As the second-biggest city in Texas’s largest metro area, Fort Worth has much more to offer than one might fist assume. “Cowtown”—a long-standing nickname nodding to the city's formative historical cattle industry—has plenty to satisfy if you’d like to dive deep into Old West romance. Yet that’s only one component of an impressively rich arts-and-culture scene in Fort Worth that includes some superb museums and botanical gardens among its offerings.
Boasting numerous family attractions, plenty of scenic natural areas and first-rate shopping and dining spots, Fort Worth adds up to be one of the Lone Star State’s standout travel destinations.
1. Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
3200 Darnell St, Fort Worth, TX
Dating back to 1892, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth manages one of the country’s leading collections of modern and contemporary art within the Fort Worth Cultural District. The appeal comes not only from the works by Picasso, Warhol, Sherman, Pollock, Rothko and others, but also from the building itself, designed by legendary architect Tadao Ando.
2. The National Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame
1720 Gendy St, Fort Worth, TX
The 33,000-square-foot National Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame, situated in the Fort Worth Cultural District, tells the story of and pays tribute to women who symbolize defining qualities of the American West and continue to inspire new generations. The museums details history ranging from Sacagawea and Annie Oakley to Laura Ingalls Wilder and Sandra Day O’Connor. Explore exhibits, galleries, theater presentations and all of the numerous archives within.
3. Fort Worth Zoo
1989 Colonial Pkwy, Fort Worth, TX
Cowtown lays claim to a world-class zoological institution in the form of the Fort Worth Zoo, which houses nearly 550 species. That menagerie includes bonobos (rare in U.S. zoos), the world’s most successful breeding colony of lesser flamingos and one of the country’s biggest reptile collections, among other notable distinctions.
4. Texas Motor Speedway
3545 Lone Star Circle, Fort Worth, TX
A truly hallowed hub of racing, the Texas Motor Speedway—also widely known as “The Great American Speedway”—hosts rip-roaring NASCAR and IndyCar Series events a mere 20 miles from Downtown Fort Worth. This super-speedway’s known for BIG HOSS, at 20,633 square feet the biggest high-definition video board on the planet.
5. LEGOLAND Discovery Center
3000 Grapevine Hills Pkwy, Grapevine, TX
One of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex’s top family attractions—boasting a fascinating brick replica of the cityscape—LEGOLAND Discovery Center delights the younger crowd with hands-on building, rides, the Pirate Beach water playground, virtual-reality dazzlement and more.
6. Amon Carter Museum of American Art
3501 Camp Bowie Blvd, Fort Worth, TX
The classic paintings and sculptures by Old West masters Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell that founded this museum (another linchpin attraction in the Fort Worth Cultural District) remain big draws, for sure. There are, however, plenty of other treasures among the large permanent collection of American art, plus always-stimulating exhibitions.
7. The Fort Worth Herd Cattle Drive
Head on down to the Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District at 11:30 AM or 4 PM and watch (weather-permitting) as the clock is turned back to the days of the Chisholm Trail. Witness as authentically dressed drovers accompany the famous Fort Worth Herd of Texas longhorn steers down East Exchange Avenue.
8. Trinity Park
2401 University Drive, Fort Worth, TX
Comprising 252 acres along the Trinity River, this is Fort Worth’s oldest city park, dating back to 1892. A great fresh-air nature-in-the-city escape, Trinity Park includes playgrounds, a basketball court, a duck pond and the Forest Park Miniature Train, plus access to the 100-plus hike-able and bikeable miles of the Trinity River Trails.
9. Fort Worth Museum of Science & History
1600 Gendy St, Fort Worth, TX
As one of numerous top-line draws in the Cultural District, the Fort Worth Museum of Science & History appeals to all ages with exhibits ranging from dinosaur fossils and drilling rigs to explorations of the Native American cultures of the Great Plains. Included within are a children’s museum, the Cattle Raisers Museum, the Omni Theater IMAX dome and the eye-popping Noble Planetarium.
10. Bass Performance Hall
525 Commerce St, Fort Worth, TX
The resplendent Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall is a cultural touchstone of Fort Worth. Catch a program of the Fort Worth Opera, Texas Ballet Theater or Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra—all of which call Bass Performance Hall home base—or take in a Broadway production or touring act. This is also the venue for the well-known Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, a sure bucket-list event for music lovers. An architectural landmark of Downtown’s Sundance Square district, Bass Performance Hall is also renowned for such striking design features as the 80-foot-diameter Great Home atop the Founders Concert Theater.
11. Chisholm Trail Mural
400 Main Street, Fort Worth, TX
Swing by Main and 3rd to clap eyes on the signature public art of Downtown Fort Worth, adorning the Jett Building in Sundance Square. With this three-story trompe l’oeil mural (that is, a two-dimensional painting suggesting three-dimensionality), artist Richard Haas paid homage to the Chisholm Trail, that long-distance cattle-drive route from Texas to Kansas which raised dust for decades in the second half of the 19th century.
12. Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge
9601 Fossil Ridge Rd, Fort Worth, TX
This is a key location to see some of the Fort Worth area’s natural ecosystems, as this 3,621-acre refuge is among the country’s biggest city-owned nature centers and a federally designated National Natural Landmark. Foray amid prairies, bottomland forests and oak mottes along better than 20 miles of hiking trails. Here you can admire the refuge’s very own herd of American bison: the heftiest land mammal on the continent and very much native to this corner of Texas.
13. Sundance Square Plaza
Heart of the 37-square-block Sundance Square entertainment district, Sundance Square Plaza delights with its sparkling fountains and a permanent stage serving up regular free live music. Outdoor flicks and yoga classes are among the other regular happenings at this 55,000-square-foot hub.
14. Fort Worth Botanic Garden
3220 Botanic Garden Blvd, Fort Worth, TX
Fort Worth boasts the oldest botanical garden in Texas and certainly holds its own with any other in the country. Within its lovely grounds you’ll find more than 2,500 species of plants and nearly two dozen specialty gardens, including a celebrated Japanese Garden and Rose Garden. Other enticements include a native forest boardwalk and the Philecology Herbarium, one of the biggest of its kind in the U.S.
15. Billy Bob’s Texas
2520 Rodeo Plaza, Fort Worth, TX
Locals might suggest that no trip to Fort Worth is quite complete without a visit to the biggest honky-tonk in the world: the iconic Billy Bob’s Texas. Besides the nightly live music, dancing and crowd-pleasing eats, this Fort Worth institution offers pool, arcade games and other entertainment, plus live bull riding on Fridays and Saturdays within its own indoor rodeo arena.
16. Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo
3400 Burnett Tandy Dr, Fort Worth, TX
The most venerable event of its kind anywhere, the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo has been an annual tradition in Cowtown since 1896. This 23-day wintertime extravaganza, usually running between January and February, presents such thrilling contests as the Best of the West Ranch Rodeo, Cowboys of Color Rodeo, Bulls Night Out Extreme Bull Riding and Best of Mexico Celebración, plus live music, carnival fun, livestock shows and other delights.
17. Panther City Lacrosse
Fort Worth sets its visitors up nicely for enjoying live sports, not least the NFL, NBA, NHL and other major-league thrills in nearby Dallas and Arlington. But Cowtown has its very own professional sporting franchise courtesy of the National Lacrosse League’s Panther City Lacrosse Club, which played its first season in 2021-2022. Catch some fast-paced indoor (or box) lacrosse action over at Dickies Arena, set near the Cultural District and the Will Rogers Memorial Center.
18. Fort Worth Water Gardens
1502 Commerce St, Fort Worth, TX
This mesmerizing urban oasis of a park, designed in the mid-1970s by Philip Johnson and John Burgee, features terraced cascades, waterfalls and pools. The falling sheets and pour-offs, coupled with shade trees and nighttime lights, create quite a display. Set on the south side of Downtown, the Fort Worth Water Gardens make a superb place for some relaxing reflection. (Cinephiles, meanwhile, might recognize the spot from its cameo in the sci-fi film Logan’s Run.)
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