. Therefore, consider South Padre Island.

You did an apples to oranges comparison here. You compared average vs extreme. If it is extreme cold in Iowa, it is likely to be extreme cold (but still warmer) in much of Texas.

One of my favorite football memories is the Dolphins and the Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day in the driving snow in Dallas and the infamous covered blocked field goal.

What sort of things are you interested in? I haven't stayed at every Hilton in the state, but my sense of it is that Texas isn't a great hotel state for Hilton. As a Texan, maybe I take things for granted that others wouldn't, but I might also overrate how interesting some sites are.

Houston offers all the big city entertainment and some history. You could go to NASA.

San Antonio is history and culture. Palacio del Rio is ok, but I wouldn't book a trip to stay there for Diamond benefits.

Austin is OK. It has some history and some college town aspects and you could still make an hour drive to San Antonio.

Dallas/Fort Worth is very similar to Houston. Sports and shopping. Art museums and eating.

As a Houstonian, I'd suggest splitting your trip into 2: Austin and San Antonio. They are a 45 minute drive from eachother with a great outlet mall in between. Austin is a trendy up-and-coming oasis in the middle of Texas. It has a beautiful nature element and very family friendly. Lots of live music and activities. Then head southwest to San Antonio for great history and family attractions (as others have mentioned, Sea World and Six Flags Fiesta Texas - are they open in the winter?). Houston is a nice place to live, not visit.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I have lots of kids (hence the handle) so am looking for family friendly type options. NASA sounds interesting, would also look for something to engage the girls. As is typical for most kids they love pools so any location that has a decent/good pool would be highly appreciated as well.

Palacio del Rio didn't get very good TA reviews, places that I have seen that "sound" interesting are:

Hilton DFW exec center
Hilton SouthLake
Hilton Americas
Hilton Austin
Hilton Park Cities

Not sure if you have experienced any of these or if you have recommendations from your own personal experience.

thanks again for the input.
Cheers!
Z

Thanks, that's great advice, another poster here recommended the Hilton Austin. Is there another in the area that you would recommend?

Palacio del Rio was fine when we stayed there in March. I think any of the places you listed are OK, but I'm not sure any are special. The Anatole in Dallas would probably give a lot of value. They have a lounge and some really low prices at times. It is a huge place that puts quite a bit into the holiday season decoration. If your family likes sporting events, there's probably cheap Mavs tickets available on Stubhub.

Sadly, we are also in full historical retrospection on the Kennedy assassination because of the anniversary. The Perot museum is quite popular, and the Aquarium is impressive.

Dallas and Houston are car cities. Austin and SA are somewhat less so if you perch yourself in the downtowns. I agree with fork that most Texans would probably split between Austin and SA. However, the kids might not care about either place. If they want shopping and swimming, the value might be in Houston or DFW.

I am a Texas resident. Mrs. Jjaz and I stayed in Austin at the Embassy Suites downtown on south Congress Ave. Very centrally located for everything downtown and south Congress, which is somewhat Austin-centric - laid back - whole earth - free range poultry - etc. It's a lot of fun both ways. Town Lake is a block away with a lot of fun things to do. Zilker Park is about a 1 mile hike west, but always has a great Christmas display that draws big crowds.

HGI El Paso Airport is really convenient and is relatively nice. Looks a bit different than most HGIs.

Only issue is it's right next to an oil refinery, so I have a nice view of the refinery and Juarez behind it.

The ES got kicked out of the chain and is now El Paso Suites. From what I've heard from the other guys I'm working with, it's pretty dumpy.