Plan Your Meetings

Watch for:

• An all-suite, 91-room Hotel Indigo is scheduled to open in early 2009 at The Alamo with meeting space, an on-site gourmet restaurant and a 24-hour business center.
• The 1,003-room Grand Hyatt San Antonio opened with 79,000 square feet of flexible meeting space.
• The 2,400-seat, recently-renovated historic Alameda Theatre reopened in June 2008.
• A 1,000-room JW Marriott Resort is scheduled to open by the airport in February 2010.
• Gaylord has terminated its agreement to purchase the Westin La Cantera Resort.
• The world’s largest Ripley’s Believe It or Not! opened in May 2008 in the historic Alamo Plaza.

Want to meet green?

The Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center has green initiatives in place (recycling, energy conservation). The RK Group, the center’s caterer, doesn’t use paper coffee filters; encourages use of china, cloth napkins and silverware over disposable goods; and donates leftover food to Daily Bread Ministries. Freeman Decorating recycles aisle carpet, steel metal waste and aluminum exhibit components; it also uses propane lifts and carts to reduce emissions. PRA Destination Management can organize transportation, themed events and group activities as well as green meetings and events.

Want to break out of the boardroom?

The Southwest School of Art & Craft has meeting and event facilities on two campuses. The Ursuline Campus, founded in the 1800s by nuns as a girls’ school, has landscaped gardens, a historic dining hall and a Gothic chapel; the Navarro Campus has modern conference, meeting and reception space, contemporary art galleries, and sophisticated classrooms for art-making workshops. Local catering company Don Strange also operates several off-site venues — two ranches, the Buckhorn Saloon & Museum, and the Waring General Store — that have indoor and outdoor function space, Western-theme meeting facilities and team-building programs. The University of Texas San Antonio’s Institute of Texan Culture has meeting, classroom and event space in an outdoor living history museum, an auditorium and a conference center; entertainment showcasing the state’s multi-ethnic heritage also is available.

Want to pamper attendees?

The 99-room, Mobil Four-Star Watermark Hotel & Spa consistently ranks on Condé Nast Traveler’s Gold List of Best Places to Stay; amenities include 2,500 square feet of meeting space, a rooftop café and pool area, a tequila-tasting menu, a wine cellar and a restaurant specializing in fresh seafood. The AAA Four-Diamond Emily Morgan Hotel is a luxury boutique hotel steps from the Alamo with 4,000 square feet of elegant meeting space for groups of fewer than 100 attendees, and a fine-dining restaurant known for its margaritas and martini menu. The St. Antony – A Wyndham Historic Hotel is a Four-Diamond luxury property that’s been pampering guests, celebrities and visiting monarchs for nearly 100 years. Amenities include 22,000 square feet of meeting space, including a 3,621-sq. ft. ballroom; crystal chandeliers; and guest rooms decorated with Queen Anne-style furnishings.

Want Western-themed events?

Several guest ranches in the area cater to groups with meeting and conference space, cowboy entertainment (singers, shootouts, rodeos), team-building activities, dance and banquet halls, and hearty cowboy cookouts or steak dinners. The Knibbe Ranch also offers groups the chance to participate in archealogical digs. The Rio Cibolo Ranch has “A Little Bit of Texas” cooking school and lessons on using herbs for groups of up to 200. Diamond K. Ranch has accommodations and can organize hunting, photography or fishing trips. Runnin-R Ranch has 40 miles of Hill Country horse trails. Pedrotti’s North Wind Ranch has special facility buildings reminiscent of downtown San Antonio in the 1880s.

Want group dining?

Le Rêve, serving contemporary French cuisine, is considered one of the best restaurants in Texas. Biga on the Banks is one of Zagat’s top-ranked eateries on the River Walk; in addition to five private dining rooms and terraces (seating 12 to 400), the restaurant can cater river barges or off-site events at its historic Gallagher Ranch facility. Boudro’s Texas Bistro on the Riverwalk has banquet and reception space in a garden courtyard, wine-themed dining rooms, the Zinc Wine & Spirits Bar, river barges and a private banquet hall in the former Alamo National Bank building. The Little Rhein Steak House in La Villita serves steaks and wine from a historic building on the River Walk (seating 30-85); meeting/banquet rooms and riverside event space also are available at its Dashiell House (capacity 250). Sister restaurant The Fig Tree is a DiRoNa Award-winning restaurant with more than 200 wines and champagnes.

Want Tex-Mex cuisine?

Las Canarias at the Omni La Mansion del Rio is a AAA Four-Diamond restaurant serving upscale Tex-Mex food along the River Walk; it’s known for its Champagne Sunday brunch and margaritas. Rosario’s Restaurant y Cantina is a neighborhood haunt in the King William District with Mexican food, a Latin art collection and live music. Blanca Aldaco (owner of Aldaco’s Mexican Cuisine in Sunset Station) leads cooking classes where attendees learn to mix the perfect margarita and prepare dishes from Guadalajara.

Want to team-build?

SeaWorld San Antonio’s team-building workshops occur in a marine animal classroom and include hands-on encounters with a beluga whale; additional meeting amenities include an in-house catering and design staff, keynote speakers and multiple event venues. The Don Strange Ranch Adventure Challenge Course is one of the few in the country that’s handicap-accessible. Capers DMC can create scavenger hunts and group activities. Dave & Buster’s has several team-building programs including special agent missions, problem-solving quests and scavenger hunts; meeting space, arcade games and a dinner theater also are available. La Cantera Golf Club can create tournaments and group outings for as many as 280 players. Cowboys San Antonio gives group line dancing lessons. Other options are hunting/fishing excursions, and river rafting or tubing trips down the Guadalupe River.

Want to meet in a place with history?

The Spanish Governors Palace is the last standing example of the Spanish government that once ruled San Antonio; the 1749 house and grounds are available for private functions. The Alamo is a popular reception venue. La Villita was San Antonio’s first neighborhood; today, it is home to an arts and crafts community, shops and restaurants. The Majestic Theatre’s auditorium was constructed to give audiences the feeling of being in a Mediterranean village; planners can arrange private concerts, on-stage banquets or seminars. The Empire Theatre is another historic venue available for private or corporate events. Historic Sunset Station has four buildings with a total of 100,000 square feet for groups of up to 20,000 people: the Depot (the historic Southern Pacific Railroad Depot Terminal), the Spire (the 1884 St. Paul Episcopal Methodist Church), the Crown (historic hotel and courtyard) and the Pavilion (covered banquet area and plaza).

Want to create a fiesta?

The San Antonio Conservation Society can create a mini-Night in San Antonio street party in La Villita with Mexican food, street vendors and entertainment for groups of 250 or more year-round. Historic Market Square (El Mercado) is designed to resemble an authentic Mexican market, with shops selling Mexican goods; planners can arrange for strolling musicians, and arts and crafts demonstrations. River barges can transport revelers from nightspot to nightspot along the River Walk, or hold floating receptions.

Want creative settings?

McNay Art Museum (available for rentals beginning May 2008) is a modern art museum housed in a Spanish Colonial Revival-style facility on 23 acres of landscaped grounds; event space includes the octagonal entryway, a garden courtyard and an auditorium/ballroom. The Museo Alameda is a Smithsonian-affiliated museum with exhibits on the Latin experience and 20,000 square feet of exhibit space. The Blue Star Arts Complex has several venues, including a theater, a beer garden, gallery space and banquet halls. The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center has event space as well as educational programs in dance, media arts, visual arts, literature, theater arts and traditional music.

Want spousal programs?

San Antonio City Tours offers Mexico Shopping Tours, and Limo Lounge has chauffeured shopping tours of Houston’s Galleria Mall, Austin’s Barton Creek Mall or the San Marcos Outlets with roundtrip transportation provided by Hummer, SUV or sedan. Day trips to Hill Country towns such as Fredericksburg, Boerne and New Braunfels, or the beaches of Corpus Christi are other options. Top-ranked golf courses include La Cantera, SilverHorn, Pecan Valley and The Quarry.

Want children’s programs?

The Magik Theatre presents a full theatrical season at its home theater, but also can travel for special presentations and educational programs. Six Flags Fiesta Texas is a big-ticket amusement park with group rates. SeaWorld’s marine animal shows and rides are a big crowd-pleaser.