I'm going to say something that might start a fight: The Fort Worth Cultural District is better than anything on the Dallas side. Come at me.
The Kimbell Art Museum has Michelangelo. Caravaggio. Monet. In Fort Worth, Texas. The permanent collection is FREE. And the building itself — designed by Louis Kahn — is considered one of the most important pieces of American architecture. I've talked to people who've been to the Louvre and the Met who say the Kimbell holds its own. It's right here and most people in DFW have never walked through the door.
Walk across the street and you hit the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Also free. Always free. The Frederic Remington and Charles Russell western art collection is incredible. Then keep walking and you're at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth — Tadao Ando designed the building with this reflecting pool that makes you feel like you're in Japan, not Texas.
You can do all three in one afternoon. Walking distance. Two of them are free. This is one of the best museum days you can have in any American city and nobody outside of DFW talks about it.
On the Dallas side — DMA is free every day and most people still don't go. It's enormous. You could spend a whole day in there. The ancient Mediterranean gallery is my favorite.
The Nasher Sculpture Center is $10 (free first Saturdays) and the outdoor garden is genuinely meditative. I go there when I need to think.
Sleeper pick: Frontiers of Flight Museum at Love Field. They have an actual Apollo 7 capsule. $12. Nobody goes there and it's fascinating.
The Perot Museum is NOT just for kids — the gem hall and the earthquake simulator hit different as an adult. $22.
Fort Worth Cultural District > anything in Dallas. I said what I said. Now tell me why I'm wrong.
Whats your experience been?