Eilan Hotel & Spa

Eilan Hotel & Spa is located in San Antonio, Texas. San Antonio is a great town and area to visit. There is a great deal to do and see, and Texas as a State right now is a very popular travel destination.

The Eilan Hotel & Spa offers plenty of onsite amenities, including.

Villa Amenities

Then the resort itself offers all of these options.

Resort Amenities

It is not often that we see on-site Tennis available at a resort or the onsite SPA as well. Those and other exceptional features are part of what makes this a wonderful resort.

You will not that this particular resort does not offer an in-room or villa kitchen but you do have access to a mini-fridge and coffee maker for snacks and those early morning pick-me-ups.

Villas start at 365-745 square feet in size. Onsite dining and restaurants are available, as well as an expansive fitness center, pools, and even a sauna and steam room.

Video by Global Village

Day One Arrival at Eilan Hotel & Spa

I had flown into San Antonio Airport which is a nice airport. I was able to find a flight that had only a modest layover from Virginia, so the entire travel time for me was only about 7 hours. So, while it involved the flight, it was a better option than the drive even for someone who loves a good drive like me. Driving would have been about 24 hours of constant driving to get here by car, so the flight was the way to go for sure.

The location at 18603 La Cantera Terrace, San Antonio, TX 78256 is easy to find and a short drive from the airport. Google maps will tell you the trip from the airport located at 9800 Airport Blvd, San Antonio, TX 78216 should take almost 30 minutes, and I found that to be a high estimate. Perhaps they were taking business hour traffic into consideration.

It is a fairly straight trip with only one road switch until you are almost at the resort. The resort itself is off of Route 10 and easy to locate. These days it is hard to remember what we did before smartphones to find locations. Real-time digital maps and phones do make things easy.

I do remember years ago on a trip to Disney that the map app sent me to the back employee gate at Disney. I am happy to report they seem to have great security as large car barriers emerged from the roadway entrance as security assisted my family and me. Funny memory. Most of the time that GPS and mapping are better than those these days, and this was a great example of it making things easy.

Keep in mind this resort has many controls in place for customer experience. This may be fine with all visitors, but these are things to be aware of when choosing your resort.

Parking – Valet parking only. Owners $20/night; all other guests $35/night.

Washers and Dyers – No washers and dryers for guest use. However, the resort does have a laundry service for a fee.

Pet policy:

No Pets Allowed. Subject to a $300 fine.

Smoking policy:

Non-smoking, including electronic cigarettes. Subject to a $300 fine.

Their website is clear on these items and I wanted to share them here. With what you save on the room rates through TZort the valley fees and other charges may not be an issue for most but just be aware of those for yourself before your stay.

Deposit required:

Upon check-in, each reservation requires a major credit card for a $200 Pre-Authorization. Cash is not accepted.

Those covers I believe the main items you will find out at check-in.

The deposit via credit card is standard at every resort, it is just a variation on the credit card authorization size that may vary from one resort to another.

Some reviews from people who have stayed here before.

Great location, comfortable and spacious villas.

Beautiful hotel and villas, we decided to bring one of the children (18); we booked two rooms. Amazing customer service and the valet was awesome. Loved the experience.

Great location. Beautiful resort!!

Much better than expected!

Great location

The rooms were spacious, and the hotel was beautiful. The staff was very helpful and accommodating to our needs. We decided not to valet park due to it being $20 a day, but the closest parking lot was a long walk. It would have been nice if the lot was more convenient.

For me, the resort offers a good deal of extras at the resort which makes it a good choice. If you use the onsite dining, fitness, laundry service, and SPA, you will get a great deal out of your visit from this resort. While there are some added fees associated with some of those, they are very nice options to have.

We all know as an example that room service is not cheap in nice hotels, yet because of convenience and for the experience many of us often get room service. I feel the same way about adding on options like spa services. If you use them, you may love them and they may add to your overall travel experience.

After checking in, I made my normal tour of the resort. The fitness room and SPA were great. I immediately made an appointment for a massage when seeing the SPA area. It just looked top-notch.

I like having the sauna and steam rooms available as well. If I do take time to work out when traveling, then I want one or both of those available for recovering afterward and this resort has both.

For the SPA, there is an entire treatment menu you can review and choose from. The resort restaurant also has its food menus available online too.

I looked forward to trying either the Brick Oven Pizza or the Campfire Queso. Brick oven pizza often means a great crunchy crust that does compliment a great slice of pizza. But for snacking it is hard to beat a great Queso dip. Here in Texas, I was thinking that would be a great one.

Texas has great chefs that do that special Tex-Mex food that is so well thought of.

This resort is very close to a Six Flags location, so I hoped to get there tomorrow and check it out.

Tonight, however, I was a little tired from the flight and travel so I thought I would just get some Togo from somewhere nearby and take it back to the room. I headed just across the road to a local Whataburger. If you are not familiar, this is a fast-food chain that as the name says focuses on the celebration of the burger.

They have a patty melt that is a solid choice, so I grabbed one of those and some friends and a hot apple pie. Very basic, but good for fast food. Normally I share with you some fun local places but sometimes things are just about fast and easy. And this was one of those moments. Also, I think we go to chains sometimes to get a basic level of items we can expect.

On some level, it seemed silly to stay in a nice resort eating some fast food. But hey sometimes you want what you want.

Day Two at Eilan Hotel & Spa

I woke to starving from my solo fast-food meal the night before. So, I broke my rule or goal of going on the chain again by going to an IHOP again right across the road from the resort. I had seen it the night before and wanted a big breakfast.

I like their Country Fried Steak breakfast with pancakes, eggs, and sides. I might have it 2 times a year or less, but I like it. The country gravy they use is likely from the same vendor as another national chain’s gravy, but that does not mean that Cracker Barrel or theirs does not taste good.

After the breakfast of overweight champions everywhere (joking), I headed for Six Flags. I grew up close to Bush Gardens and went there a lot as a child and even worked one summer there at 17. This means I like amusement parks. Call me an amusement park fan.

Six Flags are not very close to my home but I have been to a few traveling over the years. I like them, and they are a more affordable park than many. Tickets for the day are $30 or less and they often have special or discount promotions going. So this makes the parks affordable for most and great for families who have many to purchase tickets for.

This particular Six Flags, has many rides including some calmer rides, water rides, and other options versus just the amazing roller coasters. They also have live entertainment and shows. Six Flags like most amusement parks also have tons of food and snack options. This location has several Johnny Rockets in the park, BBQ, Cooked Turkey Legs, and a great deal of the standard state fair or amusement park kind of options.

While I liked the Flintstones as a child, I cannot get into carrying the turkey legs around the park and snacking on them, hey but to each their own.

I enjoyed this park a great deal and spend most of the day here from when they opened just after my IHOP breakfast.

This was my first time to San Antonio,, so I did leave because I wanted to see more of the town. I have clients in Austin, Texas, and friends in Dallas, and Tyler Texas so I have been to Texas on many occasions but just not San Antonio.

There is a great deal to do and see in the area. One thing that I have heard about is their River Walk. So that was my next step on my trip today.

After arriving in the area, I chose to take a boat ride with a local provider. This was a great call. It was a chance to sit down after tons of walking and see much of the area. Go Rio Cruises was the company name, and they provided a great experience and service. I took the narrated river cruise, which is a little more than a half-hour, but informative and fun.

They also provide a shuttle service with these boats that makes it easy to get around the 15-mile Riverwalk area. You just follow the signs and get on the boat from the pickup and drop-off areas. You can get a 1-2-3 day pass that is unlimited and affordable. Riverwalk is something everyone should experience if they have time when in town.

After a great full day, I was starting to feel a little worn out. It was a lot of walking, but it was fun and engaging.

For dinner afterward, I was going to make it a 3 in a row with chain restaurants. But this was a chain I had never been to before in all of my travels. Maggianos and the menu looked good online. So, with a location near the resort, I said “I am all in” and I chose to get some Italian food tonight.

I had a hard time picking myself, but I chose Chicken Parmesan. It was between that and Mom’s Lasagna. When places do that and put “Mom’s” labeling on it, I usually give it a try. Tonight, however (maybe I smelt too many turkey legs) I wanted the chicken parmesan for some fowl for dinner. It was very good, especially from a chain.

The site for this chain shares the chef that cooks at your location the website. Which is a neat thing to do? Gives you the sense that it is not just a standard line cook preparing your meal. That is a neat thing to do on a website for sure.

After dinner, it was off to bed and another early start tomorrow.

Day Three the Alamo

I was going to start my day as a history fan at the Alamo. I have wanted to see this site for a long time. Basically, from my preteen years when I first watched the original movie replay with my grandmother. One of the things we did together was watching old westerns and movies. This was the one with John Wayne so it made our viewing list many times. In the years since I have also enjoyed several of the remakes.

The story is compelling about the brave men who stood against overwhelming odds. It was about their courage and the strength of character of men that seem so unfamiliar in our world today.

The visit was something that hit me hard. Not as hard as my visit to the Holocaust Museum in DC, but powerful. Travis and the many other more famous men who fought so bravely should not be forgotten any more than the 300 who stood at Thermopylae. There are times in our history when brave people come together and do something extraordinary. Remembering their actions, and the situation that surrounded them is important to us all but especially us history fans.

As George Santayana said, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.

Or Napoleon, “History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.”

“To the victor goes the spoil, and that is to write the history.” Harry Warrick.

The Alamo is a powerful spot to visit. But after that, I wanted to see some art while I was in town. San Antonio has some amazing artists and art galleries.

I started my art journey at the museum of art instead of a gallery. I figured I would visit some of those next. The art collections here are from art truly from all over the world. It is an impressive group of collections.
You could spend half a day or more here. I spent 4 hours and still felt I was cheating myself and not seeing it all.

I challenge anyone to find a flaw in the work of the artist
Hiram Powers is on exhibit here. Some of the finest sculptures I have seen.

In this impressive city, there are many artist collectives. I went to visit Gallery SA. There were works here from local artists that ran the price range, and talent range. Art like beauty is often in the eye of the beholder. However, art pricing seems to know no reason. Even as a painter who sells his art and art prints, I can not grasp how the market works.

The nice thing about art collectives is that they are less about games than some other gallery formations, and this one seemed to have a great mix of talent, and a lot of work for sale. They also do a great job of promoting the art and selling it online. Which is a neat thing as well.

After the art, it was time to go back to the resort to sleep and then get up early in the morning to catch my flight out. So early that other than the trip back to the airport there is or was nothing to share.

When you want to take trips as I do and have the time of your life, remember to travel with TZort.