The City:
San Antonio is an interesting city that is distinct from the other major cities in Texas like Dallas, Houston and even Austin. It has a smaller population and far less congested roads. It also has a more laid back, easy going pace where people tend to dress down and speak openly. It naturally has a large Hispanic population but a large portion of it does not speak Spanish or only understands a token amount. You will also notice a large military presence here as many people will be walking around in uniform.
The Women:
There are some beautiful women in San Antonio but they are far outweighed (literally and figuratively) by a large number of overweight ones. You will find a lot of overweight tourists but also locals too. People here are generally very friendly and easy to start conversations with but this is a conservative town and social circles are prevalent here. For example, I did find a lot of latina princesses here whom were difficult to have extended conversations with as I was not a part of their social circle. But there were other women (Latinas and whites mostly) who were more open to approach and down to earth.
There are a ton of San Antonio natives that make it distinct from say Dallas and it seems a lot of folks know each other so in some ways seems even like a small town. The vast majority of the women were largely either Hispanic or white. Few black women and other races and nationalities as those groups were limited to small groups of tourists or weren’t heavily represented.
Daygame:
The Riverwalk- This places offers a large number of restaurant patios where one can work patio or restaurant game. You will also run into a lot of overweight tourists. One other way to game on The Riverwalk is to go for a jog on it prior to the lunch hour (9 to 10:30 am). I noticed a number of attractive women doing the same or going for a walk. These also tended to be women who were more in shape.
The Shops at Rivercenter is another location one can consider as it is connected to the Riverwalk and is a smaller indoor mall. It draws largely the tourist crowd.
Shopping district around the Alamo- Right around the Alamo along Alamo Street are a number of shops where a lot of people tend to congregate and walk by. This potentially could be a good area to make some approaches but will be overwhelmingly tourists.
North Star Mall- This is a locals shopping area. Some very attractive latinas can be found here on Saturday afternoon. Basically, your typical indoor mall but has a more international feel than other parts of the city. Spanish is more freely spoken here among other languages.
San Antonio Museum of Art- This is a decent museum that is not that far off from some of the other museums in the state. It has a larger amount dedicated to Latin art but also rounds out its artwork with pieces from various regions of the world. I visited during the middle of the day to kill time as I waited to check into my hotel so I can’t speak to game opportunities. During this time, you would only find school children but wonder if they have another time that is popular for singles like most major museums offer.
McNay Art Museum- This museum is free on Thursday nights from 4 to 9pm. The day I visited it snowed discouraging a big turnout but this might have some potential on a good weather day.
Bars:
Bar America: This is one of the better bars for pickup. It has a setup that is a cross between a dive bar/ sports bar. It has a wide bar that makes a 90 degree angle giving a number of places where woman may be seated or standing at the bar or looking to order drinks. There is also some communal seating tables that are easy to approach. Finally, there is an area on the back end where people do some dancing or host parties. Beer and mixed drinks are cheap and attire is very casual like jeans and t-shirts. Also, the crowd tends to be of locals rather than tourists. This bar can fill up in a hurry as the night goes on. The only downside to this bar is also a common one with many of the San Antonio bars for pickup which is they have a bad habit of cranking up the music trying to turn the place into a club. This naturally makes conversation harder but at least at this place this was kept to a minimum.
Bar 1919: This is a more sophisticated bar for San Antonio. However, you can get in just fine with jeans and a nice shirt. It is a little hard to find because it has no sign and is hidden from street view and you have to walk down some stairs. But you can just ask people and they will guide you to it. The bar itself is pretty much tailor made for pickup. It has a long bar with some seating across from it creating a bit of a choke point. The audience here is a little broader with 20 year olds up to 50 year olds. For example, I was approached by some cougars here. Less college kids here and more young professionals, housewives, and working professionals. Mixed drinks were I think around $8 here.
Blue Box Bar: This bar is located in The Pearl which has become a fancy area of San Antonio. It has lofts and other types of bars as it tries to be a kind of Uptown area. This bar here is a nice looking bar and attracts a classy audience. Folks here will dress up and you will see a crowd of more 25 and up with a few college kids sprinkled in. On the night I visited, they had 3/4ths of the bar closed off for a party which hurt any serious opportunity to approach. I would be curious to know how prevalent social circle game would be necessary here as this bar will attract a nice crowd. It has a reputation for being a bar that people will bring their friends from out of town in to visit. I think mixed drink prices were under $10 here.
Esquire Tavern: This bar is billed as a top place on the Internet but the two times I visited the bar it was not worth the effort as it did not have a large crowd. Mixed drink prices were in the $6 range I believe.
The Paramour: This is another fancy style bar that is essentially basically a rooftop bar. It attracts a high class crowd with some attractive women but this is not a good place for pickup. Social circle game is prevalent here along with a dj booming loud music. The bouncer told me it is quieter on other nights but I don’t know. Another problem here is drink prices are more expensive than elsewhere in San Antonio and the bar service is very, very slow. Finally, the layout of the place is not setup well for pickup. It tends to have a number of portioned off sofas and then the bar area gets traffic but it gets packed where conversation at the bar is a challenge.
St Marys Street Bars: There are a number of bars that cater to the college age crowd from Trinity and Incarnate Word. These bars are all dive bar-ish or impromptu discos. For example, one bar I walked by that is popular called the Squeezebox was playing loud cumbia music. My experience was limited in this area as the bars were not active in this area and the one bar that looked like it had some potential (Brass Monkey) was patting people down and I was not allowed in as I was carrying a pocketknife. An apparent downside to these bars is they obviously are having some issues with violence as there was a heavy police presence.
Restaurants:
El Mirador- Hands down has the best Mexican food in the city. Not a place for gaming but quality food nonetheless.
Rosarios- This is a popular place for tourists to go and has some decent Mexican food but is not as good as others suggest.
Acenar- This is one of the better restaurants and naturally offers Mexican and I believe some latin cuisine. On another day, I suspect its bar area would do pretty well so may be a nice location for happy hours. Bar staff works fast here.
Zinc Bistro Bar- This place makes an excellent burger and apparently their lamb food items are very good also. I think this bar also has potential for pickup but did not attend at night so can’t speak to that aspect.
Also ran places:
The Granary- has decent BBQ but far down the list for top BBQ places in Texas. County Line is also touted but I suspect it is average BBQ as well.
Viva Villa- is a taqueria that offers decent food but is far from the best. I am sure there are better options available.
Bottom Line:
As others have said, San Antonio is a decent place for a long weekend but little more. There are plenty of other places that one should consider first in the state such as Dallas, Houston and Austin. This place is not as bad as some other threads suggest on the forum but it is not a place one should go out of the way to visit for game purposes.
That being said, if you happen to be in San Antonio for business or visiting friends, I do think it would be good if people here could add to this list to help others down the line. Plus, the information above was only gleaned from a weekend so I am sure there are other places I overlooked.
San Antonio is an interesting city that is distinct from the other major cities in Texas like Dallas, Houston and even Austin. It has a smaller population and far less congested roads. It also has a more laid back, easy going pace where people tend to dress down and speak openly. It naturally has a large Hispanic population but a large portion of it does not speak Spanish or only understands a token amount. You will also notice a large military presence here as many people will be walking around in uniform.
The Women:
There are some beautiful women in San Antonio but they are far outweighed (literally and figuratively) by a large number of overweight ones. You will find a lot of overweight tourists but also locals too. People here are generally very friendly and easy to start conversations with but this is a conservative town and social circles are prevalent here. For example, I did find a lot of latina princesses here whom were difficult to have extended conversations with as I was not a part of their social circle. But there were other women (Latinas and whites mostly) who were more open to approach and down to earth.
There are a ton of San Antonio natives that make it distinct from say Dallas and it seems a lot of folks know each other so in some ways seems even like a small town. The vast majority of the women were largely either Hispanic or white. Few black women and other races and nationalities as those groups were limited to small groups of tourists or weren’t heavily represented.
Daygame:
The Riverwalk- This places offers a large number of restaurant patios where one can work patio or restaurant game. You will also run into a lot of overweight tourists. One other way to game on The Riverwalk is to go for a jog on it prior to the lunch hour (9 to 10:30 am). I noticed a number of attractive women doing the same or going for a walk. These also tended to be women who were more in shape.
The Shops at Rivercenter is another location one can consider as it is connected to the Riverwalk and is a smaller indoor mall. It draws largely the tourist crowd.
Shopping district around the Alamo- Right around the Alamo along Alamo Street are a number of shops where a lot of people tend to congregate and walk by. This potentially could be a good area to make some approaches but will be overwhelmingly tourists.
North Star Mall- This is a locals shopping area. Some very attractive latinas can be found here on Saturday afternoon. Basically, your typical indoor mall but has a more international feel than other parts of the city. Spanish is more freely spoken here among other languages.
San Antonio Museum of Art- This is a decent museum that is not that far off from some of the other museums in the state. It has a larger amount dedicated to Latin art but also rounds out its artwork with pieces from various regions of the world. I visited during the middle of the day to kill time as I waited to check into my hotel so I can’t speak to game opportunities. During this time, you would only find school children but wonder if they have another time that is popular for singles like most major museums offer.
McNay Art Museum- This museum is free on Thursday nights from 4 to 9pm. The day I visited it snowed discouraging a big turnout but this might have some potential on a good weather day.
Bars:
Bar America: This is one of the better bars for pickup. It has a setup that is a cross between a dive bar/ sports bar. It has a wide bar that makes a 90 degree angle giving a number of places where woman may be seated or standing at the bar or looking to order drinks. There is also some communal seating tables that are easy to approach. Finally, there is an area on the back end where people do some dancing or host parties. Beer and mixed drinks are cheap and attire is very casual like jeans and t-shirts. Also, the crowd tends to be of locals rather than tourists. This bar can fill up in a hurry as the night goes on. The only downside to this bar is also a common one with many of the San Antonio bars for pickup which is they have a bad habit of cranking up the music trying to turn the place into a club. This naturally makes conversation harder but at least at this place this was kept to a minimum.
Bar 1919: This is a more sophisticated bar for San Antonio. However, you can get in just fine with jeans and a nice shirt. It is a little hard to find because it has no sign and is hidden from street view and you have to walk down some stairs. But you can just ask people and they will guide you to it. The bar itself is pretty much tailor made for pickup. It has a long bar with some seating across from it creating a bit of a choke point. The audience here is a little broader with 20 year olds up to 50 year olds. For example, I was approached by some cougars here. Less college kids here and more young professionals, housewives, and working professionals. Mixed drinks were I think around $8 here.
Blue Box Bar: This bar is located in The Pearl which has become a fancy area of San Antonio. It has lofts and other types of bars as it tries to be a kind of Uptown area. This bar here is a nice looking bar and attracts a classy audience. Folks here will dress up and you will see a crowd of more 25 and up with a few college kids sprinkled in. On the night I visited, they had 3/4ths of the bar closed off for a party which hurt any serious opportunity to approach. I would be curious to know how prevalent social circle game would be necessary here as this bar will attract a nice crowd. It has a reputation for being a bar that people will bring their friends from out of town in to visit. I think mixed drink prices were under $10 here.
Esquire Tavern: This bar is billed as a top place on the Internet but the two times I visited the bar it was not worth the effort as it did not have a large crowd. Mixed drink prices were in the $6 range I believe.
The Paramour: This is another fancy style bar that is essentially basically a rooftop bar. It attracts a high class crowd with some attractive women but this is not a good place for pickup. Social circle game is prevalent here along with a dj booming loud music. The bouncer told me it is quieter on other nights but I don’t know. Another problem here is drink prices are more expensive than elsewhere in San Antonio and the bar service is very, very slow. Finally, the layout of the place is not setup well for pickup. It tends to have a number of portioned off sofas and then the bar area gets traffic but it gets packed where conversation at the bar is a challenge.
St Marys Street Bars: There are a number of bars that cater to the college age crowd from Trinity and Incarnate Word. These bars are all dive bar-ish or impromptu discos. For example, one bar I walked by that is popular called the Squeezebox was playing loud cumbia music. My experience was limited in this area as the bars were not active in this area and the one bar that looked like it had some potential (Brass Monkey) was patting people down and I was not allowed in as I was carrying a pocketknife. An apparent downside to these bars is they obviously are having some issues with violence as there was a heavy police presence.
Restaurants:
El Mirador- Hands down has the best Mexican food in the city. Not a place for gaming but quality food nonetheless.
Rosarios- This is a popular place for tourists to go and has some decent Mexican food but is not as good as others suggest.
Acenar- This is one of the better restaurants and naturally offers Mexican and I believe some latin cuisine. On another day, I suspect its bar area would do pretty well so may be a nice location for happy hours. Bar staff works fast here.
Zinc Bistro Bar- This place makes an excellent burger and apparently their lamb food items are very good also. I think this bar also has potential for pickup but did not attend at night so can’t speak to that aspect.
Also ran places:
The Granary- has decent BBQ but far down the list for top BBQ places in Texas. County Line is also touted but I suspect it is average BBQ as well.
Viva Villa- is a taqueria that offers decent food but is far from the best. I am sure there are better options available.
Bottom Line:
As others have said, San Antonio is a decent place for a long weekend but little more. There are plenty of other places that one should consider first in the state such as Dallas, Houston and Austin. This place is not as bad as some other threads suggest on the forum but it is not a place one should go out of the way to visit for game purposes.
That being said, if you happen to be in San Antonio for business or visiting friends, I do think it would be good if people here could add to this list to help others down the line. Plus, the information above was only gleaned from a weekend so I am sure there are other places I overlooked.