Big Bend, Marfa & Terlingua | The Ultimate West Texas Road Trip Guide

West Texas looks empty on a map. On the road, it is the most vivid part of the state.

In this episode of Front of Book Texas, host Kristie Ramirez maps a five-day West Texas road trip she actually drove: from Dallas through Glen Rose, Hico, Llano, Marathon, Terlingua, Big Bend National Park, Cibolo Creek Ranch, and Marfa. These are the real-world details you need to plan it well.

With FIFA World Cup 2026 bringing the world to Texas, this episode spotlights a side of the state that no stadium can hold. Open desert, mountain passes, the Rio Grande, and the kind of silence that resets something in you.

What's covered:

Day-by-day itinerary from Dallas to Marfa with drive timing and cell service warnings. La Palmilla Resort and Retreat in Glen Rose, including the Casa del Rey Chapel by Granbury artist Cody Stromberg. A quick Hico detour and why it is one to watch. Cooper's BBQ and road timing strategy through the Hill Country. The Gage Hotel in Marathon and a classic Texas night at the White Buffalo Bar. Kristie's pick for the best chicken fried steak in the state: the 12 Gage Restaurant at the Gage Hotel. Willow House in Terlingua, one of the most design-forward stays in the region, with a two-night minimum. The Starlight Theatre in Terlingua and Local Chapter for the local scene. Big Bend National Park drive notes covering winding roads, no reception, and carsickness cautions. Lajitas Golf Resort first impressions. Cibolo Creek Ranch: communal dining, room selection, and what makes or breaks your stay. Hotel Saint George in Marfa, Wrong Marfa for shopping, and a reality check on what is actually open. Save this route, share it with your road trip crew, and subscribe to Front of Book Texas for a new conversation every two weeks.

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Transcript

Welcome To Front Of Book Texas

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Front of Book Texas. I'm Christy Ramirez. Conversations with the creators of icons driving lifestyle and culture today. From Texas to the world, timeless, untamed. Texas Creativity, Global Influence. At the end of each episode, we ask some rapid fire questions, and one of the choices is East Texas Piney Woods or West Texas Desert. Every guest is dead, West Texas Desert.

Why West Texas Feels Magnetic

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Texas is welcoming the world for the FIFA World Cup 2026. We have more matches than any other state, 16 between Dallas and Houston. So I wanted to highlight a part of Texas that involved so many of us. When it comes to West Texas, most people think of Martha, but there's so much more. I'm from Texas, born and raised, and I've always been captivated by this part of the state. Why is it all so inspiring? Its vast openness with the golden, desolate stretches of earth, the beautiful mountains, and the raging Rio Grande. It's really unlike anywhere else in the country. So I took five days and I hit the road with Greg and our dear friends Cheryl and Eric Moss. I'm going to share our route, the stops along the way, what we saw, what we ate, where we stayed. If you're a Texan or visiting Texas, you don't want to miss this magical part of the state. I'm so excited for you to come along for our West Texas road trip.

The Five Day Route Plan

SPEAKER_00 1:11

We did this specific route, this particular route, because of the things that we wanted to hit along the way. So we basically went Dallas to Glen Rose to Haiko to Lano to Marathon. That was day one. And I'm going to go through like why we stopped in each of those places. And then day two was Marathon to Turlinga. Day three was Turlinga to Cibolo Creek Ranch, which I have so much to say about. Day four was Cibylow Creek Ranch to Martha. And then Martha was the fifth day. And we actually ended up driving back to Dallas. And so the first day, so you're basically going from Dallas all the way to Marathon. That's the longest day. That's like a seven and a half hour drive, maybe eight hours, maybe even a little bit longer if you take a long lunch. But we didn't because of where we went for lunch, but we're gonna get into that. It's gotta be people that you can be in the car with for a really, really long time. I mean, the first day is it could be up to nine hours, depending on like how many stops you take and how long you stop for lunch. And sometimes on the stretches of road, there's like no Wi-Fi, there's no reception. So you're kind of like just looking out the window. So you have to have like somebody that's in the car with you that you're cool with, like long, comfortable silences, because there's a lot of that. You got to really make sure that people are like-minded because this is when you will find out like who your people are and who your people aren't. So the mosses are definitely our people because we decided to drive back together.

Glen Rose Chapel Surprise

SPEAKER_00 2:45

So the first day we did Dallas to Glen Rose, and I wanted to stop in Glen Rose because there was this place that I had seen that had popped up on my Instagram a couple of times called La Palmia. Okay, I think this place has only been open a couple of years, and guys, it is so cool and so crazy to come upon this resort retreat in the middle of Glen Rose in a pecan grove. So you pull up and it's like all these beautiful little casitas and a gorgeous pool. Like lots of people have weddings out there. But the most charming thing about all of it is they have this thing there called um Casa del Rey or Chapel Del Rey, I think is what it's called. Um, and it's a chapel that holds, I don't know, probably 200 people. It is so beautiful. It's white stucco on the outside. It's got this amazing, it's called Dal de Ver stained glass, which is one inch thick stained glass, which is super unusual. You don't really see that a lot anymore. And it was actually made by like an artisan in Granberry, of all people. I think his name is Corey Stromberg. He's from Granberry. He made this stained glass. It is so beautiful. I did, I mean, like, let me know if you've ever seen anything else like this in Texas, but it's been there for a couple of years. It looks like it's been there forever. He hand-carved the pews out of cedar. It's so remarkable and such a little beautiful discovery in the middle of nowhere. I mean, you're in Glen Rose. So we stopped there first. We did a little walkthrough. And actually, the guy, it's a family that owns it, and one of the uh one of the dads of one of the owners, he's like a former Dallas fire department guy, fireman. Um, and he gave us a tour. It was awesome. He let us walk all over the property.

Hico Stop And Llano Barbecue

SPEAKER_00 4:29

Um, and then from there, we stopped in Hico just really quickly. Such a cute little town. There's a lot happening there. I feel like in the next couple of years, there's going to be some restaurants and other things popping up there. So that's a good little place that's right off of 281. And then we kept going down south, you know, like kind of near the hill country to stop in Lano at Cooper's Barbecue, which Cooper's has been on the Texas Monthly Best Barbecue list a couple of times, I think. And so this is the original one. And we stopped there and it was super fun. It was all, you know, like locals in there having lunch. We ordered a lot of food, but we didn't stay that long. We were there for probably like 40 minutes and kind of got out because we had spent a lot of time in Hico. We had spent time in Glenrose walking around, and we didn't, you don't want to be driving after dark. That's the other thing. When you're taking a road trip where you haven't been on the roads before, and you kind of you're in the middle of nowhere. Like there's nothing out here, and you are gonna lose reception. Like you have no idea where you are. There's not a lot of cars that are passing by you. You're really kind of like out on the road alone for a lot of it. So making sure that you're getting to each place before it the sun really sets um is probably, you know, like that's advice you definitely want to follow.

Marathon And The Gage Hotel

SPEAKER_00 5:47

So we um from Lano, we went to um Marathon, which is Marathon in the Gage Hotel. I mean, I can't remember a time where I didn't know about this. The the building itself has been there since I think 1927, and it was um built by Alfred Gage, who was a rancher, and it was bought by somebody in the 80s, and they reopened it as a hotel. And it is so fine. There are zero notes on this hotel. It's old school Texas. It's just beautiful. And there's nothing else that you, I mean, there are other things you can do in Marf at Marathon. There's like a little um, you know, coffee shop and a little gift store and things, but like this is the only real thing out there. And so you eat at the hotel, you have drinks at the hotel, you have coffee the next morning at like, you know, the hotel's coffee place. But it is so beautiful when you walk up into it. And if you can just kind of picture back, like, oh my gosh, this has been here since 1927. So just the idea that it's been there for that long and now it's kind of like on everybody's list to go and do it was amazing. It was so worth it. So we had dinner that night, the white buffalo bar that's inside the Gage Hotel. So I tend to maybe be a little bit more overdressed than maybe what I should be. And so I thought, oh, this will be fun. Like I'll wear like some sparkles and like, you know, whatever. I wore like a sequence skirt, like a blazer and boots and whatever. And I literally walk into the white buffalo bar and it's all locals who've just gotten off of work. I mean, I walked in and people were just like, okay, girl. But it was kind of fun, still, it was awesome. So we walked in. Um, we had a couple of drinks there, and um, it was awesome because you were surrounded by everybody that like they all knew each other, every single person at all the little tables and sitting at the bar. I feel like we were kind of some of the only hotel guests that were actually in the bar, and it was all local, so it was great. So we had drinks there, and then we go over to 12 gauge, which is where you have dinner. And you might hear something different on this podcast by some other people about the best chicken fried steak. But I have to say, the best chicken fried steak I have ever eaten now in my life is at the 12 Gauge Hotel. But that was our night at the gauge, which was great and slept really well and woke up the next morning and got on the road again. The great thing about once you get to Marathon, everything else is within two hours, at least on this road trip for us. I mean, it depends on where else you want to go, but like we really wanted to go to Terlinga and see that. We really wanted to go to Cibillow Creek Ranch and see that. And so from Marathon, we went on to Turlinga.

Terlingua Stay At Willow House

SPEAKER_00 8:34

We stayed at Willow House. Now there are other places to stay out in Turlinga. There's actually a number of different little glamping kinds of situations that you can stay in. And one of them is owned by um Amber Vins Box and her husband Baxter, who are both SMU grads, and they had moved their family out to um Turlinga and were raising them out there for a little while. And they opened a place called the Local Chapter, which has been there for a while. And we didn't stay there, but I would have. I had always really wanted to stay at Willow House. I want to say it's probably been open for like six years or seven years. It's also owned by an SMU grad, Lauren Warner Warner. And she bought a little over 300 acres of land and built the most beautiful, chic, sophisticated overnight stay in Terlinga, really, I think probably in West Texas, maybe even in Texas. I don't know. I mean, like the combination of what Willow House looks like on this incredible landscape in the middle of nowhere is, I don't know where else you would really like recreate that except for in this very special place. I mean, watching the sunrise and the sunset out here in this place was, I mean, I want to go back. I want to go back and spend two weeks there. And there's literally nothing, there's nothing to do there. Like you can go have pizza. You can like float down the Rio Grande, but you could go to Lajitas and play golf. But other than that, like it's really very quiet and and and uh you're in the middle of nowhere. It's just kind of amazing. The quiet was remarkable. But Willow House, it's self-check-in. It's not staffed. I mean, there's somebody there like on the property making sure that you're getting into your room. And if you need anything, you can call them. But for the most part, like it's a communal kitchen, but the most beautiful communal kitchen you've ever seen, the most beautiful rooms you've ever seen, and all facing out to like the desert in Mexico. So you're like here in Texas, and Mexico is like right here. Beautiful. There are only a few places to eat in Terlinga. We went to the Starlight, which is a restaurant/slash bar, which I think is what most people, if you Google like where to eat in Turlinga, that would probably be the place that you go. I can't say enough about Willow House. Um, there's also a pool there, the water was freezing, but it didn't even matter. Just the whole vibe and energy of the place. It felt so good to be there. I do want to mention that Willow House, it's a two-night minimum. We didn't stay two nights because I didn't have enough time to stay two nights. So we just paid for it. But next time, it's like I want to stay four nights. I want to be in Terlinga for like a week because it really is quite it's a very, very special

Big Bend Drive And Lajitas

SPEAKER_00 11:22

place. So after that, so we left Turlinga and we're gonna drive to Cibelo Creek Ranch, but we decided to go through Big Bend, which I highly, highly recommend. But on the way, we were like, oh, we're gonna stop at Lahidas and check that out. I've heard about that place forever. Um, it's a golf resort. A lot of people from Dallas, Fort Worth, uh probably all over Texas, they'll fly in. They have like a landing strip there. You can fly in and play golf and stay there and whatever. And I have to say, I was a little um surprised at like what Lahidas looked like. It felt a little bit like a Western set, like you were walking onto like the set of a movie for a Western. So that's just like the general vibe, but people love it. It's like, you know, I think it's kind of like an iconic like golfing place. And it is out in West Texas, so it does have that really cool like geography. And you can stay there. But I think there's a lot of other really cool, like very designed forward places that might, you know, for somebody that's like looking at it from, you know, like a design kind of like sophisticated standpoint, there might be other places to stay in that area that would be worth checking out. So from Turlinga, we went to Cibolo Creek.

Cibolo Creek Ranch Dining Tips

SPEAKER_00 12:40

These are all like from Marathon to Turlinga, that was like two hours. From Turlinga to Cibolo Creek, that was like two hours or so. The drive from Turlinga to Cibyllo Creek, we went through Big Bend. It's super, super windy, super, super hilly. So if you get car sick, you might want to think about that. You might want to make some stops, you might want to look out the window, you might want to roll the windows down because it's very, very windy. And there's a lot of like going up a hill and not knowing what's on the other side. You want to make sure you have a really good driver. And Eric Moss was an amazing driver. So Sibilo Creek Ranch, we got there in about two hours. Absolutely incredible. So they give you really specific directions. You have to look off the side of the road for like a landmark, and then you turn into it. And then from the road to the entrance of the ranch is a 10-minute drive. And so you're driving and you're like in it. And so, from my recollection, the original Cibyl Oak Creek Ranch is 30,000 acres, and I think 20 more have been added since then. So it's a very big ranch. So you're really like driving into it, and you get to the gate, and you know, you pull in and you drive even more. And it's just kind of incredible, also. Like all of this was such a revelation to me. I knew that it was out there, but I had never seen it like for myself. So to see it like yourself is so kind of like mind-blowing. It's kind of incredible. But we got there, two awesome dogs. One of the dog's names, I can't remember the other one, the mom dog. Her name is Rosie. Awesome dog. She probably weighs about 10 pounds that thinks she weighs like 90. She followed us around everywhere. She was amazing. Every time, like I opened my room door, she was right outside. Like it's such a great place. I mean, like a real ranch dog, it was awesome. So we get there, we check in, and I want to talk about the rooms at Sibolo Creek Ranch because they're great. But if you want like real privacy, real privacy, don't book a lakeside room. I booked a lakeside room and it was totally fine, but it's kind of like attached to this veranda, this enclosed veranda. So anybody else that's next to you, it feels almost a little communal. So there are other rooms on the property that aren't kind of like attached like that. So if you want real privacy, my suggestion is book another room, another room aside from the lakeside room. But if you're traveling with like a bunch of friends and family and you guys all want to be together, like the lakeside rooms would be great because you're all kind of like in this little area together. So that's just my suggestion for that. Here's the other thing I didn't know about Cibolo Creek Ranch. It's communal dining. And by the way, you have to make a dinner reservation because there's like no other place to eat. Like you ain't going anywhere. Like you're staying on the property. But I didn't know that, like, there's no menu to order off of. It's like what they serve is what you're getting. So if you have any kind of dietary restrictions, and I don't I don't even know what they would say if you did, I think they would be accommodating. But I did not know that like dinner time is at seven o'clock, you're eating what they're serving. And like that's it. We were there with um a bunch of people that were hunting and and doing different excursions and clay shooting because there's clay shooting on the property. And it was just a mix. And like some of the people that came in, they came in on their plane. There is a landing strip right there. So that's a really easy way to get there if you have a plane. But dinner was great. It was steak, of course. It was steak and potatoes, and it was super Texan. It was great. So from Cibelo Creek Ranch, we go to MAFA the next day.

Marfa Timing And Best Shops

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Um, shoot super short drive. It was the shortest drive out of any of them. So it was 40 minutes, like give or take. Got there, checked into the Hotel St. George. Totally great hotel, like awesome. It's been open for, I don't know, maybe eight years or 10 years. The hours in Marfa are kind of hysterical. If you do a road trip like this, you and you want to end up in Marfa, you need to start your road trip like on a Monday or a Tuesday and end up in Marfa on a Thursday or a Friday. If you end up in Marfa on a Monday or a Tuesday, you will be sorely disappointed because nothing is open. Everything is closed. There is like surprisingly like a lot of shopping and a lot of really cute shops. And we went to Wrong Marfa, which is Camp Bosworth's place, Camp and his wife Buck, who have been in Martha forever and ever. And now they have a really great store filled with not only Buck's things, but also just others. Like it's just a mixed retail kind of store of like gifts. And they have a really great tequila bar in there too. So you can go in and like have a tequila while you're shopping. And she's super hospitable, like so warm and friendly. So that was fun to see. And we drove back home. We drove through, you know, Midland. It probably took us eight and a half or nine hours. Cheryl's still one of my best friends, so it all worked out. Like it all ended up being great. But I have to say, like it was kind of the road trip of a lifetime. It was so much fun. Like we had such a good time. And I feel like we got to know each other really well. We had a really fun game that we played where we just asked each other, you like you would like pull a card out and ask, you know, personal questions. We'd ask the whole group. And it was super illuminating, and it was such a good way to like get to know each other kind of like deeply. And also, like it's a captive body. It's like you can't go anywhere. You kind of have to answer the questions. I think the people that you choose to do a road trip with can be, you know, it's a pivotal decision, that's for sure. So there you go. That's the West Texas road trip. I recommend it for everybody. It was super fun. And let me know if you end up doing it and if you go to any of these places, because I want to know if you felt the same way about them that I did. I just love Willow House so much. I can't wait

Road Trip Lessons And Closing

SPEAKER_00 18:34

to go back. This has been Front of Book Texas. We've got a new conversation every two weeks. So don't just listen, subscribe, follow, and share. I want to thank my executive producer, Georgiana Moreland. Front of Book Texas Texas creativity, a global reach.