Interview with Texas Monthly’s Travel Writer Jordan Breal

In this week’s Travel Tuesday Interview, I chat with Texas Monthly’s senior editor Jordan Breal, the ultimate Texas travel expert! As the magazine’s travel writer, it is literally her job to explore the great state of Texas! The Fort Worth native shares her list of must-visit destinations, best scenic drives, and most importantly, the best places for barbecue to help you plan your own Texas adventure!

 

 

Name: Jordan Breal
Age: 35
Hometown: Fort Worth, Texas
Website/Social Media: texasmonthly.com/travel / Instagram: @jordanbreal / Twitter: @jordanbreal

1. How did you start traveling?

When I first joined Texas Monthly as an editorial assistant, in 2005, I wasn’t yet sure what type of writing I wanted to do, but I had a clear vision of spending my days driving along the highways and byways and back roads across my home state. A few months into the job, I helped launch a new travel page called “Street Smarts,” and by the time I was a few years into the job, I realized I was spending more and more time on travel stories—and more and more time on the road. I was dubbed “the Wanderer” by a former editor, and my column of the same name launched in September 2012. I’ve pretty much been a full-time roamer ever since. These days, I’m spending about a quarter to a third of each month out reporting, and I put somewhere around 13,000 or so miles on the odometer each year. Of course, in my original vision all those years ago, I was doing all of this driving in a vintage Shelby Cobra, but I have yet to be handed the keys to one at any rental car company.

 

2. What does your average work day look like as the resident travel writer for Texas Monthly?

The great thing about being a travel writer is that there is no average work day. When I’m out reporting, each day is a marathon of trying to do, see, and eat as much as possible in a particular town or city, and of course, I’m conducting interviews and trying to find even more places to go and things to do along the way. Then, in the evenings, I catch up on emails and make sure my other projects are humming along. They’re long days, for sure.

When I’m in the office (or the home office, as is often the case), I’m hunkered down writing my column or one of my travel posts for texasmonthly.com. Or I’m editing one of our multi-part travel features. Or I’m brainstorming what to write about next, planning social media posts, saving all the places I still want to check out to my Pocket list, and sketching out itineraries in one of my many Google Maps (like this epic burger road trip). Although I sometimes fantasize about what it would be like to have a 9-to-5 job, I like the unpredictableness of my schedule, and I’m afraid I’d go stir-crazy if I had to be in the same place every day. I’ve been ruined for normal employment.

 

3. Give us your picks for the best barbecue in Texas.

Readers across the world (yes, the world!) wait eagerly to see which joints make our vaunted Top 50 BBQ list; it’s published every four years now and is determined by our full-time barbecue editor, Daniel Vaughn (aka @bbqsnob), our esteemed food editor, Patricia Sharpe, and the team of professional eaters they deploy to every corner of the state.

Our next list drops at the end of May, and I can’t wait to see if there have been any big shake-ups or if anyone has unseated our reigning champ, Franklin Barbecue, in Austin (yep, it’s the one that has the really long line). In the meantime, I’ll be getting my fill of brisket and pork ribs and sausage at:

• Snow’s in Lexington (its pit master, Tootsie Tomanetz, is my role model)
• Heim Barbecue in my hometown of Fort Worth
• Cooper’s Pit Bar-B-Que in Llano

 

 

4. Where are your three favorite places to eat in Texas?

I’m going to hedge a teensy bit here and declare my three favorite places to eat in Texas right now because otherwise I’d spend a month trying to winnow it down:

• Julio’s, in Austin, because it’s where my friends and I go to catch up over gooey enchiladas and killer Mexican martinis.
• Ocho, at the Hotel Havana, in San Antonio, because it feels like you’re in a bejeweled greenhouse just above the River Walk and because I always want to order everything on the breakfast menu.
• Ode Brewing Co., in El Paso, because I just had an amazing meal there (fried cauliflower, black-bean burger, and fries with their coffee porter) after a long day of hiking through the Franklin Mountains.

 

5. What are some great off-the-beaten path destinations in Texas?

It just so happens that for my latest cover story, “Hidden Texas,” I spilled the beans on dozens of my favorite shops, restaurants, boutique hotels, etc, that are in the state’s tiniest towns. There’s Ritual, a French-inspired luncheonette with a yoga studio and meditation labyrinth, in East Texas; Rancho Loma Vineyards, the latest spot-on venture in tiny Coleman, near the smack-dab middle of the state; Front Street Books, my favorite indie bookstore way out west in Alpine; and the Inn at Chachalaca Bend, a lush, half-hidden B&B thronged with birds in the Rio Grande Valley. Since Texas is the second-largest state, in both area and population, I don’t anticipate running out of far-flung destinations to visit any time soon.

 

 

 

6. What are some of the best scenic drives in the state?

• If you want to feel like you’re on the edge of the world: Point your high-clearance vehicle toward the River Road that roughly parallels the Rio Grande on the state’s western edge out in Big Bend. For a slightly less adventurous (read: safer) trek, follow this loop, which starts and ends in Alpine, and also gets you right up next to the mighty Rio Grande.
• If you want to channel the spirit of both the Comanche and Coronado: Drive south from flat Amarillo until the land splits open dramatically at Palo Duro Canyon State Park (home of the second largest canyon in the U.S. after that other canyon).
• If you want to see carpets of colorful wildflowers: The Hill Country’s a high-density area for the indigo bluebonnets, red Indian paintbrushes, purple winecups, and hundreds of other species of wildflowers that pop up each spring; start in Vanderpool, head west to Leakey, then south to Concan, and east to Utopia.

 

7. What are three places in the state that every Texan must visit in their lifetime?

• The Alamo, because it’s the “cradle of Texas liberty”…but also, its four (lovelier, if less famous) sister missions.
• Big Bend, because it’s wild and vast and home to one of the least-visited (but absolutely gorgeous) national parks…but also, lush, slightly spooky Caddo Lake on the clear other side of the state, whose beauty is just as mysterious.
• Padre Island National Seashore, because it’s the longest undeveloped barrier island in the world and offers superb seashelling…but also, San José Island (a.k.a. St. Jo), a privately owned island across from Port Aransas that’s accessible by ferry and feels as isolated as the privately owned island of your dreams.

 

 

8. Share one of your travel highlights.

Yes, I spend most of my time encouraging people to travel to places within Texas, but I do manage to get beyond state lines from time to time too. Of course, I always get a kick out of running into fellow Texans abroad, which always seems to happen, whether I’m in a five-star hotel in Milan or biking the length of Caye Caulker. I swear we all gravitate toward the same places or else we really are just everywhere. One of the best trips I’ve ever been on was the eight-day cross-country drive I took with two friends last fall. We started in Austin, ended in San Francisco, and hiked our way through so many mind-boggling landscapes along the way, including White Sands National Monument, the Petrified Forest, Zion National Park, the Grand Canyon, and Death Valley. It reignited my life dream of strapping a tent to the roof of my car and becoming a full-time overlander.

9. Name three things you always pack for a trip.

• A pair of cheap hotel slippers, which I buy in bulk from an online wholesaler.
• My Bondi cell phone holder, so I can safely navigate hands-free.
• A packet of Dr. Singha’s Mustard Bath and Skyn Iceland eye gels, in case I get a minute to decompress.
• I’ve also been known to travel with my boot jack. 🙂

 

10. What is your next adventure?

Next week, I’m heading to Round Top to do a little junking and treasure hunting at the antiques shows that take over nearly every building and field along a twenty-mile stretch each spring and fall. I’ve also got a weeklong (non-work!) trip to Port Aransas on the horizon; we’ve got a beachfront rental house that sleeps 18 and no plans to do anything more strenuous than laze by the water during the day and fry up some seafood in the evenings. That said, I’m sure I’ll start to get a little cabin fever and sneak away to see what interesting things I can find—and then eventually write about. A wanderer’s work never ends!

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COMING UP:

 

How to Survive Tough Travel Days

There are bad days on the road just like there are at home. The good days are glorious. And, the bad days are, well, tough. I’ll share some of my hilarious travel mishaps including my battle with giant Australian spider and offer tips to help you deal with the less than glorious days.