We visited Grapevine in January 2017 as part of our Winter Loop to Austin trip.

After two days in Memphis, we wanted to hightail it to Austin as quickly as possible, which meant a long day of driving. Eyeballing the map, it seemed that the Dallas area was a good distance to shoot for, so I asked the internet if there are any quaint or otherwise interesting towns near Dallas, as we didn’t want to deal with driving in and out of the metropolis. Cross-referencing our quaint town results with a brewery locations query, we picked Grapevine for our stopover. If you avoid the suburb’s resorts and chain restaurants, you’ll find an old-timey downtown with shops and restaurants and interesting architecture. Lucky us: downtown was still decked out for Christmas–and they are waaaaaay into Christmas in Grapevine!

Campground

Convenient to most things in Grapevine, the enormous Vineyards Campground and Cabins on Grapevine Lake was a nice place to spend a night. We had a view of a small inlet of the large lake and access to nature trails through the campground, and were piecing together a run through the neighboring parks before we scrapped the run idea due to oddly frigid temperatures. Welcome to Texas?

Food and Drink

Walking around downtown was a treat because Grapevine goes all out for Christmas. Every storefront was festooned with lights and garlands, and in the main square a somewhat creepy snowman choir performed. My sad phone photos do not do the scene justice.

Our favorite shop by leaps and bounds was the Farmers Market of Grapevine, a treasure trove of local goods and produce and samples of wonderful things. We ate our way around the store and bought some supplies for the road.

We ended our tour of Grapevine a short drive from downtown at the local brewery. Grapevine Craft Brewery has a welcoming two-storey taproom (and a big beer garden, where we did not hang out due to aforementioned frigid temperatures) and we enjoyed a few beers and tasty dinner from the visiting Mediterranean food truck. Sadly, when it was time to go home, the Pokey O’s custom ice cream sandwich truck–build your own from several cookie and ice cream flavors!–had already left and foiled our plans for dessert. If you’re ever in the Grapevine area, find that truck and tell me how amazing the ice cream sandwiches are.