If traveling by air to attend this year’s film festival, it is recommended that you fly into San Antonio International Airport, just minutes from downtown San Antonio. An alternative, if needed, is the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, approximately eighty-five miles from downtown.

How to Get Around San Antonio

Thanks to readily available airport shuttles, public transportation, and downtown VIA Streetcars, you might not need to rent a car for your stay in San Antonio. If you decide to lodge at a hotel in close proximity to the Gonzalez Convention Center, a hotel shuttle or taxi may be sufficient to get you from the airport to your hotel, and back again. Getting around downtown is easy on foot and the VIA Streetcars are also available for 80¢ each way (click here for a route map and details).

Click here for interactive maps of downtown.

Historic Downtown Hotels

We recommend the following hotels because of their historical interest and significance. They are all located within blocks of the Gonzalez Convention Center. For a convenient list of additional lodging options, feel free to peruse the Convention and Visitors Bureau or get a quick list of nearby options from Yahoo! Yellow Pages.

The Menger Hotel

The Menger Hotel was constructed in 1859 under the direction of owner William A. Menger and architect John Fries. The original two-story building (pictured) occupies a prominent location in downtown San Antonio, only one-hundred yards from the site of the Alamo. It is the Menger that has housed personalities such as Theodore Roosevelt, Sidney Lanier, Babe Ruth, Mae West, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, and Gutzon Borglum, just to name a few.

More than 130 years of refinements have created a masterpiece of traditional elegance and atmosphere at the Menger. The hotel now boasts five stories, 316 rooms, and unparalleled amenities. Guests not only get to experience the history and charm of a national landmark, but also to enjoy the comfort of a high-class hotel. Although much of the architecture, history, appointments, and artifacts found at the Menger Hotel certainly qualify as museum-quality, it remains a public hotel — as it has been since twenty-three years after the fall of the Alamo.

204 Alamo Plaza
San Antonio, TX 78205
Toll-Free: (800) 345-9285
Telephone: (210) 223-4361
Fax: (210) 228-0022

The Gunter Hotel

The Sheraton Gunter Hotel’s roots date back to the first year of the Republic of Texas, and assures the Gunter a prominent place in Texas history. In 1837, the corner of what was then El Rincon and El Paseo was home to the Frontier Hotel. At the turn of the century, St. Mary’s Street and Houston Avenue had become a vital part of San Antonio’s business center. Jot Gunter and a group of investors decided what was needed was a palatial new structure that would meet the demands of the state’s most progressive city, and with that, The Gunter Hotel was born. In its illustrious history, the Gunter was the largest hotel west of the Mississippi.

In 1912, the National Association of Advertising Men gathered at the Gunter Hotel. Immediately they coined the phrase, “The Gunter Hotel, at the Center of Everything.” Today, with the remarkable growth and changes taking place along Houston Street, this eighty-nine-year-old slogan is still accurate!

205 East Houston St.
San Antonio, TX 78205
Telephone: (210) 227-3241

Emily Morgan Hotel

Its narrow footprint and imposing presence gives this building the illusion that it is much taller than thirteen stories. However, its Gothic Revival detailing is what has made it a landmark in San Antonio and a rarity in Texas and the western half of the United States. Originally constructed as the Medical Arts Building, its facade is made of ornately sculpted stone and terra cotta. In 1976 it was turned into office space, and then in 1985 became a hotel named after Emily Morgan, the woman believed to be the inspiration for the song, “The Yellow Rose of Texas.” History recalls her as the twenty-year-old who distracted Mexican general Santa Anna at the battle of San Jacinto, enabling the Texas revolutionaries to defeat the Mexican army.

705 East Houston
San Antonio, TX 78205
Telephone: (210) 225-5100
Fax: (210) 225-7227

The St. Anthony Hotel

Only a few days into the christening of 1909, the St. Anthony Hotel opened its doors to droves of anticipative patrons. Positioned as one of the most modern hotels ever created, visitors marveled at illuminated closets, bedroom lights that turned off when the door was locked from the outside, and the use of their very own private bath and toilet. These amenities, although small by today’s standards, set the stage for a series of hotel innovations that made the St. Anthony a leader on the technology curve. Following their grand opening, the hotel recorded a blistering year in revenue, allowing the financial backbone to create another tower before the year was through. Doubling capacity to a monstrous 430 beautifully furnished rooms, the St. Anthony was now being mentioned by the elite classes in the same breath as the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. Building a ninth and tenth floor onto the hotel with a renovation project that would combine the two towers into one infamous structure proved fruitful, as again, people flocked to the revived St. Anthony to bask in its high-class style and social meeting grounds. Adding to innovation was the ingenious plan of creating the very first central air-conditioning unit by utilizing the antique elevator shafts that were left over post-renovations. Air was cooled and then distributed throughout the building, which boded more visitors who desperately required a break from the Texas summer sun.

In 1941, a third ten-story building was completed, begging the question, “Will the hotel ever stop expanding?” Then, on December 7 of that same year, this question was answered when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and America was thrust into World War II. The St. Anthony would grow no larger... in size, that is.

With Hollywood fully behind the war efforts, such notables as Lucille Ball, Fred Astaire, and Judy Garland could be seen wandering the halls of St. Anthony’s promoting war bonds. Secret meetings and plans discussed with the arrivals of President Eisenhower, the Rockefellers, General Douglas MacArthur, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Princess Grace of Monaco.

300 East Travis
San Antonio, TX 78205
Telephone: (210) 227-4392
Fax: (210) 227-0915

Moderately Priced Downtown Hotels

Marriott — Rivercenter

101 Bowie St.
San Antonio, TX 78205
(210) 223-1000

Holiday Inn Historic Crockett Hotel — Alamo

320 Bonham St.
San Antonio, TX 78205
(210) 225-6500

Hampton Inn — Downtown River Walk Area

414 Bowie St.
San Antonio, TX 78205
(210) 225-8500

Economy Downtown Hotels

Comfort Suites — Downtown

1002 South Laredo
San Antonio, TX 78204
(210) 472-1002

Courtyard by Marriott — Downtown Market Square

600 Santa Rosa South
San Antonio, TX 78204
(210) 229-9449

Residence Inn — Alamo Plaza

425 Bonham St.
San Antonio, TX 78205
(210) 212-5555