When I told my husband we were spending the night in a yurt, he looked at me like I’d suggested we sleep on the roof of a moving car. He went along anyway — either worn down by years of my “great ideas” or choosing blind confidence because they usually work out.
I had never seen our destination yurt, the Cara Ger, and driving through the dark on curvy two-lane highways in the Texas Hill Country didn’t exactly inspire confidence in my husband. But I had one ace up my sleeve: the price of the stay.
Based on that alone, I had a feeling it would be nice.
Yes, it would have been better to have arrived earlier — so that we could have enjoyed the beautiful landscape — but we were driving back to Louisiana from El Paso, and the miles were longer than the day.
The Settles Hotel in Big Spring, Texas.
BY JAN RISHER | Staff writer
How we got there
At this point in life, I try to stay in interesting places whenever possible. I do a little research and find cool, restored spots — like the incredible Settles Hotel in Big Spring, Texas, where we stayed on our way to El Paso.
If you know Texas geography and are thinking, “Big Spring isn’t on the way to El Paso from south Louisiana,” you’re right. But we needed to go through Shreveport and wanted to visit my husband’s cousin in Dallas. Remarkably, that detour added only about 45 minutes to our long 14-hour drive to El Paso.
That extra three-quarters of an hour was a win: we stayed in a 1,000-square-foot suite at the Settles Hotel for $179 a night. The whole place was swanky, and the food was good. I could have stayed a while. I highly recommend the Settles Hotel if you’re ever driving near Big Spring.
El Paso, Texas, hosts Winterfest throughout the month of December.
BY JAN RISHER | Staff writer
Out in that West Texas town of El Paso
In El Paso, we stayed at The Plaza Hotel Pioneer Park, in the middle of downtown and right beside the city’s central plaza, which was hosting Winterfest throughout the month of December.
On weekend nights, live music — mostly high-quality mariachi — filled the air. There was an ice-skating rink, hot chocolate and lights a’plenty. It was like a winter wonderland and could easily be a Christmas destination.
We loved walking through the largely revitalized downtown.
La Nube STEAM Discovery Center in El Paso, Texas.
BY JAN RISHER | Staff writer
We stopped by the new Mexican American Cultural Center and stumbled upon multiple free workshops. Not only did we help make oversized Christmas piñatas for the city’s holiday celebrations, but we also crafted hojalatas (small tin ornaments) with a skilled artist teaching us the steps along the way. The center hosts free workshops every weekend.
From there, we walked to the new $72 million La Nube STEAM Discovery Center, El Paso’s new children’s museum, which recently won the 2025 Hands On! Children in Museums Award — a global distinction shared by only two other museums in the United States that places El Paso among the world’s leading children’s museums.
The trip home by way of the yurt
An inside look at the Cara Ger yurt at the Yurtopian Hill Country Resort near Wimberley, Texas.
BY JAN RISHER | Staff writer
For the drive home, we took the more direct “low road” — Interstate 10 all the way. For our interesting overnight stop, I chose the Yurtopian Hill Country Resort near Wimberley, Texas.
By then, it was quite cold, and even I began to wonder if the yurt might be a bridge too far. But I reasoned that about a third of Mongolians still live full-time in yurts — and it’s much colder there than in the Texas Hill Country.
Plus, as mentioned, this yurt was pricey — about $320 for the night, which is well beyond what I’d usually pay. But after a tough few months and a missed big trip due to a house fire, I decided we deserved a splurge. I’m glad we did.
Many of the sites at the Yurtopian Hill Country Resort have outdoor fireplaces, along with other amenities.
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Even my husband came around — though he did have a moment of concern when we arrived in the dark and realized the bathroom and kitchen were outside, and the in-deck hot tub would be an obstacle if nature called in the night.
But alas, he can’t wait to return.
The Yurtopian Resort calls its accommodations “luxury” yurts — and they aren’t joking. We sat by the fire in the cold, watched the stars, and I finally persuaded my husband into the hot tub.
All in all, the trip, which we made to attend a funeral, could have been profoundly sad — and even though the sadness is still with us, the special places we found and shared along the way made the overall experience so much more than it could have been.
The Yurtopian Hill Country Resort has 16 yurts to stay in at the site.
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My husband agrees that the whole experience was glorious — the quiet of the Texas hills, the warmth of the yurt, and what may be the world’s most comfortable bed, made for one of the best nights’ sleep either of us has had in a long time.
We left the Texas hills carrying both the sadness we came with and the unexpected and welcomed warmth of a night well spent.