Dallas walking tour & city guide

Dealey Plaza and the West End

Dealey Plaza, at the western edge of downtown, is where Kennedy was shot. The former Texas School Book Depository now houses The Sixth Floor Museum, which tells the story of his life and death. Nearby is the simple open-roofed JFK Memorial.

The surrounding West End Historic District has red-brick warehouses from the early 1900s, and the old courthouse, known as Old Red, now holds a museum of Dallas history.

The Arts District and Klyde Warren Park

The Dallas Arts District is one of the largest in the United States, with the Dallas Museum of Art, the Nasher Sculpture Center and concert halls designed by famous architects. Right next to it, Klyde Warren Park is built on a deck over a freeway, with lawns, food trucks and free events.

A classic walk from downtown to Deep Ellum

Start at Dealey Plaza and walk east along Elm Street through downtown, passing Pegasus, the red flying horse sign that is the symbol of Dallas, and the Main Street District with its restored early skyscrapers. Thanks-Giving Square, a peaceful garden with a spiral chapel, is a short detour.

Keep heading east under the freeway and you arrive in Deep Ellum, a former warehouse district famous for blues and jazz in the 1920s. Today its walls are covered in murals, and its streets are full of live music bars, tattoo shops and barbecue joints. The whole walk is about 3 kilometers.

Visiting tips

Spring and autumn are the best seasons; Texas summers are very hot. The DART light rail and the free M-Line vintage trolley in Uptown help you get around. Fort Worth, with its cowboy Stockyards, is less than an hour away.