Forget about splurging on an around-the-world ticket. Feast on Spanish tapas as flamenco music serenades you; join the gemutlichkeit while hoisting a stein of pilsner; dance the Greek syrtaki or an Irish jig—all in San Antonio. Writers have celebrated the Alamo City’s fiesta of cultures and colorful traditions ever since poet Sidney Lanier spent the winter here in the 1870s and wrote about the “sights and sounds” of the city’s vibrant street life, with its “conflux of Americans, Mexicans, Germans, Frenchmen, Swedes, Norwegians, Italians…” Here are some great stops for circumnavigating the world in the Alamo City.

Main Plaza and San Fernando Cathedral

Main Plaza is the heart of the original town laid out for San Antonio’s first true settlers – 16 Spanish families from the Canary Islands who arrived on March 9, 1731. Everything official and important happened around this town square, from the announcement of a new Spanish king to civic fiestas. Today the descendants of those pioneering families honor them on the morning of March 9 with a procession into San Fernando Cathedral for a requiem mass, some of them wearing black lace mantillas passed down through generations. Facing Main Plaza, the cathedral was built around the Canary Islanders’ old parish church. If you miss the procession, find that Main Plaza's beauty and commerce entices visitors throughout the year.
San Fernando Cathedral: (210) 227-1297, www.sfcathedral.org

The Romance of Old Spain

Imagine when San Antonio was a remote colonial outpost of Spain and the rustically elegant Spanish Governor’s Palace served as the seat of Texas government. The Hapsburg coat of arms and nearly three-feet-thick of stucco walls reinforced its fortress-like presence, perhaps even helping to preserve what is today Texas’ only surviving example of an early aristocratic Spanish home. Though the 18th-century furnishings are sparse, it’s easy to imagine the Gobernador de Tejas y Coahuila entertaining guests on the tropical patio. For a taste of Spain today, enjoy tapas and a flamenco show at Carmen’s de la Calle Café.
Governor’s Palace: (210) 224-0601, www.sanantonio.gov/sapar
Carmen’s: (210) 737-8272, www.carmensdelacalle.com

A Petite Dash of France on the River Walk

Treat yourself to lunch, arty shopping and gallery hopping at one of the less-frequented parts of the River Walk. The Southwest School of Art and Craft converted and expanded a 19th-century stone convent designed for the French order of Ursuline nuns. Though its restaurant’s homemade soups and enchiladas are hardly French, you can deck yourself out like Marie Antoinette in artisan jewelry from its gift shop, which also carries to-die-for original ceramics, lamps and home accessories. And don’t forget to check out its exquisite chapel and art galleries.
(210) 224-1848, www.swschool.org.

Arabian Nights in a Mediterranean Mood

The ornate interior of the Majestic Theatre is like a fantasy out of 1001 Arabian Nights. Stars twinkle in the vaulted blue “sky” and a special machine projects the illusion of clouds drifting across the ceiling. The Majestic was the largest theatre in Texas, the first in the state to be air-conditioned and the second-largest motion picture theatre in the country when it opened in 1929. As you wait for the show to begin inside this sumptuous architectural tour de force, it suddenly hits you that this former movie palace IS the show.
(210) 226-3333, www.majesticempire.com.

Overflowing Irish Spirits

Arriving as mule-team drivers and provision suppliers for the U.S. Army after Texas became a state in 1846, the Irish built cottages near Alamo Plaza in an area that became known as the “Irish Flat.” St. Patrick’s Day weekend honors this heritage with the “Guinness Dyeing O’ the River Green” and a floating river parade (squeeze into River Walk Irish pubs, Durty Nellie’s and Waxy O’Connor’s, if you can). A street parade wends from the Irish Flat to La Villita, launching the Irish Festival there and in the adjacent Arneson River Theater with music, dancing, food and crafts. www.harpandshamrock.org (festivities)
Durty Nellie’s: (210) 222-1400
Waxy O’Connor’s: (210) 229-9299

Zorba’s Hospitality

Come late October, try spanikopita, souvlaki, baklava and other luscious Greek treats at The Original Greek FUNstival on the grounds of St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Church. Shout Opaa! to show your appreciation of the costumed folk dancers representing the diverse regions of Greece, or join in the dancing yourself. And don’t miss the chance to learn some entertaining Greek phrases to try on your friends, such as Πειν?ω! (pynao, “I’m hungry!”). Of course you can feast and dance like Zorba year-round at Demo’s Greek Food, where the IKON Greek Band plays on the first Saturday of the month. The restaurant is just across the street from St. Sophia, plus Demo’s has two additional locations on the city’s north side.
FUNstival: (210) 735-5051
Demo’s: (210) 732-7777

Around the World on 22 Acres

What is a Texan? Have fun finding the answer to that question with help from more than 10,000 participants at the annual Texas Folklife Festival, which presents some 40 different cultures, 50 ethnic dance groups, 65 music groups and 150 ethnic foods on the grounds of the University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures, downtown at HemisFair Park (usually in June). Find craft vendors, how-to demonstrations, carnival rides and plenty of family fun. Sit down and listen to Texas’ top storytellers or relax to the Latin jazz sounds of Zamar in the Belgian village. Watch Chinese folk dancers, dance to a Cajun or Czech band, listen to Celtic music or Afro-Brazilian drumming.
(800) 776-7651, www.texasfolklifefestival.org.

East Side Cultural Gems

From October through June, get your music and dance fix at the Carver Community Cultural Center on San Antonio’s East side, not far from downtown. In its intimate Jo Long Theater and other venues around town, the Carver presents nationally known singers, musicians and bands—the amazing, legendary Etta James for example—as well as international dance troupes. Performances have included tap star Savion Glover, the Philippine National Dance company, the Drummers of Burundi, the 15-piece Latin jazz orchestra The Mambo Kings and the San Francisco Jazz Collective. Before the show—or any time—stop by Tommy Moore’s Café & Deli for a soul-satisfying feast of Southern cooking, ranging from chicken-fried steak and black-eyed peas to meatloaf, grits and peach cobbler. This cool, sophisticated eatery is an East side African-American institution, dedicating an entire wall to East side black history and culture.
Carver Center: (210) 207-7211, www.thecarver.org
Tommy Moore’s: (210) 531-9800

Little Rhein and Prussian Kings

You don’t have to be clinking steins and shouting "Prosit!" at Oktoberfest to find German culture in San Antonio. In Southtown (south of downtown), just head to the Beethoven Halle und Garten on Pereida Street for German beer on tap with live music on weekends (catch Gartenkonzerts – German bands, choir concerts and folk dancing on Beethoven’s patio—April through September). Nearby, the still-operating Pioneer Flour Mill was built by German immigrant C. H. Guenther in 1859. Dwarfed by the mill's towers, his 1860 home, the Guenther House, is open for tours and has a restaurant serving breakfast (complete with fluffy biscuits and freshly baked pastries) and lunch. The mill was erected where a grand avenue, King William Street (named after the King of Prussia, Wil-helm I), ended. Along its shady blocks, San Antonio’s most prosperous German families built lavish Victorian mansions, including the restored 1876 Steves Homestead, where you can get a glimpse of how they lived. By the 1870s, so many German and Alsatian immigrants were arriving and thriving here, they outnumbered the city’s Mexican, English, Irish and American populations, and the area where they settled along Alamo Street was dubbed the “Little Rhein” (the steakhouse of the same name is located inside La Villita).
Beethoven Halle und Garten: (210) 222-1521
Guenther House:  (210) 227-1061
Steves Homestead: (210) 225-5924
Little Rhein Steakhouse: (210) 225-2111