Santa Clara to Fort Worth train

Santa Clara is a city in the San Francisco Bay Area, home to Santa Clara University, the San Francisco 49ers, and many of Silicon Valley's prominent tech companies. The Intel Museum, at Intel's headquarters, is the perfect place to celebrate technological advances and see exhibits like a giant replica of an Intel computing chip. The Intel Museum is free to visit, as is the Triton Museum of Art, home to contemporary artworks from Bay Area artists.

If you'd rather escape the fast-paced world of tech, the Santa Clara Valley is also home to over 30 wineries that encourage visitors to take it slow and relax a while. Drink in the view as you sip the wines at Kirigin Cellars, one of the oldest wineries in California.

Santa Clara is a fabulous city for a family vacation, too, just maybe without the winery visits. Instead, treat the kids to thrills at California's Great Adventure amusement park and South Bay Shores water park.

Santa Clara is one of the stops on the Capitol Corridor train that runs from San Jose to Sacramento. Amtrak Thruway provides a few bus trips out of Santa Clara, but there are even more options departing from its neighbors, San Jose and San Francisco. The closest major airport to Santa Clara is the San Jose Airport, but it also convenient to fly into San Francisco or Oakland.

Much more than an afterthought to nearby Dallas, Fort Worth is an exciting destination in its own right. Fort Worth is one of the largest cities in Texas and in the United States overall, because, as we all know, everything is bigger in Texas. With the motto "City of Cowboys and Culture," Fort Worth has activities, sights, and experiences to deliver on both of those fronts.

If you dressed as a cowboy for Halloween as a child (or last year), your first stop should be the Fort Worth Stockyards. Once a livestock market, the Stockyards are now a National Historic District characterized by restaurants, bars, Old-West themed shopping, and live music. Here you can see real Texas Longhorns on a cattle drive twice a day, or attend the Stockyards Championship Rodeo, held every weekend at the Cowtown Coliseum. Can you see why we named Fort Worth one of the best vacation destinations in Texas?

If you're more intrigued by Fort Worth's cultural offerings, you'll be wowed by the breadth of museums to visit. Admire the art at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth or the Kimbell Art Museum (whose architecture is a work of art in itself). Outdoor oases like the Fort Worth Botanic Garden and Fort Worth Water Gardens will bring a breath of fresh air - not to mention a chance to dip your feet in the water to cool off.

Luckily, there's no need to ride a horse into Cowtown. Bus service from several local and national carriers, as well as Amtrak train service, make it easy to get to Fort Worth from cities throughout the U.S. Plus, with proximity to one of the world's busiest airports, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, you can visit Fort Worth from nearly anywhere on the globe.