Most destinations that offer a combo of European and WWII heritage aren’t on this side of the Atlantic, and they most certainly don’t have cowboys and pickups riding through their cores.
But all that—plus spectacular natural scenery and park preserves, wineries and a plethora of dining options—are in and around Fredericksburg in the Texas Hill Country.
It’s not as if this hamlet of 8,000 people located an hour from Austin and San Antonio needed any more bait to lure groups to its considerable small-town rural charms. It already has 300 B&Bs, guesthouses, monthly festivals such as Oktoberfest, 150 shops to lure spenders and browsers, and 60 restaurants and bakeries, including Rather Sweet, owned by the daughter of a national television broadcaster.
Fredericksburg was founded in 1846, and Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, commander in chief of Allied Forces in the Pacific during WWII, was born here. His grandfather ran a hotel, and today the restored original hotel facade on Main Street houses the National Museum of the Pacific War and the newly rebuilt Nimitz Event Center, where several spaces accommodate meetings and events of up to 750 people in a ballroom, boardroom and garden patio. Across the street there’s the Fredericksburg Brewing Company, overflowing with German “oompah” culture.
War heritage continues in the 1940s-style Hangar Hotel & Airport Conference Center, which was built to resemble an aircraft hangar next to the Gillespie County airport tarmac. Big band music and war-era poster art take guests back in history as they enter the 50-room boutique hotel, which has a small diner and plush leather and mahogany bar in the Officer’s Club. The conference hangar next to the hotel has just doubled in size to offer 20,000 square feet of event space.
There’s always something new to lure meetings to Europe in Central Texas.
