From world-class ballet to rumbling cattle drives, Cowtown has it all. 

While Fort Worth holds on to its wild past and place in the Old West as tightly as a cowboy grips the reins on a bucking bronco, the place also known as Cowtown is plenty citified for y’all with finer tastes, too. In Fort Worth, you can tap your toes all evening to world class music at Scat Jazz Lounge, be awed by magical ballet performances at Bass Performance Hall, or ponder the current Impressionist exhibit at the Kimbell Art Museum and then head out for an evening of fine dining. But, if you’re hoping to get a taste of America’s West while your in town, don’t you worry your pretty little head off, Fort Worth is still a place where you can wake up to an actual Texas Longhorn cattle drive rumbling down your street, watch a rodeo at Fort Worth Stockyards, or be wowed by the women honored at the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame. That’s right pardner, Fort Worth has no shortage of cool things to do and see, and there’s something for just about everybody. Here are a few of our favorites.  

Oh, but first, a city with so much to do warrants the perfect accommodations, a homey abode where you can hang your Stetson, and Stay Alfred delivers with full kitchens, cozy living rooms, fantastic amenities, and all the perks of home. Plus, Stay Alfred’s Fort Worth travel apartments are always in the best parts of town. From historic downtown abodes to chic digs in the city’s happening West 7th neighborhood, there are plenty of places for you to kick off your boots in style. Call Stay Alfred your place in Cowtown. Now, about those fun things to do in Fort Worth. 

Downtown Fort Worth Fun

Especially if you’re new in town and just here for a coupla’ days, you might want to stick to downtown Fort Worth to get in as much of Cowtown as you can, and downtown is full of good stuff to do. Here are a downtown must-sees. 

Shopping and More

At the heart of downtown Fort Worth is the 35-block Sundance Square, a pedestrian-friendly district packed with fashion boutiques, Western-wear shops, sports bars and honky-tonks. With more steakhouses than you can shake a branding iron at, you’ll have plenty of choices when it comes to gettin’ grub in yuh. Along with the Sundance Square Old West infrastructure, downtown boasts a meld of masterfully restored historic buildings and chic modern architecture well worth the walk and gander, so bring your comfiest shoes. 

Live Music

Downtown Fort Worth is also home to the city’s finer theaters, concert venues, and galleries, and you can catch just about any kind of performance, including symphony, ballet, opera, stage, musicals, and rock concerts at the Bass Performance Hall, with performances there several nights a week. All that just steps from some of Stay Alfred’s finest apartments. 

Up for more music? Along with the Bass Performance Hall, Cowtown has plenty of great spots for live music. Stop by downtown’s Scatt Jazz Lounge, to catch some local and national talent in this speakeasy-style haunt snuck into a subterranean venue. Fort Worth Live boasts superb bands, and has a calendar loaded with them, with songwriters and open-mic nights enjoyed in comfy, lounge-style surrounds as well as a great bar with tasty craft cocktails. And, the newly constructed Dickies Arena, a 14,000 seat multipurpose venue, features major performers from around the world. 

Green Spaces and Gardens Galore

Downtown is also your spot if you need to stretch your legs or if you’ve got kids in tow, offering you or the young ones a lovely green-space cooldown in Hyde Park, where you can escape the Fort Worth heat by catching a cool mist at Fort Worth Water Gardens and enjoy its dazzling, interactive display of pools and waterfalls. And, if you’re into hiking, birding, or canoeing or have a budding botanists in your crew, you’ll love a visit to Fort Worth Botanic Garden and its 3,621-acre preserved natural area featuring bison, prairie dogs, and more. It’s a bit west of downtown but worth the Uber and the time! 

Yep, downtown is cool as heck, and best of all, it’s an easy walk from your Stay Alfred travel apartment. Though, if you or the kiddos aren’t up for any more hoofing around, there’s always Molly the Trolley  a fun way to get you where you need to go – Cowtown-style!

Dining, Drinks, and Nightlife 

Now that you’ve seen some of Fort Worth’s big-ticket items you must be hankering for something to eat, or worked up a thirst something fierce, or maybe you’re just itchin’ to scoot your boots. Sundown spurs the fun in this distinctly Western city, with the tree-lit sidewalks of Sundance Square loaded with folks ambling to its happening’ honky-tonks, Western-style saloons, and tasty restaurants. 

First, let’s get some grub in yuh. For a quick but tasty burger, you can’t go wrong with The Bearded Lady, where you should go with this gastropub’s L.U.S.T. burger, a half-pound of beef with poblano, feta, avocado and gouda to die for. Dinner in downtown is best spent at Reata Restaurant a ranch-themed upscale eatery with the best Southwestern fare in town and a rooftop bar with views of Fort Worth.

Time for drinks and fun. We at Stay Alfred are always down with the misnomer-as-cover for tossing back a few adult beverages. If you are too, sashay over to Thompson’s “Bookstore”, a craft-cocktail joint set in a former bookstore with a speakeasy-style basement hideaway where you can sip up on the lowdown. If beer and pub fare and lots of fun is what you’re hankerin’ for, head straight on over to Flying Saucer, a zany, UFO-themed taproom featuring with over 200 global beers and tasty pub grub in, of course, saloon-like surrounds. 

Billy Bob’s Texas is a country and western nightclub located in the Fort Worth Stockyards area and touting itself as “The World’s Largest Honky Tonk” at 100,000 square feet. It’s mostly known for country music, but it’s been known to host historic acts such as Bob Hope and B.B. King. It was also the site where, in 1983, Merle Haggard bought 5,095, shots of whiskey, one for each concertgoer, earning Haggard a place in the Guinness Book of World Records and probably more applause than usual.  

Museums and Historic Sites

Along with all that fun Fort Worth action, the city offers plenty of major historic spots and museums depicting the Old West – can’t-miss sites if this is your first time traveling to these parts. 

Fort Worth’s National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame is dedicated to honoring pioneering women of the American West with exhibits such as Spirit of The Cowgirl Theater, a lifetiles murals gallery, and The Discovery Corral, which is perfect for kids. The main exhibit, The Hall of Fame Honoree Gallery, depicts competitive performers, ranchers entertainers, artists, writers, and rugged pioneers of the American West. The museum’s Into the Arena exhibit showcases women in the fields of rodeo and trick riding, as well as modern horsewomen still riding today. You’ll experience interactive computer displays, rodeo memorabilia, and, if you dare, an interactive bronc riding experience with the option to video yourself and edit that video into old-style rodeo. Yeehaw!! Kids can also saddle up a model Shetland pony, and there’s an old-time theater looping film about cowgirls in mass media.

A National Historic District, the Fort Worth Stockyards area was once one of the largest livestock markets in the United States and played a crucial role in Cowtown’s early growth. Today, the community boasts bustling honky tonk bars, restaurants, and notable country music venues such as the aforementioned Billy Bob’s. Fort Worth celebrity chef Tim Love operates multiple restaurants in the neighborhood for plenty of options when it comes to grub. The district’s original brick walkways, saloon-like venues, and wooden corrals take you back in time to Texas’s famous livestock industry, as do the Stockyards Ghost Tours, a 90-minute walking tour where guides share stories and a detailed history of the Stockyards. 

The National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum takes a look at the history and rich array of ethnicities that comprise the Amercian West, including Latino Americans, Native Americans, European Americans, and African Americans. Here, you’ll experience the work of historians, writers, and artists who documented the people and events of the American Frontier. From a Hall of Fame Gallery covering iconic frontier figures to visiting exhibits covering things like Comanche history, there’s no better spot to learn about the Old West. 

Stay Alfred, your place near all the Cowtown fun

With so much fun stuff to do in Fort Worth, there’s no quick draw about choosing where to stay. Instead of waking up to a Cowtown cattle drive, maybe you want to be close to Fort Worth’s gorgeous Bass Performance Hall. Options: Stay Alfred Fort Worth’s got ‘em. So, take off that Stetson and hang it here, pardner. Stay Alfred is your place in Cowtown. Now, let’s get you put up for the night, er, week, near all the fun in one of the many Stay Alfred travel apartments in Fort Worth. If we can provide any more advice on where to stay in Fort Worth, just give us a call at 1.866.232.3864. We’re always happy to help!