Get around San Antonio

[AJMike]

I believe this question was addressed a long time ago but I could not find anything in a search - well, actually I found so many posts with "Antonio" in it that it was impossible to narrow it down to anything reasonable, so here goes.

We typically drive through San Antonio along I-10 when heading from southern Arizona to South Padre Island, so we try to travel so that we get to San Antonio early on a Saturday or Sunday. Otherwise we are caught in heavy traffic and it is not a lot of fun getting through the city. One alternative I have thought about is going around the city - either by taking the 1604 highway or leaving I-10 at Kerrville and taking the back roads to somewhere below San Antonio. But since I have never done any of that I wanted to ask those who might have what the best alternative would be early - say 8 am or so - on a work day.

We don't generally travel far during the day but we would want to get from the Junction area to around Kingsville so that we would get to South Padre Island relatively early the next day. Any suggestions would be appreciated

[creativepart]

Well, 1604 is out - that's just as busy as I-10.

You can get off of I-10 in Boerne, TX and take Hwy 46 across to New Braunfels, TX

Here's a good route from I-10 West to South Padre that is 10 miles longer than going through town but will skirt SA the whole way. Here's a link that shows the route from I-10 out near Junction, TX through all the way to South Padre. (The map and GPS marks the place where I-10 changes from 80mph to 75mph as an major highway change and that's where this routing starts from.)

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/I-10...26.1118401!3e0

You Exit I-10 at Boerne, TX like I said onto Hwy 46. You go east on 46 for 44 miles to New Braunfels (wave when you go by the road to our house just .3 mile east of Hwy 46 and hwy 281 intersection). Once you get into New Braunfels you'll take Loop 337 East (you go north to go east there) to follow Hwy 46 all the way to Seguin, TX. from there you follow a couple of roads to head south on Hwy 181 to I-37 at Mathis just before you get to the split to Hwy 77 near Corpus.

Super coincidence... we're going to Goliad State Park tomorrow for the week and we will go this exact same way from our house - it's just not so far so we will be leaving the route along the way.

[AJMike]

Thank you for the suggestion. That bypass - Bourne to New Brunfels - is the way I got through San Antonio when we were on our way to Louisiana but it never occurred to me to try it on the way to South Padre Island.

[rk911]

to add..when we headed west back in february 1604 was under major construction from where it connects to I-10 east of the city for ~11-miles. and wb 10 from 1604 on the west side of SA to ~ the Boerne exit. that may be done by now but just in case.

and 10 was under major construction between ~ Beaumont to the LA line. and 10 thru LA...well, some things never change. we took US190/LA 12/TX12 between Baton Rouge and the TX line. 2-lane between TX line and Bagley where it changes to 4-lane. not a bad road west of I-49. east of I-49 it's a toss up with I-10.

be safe.

[creativepart]

Originally Posted by rk911

to add..when we headed west back in february 1604 was under major construction from where it connects to I-10 east of the city for ~11-miles. and wb 10 from 1604 on the west side of SA to ~ the Boerne exit. that may be done by now but just in case.

and 10 was under major construction between ~ Beaumont to the LA line.

Both construction areas on I-10 are still under construction. So is Hwy 281 north of 1604.

[creativepart]

Originally Posted by AJMike

Thank you for the suggestion. That bypass - Bourne to New Brunfels - is the way I got through San Antonio when we were on our way to Louisiana but it never occurred to me to try it on the way to South Padre Island.

It's pretty straight forward. So, if you know it from Boerne to New Braunfels you should have little problem with the rest of it after Seguin.

[AJMike]

What about the route through Kerrville down to Hondo and then to Pleasanton? Google Maps shows that as faster and shorter than through New Braunfels, but I have no idea what the road is like.

We will be in a 2018 Fuse and it is 24 feet long and about 10 feet 2 inches high and we will not be towing anything. I know the road to New Braunfels, having been on it several times when we were on our way to New Orleans, but what about the road to Hondo and Pleasanton?

My main concerns would be low bridges, very narrow roads and construction. We have driven through San Antonio the previous couple of years and I would rather not go through all of that construction again. The narrowness of the road with those concrete barriers is bad enough but the traffic and lane changing is not pleasant either.

[creativepart]

I don’t know Hwy 173. I’ve never taken it. I would assume it’s ok. I see nothing from the map that would give me pause.

I did a search and folks say it’s a good way to go. I’ve just never had reason to go that way.

[stoney1]

To respond to your post in a round about way we use Google Maps and filter it to exclude Interstates highways. We did this traveling from Florida to Texas then to Ohio. We generally drive no more than 250 miles a day and doing it this way only added about a half hour to our driving time. We saw lots of things we would never have seen. I was more relaxed driving, we encountered no problems and enjoyed the trip much more. Happy Trails