El Paso, Texas · Est. 1659 · Elev. 3,762 ft
The Sun City,
on purpose.
Where to eat, what to do, what is going on this month, and how the neighborhoods actually fit together — from people who live at the bottom of the Franklins.
Happening next
- In 19 daysOct 24, 2026
Día de los Muertos Desfile & Festival
Downtown Arts District and the Mexican American Cultural Center
9th annual, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
El Paso MACC - In 19 daysOct 24–25, 2026
Amigo Airsho
Biggs Army Airfield, Fort Bliss
Blue Angels headlining
Amigo Airsho
- 1659
- Year the first mission went up in the valley
- 27k
- Acres of state park inside the city limits
- 297
- Days of sunshine in an average year
- 2
- Countries in the view from Scenic Drive
Start here
The Sun City canon
If you only get a handful of meals in El Paso, spend them on these. Every one of the 43 places we list is somewhere a local would take a visitor without thinking twice.
L&J Cafe
Central, next to Concordia Cemetery
The Old Place by the Graveyard. Opened in 1927 as Tony’s Place — home cooking, home brew and slot machines through Prohibition — and still the yardstick every other plate in town gets measured against.
Read more →El Paso originalChico's Tacos
Multiple locations across the city
Rolled tacos swimming in thin tomato broth under a snowdrift of shredded cheese. There is nothing else like it anywhere.
Read more →Modern MexicanElemi
Far East, Eastlake
Heirloom corn nixtamalized on site every day, turned into some of the most talked-about tortillas in the country. Texas Monthly ranked it No. 2 on its 50 best taco restaurants in Texas.
Read more →Italian & patioArdovino's Desert Crossing
Sunland Park, New Mexico
A desert compound just over the New Mexico line: restaurant, patio, and the Saturday farmers market.
Read more →SteakhouseCattleman's Steakhouse at Indian Cliffs Ranch
Fabens, about 30 miles east
A steakhouse on a working ranch out past the county line, with a movie-set desert and a sunset that does half the work.
Read more →Honky-tonkRosa's Cantina
Upper Valley, Doniphan Dr
The cantina behind the Marty Robbins song, still standing on Doniphan with the memorabilia on the walls and live music on Saturday nights.
Read more →PanaderíaBowie Bakery
Segundo Barrio
Grab a tray and tongs and walk the racks — conchas, empanadas and marranitos at prices that have not caught up to the rest of the country.
Read more →Get outside
Things worth doing
A mountain range in the middle of town, missions older than the state, a new science center downtown, and a ballpark with the Franklins over the outfield wall.
Franklin Mountains State Park
One of the largest urban parks in the United States, sitting in the middle of the city like a spine.
State parkHueco Tanks State Park & Historic Site
Rock basins that held water in the desert for thousands of years, ringed by some of the most significant pictographs in North America — and world-class bouldering.
OverlookScenic Drive Overlook
The five-minute version of the mountain view: park, walk to the rail, and see El Paso and Juárez laid out as one city.
Historic routeThe Mission Trail
Three centuries of continuous worship along the valley: Ysleta Mission, Socorro Mission, and the San Elizario Chapel.
Art museumEl Paso Museum of Art
A serious collection — European, American, Mexican colonial and contemporary border art — with free general admission.
Historic theaterThe Plaza Theatre
A 1930 Spanish Colonial movie palace with a ceiling full of stars, saved from demolition and now the city’s marquee venue.
BallparkSouthwest University Park
Home of the El Paso Chihuahuas, Triple-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres, and the downtown project that changed the neighborhood around it.
National parkWhite Sands National Park
Gypsum dunes so white they read as snow, and the best sledding in the desert.
The Dispatch
What is going on
Seasonal reads, explainers, and what changed around town. For breaking news we point you at the local newsrooms doing that work.
The calendar
Happening next in El Paso
Dates we have confirmed with the organizers. This list moves forward on its own as the year does.
- In 19 daysOct 24, 2026
Día de los Muertos Desfile & Festival
Downtown Arts District and the Mexican American Cultural Center
9th annual, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
El Paso MACC - In 19 daysOct 24–25, 2026
Amigo Airsho
Biggs Army Airfield, Fort Bliss
Blue Angels headlining
Amigo Airsho - In 7 weeksNov 21, 2026 – Jan 3, 2027
WinterFest
Downtown, San Jacinto Plaza and around
Runs into the new year
El Paso WinterFest - In 7 weeksNov 26, 2026
Sun Bowl Parade
Downtown El Paso
Thanksgiving Day
Sun Bowl Association
Openings & closings
What changed around town
The question locals ask more than any other. When a place closes it comes off our lists and lands here, with the source that confirmed it.
- ComingPhase 1 targeted for fall 2026
Wyler Aerial Tramway
The gondola to Ranger Peak has been closed since 2018. Roughly $27 million in state funding is rebuilding the site — parking, access and restrooms first, the tramway itself in a later phase that still needs fundraising.
Texas Parks & Wildlife - OpenedMarch 2025
El Paso Mexican American Cultural Center
A three-story, $15 million cultural center opened at the Main Library downtown after years of community pressure, with exhibits, performance space and the Día de los Muertos desfile attached to it.
El Paso Matters - OpenedAugust 2024
La Nube STEAM Discovery Center
El Paso’s first children’s museum and science center opened downtown in a 70,000-square-foot cloud-shaped building, and has since drawn hundreds of thousands of visitors and a global children’s museum award.
La Nube - ClosedClosed
Ode Brewing Co.
The N Mesa brewery and kitchen, one of the first of the modern El Paso brewery wave, is listed as closed.
Follow the route
Itineraries you can actually use
Your first 48 hours in El Paso
One weekend, no wasted driving: the mountain, the missions, downtown, and the Tex-Mex that started it all.
1 dayThe Tex-Mex and taco crawl
A one-day tour of the plates this city argues about, in the order that makes sense.
1 dayA mountain day, sunrise to sunset
An urban range with 27,000 acres in it. Here is how to spend a full day on it without cooking yourself.
Half dayDowntown on foot, in half a day
Park once. Plaza, museums, murals, ballpark, and a bar — all inside about a mile.
Know the map
El Paso is long. Here is how it breaks down.
Twenty-five miles of city stretched along the base of a mountain range, with two more countries' worth of context in the view.