:) Thank you!. You all are a huge help.

Starlanet, here are a few ideas.

West of DFW

Breakfast at Old West Cafe in Bedford or Grapevine
Go to a Fort Worth museum or the Stockyards
Come back through Southlake Town Square tons of great shopping there and it is a beautiful area. There are over 20 restaurants in Southlake Town Square you can have a nice lunch there. Brio Tuscan Grill has an outdoor seating area/bar that is fun. Southlake Town Square will have your typical mall stores.
For small stores and boutiques go to downtown Grapevine. Plenty of places to eat on Main Street in Grapevine.
After Southlake Town Square or downtown Grapevine go to Frys Electronics in Irving.

East of DFW

Breakfast at Mama's Daughters Diner on Royal or the Local Diner in Irving. Breakfast at either place will put you close to Frys mentioned above and Frys will open at 8 AM.
For sights you can go to Nasher Sculpture Center or the Dallas Arboretum.
For shopping there is North Park Mall or the Galleria. Discount shopping can be found in Allen at the Allen Premium Outlet. If you are looking for off the grid shopping D magazine has some suggestions.

As far as what time to get back to the airport, I suggest 5:00 to 5:30 PM. I am a worry wart, I get everywhere early. One day I left with 2.5 hours to spare, I had a flat, got behind a wreck, stuck in construction, delays with TSA and barely made my flight but I did make it. You don't want to miss your international flight. Our road construction traffic around DFW is just awful, build in lots of time to get back. In Dallas in general it's nearly always going to take you longer to get to somewhere than Google maps suggests because you just don't know what wrecks or construction you will run in to.

Have a great time while you are here, the weather should be great.

Lots of useful info. Wish I had discovered this thread prior to my trip to Dallas.

I think the Dallas Aboretum is great.
http://www.dallasarboretum.org/


Some pics from my trip (read post #26):
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...entures-2.html

2 hour stop-over in Dallas - any ideas?
 

:confused: I know that this sounds rediculous, but I have 2 hours to kill at Dallas airport & this will be the only time I will ever be in Dallas. Does anyone know if it's worth doing a quick sightseeing trip? If so, any thoughts? Any suggestions will be gratefully appreciated. :)

There's a separate Texas forum on Flyertalk, where this will likely get moved.

Dallas has 2 airports. Is this at DFW International, or at Love Field?

Either way, 2 hours is pretty tight to see anything. By the time you account for de-boarding; plus re-clearing security and getting back to the gate 30 minutes before departure, you don't have much more than an hour, and that's not counting transport from and to the airport.

DFW is halfway between the Dallas and Ft Worth downtowns, about 30 miles from each. The closest attractions to DFW airport are Founders Plaza, a small park for plane spotters; the CR Smith aviation museum; and Grapevine Mills shopping mall. But a 2 hour layover isn't going to give you more tan a few minutes to enjoy any of them. If you're determined to get out of the airport to get some Dallas flavor (literally), you probably do have time to travel to Hard 8 BBQ and pick up a big to-go order. Another FT'er did that recently. Have the cab wait for you, and expect a $40 roundtrip fare.

But I'd probably just stay at the airport and have a meal or drink there....

Welcome to Flyertalk!

by the time you get off the plane, use the rest room, order a pizza, and scarf it,use rest room again, it will be time for you to board your next flight.

have a nice trip to dallas.

Please follow this in the Texas forum.

l'etoile
sr. moderator

2 hours? While connections requiring a terminal change are easier at DFW than in many airports (because of SkyLink), a 2 hour "layover" is far from enough time to leave the airport and return.

SkyLink is your friend, a nice comfortable circuit (raised 40' or so above the ground, providing an excellent view) of the airport's terminals (in either direction) with a fine view of a/c landing, taking off and at the gates, maybe a stop in D, the "fanciest", for a snack or quick shopping, then on to your connecting gate. Other sights to see? From the East side, Las Colinas and Downtown Dallas on the horizon. Less on the West, the horizon obscured by the 2 big maintenance hangars.

I had an hour there last week so I strolled down to A15 and hit up Popeye's. They've redone it in a fancy new style as well as an adjacent McDonalds. Very nice looking the both of them ^

For anyone heading to Grapevine Mall during their layover, I would have no hesitation in recommending the Love and War in Texas diner (on the otherside of the car park from the mall).

What to do in DFW for 4 hours in the am?
 

To make a long story short, AA has changed all of our flights to/ from HNL in September. Don't really mind the change going from CLE to HNL (gets us in to HNL almost an hour earlier), but on the way back, getting to DFW at 5:25 am, we now have over a 4 hour layover before heading to CLE. We had intended to eat breakfast with our original 2 hour layover, but now with 4 hours to kill, looking for what we can do?

I know we will all be tired from not getting much sleep, if any on the red-eye. Suggestions?

As this is a destination (airport) question and not an airline-specific question, it has been moved to the proper destination forum.

JDiver
senor moderator

The time or your arrival makes this question different from all the other DFW layover threads... There are some of suggestions for 4 hour layovers in DFW (i.e. Grapevine Mall), but unfortunately you'll be there so early that not much will be open outside of the airport. I'd just suggest going to terminal D, walking around, and having a nice meal.

Ask AA to switch you to the later HNL-DFW flight, thus shortening your time at DFW and giving you a little more time in Hawaii?

If you want to get some sleep, or take a shower, the newly opened Minute Suites are right in the terminal @ D23.
If you want to catch some Zs without paying, my suggestion is the "DFW Travel Lounges", at A29, B8, B28, C8, C27, E8, E31. No beds, but you'll find some very cushy chairs, and it's usually pretty quiet in there.

If you're looking to stay awake, you could amuse yourself with a ride the Skylink around the airport once (or more), it's a 20 minute loop with excellent views of the airfield and some good plane spotting opportunities. Get a shoe shine, get a massage, get a haircut, do some yoga...

http://www.dfwairport.com/shops/find...?type=services