Spotlight :: Dallas

[trip style = luxury + urban + weekend getaway]

Aside from a few expected sightings: bedazzled cowboy boots, massive highways and fun-atical sports fans clad head to toe in logo-wear, my December trip style = weekend getaway in Dallas was an unexpected mix of polar opposites. The kind that separates the jocks from the drama kids in high school. Except, like Finn---the jock/singer on Glee---the two are not mutually exclusive in Dallas.

Enamoured by the American football culture of larger-than-life stadiums, all-day tailgating and professional cheerleaders, our super-fan friends asked if we wanted to accompany them to a Dallas Cowboys game. Without hesitation the answer was yes.

I didn't do hours of pre-trip research. All I could think of was the sport-cation's Sunday game. My cultural blinders were on to everything else.

When my feet hit the ground, my tune changed. I found a city with an architectural and arts footprint the size of multiple football fields. Everything's bigger in Texas, right? Where most major metropolises have cultural buildings scattered throughout town, Dallas has a district with vertical performance spaces, modern glass masterpieces, and progressive museums and galleries featuring both the classics and today's avant-garde artists.

The next day, I ventured outside of my trip style = urban experience for the sport-cation's crescendo: the Dallas Cowboys game {more on this soon}. Looks like there's room in Dallas for the jocks and the drama club.

Eat
  • Brunch: The Dallas Museum of Art's restaurant. You'd think dining in a high-ceilinged, wide-open space would be low on the atmosphere scale, but massive art installations and upscale restaurant fare make it feel intimate. Try the $18 brunch, which includes a mimosa, coffee, pastries, entree and as many trips to the candy bar as your blood sugar allows.
  • Dinner: Private Social. This dimly-lit, chef-driven hotspot is founded on the idea that space and food appeal to different palates, so they created both intimate and social areas for sitting, and personal or shared plates for eating---you choose which experience suits you best.

Do

Stay Fairmont Dallas. Located on the edge of the Dallas Arts District, this is one of Fairmont's most reasonably priced properties and for the price, well worth the stay. Spring for the Fairmont Gold Floor, with separate check-in, renovated rooms and a lounge serving breakfast, lattes, a light lunch and dessert. {See my Trip Advisor review here}

Getting There Reaching Dallas {DFW} is convenient with year-round, direct flights from Vancouver. Dallas is American Airlines' hub, so the carrier runs two flights daily {~$400+ return year round}.

[photos by @tripstyler]