Blanco Hill Co

The guide

A weekend in
Blanco County

An hour west of Austin and an hour north of San Antonio there's a county with one stoplight town, a river worth swimming, a brewery you've already drunk, and a stretch of highway lined with wineries. Here's how we'd spend two days in it — built only from places we've actually been.

6 stops so far ~1 hr from Austin ~1 hr from San Antonio

The short version

Base yourself in Blanco — it's small, it's on the river, and you can walk the square. Spend Saturday afternoon on the 290 Wine Trail twenty minutes north around Johnson City, come back for dinner and a beer, and keep Sunday for the water and the drive home.

  1. Sat, late morning Drive up US-281 to Johnson City — about twenty minutes — and eat before you drink. The Local Bull does Wagyu smash burgers out of a butcher shop on Main Street.
  2. Sat afternoon Head west on 290 into the wineries. Lost Draw pours 100% Texas fruit on its own vineyard; Republic Wine Castle is an actual castle where a bootmaker will measure you between tastings. Two is plenty. Three is a decision.
  3. Sat evening Back down to Blanco. Real Ale Brewing Co. for a pint on the lawn if the taproom's open, then the square.
  4. Sat night Sleep on the square at The Hotel Henry, or stay up on the vineyard at Carter Creek if you'd rather have the pool in the morning.
  5. Sunday Blanco State Park is four blocks from the square — the river, a picnic table, and nowhere to be. Then home.

A word of warning that applies to the whole county: a lot of this is closed Monday and Tuesday, and taproom and tasting-room hours move with the season. Check before you drive.

Blanco, Texas

Home base

Nineteen hundred people, a courthouse from 1886, a state park on the river, and the brewery that put the town on tap handles everywhere else in Texas.

Johnson City, Texas

Up the road on 290

Twenty minutes north on US-281, where the 290 Wine Trail runs west and LBJ grew up. Most of our drinking stops are here.

Getting around

You need a car. Blanco sits on US-281; Johnson City is fifteen miles straight north, call it twenty minutes. From Johnson City the wineries run west along US-290 — the near ones are five minutes out of town, and you can string several together in an afternoon without ever driving more than ten minutes between them.

Austin is about an hour northeast, San Antonio about an hour south, and Fredericksburg another forty minutes west of the wineries if you want to make a bigger loop of it.

What we haven't gotten to yet

This is 6 stops out of a planned fifty-two, so there are obvious holes: Blanco State Park, the old courthouse and the shops around the square, Market Days on the third Saturday, the Lavender Festival in June, and the barbecue. They're on the list. If you think we're missing something that matters, tell us — @blancohillco is the fastest way to reach us.

The Blanco 52

We're 6 weekends in

A new stop most weekends, photographed the day we go. Follow along and you'll know where to go next before we've written it up.

Follow @blancohillco See all 6 stops →