{"id":92635,"date":"2025-12-18T10:25:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T10:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/92635\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T10:25:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T10:25:07","slug":"exploring-unique-accommodations-in-texas-landscape-food-entertainment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/92635\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring Unique Accommodations in Texas Landscape | Food & Entertainment"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I told my husband we were spending the night in a yurt, he looked at me like I\u2019d suggested we sleep on the roof of a moving car.\u00a0He went along anyway \u2014 either worn down by years of my “great ideas” or choosing blind confidence because they usually work out.<\/p>\n

I had never seen our destination yurt, the Cara Ger<\/a>, and driving through the dark on curvy two-lane highways in the Texas Hill Country didn\u2019t exactly inspire confidence in my husband. But I had one ace up my sleeve: the price of the stay.<\/p>\n

Based on that alone, I had a feeling it would be nice.<\/p>\n

Yes, it would have been better to have arrived earlier \u2014 so that we could have enjoyed the beautiful landscape \u2014 but we were driving back to Louisiana from El Paso, and the miles were longer than the day.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_3877.jpg\"<\/p>\n

The Settles Hotel in Big Spring, Texas.<\/p>\n

BY JAN RISHER | Staff writer<\/p>\n

How we got there<\/p>\n

At this point in life, I try to stay in interesting places whenever possible. I do a little research and find cool, restored spots \u2014 like the incredible Settles Hotel in Big Spring, Texas, where we stayed on our way to El Paso.<\/p>\n

If you know Texas geography and are thinking, \u201cBig Spring isn\u2019t on the way to El Paso from south Louisiana,\u201d you\u2019re right. But we needed to go through Shreveport and wanted to visit my husband\u2019s cousin in Dallas. Remarkably, that detour added only about 45 minutes to our long 14-hour drive to El Paso.<\/p>\n

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\u2019re ever driving near Big Spring.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4264.jpg\"<\/p>\n

El Paso, Texas, hosts Winterfest\u00a0throughout the month of December.<\/p>\n

BY JAN RISHER | Staff writer<\/p>\n

Out in that West Texas town of El Paso<\/p>\n

In El Paso, we stayed at The Plaza Hotel Pioneer Park, in the middle of downtown and right beside the city\u2019s central plaza, which was hosting Winterfest throughout the month of December.<\/p>\n

On weekend nights, live music \u2014 mostly high-quality mariachi \u2014 filled the air. There was an ice-skating rink, hot chocolate and lights a\u2019plenty. It was like a winter wonderland and could easily be a Christmas destination.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We loved walking through the largely revitalized downtown.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4118.jpg\"<\/p>\n

La Nube STEAM Discovery Center in El Paso, Texas.<\/p>\n

BY JAN RISHER | Staff writer<\/p>\n

We stopped by the new Mexican American Cultural Center and stumbled upon multiple free workshops. Not only did we help make oversized Christmas pi\u00f1atas for the city\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

From there, we walked to the new $72 million La Nube STEAM Discovery Center<\/a>, El Paso\u2019s new children\u2019s museum, which recently won the 2025 Hands On! Children in Museums Award \u2014 a\u00a0global distinction shared by only two other museums in the United States that places El Paso among the world\u2019s leading children\u2019s museums.<\/p>\n

The trip home by way of the yurt<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4307.jpg\"<\/p>\n

An inside look at the\u00a0Cara Ger yurt at\u00a0the Yurtopian Hill Country Resort near Wimberley, Texas.<\/p>\n

BY JAN RISHER | Staff writer<\/p>\n

For the drive home, we took the more direct \u201clow road\u201d \u2014 Interstate 10 all the way. For our interesting overnight stop, I chose the Yurtopian Hill Country Resort<\/a> near Wimberley, Texas.<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 and it\u2019s much colder there than in the Texas Hill Country.<\/p>\n

Plus, as mentioned, this yurt was pricey \u2014 about $320 for the night, which is well beyond what I\u2019d 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\u2019m glad we did.<\/p>\n

\"@grantdpittman<\/p>\n

Many of the sites at\u00a0the Yurtopian Hill Country Resort have outdoor fireplaces, along with other amenities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

PROVIDED PHOTO<\/p>\n

Even my husband came around \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

But alas, he can\u2019t wait to return.<\/p>\n

The Yurtopian Resort calls its accommodations \u201cluxury\u201d yurts \u2014 and they aren\u2019t joking. We sat by the fire in the cold, watched the stars, and I finally persuaded my husband into the hot tub.<\/p>\n

All in all, the trip, which we made to attend a funeral, could have been profoundly sad \u2014 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"@texas.explorer<\/p>\n

The Yurtopian Hill Country Resort has 16 yurts to stay in at the site.<\/p>\n

PROVIDED PHOTO<\/p>\n

My husband agrees that the whole experience was glorious \u2014 the quiet of the Texas hills, the warmth of the yurt, and what may be the world\u2019s most comfortable bed, made for one of the best nights\u2019 sleep either of us has had in a long time.<\/p>\n

We left the Texas hills carrying both the sadness we came with and the unexpected and welcomed warmth of a night well spent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When I told my husband we were spending the night in a yurt, he looked at me like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-92635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}