Between its Gulf Coast in the southeast and the Red River boundary in the north there are plains, rolling hills, lakes, soaring mountains, bogs, beaches and desert. In Texas' large cities like Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio, it is possible to swap the bright lights for a day at the ranch at the drop of a cowboy hat, or soak up culture at a world-class art gallery before taking a stroll through a scenic park. Outside the urban enclaves Texas has 23-million acres of woodlands, including four national forests and 125 state parks, from the great pine forests of the south and east to the rugged mountains of the west.
Most are aware that Texas is home to the largest oil industry in the US, but visitors are generally surprised to discover that the state has one of the country's biggest wine-growing regions too; that Austin is a musical Mecca; that Texas is leading the country in high-tech production; and that it is at the heart of a gourmet movement with some of the nation's finest restaurants within its borders.
Capital of Texas, the city of Austin lies almost in the centre of the state, a big city with a small town feel, young population, casual lifestyle and reputation as a Mecca for live music shows.
Home of the University of Texas campus, Austin life is closely entwined with the energy and enthusiasm of its 60,000 students, but this city that has been a state capital since 1838 does not ignore its history. Young people are drawn here too by the array of live concerts that are held frequently around the shores of Town Lake. Most famous of these events is the annual South by Southwest music festival-conference held each March. Visitors wanting to tune in to Austin's live musical repertoire, which spans everything from blues and country to reggae, simply have to drift down the famous Sixth Street strip of pubs and clubs any night of the week. Austin's laid-back attitude lends itself to the great outdoors, and the city has miles of hiking and biking trails linking parks, preserves and greenbelts adding to the ambience of its leafy streets.
The massive metropolis of Houston, sprawling across the Gulf Coast plain of East Texas from its busy port, is almost twice the size of the entire state of Rhode Island. Even with this heavy urban concentration, though, Houston is green and lush, sited at the end of a belt of forest coming down from the north, and characterised by marshlands and bayous lined with cypress trees in the southern reaches.
Houston, named after former Republic of Texas president Sam Houston, is hot and humid. To make life more bearable in the close-packed downtown area much activity has gone underground. The city center sports an air-conditioned seven-mile (11km) pedestrian tunnel system full of restaurants and shops. Unlike most cities, downtown in Houston is the hub of residential development, so it remains busy and bustling long after dark.
Texas' largest city is not generally a sought after tourist destination, being concerned more with business than pleasure and leisure. Computer manufacture, gas and oil, and a huge concentration of medical institutions account for most of the economic activity, but all those hard-working citizens have to play sometimes, and there are some good attractions like excellent museums, the amazing Astrodome sports pavilion and its attendant theme park, AstroWorld, some wonderful theatres and, thanks to the cosmopolitan mix of its residents, some ethnically diverse cuisine in its many restaurants and neighborhoods. For visitors the absolute "must-see" in Houston is the famed Johnson Space Center, mission control for the US space program.
The two biggest cities in North Texas, Dallas and Fort Worth, are 30 miles (48km) apart but have been drawn together into one urban concentration known as the "DFW Metroplex" with a combined population of more than four million.
The two cities are, however, very different halves of a whole. Dallas, its soaring glass-sided skyscrapers seemingly growing like mushrooms out of the prairie, is full of glitz and glamour. Its urban landscape is vigorous and classy, its citizens enjoying the good things in life from fashionable clothing to flashy cars. This thriving city is the ninth largest city in the United States, having grown from a frontier outpost with 20 streets in 1841 to a center for big business and big banking, helped along a little by "black gold", the oil that was discovered 100 miles (161km) east of the city in 1930.
Fort Worth, the western half of the Metroplex, is exactly that: the gateway to the Wild West. Having started out as "Cowtown", a base for cattle drives, Fort Worth still reflects a laid-back and slightly "cowpoke" attitude, although surprisingly it has also developed into a cultural center with world-class museums and a thriving performing arts sector.
Dallas is certainly the place for visitors to enjoy a rich shopping experience and upmarket wining and dining, but Fort Worth is the venue for exciting and interesting attractions and a taste of western culture.
The word Texas is a corruption of a Native American term for "friend", and the friendliness of the cosmopolitan Texan people is the cherry on the top for a state that has something to cater for everyone's interests, whether it be space flight or rodeo riding.
