San Antonio

The gateway city to southern Texas, modern San Antonio remains as much vaquero as it is 'buckaroo' - where Spanish saludos are just as likely to greet your ears as the ubiquitous 'Howdy.' It has one of the state's most stroll-worthy downtown areas, where the unique mix of Tex and Mex are ubiquitous.

It's the only US city with five original Spanish Colonial missions within its limits, where mission churches still function and aqueducts carry water to farmers. But it's not all 'mañana syndrome'. SA (as locals call it) is the nation's tenth-largest city and the state's biggest tourism draw.

It's also probably the most important - or at least the most visible - melding of American and Mexican lives and cultures in the US. Locals joke that the mix is what lends San Antonio its laid-back feel - everyone here's on San Antonio Standard Time.