Fredericksburg, TX - A Spectacular Hill Country Destination
- Lisa
- Oct 28, 2024
- 8 min read
Updated: Nov 3, 2024
The “Hill Country” is known all across Texas for being a sprawling beauty of wildflower-covered rolling hills, granite outcroppings, beautiful lakes, and last but not least, vineyards and wineries. When we say wineries here, we mean WINERIES and Fredericksburg, Texas is known for having so many of them in one place.
About an hour's drive north of San Antonio and less than 2 hours drive west of Austin lies this bustling little town known for being deeply rooted in German heritage. You will find biergartens, wineries, unique shops, antiques, art galleries, restaurants, bed and breakfasts, and more in historic Fredericksburg, TX.
You can try to stop for an hour or two, but before you know it half a day has passed. It's best to plan for a full day trip and many make it a weekend visit staying at the abundant hotels and bed and breakfasts in and around town. Andy and I only live an hour and a half away so we always just go for a day trip.
If coming from the east on Hwy 290, you will drive through the towns of Johnson city and Stonewall (oh and you can also make a quick detour to the famous town of Luckenbach). These adorable small towns are worth checking out with their growing brewery, winery, and restaurant scenes. Johnson City also has a wonderful Farmer’s Market that runs Saturday mornings from April to October. In the summer there are also many roadside fresh vegetable stands and peach farms. Some of the peach farms are pick-your-own which can be a wonderful adventure and very rewarding. Imagine taking home your fresh peaches and making homemade peach cobbler or pie…yumm, (and if you live in TX you are lucky enough to top it off with 1905 vanilla ice cream from HEB!). Thank you Aunt Nancy for making peach cobbler in the summer for us kids when we would come to visit and also to my Great Aunts in AL for showing me the southern way of making it. OK, OK enough about peach cobbler. One more thing, if you have young children there is a wonderful children’s science museum called the Science Mill in Johnson city. I highly recommend it if you have time to visit, I have personally taken a few field trips there myself with my kids and it was always a wonderful adventure.
As you drive west towards Fredericksburg you will see Lyndon B. Johnson State Park and Historic Site - a really fun living history farm and museum. Chocolates El Ray- not your everyday chocolate shop, they use only imported Venezuelan Chocolate. When we visited the store they were very informative and explained where their chocolate comes from and their process of making it. They had a lot of samples which were amazing so of course we went home with lots of chocolate. Fredericksburg Trade Days - a farmers market open every weekend of the 3rd Sat of each month. Wildseed Farms - an enormous wildflower farm where they produce hundreds of varieties of seeds to sell along with plants and pottery from their nursery. Our family has been stopping here for years, we enjoy perusing the adorable gift shop and I am usually not allowed to go into the seed room because I tend to come out with way too many flower seeds than I can plant but it is a really neat room to explore. We love to walk through the nursery and see all the beautiful plants they have, we tend to leave with a few more plants than we need too. We recently stopped into the winery to do a wine tasting. They have a great selection of wines all made from the grapes grown in the vineyard at Wildseed Farms. I definitely recommend making this a destination to see while visiting Fredericksburg.
Now let’s talk about the famous Fredericksburg Wine Road 290, which runs from Johnson City to Fredericksburg, there are around 50+ wineries and tasting rooms to choose from! You can even catch a bus ride on Saturday’s on the 290 Wine Shuttle - A hop on hop off bus that visits different wineries. Here are a few of our many favorite wineries:
Fiesta Winery - 2 locations in Fredericksburg. As their name implies they are a fun and welcoming winery, with a great atmosphere and many flavorful wines. The 290 location on the outskirts of Fredericksburg is located in a tiny boutique shopping complex. Not only is there an indoor tasting room decorated in rustic Texas style with a wall full of their colorfully labeled wines; they also have a beautiful outdoor garden style patio area, we have enjoyed both when we have stopped in for tastings or just a glass of wine. The Main St. tasting room is right in the middle of the main strip. Fiesta Winery has Texas wines for every palate whether sweet, dry, or somewhere in between. They are loved for their distinct sweet wines all with a fun Texas theme. On the flip side they offer a variety of wonderful full bodied wines. A few of my favorites usually enjoyed in the heat of summer are Back Porch Sittin’ (smooth sweet red), Skinny Dippin’ (sweet Riesling), and Sandia (watermelon wine only in summer). On the dryer side I really enjoy their Primitivo and Sangiovese and they have some beautiful ports as well.
Messina Hof - located between Stonewall and Fredericksburg on the 290 Wine Road. They have a beautiful and grand tasting room that we always love to visit. When my daughter Angelina turned 21 we took her on a wine tasting to a few wineries and this was one we visited on the tour. She really enjoyed it and we all had a wonderful time sampling the wines. They have an expansive wine list of over 50 beautifully labeled and highly awarded 100% Texas wines along with charcuterie selections to pair with them. From our fabulous tasting we sampled Angel Late-Harvest Riesling, Paulo Primitivo, and Tawny Port (rich cherry-chocolate dessert wine).
Becker Vineyards - My husband and I have stopped in here a few times and they have a really nice open tasting room with delicious and beautiful Charcuterie boards. Their wine is fabulous as well. I would do a tasting or just order a glass of wine, either way it is a great experience. They also sell a variety of lavender items from their lavender farm.
Fredericksburg Winery - Located on West Main St. in the historic shopping area of Fredericksburg this unassuming winery is definitely a stop you want to add to your wine tour. They are located right next to Chocolat Quintessential Chocolates (a wall to wall chocolate haven) so you can literally have your wine and chocolate too! Fredericksburg Winery is not just a tasting room but also the location for making their 100% Texas wines. The winery is run by the Switzer family and they are there every day serving up their unique award winning wines. A few of my favorites are 175th Anniversary Rosé, Enchanted Rock Red, Zelebration - Riesling, and their amazing Main Street Christmas (Spiced Wine)-I have this on hand every Christmas.
Fredericksburg, being an historically settled German town, is also home to quite a large selection of Breweries. Alstadt Brewing Co., Altdorf Biergarten, Fredericksburg Brewing Co., Silver Creek Biergarten & Grille are just a few of the well known German style Breweries.
The historic town of Fredericksburg is so much more than a winery destination. They have a beautiful park called Marketplatz where we used to take our kids when they were younger and have a picnic and walk though the flower garden. In November they kick off the Christmas season with a spectacular 26-foot tall wooden German Christmas pyramid that actually spins and lights up at night.
The famous Main Street is home to so many amazing boutique shops, cultural restaurants, art galleries, and more. You can park anywhere along the main strip if you are lucky enough to find an open spot, or you can park in the visitor’s center parking lot, which also has restrooms.
Here is a very short list of some of our favorite can’t be missed shops and destinations:
Rustlin Rob’s Texas Gourmet Foods and Lock Stock and Barrel - Can you say food tasting fun! We love treating ourselves to their giant snack sampling buffets!! Both stores have large selections of jellies, pickles, salsas, dips, pie fillings, and much more.
Grasshopper & Wild Honey - A beautiful German import store with a huge selection of beer steins, unique glass art, Texas artisan wood pieces, jewelry, and even specialty Christmas items. We always stop in for an awe inspiring look around.
Linens-N-More - It is fun to go in and see all the beautiful patchwork quilts and lace items.
Grandma Daisy’s - Unique Texas gift shop with clothing, accessories, fun hand painted glassware, and much more. This is always a shop we stop into and a great place to find a unique gift.
The Christmas Store at Carousel - I think this one speaks for itself.
Chocolat - Fancy chocolate shop full of decadent truffles, fudge, and more and they have wine and liquor filled chocolates too. Oh! And they give samples!
Fredericksburg General Store - One of our fun shops we visit to get a good laugh. A great store with fun signs, mugs, shirts, old-timey kids toys and games, classic movie and music star memorabilia, and so much more.
National Museum of the Pacific War - A Smithsonian affiliate museum that gives an honorable account to the Asiatic-Pacific theater during WWII.
Marketplatz - a large lawn park with a museum, playground, gardens, pavilions, picnic tables, and restrooms.
Now, by the time you have walked and shopped for hours and your feet are numb you are
going to want to stop into any of the amazing German restaurants for delicious German faire and a stein of beer or a glass of Texas wine. Our family favorite restaurants are The Auslander Restaurant and Biergarten, Fredericksburg Brewing Company, and Der Lindenbaum. Also, make sure you find the sweet shops around town for dessert like the Clear River Ice-Cream-Bakery and Deli which has been open since 1989 and has 35 flavors of homemade ice cream!
As you can see, Fredericksburg, TX is an exciting and beautifully historic town, fun for families or a romantic weekend getaway. Our family has been coming here for years as a fun place to visit. It is one of the best places in Texas for getting farm-fresh veggies and peaches, enjoying a wine tour of some of the best Texas wineries or visiting local microbreweries, dining at authentic German restaurants, and shopping at so many unique stores. Another reason to visit Fredericksburg, TX is its abundance of festivals like their famous Octoberfest, Fredericksburg Food and Wine Fest, Hill Country Film Fest, and the Gillespie County Fair to name a few. If you want a unique experience that you won't find in the big cities but in the lovely Hill Country of Central Texas then I recommend Fredericksburg and the surrounding areas as a memorable destination. Check out the Fredericksburg Convention and Visitor Bureau website, www.visitfredericksburgtx.com for all your information needs. .
Destination Inspired Food and Drinks
German Inspired Meal Idea: Enjoy creating your own German meal right at home.
Main: Grilled Bratwurst or Knockwurst (German Sausage)
-OR-
Jagerschnitzel (Breaded and fried thin pork loin with mushroom gravy)
Sides: *Cucumber salad (recipe below)
Red cabbage or sauerkraut
Dark or marbled rye bread w/ butter
Drink: German style Beer, like Paulaner Oktoberfest
*Cucumber salad
2 English cucumbers, peeled and thinly sliced
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sour cream
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp sugar
2 Tbsp dill
Salt and pepper to taste
Place the sliced cucumbers in a colander and sprinkle the 2 tsp of salt and toss it to mix, let it sit for a half hour or so (the salt will help it to release a lot of the water out of the cucumber). Make the dressing by combining the sour cream with the remaining ingredients in a medium sized bowl. After the cucumbers have sat and expelled most of their water, lay them out on a sheet pan lined with a couple paper towels then pat the cucumbers somewhat dry with another paper towel. Place the cucumbers in the bowl with the dressing and gently combine. Chill before serving. You can garnish with a sprinkle of dill before serving.
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