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The Joule Dallas, Dallas

Things to do guide

The best things to do in Dallas

Updated 7 October 2026 · 17 things to do

Pictured: The Joule Dallas

Dallas is big, shiny and unembarrassed about either. This is the Texas of glass skyscrapers, oil money and steak dinners, a city that built the largest arts district in the country because it decided it ought to have one. It is also the place where President Kennedy was shot in 1963, and the quiet patch of grass where it happened remains the sight that almost every visitor comes to see.

Beyond Downtown, the mood loosens. Deep Ellum has murals and live music, Bishop Arts has independent shops and pie, and Uptown has patios made for a long margarita. Thirty miles west, Fort Worth plays the cowboy to Dallas's banker. Between them they make a far more interesting trip than the television series ever let on.

Don't miss

  1. 1The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
  2. 2Reunion Tower
  3. 3Dallas Museum of Art
  4. 4Deep Ellum
  5. 5Fort Worth Stockyards

The big sights

History, a view and a herd of bronze cattle, all Downtown.

  1. The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

    Museum

    Dealey Plaza and the former Texas School Book Depository in Dallas
    Photo: Carol M. Highsmith, Public domain

    On 22 November 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as his motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza. The museum fills the sixth floor of the former Texas School Book Depository, the red-brick warehouse from which the shots were fired, and tells the story of that day and its aftermath through film, photographs and recordings. The corner window has been left much as it was.

    Outside, the plaza itself is remarkably unchanged, and smaller than it looks on film. Visitors stand on the grassy knoll and look down the road in silence.

    Tip: Entry is by timed ticket and the museum is popular. Book ahead, especially at weekends.

  2. Reunion Tower

    Landmark

    The ball on a stick that defines the Dallas skyline: a slim concrete tower topped by a geodesic sphere that glitters with lights after dark. A lift takes you up to an observation deck with views in every direction across the flat Texas plain, the Downtown towers close enough to touch. Go at dusk, when the sky turns orange and the city switches on.

  3. Pioneer Plaza

    Landmark

    Bronze longhorn steers in the cattle drive sculpture at Pioneer Plaza
    Photo: Carol M. Highsmith, Public domain

    A reminder of how Dallas got started. On a grassy slope near the convention centre, dozens of larger-than-life bronze longhorn steers pour down a hillside and across a stream, driven by three bronze cowboys on horseback. It recalls the cattle trails that once passed this way, and it is one of the most photographed spots in the city. Children love weaving between the animals.

  4. Klyde Warren Park

    Nature

    Klyde Warren Park with food trucks and Dallas towers behind
    Photo: John P Salvatore, CC0

    Dallas had a motorway cutting its centre in two, so it built a park on top of it. Klyde Warren Park is a five-acre deck of lawns, trees and fountains laid over the sunken freeway, joining Downtown to Uptown. Food trucks line one side, there are games and a children's play area, and office workers flood in at lunchtime. It is the city at its most relaxed.

The Arts District and museums

A run of museums and concert halls by star architects, all within a few blocks.

  1. Dallas Museum of Art

    Museum

    The exterior of the Dallas Museum of Art
    Photo: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0

    The anchor of the Arts District holds a collection that spans five thousand years, from ancient Mediterranean gold and African sculpture to European Impressionists and American moderns. The galleries are spacious and rarely crowded, and the sculpture garden offers a breather. It is a museum to dip into for an hour or two rather than conquer in one go.

  2. Nasher Sculpture Center

    Museum

    The sculpture garden of the Nasher Sculpture Center
    Photo: Photo: Andreas Praefcke, CC BY 3.0

    Across the road, a serene pavilion by Renzo Piano opens onto a walled garden dotted with modern sculpture by the likes of Rodin, Picasso, Henry Moore and Richard Serra. Light filters down through the roof, water trickles, and the noise of the city falls away. It is small, perfectly judged and one of the loveliest places in Dallas to spend a hot afternoon.

  3. Perot Museum of Nature and Science

    Museum

    The Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas
    Photo: Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 3.0

    A great striped cube of a building, with a glass-walled escalator stuck to the outside, houses the city's science museum. Inside are dinosaur skeletons, a dazzling hall of gems and minerals, earthquake simulators and enough hands-on experiments to keep children busy for hours. It is the best family answer to a scorching or rainy day.

  4. Fair Park

    Landmark

    Built for the Texas Centennial Exposition of 1936, Fair Park is one of the finest collections of Art Deco exhibition buildings in the United States, with murals, statues and a long reflecting pool. Each autumn it hosts the State Fair of Texas, a weeks-long celebration of fried food, funfair rides and college football, watched over by Big Tex, a giant talking cowboy.

Neighbourhoods and nightlife

  1. Deep Ellum

    Nightlife

    Businesses on Elm Street in Deep Ellum, Dallas
    Photo: Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 3.0

    Just east of Downtown, Deep Ellum was a cradle of Texas blues and jazz in the 1920s and has been the city's live music district, on and off, ever since. Today its old brick warehouses are covered in murals and filled with music venues, breweries, tattoo studios and barbecue joints. Come in the evening, follow your ears and expect a late night.

  2. Bishop Arts District

    Neighbourhood

    Bishop Avenue in the Bishop Arts District of Oak Cliff
    Photo: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0

    Across the Trinity River in Oak Cliff, a few blocks of low 1920s shopfronts have become the most charming corner of Dallas. There are no chains to speak of, just independent boutiques, bookshops, galleries, coffee bars, pie shops and restaurants with tables on the pavement. It is the place to come when you've had enough of skyscrapers.

  3. Uptown and the Katy Trail

    Neighbourhood

    A vintage McKinney Avenue trolley in Dallas
    Photo: Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 3.0

    North of Downtown, Uptown is where young Dallas lives, eats and drinks, along tree-lined streets served by vintage trams that rattle up McKinney Avenue. Running through it is the Katy Trail, an old railway line turned into a leafy path for walkers, runners and cyclists, with a beer garden beside it that fills up on sunny afternoons.

  4. Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden

    Nature

    Flower beds at the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden
    Photo: Loadmaster (David R. Tribble) This image was made by Loadmaster (David R. Tribbl, CC BY-SA 3.0

    On the shore of White Rock Lake, east of the centre, these gardens spread across sixty-odd acres of lawns, formal beds and woodland, with the skyline visible across the water. Spring brings a huge display of tulips and azaleas, autumn a village built of pumpkins. Bring a picnic. The path around the lake itself is popular with cyclists and runners.

Eat and drink

  1. Tex-Mex and the frozen margarita

    Food

    Dallas has a fair claim to being the capital of Tex-Mex: cheese enchiladas under chilli gravy, sizzling fajitas, crispy tacos and bowls of molten queso with warm tortilla chips. It also gave the world the frozen margarita machine, invented by a Dallas restaurateur in 1971, so ordering one here counts as cultural research. Do it on a patio.

  2. Texas barbecue and steak

    Food

    This is cattle country, and beef is taken seriously. Barbecue means slow-smoked brisket with a dark, peppery bark, served by the pound on butcher's paper with beans, slaw and white bread. Deep Ellum has some of the best-known smokehouses. For a blowout, the city's steakhouses are grand, clubby and generous, the kind of rooms where deals are still done over a ribeye.

Days out

  1. Fort Worth Stockyards

    Day trip

    Exchange Avenue in the Fort Worth Stockyards historic district
    Photo: Mark Fisher, CC BY-SA 3.0

    Fort Worth, thirty-odd miles to the west, calls itself the city where the West begins, and the Stockyards district is the proof. The old livestock market is now a historic quarter of brick streets, wooden boardwalks, saloons, western-wear shops and Billy Bob's Texas, a honky-tonk the size of a small town. Buy a hat. Nobody will laugh.

    Leave time for Fort Worth's Cultural District too, where the Kimbell Art Museum, in a much-admired building by Louis Kahn, holds a small and exceptional collection.

  2. AT&T Stadium

    Activity

    AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas
    Photo: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0

    The Dallas Cowboys, the self-styled America's Team, play in Arlington in one of the largest and most extravagant stadiums ever built, with a retractable roof and a video screen that stretches most of the length of the pitch. On non-match days, tours take you down to the field and into the locker rooms. Catching a game is a spectacle even for the uninitiated.

  3. Six Flags Over Texas

    Activity

    Also in Arlington, this is the original Six Flags theme park, opened in the early 1960s and named after the six nations whose flags have flown over Texas. It is all about rollercoasters, from wooden classics to steel monsters, with gentler rides for small children. Teenagers will want a full day, and the stadiums are next door.

Where to stay in Dallas

Not sure which area suits you? Read our guide: Where to stay in Dallas →

Getting around

Downtown, the Arts District and Uptown can be covered on foot, by tram and on the DART light rail, which also runs to both airports. Dallas is a spread-out driving city, though, so taxis or a hire car are the easy way to reach Bishop Arts, the Arboretum, Arlington and Fort Worth. A train also links Dallas with Fort Worth.

When to go

Spring and autumn are the most pleasant seasons. Summers are very hot, and life moves indoors to the air conditioning. The State Fair of Texas takes over Fair Park in the autumn. Winters are usually mild, with the odd cold snap.

Questions about visiting Dallas

What is Dallas best known for?
The Kennedy assassination site at Dealey Plaza, the Dallas Cowboys, its oil and business wealth, Tex-Mex food and barbecue, a large Arts District and the television series that carried its name.
Is Dallas worth visiting?
Yes. The Sixth Floor Museum is one of the most absorbing historical sites in the country, the art museums are excellent, and neighbourhoods such as Deep Ellum and Bishop Arts are good fun. Add Fort Worth for a taste of the Old West.
What is there to do in Dallas with kids?
The Perot Museum of Nature and Science, Klyde Warren Park, the bronze cattle at Pioneer Plaza, Reunion Tower, Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington and the Fort Worth Stockyards.
How many days do you need in Dallas?
Two days covers the main Dallas sights. Allow a third for Fort Worth, and a fourth if you want a theme park or a stadium tour in Arlington.
Do you need a car in Dallas?
You can see Downtown, the Arts District and Uptown without one. For Arlington, Fort Worth and the outer neighbourhoods, a hire car or taxis make life much easier.

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