Texas Renaissance Festival

23rd Oct 2011

It was one of the rare beautiful weekends that we had in houston in long time and as they say here in houston you should enjoy the good weather while it lasts as you blink your eyes and it might be gone! So we decided it was perfect timing for us to visit the "Texas Renaissance Festival", one of the most coveted event in houston, almost as much as Rodeo if not more. And what more it was a Pirates Theme weekend which is supposed to be one of the best one. People dressed in cute and sexy pirate dresses can't go wrong, can they?

Texas Renaissance festival is the European style festival where people from all around the world gather at the place near Plantsville TX, around 50 miles from houston creating the atmosphere of ancient European countries. There are lots and lots of shows for the audience to enjoy. Some of which includes puppet, dance, music, free style, ballet and lots more. It runs from second weekend of October till the Thanks giving weekend and It only runs on the weekend. I wonder what they do during the weekdays. Thousands of performers around the wold come here and create a small town for almost two months. There are lots and lots of things to do besides the shows, like face painting, henna, tattoo parlor, unique hands in wax, rock climbing, paint ball, shooting, darts and children activities also like pony rides, elephant and camel rides, petting zoo and lots of games for the kids. You have to pay each of these activities of course, but its surely a day full of fun and enjoyment. We had a very nice time together as a family.

There is of course food, yumm. I always wanted to try that turkey leg from the day I saw it on Rodeo, though I didn't get a chance to eat there, I made sure my desire gets satisfied here. Its a full leg of turkey barbecued on charcoal grill with some spices and its delicious for a meal. We also tried Greek Gyros that was pretty good too. There are hundreds of eateries all around with different kind of food and one can eat whatever he wants.

Important thing here is though to reach there early. It opens at 9:00 am but if you really want to avoid traffic try to reach there much before that! We had a really hard time on one stretch as it is just a single lane, as you would expect in a small town of mangolia and it was one of the worst slow moving traffic I have ever seen. Also  while coming back, one can not leave early without missing excellent night fire and laser show which ofcourse happens after the dusk. So one will anyways have to get stuck while coming back.

Tickets are not that cheap 25$ if you buy at the gate. Though it makes sense to buy it at your local HEB grocery store for 20$. Food is not that expensive inside the village, and most rides and games are 4-5$ each. So we should make sure to have some cash. Though there are enough ATMs inside the village, if one doesn't mind paying those "extra" fees. We are surely the ones who mind it !

Overall a great way to spend a day on a weekend, if possible one can even do the camping at night and spend a full weekend . I'll surely go back next year!