Japan Airlines Flights from Guadalajara, Mexico (GDL) to Dallas (DFW)
As part of booking roundtrip flights which depart from US airports,
Orbitz is pleased to offer airline tickets on Japan Airlines, which operates a daily non-stop flight from Guadalajara, Mexico (GDL) to Dallas (DFW) regularly scheduled to depart at 8:10am and arrive at 10:40am. Usually an Embraer RJ140 is flown for this route. The average travel time from Guadalajara, Mexico to Dallas, TX is 2 hours and 30 minutes.*
* Some flights must connect with additional service on this airline.
During your Dallas vacation, don't miss these great establishments and attractions:
Fair Park
Fair Park, a classic conglomeration of Art Deco buildings and spacious grounds built for the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition, is undergoing a renaissance. Built to commemorate the Republic of Texas's independence from Mexico, it is the only intact and unaltered, pre-1950s world's fair site in the United States. Recognized as a National Historic Landmark for its architecture (the only such landmark in Dallas), Fair Park is an attraction year-round, but especially so during the annual State Fair of Texas (last weekend of Sept and first 3 weeks of Oct), which just celebrated its 50th year.The 277-acre grounds include several museums and performance and sporting facilities like the State Fair Coliseum, Cotton Bowl, Fair Park Bandshell, and Starplex Amphitheater, one of the city's top concert venues. The two major areas are the Esplanade and the Lagoon. There's much to see and do at Fair Park, so depending on your time, you may have to pick and choose. Plan on 2 or 3 hours minimum, and a full day during the State Fair of Texas. Below are the highlights:The Women's Museum, 3800 Parry Ave. (tel. 214/915-0860; www.thewomensmuseum.org), is a huge coup for Dallas. The pet project of a trio of Texas women and designed by Wendy Joseph, the chief designer behind the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., this exciting $25-million museum is an ambitious, high-tech architectural feast, audacious enough to encompass the accomplishments of women over the past century.The museum presents two dozen mostly interactive exhibits, with a clear predilection for engaging the visitor with technological wizardry. Audio guides (handheld cellphones) feature the voices of "mentors" Connie Chung, Gladys Knight, and the former Texas governor Ann Richards. "It's Amazing" is a glass labyrinth of female stereotypes, behind which are revealed several women who defied convention; "Mothers of Invention" showcases popular inventions by women (such as Liquid Paper, conceived by a Dallas secretary, and the brown paper bag). The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from noon to 5pm. Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and students ages 13 to 18, and $3 for children ages 5 to 12.The Hall of State, 3939 Grand Ave. (tel. 214/421-4500; www.hallofstate.com; open Tues-Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 1-5pm), is the centerpiece and principal Art Deco legacy at Fair Park. Inside is a Texan's dream, the Hall of Heroes, with larger-than-life (as any Texan will tell you they were in real life) stalwarts of the Republic of Texas, including Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin. Venture into the four-story-high Great Hall, yet more proof that bigger is always better in Texas.Trains evoke nostalgic feelings of travel and exploration in just about everyone; the collection at the Age of Steam Railroad Museum, 1105 Washington St. (tel. 214/428-0101; www.dallasrailwaymuseum.com), including 28 locomotives, steam-era Pullman passenger cars, and Dallas's oldest surviving train depot, is sure to feed such impulses in visitors of all ages. The entry in the "Bigger in Texas" sweepstakes? Big Boy, the world's largest steam locomotive. The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10am to 5pm; admission is $5 for adults, $2.50 for children.The African American Museum, 3536 Grand Ave. (tel. 214/565-9026; www.aamdallas.org), is the only museum in the Southwest (and one of eight in the country) that focuses on the African-American experience and culture. The standout exhibit is the fine collection of African-American folk art, supplemented by a survey of African art objects and contemporary African-American art. Admission is free; it's open Tuesday through Friday from noon to 5pm, Saturday from 10am to 5pm, and Sunday from 1 to 5pm.The small but diverse collection of marine life at the Dallas Aquarium at Fair Park, 1300 Cullum Blvd. (tel. 214/670-8443), highlights some of the weirder aquatic specimens in the marine and freshwater world, including walking fish, four-eyed fish, upside-down jellyfish, and desert fish. And who can resist watching the piranhas and sharks being fed? The newest and largest addition is the Amazon Flooded Forest, a 10,000-gallon tank with 30 species from the Amazon River. The aquarium is open daily from 9am to 4:30pm; admission is $3 for adults, $1.50 for children ages 3 to 11.The Dallas Museum of Natural History, 3535 Grand Ave. (tel. 214/421-3466; www.dallasdino.org), is the place to view the kind of wildlife that roamed Texas before steers and longhorns: namely, dinosaurs. Permanent exhibits include "Paleontology Lab" and "Prehistoric Texas." The museum is open Monday through Saturday from 10am to 5pm, Sunday from noon to 5pm; admission is $7 for adults, $6 for seniors, $5 for students ages 13 to 18, and $4 for children ages 3 to 12. Parking is free.The Science Place & Planetarium/IMAX Theater, 1313 2nd Ave. (tel. 214/428-5555; www.scienceplace.org; open Tues-Fri 9:30am-4:30pm, Sat 9:30am-5:30pm, Sun 11:30am-5:30pm), is a great place to entertain the kids with more than 300 hands-on science exhibits -- where they can amaze themselves by lifting a half-ton with one hand and playing with electricity -- and the massive, domed IMAX theater. The Planetarium features stargazing shows Monday through Saturday.
The Dallas Arboretum & Botanical Garden
Dallas may not be celebrated for its cool green beauty, but the area around White Rock Lake, and more specifically the Arboretum and Botanical Garden, is a welcome oasis. Just 15 minutes from the gleaming skyscrapers of downtown Dallas are nearly 70 acres of carefully planted and groomed gardens and natural woodlands, interspersed with a handful of historic residences, that meander along the banks of the lake. The Jonsson Color Garden features one of the nation's largest collections of azaleas, which bloom spectacularly in spring, and nearly 6 acres of chrysanthemums in the fall. And while North Texas is not exactly New England, October and November are as ablaze in color as anything you'll see in this neck of the woods. If you find yourself in Dallas during the torrid summer (or spring and fall) months, the Palmer Fern Deli is a secluded, shady spot where mist-sprayers drop the temperature at least 10° to 15° -- reason enough for a visit here. An hour is probably enough time to see most of the gardens, though it's a fine place to linger, read, and relax.
The Dallas World Aquarium
Housed in a former warehouse in the West End district, the Dallas aquarium not at Fair Park is a good place to hide out from the sun downtown. My niece and nephew enjoy communing with the stingrays, sea turtles, sharks, and reef fish. Their favorite, though, is "Orinoco -- Secrets of the River," an immersion into the tropical rainforest of Venezuela, a cool area teeming with Peruvian squirrel monkeys, endangered Orinoco crocs, jaguars, and soft-billed toucans. The newest exhibit is "Mundo Maya," with a 400,000-gallon shark tank. Plan on about an hour's visit. A restaurant and a cafe are on the premises.
The Mansion on Turtle Creek
Where movie stars, princes, and presidents stay, and most of the rest of us paupers merely dream about, the hilltop Mansion, usually lauded as the most desirable hotel in the city, is luxury personified. Whereas the Adolphus has an old-world moneyed feel, the Mansion has a brasher new-money atmosphere. It is perhaps the top place in the state for a blowout splurge; it consistently lands among the very top hotels in polls in national glossy travel magazines. If it feels like a home, albeit a very grand and showy one, that's because it once was the spectacular residence of a Texas cotton magnate in the 1920s and 1930s. The Mansion is all marble floors, inlaid wood ceilings, and stained-glass windows. Regular rooms are gargantuan, as are the beds and bathrooms, and the suites ridiculously so. All have top-quality linens and bath products (Lady Primrose), but some visitors report that weekend rate rooms suffer in comparison with the top-flight ones. Service, though, is faultless across the board. The Mansion's restaurant, which serves sumptuous Southwestern fare, continues to be one of Dallas's finest hotel dining experiences.
The Bradford at Lincoln Park
This residential-style hotel -- the most upscale member of this exceptional-value small chain that operates in Texas and Colorado -- may be the best deal in Dallas. It's where all of my wife's coworkers stay when they visit the Dallas home office. Popular with business visitors who stay for a week or more, the stylish and spacious suites are coolly decorated in muted tones, with fully equipped kitchens. (There are three different floor plans to choose from, but for most visitors the "Executive," the cheapest room, will be more than sufficient.) Conveniently located just off Central Expressway and near NorthPark Center and Northwest Highway, it's just 10 minutes from downtown (unless you catch rush hour, when it could take forever) and even nearer to the nightlife options of Greenville and McKinney avenues.
AmeriSuites West End
If you want to be right in the thick of it -- within walking distance of the restaurants and rowdy bars of the West End, the Sixth Floor Museum and Dealey Plaza, and the Arts District -- but don't want to burn through your savings, AmeriSuites is a good, safe, and convenient choice. The West End location is one of nine of this national chain across the Metroplex. All the rooms are good-size, comfortable suites with kitchenettes -- nothing fancy, but solid accommodations. Visiting businesspeople should find the business center to their liking, while more leisure-oriented visitors should take to the second-floor outdoor pool, which, though small, has privileged views of the Big D skyline. The chain has several other hotels in town, including North Central Expressway at Park Central, and near the Galleria at Spring Valley Road.
