Start from 48 curated places around El Paso, TX, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
L & J Cafe
A family-run Tex-Mex institution in operation since 1927, set in a converted adobe building east of downtown that USA Today readers once voted the best Tex-Mex restaurant in Texas. The menu centers on the kind of green and red chile plates that defined this particular border style — enchiladas in house-made sauce, chile rellenos, and machaca — served by a staff that knows regulars by name. It is the definition of a neighborhood place that outlasted every trend by staying exactly the same.
Kiki's Restaurant & Bar
A beloved Eastside neighborhood restaurant that has been serving El Paso since the mid-1970s, built around its signature beef machaca — a slow-cooked brisket preparation that is perhaps the most distinctly El Paso dish on any menu in the city. The room has the feel of a family cantina: wood paneling, neon beer signs, and servers who seem to know half the crowd. Portions are large, prices are modest, and the enchiladas have their own following.
Trails & outdoors
El Paso Tin Mines Trail
The most popular hike in Franklin Mountains State Park, a 6.8-mile out-and-back that climbs 1,049 feet to the ruins of 19th-century tin and silver mining operations set against the rocky ridgeline of the Franklin range. The trail begins near the Tin Mine Unit on the east face of the mountains and passes a concrete dam, two mine shafts, and a partial smelter ruin before reaching the high point. The city views from the upper section extend across El Paso, Juarez, and the New Mexico Organs simultaneously.
Aztec Cave Trail
A 1.6-mile out-and-back from the Tom Mays Unit trailhead that climbs 449 feet to a shallow cave overlook in the Franklin Mountains, with panoramic views of the Rio Grande valley and the Organ Mountains of New Mexico from the benches positioned at the top. It is short, steep near the summit, and usually completed in under two hours — the most accessible genuine Franklin Mountains hike for visitors staying downtown. Dogs are welcome and the trail is well-marked throughout.
Things to do
Southwest University Park
The home stadium of the El Paso Chihuahuas, Triple-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres, a 6,000-seat downtown ballpark built in 2014 and named the best new ballpark in minor league baseball the same year. The stadium's open outfield frames the Franklin Mountains against the sky in a setting that earned the title 'Best View in the Minors' from MiLB fans. It sits in the center of the downtown museum and entertainment district, making a game the natural anchor for a downtown evening.
El Paso Museum of History
A free bilingual museum in the downtown arts district covering El Paso's history from pre-Columbian settlement through the present day in six galleries, with a particular strength in the Spanish colonial, railroad, and civil rights eras of the borderland. The Digital Wall — a touch-screen installation surfacing thousands of historical photographs — is the exhibit most visitors single out, offering an interactive way to explore a visual archive otherwise inaccessible. The museum's proximity to the Chihuahuas stadium makes it easy to pair the two.
Landmarks & sights
Plaza Theatre
A Spanish Colonial Revival showpiece that opened in 1930 as the first air-conditioned public theater in the United States, now the highest-grossing theater in Texas for venues under 2,500 seats. The 2,050-seat Kendall Kidd Performance Hall recreates an open-air courtyard under a hand-painted night sky, creating an effect unlike any other theater in the state. It anchors downtown El Paso's arts district and books Broadway tours, major concerts, and comedy alongside local productions.
El Paso Museum of Art
A free municipal art museum in the downtown Arts Festival Plaza with a permanent collection of over 7,000 works spanning the Byzantine era through the twentieth century, including European Renaissance and Baroque canvases alongside a strong holding of American Southwest and Mexican painting. The Tom Lea gallery is particularly worth seeking out — the El Paso-born muralist's large-format borderland work gives local context absent from most museum collections. Admission is always free.