MARFA, Texas | What To Do | When To Go | A Visual Tour

MARFA, Texas | What To Do | When To Go | A Visual Tour

Overview

Marfa is a small city located in the high desert of West Texas in the United States. It has a population of around 1,800 and is known for its unique art scene, minimalist architecture, and natural beauty. It's also well known for a movie called The Giant, shot in 1955, starring Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean.

Marfa is a really cool city, and it's close to us. We're in El Paso, so it's about three hours from El Paso. If you like Airstream trailers and aluminum trailers, which we do, and if you like cool, artsy stuff, like this sculpture I found out in the middle of nowhere while I was running, it's a great place. So let's jump in and give you a visual tour of all the different things in Marfa.

Where We Stayed

We stayed in a nice little Airbnb right off the main road, a converted gas station that's been turned into lodging. Leah was just in Nashville the other week, and it sounds like converting old gas stations into different types of spaces is a pretty popular thing right now. For us, it worked out great. We had our two dogs with us, and this place allowed dogs, so it was super easy, very conveniently located, and a pretty pleasant stay, other than the fact that the two dogs wanted to be on the bed, and it's a full bed, so it was a bit crowded.

A Brief History

The area around Marfa has been inhabited by various indigenous tribes for thousands of years, and it later became part of Mexico when the country gained independence from Spain. In the 1800s, the United States began to expand westward and claim the land, eventually establishing Fort D.A. Russell in the area, which has since been converted into a massive art space that we'll show you later. The town of Marfa itself was founded in 1883 as a railroad stop, and it was named after the wife of a railroad executive.

The Town Today

Like any older town, Marfa has a lot of cool old stuff, but with a strong tourism and tax base, they have plenty of money for things like skate parks. They have nice schools, and a lot of the buildings have been refurbished and taken care of, everything is in really nice shape. Prospering is probably one way to describe Marfa right now, with tons of public art around, which is part of that huge art scene we're going to show you.

If you're more interested in a relaxing vacation with some shopping, there are plenty of options too. We didn't go too crazy on shopping, but there were plenty of stores. One thing Marfa is notorious for is not having regular business hours. We were pretty lucky, most of the places we went to were open even though we were there during the early part of the week. A lot of times places aren't open Monday through Wednesday, but Thursday through Sunday there's a pretty good chance you'll find something open.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the time of year you go matters. We went in March and the weather was still great, so spring and fall are awesome. But if you come in the summer, it's going to be really hot, and a lot of places may not be open.

Food, Coffee, and Nightlife

There are tons of food options. We went to this place twice, Astor, I believe it was called, because they had gluten-free options for Leah. They allowed dogs, like most places do, it's a very dog-friendly place. We also checked out the Water Stop, which had some great drinks and fun food options.

No matter what type of food you're into, there are some really great places, and no shortage of coffee shops. One place was right across the street from us, where we could get coffee out of this cool old trailer, along with great pastries. They also have a coffee roastery here, if that's a word, so that was pretty awesome, coffee definitely seems to be a big deal here. Frauma was another place we went to one morning. There's no shortage of coffee places in Marfa, places where you can hang out, get a snack, chill out, or just get some fuel for the day before you start your adventures.

They also have a pretty good nightlife. This place was also right across the street from us, I think it's called Planet Marfa. We were there on a Wednesday night, they'd had live music the night before and karaoke, so if you're looking to get out and do the nightlife thing, there's plenty of that, though it's probably more aimed at weekends.

And finally, there's Margaret's. This was our favorite food place, we went there on the last night. Really great, we loved the food, and we loved the communal seating and the food offerings they had.

The Hotel Paisano

If Airbnbs aren't your thing, one really cool option is the Hotel Paisano. I'm no history expert, but this is basically where the cast of The Giant stayed during the filming of the movie. The hotel has tons of history, with a whole homage to the movie, there was even a room where the movie was running the whole time.

What's really cool is that this building was built by Trost and Trost. Henry Trost is a very famous architect in El Paso who built a ton of buildings there, and it sounds like his company also designed this hotel, which is really awesome. They also had lots of cool little shopping options, and a tiny little art gallery too.

Art Galleries

There is art all around the city, lots of public art, different sculptures and things like that. But there are also some very formal art galleries throughout town, and these are pretty awesome. I'll be honest, I'm not a huge art buff, I like looking at this stuff, but it's not something I get super excited about. Still, in these different art galleries we saw some really cool things. This cement works place was pretty awesome. We wanted to go into Garza, it sounds like that's a gentleman who builds really awesome furniture and textiles, but we didn't catch them when they were open.

We saw tons of really cool art. There's an Andy Warhol exhibit that's only open on Friday and Saturday. A place called Wrong had some super cool, really edgy stuff. I had to be careful because I guess it's not okay to take pictures of the art, which I can understand. But trust me, there are a lot of really cool art galleries here if that's your thing, and lots of really cool architecture to explore too.

Donald Judd and the Chinati Foundation

Speaking of architecture and art, I'm not a complete expert on this, but there was a gentleman named Donald Judd, who I believe was from Marfa, and he has a lot of art here. The coolest thing about him is that outside of town there's an area called the Chinati Foundation. This used to be the old Fort D.A. Russell that the military had, and I don't know if he purchased it, but these old army barracks, mess halls, horse stables, and all of that, he converted into public art exhibition spaces in those big buildings.

You see a bunch of different aluminum sculptures that he made, and he also made these rectangular concrete buildings that are spaced out throughout the property. You can explore the big barrack buildings there, walk through them, and they have different art exhibits throughout. It's a really cool space, definitely worth checking out.

More Things to Do

If art isn't your thing, there are a couple of other great options. There's a golf course in Marfa, I believe it's the highest elevation golf course in Texas. This was filmed in March, so everything hadn't greened up yet, but I'm sure in a month or so it's nice and green. If golf is more your thing, that's a great option, I actually took the dogs there since there's a big park, and ran them around a lot.

If you're willing to make a bit of a drive, you can also get to the McDonald Observatory, about an hour away. These are big, massive telescopes peering into the sky, and you can do tours of them. There are multiple telescopes there, not just one, I think this one was an older one, but I thought it looked really cool. It's also a really great drive, just beautiful. One of the things people say about Marfa is that the landscape around it is gorgeous, kind of like prairie land meets rolling hills and small mountains. The observatory was a really good time.

The Marfa Lights

One of the most famous stories associated with Marfa is the Marfa Lights, mysterious glowing orbs that appear on the horizon outside of town. Some believe the lights are supernatural, while others attribute them to natural causes like car headlights or atmospheric conditions. We went to the viewing area one night, but we didn't see anything.

Wrapping Up

We had a great time and spent about three days there. There's a ton of stuff to do, and I'd encourage you to go in either spring or fall. I'd avoid summer because it gets really hot, come May it's just too hot. Winter is probably cooler, just a little sleepier since the weather isn't as conducive to tourism. We're actually heading to Big Bend today to do some hiking.

What you're seeing here is just a bunch of houses. As a real estate agent, I think houses are pretty interesting, and many of the houses in Marfa have been remodeled into something really interesting. There's a lot of adobe and stucco, lots of brick homes like this big old one, and steel roofs are definitely a big thing. The landscaping was also really cool. We'll leave you with a little house montage of what it looks like around town.

If you go to Marfa, let us know what you think in the comments. If you've been there before and think we missed something, let us know, we're sure we'll go back. It's an easy three-hour drive from El Paso, which is where we are. That's it for this episode, and we'll see you in the next one.