Start from 25 curated places around Marfa, TX, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Bordo
A James Beard Award-semifinalist Italian deli installed in a converted service station on San Antonio Street, where the kitchen mills its own heirloom flours, bakes bread in a wood-fired oven out back, makes fresh pasta daily, and churns unusual gelato flavors like mulberry-fennel and rosemary. The sandwiches are the entry point, but the charcuterie, cheese, and grocery shelves pull in a crowd that comes back as often as they can.
Cochineal
Marfa's most refined dining room, set in a converted adobe building on San Antonio Street, where a weekly-changing prix fixe menu built around Texas seasonal ingredients and local suppliers has earned the kitchen national recognition. The wine list is considered, the room is simple but elegant, and the bread — baked in-house — has developed its own following.
Trails & outdoors
Davis Mountains State Park Loop Trail
A network of 11 miles of hiking trails through the Davis Mountains in Fort Davis, an hour north of Marfa, climbing from the riparian corridor of Limpia Creek at 4,900 feet to scenic overlooks at 5,700 feet through the most biodiverse mountain range in Texas. The drive north on Texas-17 through the mountains is itself an experience, and the park's campground makes it a natural overnight extension of a Marfa trip.
Pinto Canyon Road
A 60-mile unpaved scenic drive southwest of Marfa on FM-2810 that passes through dramatic shifts in terrain — from the flat Marfa Plateau grasslands through the volcanic crags of the Chinati Mountains and down into the depths of Pinto Canyon — with pullouts that reward walking even short distances into the desert. No formal trails; the experience is the drive itself and wherever you choose to stop.
Things to do
McDonald Observatory Star Party
A two-hour guided public stargazing program at McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis, 70 miles north of Marfa, with 13 or more telescopes pointed at planets, nebulae, star clusters, and galaxies — staffed by volunteer astronomers who explain each object. The site sits at 6,800 feet in one of the least light-polluted regions in the continental United States, making it one of the most spectacular astronomical experiences in North America.
Ballroom Marfa
A contemporary arts center in a 1920s ballroom on San Antonio Street that mounts visual art exhibitions, live music performances, and film screenings year-round with free admission. It has hosted artists ranging from Tinariwen to Sonic Youth and built an international reputation as the kind of venue that appears in a town of 1,700 people only because the town is Marfa. The current exhibition is always worth checking before you arrive.
Landmarks & sights
Chinati Foundation
Donald Judd's landmark permanent-installation art museum spread across 15 buildings on the grounds of a former U.S. Army fort — the largest single-artist installation in the world, anchored by his 100 milled aluminum boxes in two artillery sheds and large-scale concrete works in the open desert. It is the reason Marfa exists on the art world's map, and a guided tour here is a full half-day that changes how you see minimalism.
Prada Marfa
A permanent land-art sculpture by artists Elmgreen and Dragset situated on open desert highway 26 miles northwest of Marfa near Valentine, built to look exactly like a Prada boutique — down to the real bags and shoes from the 2005 Prada collection displayed inside — but entirely inaccessible. It is the most photographed object in the Texas desert and best visited at sunrise or golden hour when the light is right and traffic is sparse.