<p>Hi ucla011. I can’t help with the restaurant recommendations either. We don’t really eat steak much, and I’ve never gone for BBQ there. I’ve heard that C&J Barbecue is supposed to be really good – but we’ve never eaten there. My neighbor (NOT anywhere near College Station), has been there and loves it. No first-hand knowledge, though.</p>
<p>The DFW hotel question …</p>
<p>As AggieMom16 said, all of your listed attractions, except 1, are in Fort Worth, not Dallas. You mentioned the Bureau of Engraving in ‘dallas,’ but it’s actually in Fort Worth. So it might be wise to stay closer to/or in that city. Especially since you only have 3 days. You could concentrate on JUST Fort Worth sights in that amount of time!</p>
<p>Still, there are good ‘attractions’ in Dallas (like the Arboretum, or Uptown for shopping and lunching, and other stuff too). So if you still want to stay in a somewhat equidistant location between the two cities, then I would recommend one of two locations. (Are you aware that it will be a 30-50 minute drive to either city from the ‘center’ of the metroplex, depending on traffic?)</p>
<p>(1) Grapevine, just north of the DFW airport. There are BUNCHES of different options, from lower-level, but clean/nice, chain places (like Hyatt Place, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Inn, etc), or a little bit higher level (like Embassy Suites, Marriott Residence Inn, etc), or even higher, resort type places (like Great Wolf Lodge or The Gaylord). Just google something like ‘hotels at grapevine mills texas’ and check out some of the results (like the ‘trip advisor’ link). This area is about 30-40 minutes from Dallas and about 30-50 minutes from Fort Worth, depending on traffic.</p>
<p>Warning: speaking of traffic … it can be pretty bad in the entire metroplex, particularly around any semblance of rush hour! And particularly between DFW and Fort Worth, versus DFW and Dallas (LOTS of highway construction along Hwy 121/114!). So, if you’re planning on driving back and forth at rush hour times, you may be unhappy with your choice to stay ‘centrally located.’</p>
<p>(2) And that brings me to the second recommended area. The Centreport area, just south of the DFW airport. (google something like ‘centreport fort worth hotels’ – this is a Fort Worth address, but it’s not really in Fort Worth at all!) There’s a little area at Centreport Blvd that has a few new-ish, very clean, nice hotels. There’s a Marriott DFW South, a Candlewood Suites DFW South, and a Holiday Inn DFW South. There’s a little strip mall right there with a smattering of new-ish restaurants and a Starbucks, and the American Airlines CR Smith Museum is right across the highway (Hwy 360), but other than that, there is not much around AT ALL. It’s pretty isolated – but it’s clean, and new, and quiet, and centrally located.</p>
<p>Centreport also offers a few other advantages over the north side of the airport –
(a) there’s currently a lot of highway construction in the vicinity of Grapevine Mills (north of DFW). It’s possible to avoid most of it and still navigate yourself east and west to Dallas and Fort Worth. But you’ll most likely be in and out of the construction up there at SOME time if you stay north. If you stay south, in the Centreport area, you’ll have to contend less with construction. But either way, you’ll STILL have lots of traffic if you travel in either direction near any rush hour!</p>
<p>(b) At Centreport, you’ll be a mile or less (roughly) from the Centreport Station of the Trinity Railway Express (TRE). It’s a train that can cheaply take you into Dallas where you can pick up the Dart Rail, if needed, OR Fort Worth, where you’ll have to take a cab or a city bus to go anywhere in the city BESIDES downtown. To us, the train ride is part of the fun! It DOES take longer than driving however (because of ‘connection times’ to ‘events’ once you get to either city), unless you’re driving during rush hour, but it also eliminates the hassle of driving and parking in the city. I would only recommend the TRE/DART/city bus/cab solution if you consider it to be part of the day’s fun. It is NOT a big time-saver unless you can walk right off the TRE at a particular station and start your day’s activity, or possibly take a short DART ride to your Dallas activity. The whole Fort Worth end of things via the TRE is not NEARLY as convenient unless you’re planning on going downtown only, which is walkable from the main station. If you are good with city busses (cheap) or don’t mind taking a cab (expensive) once you get to the Fort Worth Intermodal Transportation Center (ITC), then it can be fun to take the train. But it will be time-consuming if you’re connecting to a city bus.</p>
<p>Whether you’re interested in the train option or not, if you like the idea of staying in a central location between the two cities, then Centreport will still be a good location for you – as long as your whole point of staying there is just to sleep, possibly pick up a quick Starbucks, eat a quick meal at a local, strip-mall restaurant, and dash into one of the 2 main cities during the day, I think you would be happy there.</p>
<p>Regarding the DART rail in Dallas: it does NOT reach ALL sight-worthy locations in Dallas, but it gets close to lots of good ones. Still, if you decide to take it, you’ll probably have to hike a few blocks from the train station to get where you want to go. We like that. Walking is fun! But I just wanted to be sure that you knew that.</p>