Grapevine - with the symbol of bunches of grapes. I had to stop and ask about it. That's what Americans do so well, marketing. The symbol of the town says what it is. The man stands up to greet you and tells you the main feature of the town. Ask a question and you get an answer.
First, where is it? Half way between Dallas and Fort Worth, five minutes from the airport, around the airport. Why is it called Grapevine? Because in the good old days the area was covered in grape vines. Then what happened? The airport was built and you could get more money selling your land to the airport.
So what is left of the old days? An historic town like in the old cowboy films, where you ride or drive into the main street and see the buildings down one main street, including the old style hotel with a bar below, rooms upstairs and a balcony.
What is left to remind us of the old grapevine days? You can hold a conference meal Delaney Vineyard which has a ballroom for events with big wine barrels. What if you are not on a big conference, just a couple of tourists on holiday? You can go wine tasting in several places.
Can you eat there, like in South Africa, where vineyards have restaurants? One wine tasting place has a restaurant alongside, but most of the tasting rooms are just tasting rooms, but the place has family-owned restaurants, not chains, all around you.
So, if you were visiting Dallas and Fort Worth and wanted to do a tour or three day trip, which way round would you go? Grapevine is by the airport. So you could get off your place and have a rest in Grapevine before going off to see the big attractions of Dallas and Fort Worth. Alternatively, do Dallas and Fort Worth, then spend your last day or half day in Grapevine, right near the airport.
In Grapevine you don't have to worry about transport. Your hotel will collect you from the airport. There's also a hop on hop off bus going around constantly, costing about 5 dollars a day,
so you can go from the airport to your hotel and any other main attraction, or reverse from your hotel to a attraction and then to the airport.
I counted nine wineries on Tripadvisor, including a museum, plus a brewery. Every year there's a festival featuring Texas wine plus one other state's wines and one other country's wines. Last time they had Texas wine plus California and South Australia. What is there to do besides tasting wines. Join in or watch activities such as grape treading.
Last time the event lasted three days and was free on the first day.
I lived in the USA as well as visiting Texas on press trips. I have been to Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston. Still on my list of places to visit are Amarillo, and I've just added Grapevine.
More Information on Grapevine
www.grapevinetexasusa.com
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g55930-Activities-Grapevine_Texas.html#ATTRACTION_LIST
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapevine,_Texas
https://twitter.com/GrapevineTXCity?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Angela Lansbury, travel writer, photographer, author and speaker.
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