Bike rentals

My husband and I will be arriving in San Antonio on Thursday, Feb 15 and staying for 3 nights at the El Tropicano. Can anyone tell me if a bus runs from downtown to the four missions south of town? Also, we are interested in renting bikes to tour these missions. Is this a good idea? If so, are there any bike rentals near the missions or would we have to rent the bikes in the city and somehow transport them?

Thanks for all the great info posted in these forums!!

Bike rentals

OOPS!! I forgot to mention that we are flying in and aren%26#39;t planning on renting a car.

Bike rentals

For public bus service to many San Antonio attractions (not the Missions) from downtown, you can take a shuttle from Alamo Plaza:

sanantoniocvb.com/visitors/com_innercitytran鈥?/a>

For a trip to the missions, there a privately run buses that will drop off and pick you up, You can find info on their services at the Information Center on Alalmo Plaza.

There are several bike rental oportunities for you to consider.

Abel%26#39;s Bicycle Repair %26amp; Rental. 1119 Ada St, San Antonio, Texas 78223-1429. Phone: 210-533-9927

Blue Star Bike Rental. 1414 S Alamo St., San Antonio, TX 78210. Phone: 210-212-5506.

Charles A James Bicycle Company . 329 N Main Ave., San Antonio, TX 78205-1413. Phone: 210-226-7812.

Abel%26#39;s has been renting bikes for more than 15 years, I believe that he will even deliver to your door.

Charles James is downtown and the oldest bike shop in town, and is about 6 to ten blocks from most of the downtown hotels.

Blue Star is the new kid on the block (open only about 2 years) but right on the southern fringe of downtown and easily accessible by the downtown trolley system. It鈥檚 as close to the beginning of the Mission Trail as you can get. I%26#39;ve seen dozens of their bikes on the Trail when the weekend weather is good.

Too bad you%26#39;re leaving on the 18th, I%26#39;ll be leading a bike tour through downtown and past all the missions that afternoon at 2 pm.

Thanks so much for all your info......wish we could take your bike tour. How many miles is the trip......round trip?

This is our first time to San Antonio and will be seeing the Alamo and the Riverwalk plus those 4 missions. Since we won%26#39;t have a car, are there other attractions we should see?

Following the Mission Trail Route from Blue Star (which is just south of downtown), Mission Concepcion is about 2.5 miles away, Mission San Jose is another 3 miles or so from Concepcion following the Misssion Road/Mission Parkway/Bike path route.

Espada Dam is another 1.5 miles from San Jose. From the Dam, the route has a loop that leads to Mission Espada (2.5 miles) before swinging around to pick up Mission San Juan on the way back to the Dam (approximately 2 miles from Espada).

There%26#39;s also a 1/4 mile spur off the main bike path going to Mission Espada that will take you to the last remaining functioning Spanish Colonial aqueduct in North America. The round trip taking in all the missions and the aqueduct should run about 20 miles from Blue Star.

Both Abel%26#39;s and Blue Star should be able to provide you with direstions/maps to guide you.

As for other attractions,

VIA is the local public bus service. Their bus route 7 makes stops at several attractions that you might find of interest (see the link in the previous post). You can probably also pick up this information at your hotel or at the Visitor Center at Alamo Plaza They include:

VIA%26#39;s Riverwalk Streetcar Station

Convention Center

The Alamo

San Antonio Museum of Art

The Japanese Tea Garden

Brackenridge Park/San Antonio Zoo/The Witte Museum

San Antonio Botanical Garden

A one day pass costs $3.00 and you can pick them up at the Via Info Center at 260 East Commerce. Otherwise it%26#39;ll cost 80 cents per trip segment.

Thanks again for all your info.......just checked the weather for when we are there........only in the fifties until Sat. Guess we%26#39;ll ride bikes on Saturday. Can%26#39;t wait to visit your city.

So are there bike trails (scenic), or just ride the roads in town. My wife and I love to ride bike trails... never thought about that in San Antonio. Never been there... planning an early March trip.