From the Airport to Downtown
SATrans,
the local airport shuttle company, can take you anywhere. The fare
from the airport to downtown is $14 a person. If you are two or
more a cab may be cheaper, they will
charge you $11 for an airport to downtown trip. (Prices slightly cheaper
if you buy a round trip ticket.)
Leave it to the government to put together a pretty worthless web
site, but just for those really rare occurrences when someone might want
a phone number for lost luggage, etc., here is the San
Antonio Airport link. On the left navigation panel there are
some links to things of dubious value.
Bus
Via, the local bus company, maintains a
streetcar
system of buses that encircles downtown. Print out the route
and keep it. Cost $1.10 a ride (exact change only), however VIA
offers a
$4.00 daily pass good for all their buses. Passes are
available at VIA Information Center downtown (260 E. Houston) and at some museums.
For popular
destinations bus
route
7 will probably get you there. Except for the McNay Art Museum
which will require you to take
route
14.
Via has a pretty good
trip planner on their web site which you can use to plan which bus
to take and when to get from point A to point B. But just recently Via
has added their bus routes to Google. So now you can go to Google
Maps and when entering your directions select "By public transit" and it
will highlight your route and give you the buses you need to take.
The details here are better than the Via web site but the Via web site I
think gives you better bus schedule info. Your choice, but it
really helps just to see where the places are on a map even if you don't
intend to even take the bus.
Cabs There are a multiple
number of cab companies in town, so as not to make it too difficult I
selected Yellow
Cab (210-222-2222) just in case you need to make arrangements for a
scheduled trip, like returning from Estela's
Restaurant.
Tour Bus If you want to visit some of the missions
other than the Alamo you might try a Gray Line bus tour. A simple
solution to getting around to them. But note at this writing the
tour goes to the Alamo, San Fernando Cathedral (both
downtown and not requiring a bus to get to), Mission Conception
and Mission San Jose. San Fernando Cathedral is not a
'Mission' though billed here as one. Besides convenience of travel
the real benefit here is getting to Mission Conception as I give
elsewhere in this site local bus directions to Mission San Jose which is
the only 'must see' mission besides the Alamo. I took this trip
years ago and enjoyed it.
Rental Cars If you are going to rent a car you
may want to consider first taking a cab or airport shuttle to your hotel
and renting a car from a downtown location. There is an extra 10%
airport tax you will pay on cars rented from the airport (we love
gouging you poor suckers). So why pay this when you can avoid
it. Car rental agencies that have a location downtown are:
Advantage (450 3rd St.), Avis (506 Bonham), Enterprise (920 Broadway)
and Hertz (Marriot Rivercenter Hotel)
