El Paso has the largest urban mountain park in the United States inside its own city limits, three Spanish colonial missions still holding services in its lower valley, and an unusual number of museums that charge nothing at all. It is also split across four separate operators, the city, the state parks service, the National Park Service and the Texas Historical Commission, none of which publishes the others' hours, which is why so much of what is written about the place is out of date. Seven of the fifteen picks below are free. One long closed attraction still appears on almost every other list and is dealt with here instead of ranked.
The top 15, ranked
Ranked from official sources: Texas Parks and Wildlife, the National Park Service, the Texas Historical Commission, the City of El Paso museums and each operator's own visit page, with the published adult price beside every pick and every free claim quoted from the operator.
- Top pick
1Best for the thing that makes El Paso itself · #1 of 15
Franklin Mountains State Park
State parkNortheast and Westsidethe gate runs from eight in the morning until five, opening at half past six on Friday through Sunday between April and SeptemberUnder $10Nearly twenty seven thousand acres of mountain sit inside the city limits, with more than a hundred miles of trail for walking, riding and climbing. Entry is five dollars a day for adults and free for anyone twelve and under, which is the best value in the city by a distance.
Local tipThe gate opens at eight and closes at five, and moves to a half past six start on Friday, Saturday and Sunday between April and September. The park itself tells hikers to prepare for heat, and it means it.
- Top pick
2Best for a free hour downtown · #2 of 15
El Paso Museum of Art
Art museumDowntownopen Wednesday through Saturday from ten until six and on Sunday from eleven until three, closed Mondays and TuesdaysFreeThe city's art museum states that admission is free, always, and it reopened on the fourteenth of February 2026 after a three and a half million dollar rebuild of its environmental and security systems. Anything written about it before that date describes a closed building.
Local tipIt is shut on Mondays and Tuesdays and opens only from eleven until three on Sundays, which is a narrower Sunday window than most visitors expect.
- Top pick
3Best for climbers and rock art · #3 of 15
Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site
State parkNortheastaccess is by advance reservation only, with a daily cap on the self guided area and guided tours required for most of the siteUnder $10Granite hills east of the city hold natural rock basins, thousands of years of pictographs and some of the best bouldering in the country. Entry is seven dollars a day for adults and free for children twelve and under, but the access rules matter more than the price.
Local tipVisitation is capped and a reservation is required. Only North Mountain is self guided, with seventy people allowed in at a time, and West Mountain, East Mountain and East Spur can only be entered with a paid guide. Do not drive out without booking.
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4Best for understanding the border · #4 of 15
Chamizal National Memorial
National memorialSouth centralthe grounds open early and stay open into the evening, with the cultural complex keeping shorter daytime hours inside themFreeThe National Park Service states that it charges no admission for entry to the park, its facilities or its own events. The memorial marks the diplomatic settlement of a border dispute that ran for a hundred years, which is a subject you will not find treated anywhere else.
Local tipThe grounds keep much longer hours than the cultural complex inside them, and entry is only through the gates on San Marcial Street and Delta Drive. Walking in outside operating hours is not permitted.
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5Best for a weekday morning drive · #5 of 15
The Mission Trail
Historic missionsLower Valleythree separate churches with three different schedules, all narrowest at the weekend because they are active parishes rather than museumsFreeThree Spanish colonial churches stand along the lower valley, and Ysleta is the oldest continuously active parish in Texas in what is the oldest town in the state. They are working parishes rather than museums, and nobody charges to go in.
Local tipThe opening hours are the whole problem. Ysleta runs seven until four Monday to Saturday and is shut on Sundays, Socorro shifts hours across the week with a short Sunday morning only, and the San Elizario chapel opens to visitors on weekday mornings from seven until half past nine and is reserved for services at the weekend. Do the trail on a weekday morning or do not do it.
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6Best for context before the missions · #6 of 15
El Paso Museum of History
History museumDowntownopen Wednesday through Saturday from ten until six and on Sunday from eleven until three, and closed on city holidaysFreeThe city museum on North Santa Fe Street states that admission is always free, with a suggested three dollar donation, and it covers the region across four centuries rather than only the American period.
Local tipIt closes on city holidays as well as Mondays and Tuesdays, so a holiday weekend can catch it shut when the calendar looks like it should be open.
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#7Best for twenty minutes at sunset · #7 of 15Scenic Drive Overlook
ViewpointKern Placea public roadside overlook rather than a staffed attraction, with no ticket booth and no posted opening hoursFreeA pull off on the road that curls around the shoulder of the Franklins gives you the whole basin at once: downtown El Paso in front, Ciudad Juarez beyond it and the mountains at your back. It is a public roadway rather than a staffed attraction, so there is no ticket and no gate.
Local tipGo at dusk, when the two cities light up on either side of the river and the scale of what you are looking at becomes obvious. There is limited parking, so it is a short stop rather than a long one.
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8Best for pairing a museum with a desert walk · #8 of 15
El Paso Museum of Archaeology
Archaeology museumTransmountain Roadopen Tuesday through Saturday from nine until five, closed on Sundays and MondaysFreeFree admission, on Transmountain Road, with a wilderness park of desert trails attached to the same site. It is the third of the city's free museums and the only one you can walk straight out of into the desert.
Local tipPair the museum with the trails outside it, because they share the site and the combination gives you the natural and the human history of the same ground in one stop. Go early in summer.
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9Best for a day with young children · #9 of 15
El Paso Zoo
ZooCentralopen every day from nine until five with last admission at four, closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and New Year's Day$10 to $25Thirty five acres on Paisano Drive with animals grouped by region, including a Chihuahuan Desert section that puts the local ecology beside the imported wildlife. Adult entry runs under sixteen dollars, with separate resident and non resident rates, and babies under twenty three months are free.
Local tipLast admission is four o'clock even though the gates stay open until five, so a late afternoon arrival will be turned away. Parking is free. The Foster Tree House Playground is closed until further notice.
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10Best for adobe architecture and family history · #10 of 15
Magoffin Home State Historic Site
Historic houseMagoffin Historic Districtopen Tuesday through Saturday from nine until four, closed Sundays and MondaysUnder $10An 1875 adobe house near downtown, run by the Texas Historical Commission rather than by the city, telling the story of a border family across four generations. Adults are seven dollars, children aged six to seventeen are four, and seniors, veterans, teachers and first responders are six.
Local tipBecause it belongs to the state rather than the city it keeps its own hours and its own price list, and neither matches the free city museums downtown. It is open Tuesday to Saturday only.
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11Best for getting around downtown for nothing · #11 of 15
El Paso Streetcar
Heritage streetcarDowntown and UTEPhours differ on every day of the week, running latest on Friday and Saturday and starting only at midday on SundayFreeRestored 1950s cars run four and eight tenths of a mile of track with twenty seven stops between downtown and the university, and the operator states plainly that rides are free. It is the cheapest way to see the city at street level.
Local tipThe hours change every single day of the week, running latest on Friday and Saturday nights and not starting until midday on Sunday, so check the day you are actually there rather than a generic timetable.
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12Best for a free look inside a picture palace · #12 of 15
Plaza Theatre
Historic theaterDowntownfree public tours on scheduled weekday dates, with performance times and ticket prices varying by show and held inside the booking systemFree with paid optionsA 1930 atmospheric picture palace restored in 2006 and listed as a National Historic Building of Significance, with a ceiling built to look like an open sky. Free public tours run on a published weekday schedule, and shows are ticketed separately.
Local tipThe free tour is the point if you care about the building rather than the booking. Groups of fifteen or more are asked to email ahead for a private tour instead of joining a public one.
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13Best for a summer evening · #13 of 15
Southwest University Park
BallparkDowntownopen on game and event nights only, with the schedule and prices held inside the league ticketing system rather than published as a standing listTicketedA downtown ballpark seating seven and a half thousand, expanding toward ten for bigger events, home to the El Paso Chihuahuas. A minor league evening in a walkable downtown park is one of the better cheap nights out in any Texas city.
Local tipIt sits at Ballpark Plaza right in the middle of downtown, so it works on foot from the streetcar rather than needing a drive and a parking lot.
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14Best for one long evening out of town · #14 of 15
Cattleman's Steakhouse at Indian Cliffs Ranch
Ranch restaurantFabensclosed on Mondays, dinner only from five on Tuesday through Friday, and open from half past twelve at the weekendVariesA working ranch about thirty miles east of the city with longhorns, buffalo and a children's zoo on the property, and a steakhouse in the middle of it. The drive out through the desert is half the experience rather than a cost of it.
Local tipArrive before dark so the animals and the ranch are still visible, because in the dark it is only a restaurant. It is closed on Mondays and opens at half past twelve at the weekend.
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15Best for a night with a band on · #15 of 15
Lowbrow Palace
Music venueDowntownopen on show nights only, with the schedule and the ticket prices held on the venue calendar rather than published as standing hoursTicketedThe city's main independent music room, running since 2011 and reopened in an upgraded space in 2022, taking touring acts alongside local bands. It is downtown, so it fits after a ballgame or a walk on the streetcar line.
Local tipNothing runs on a fixed schedule here, so the calendar is the only source for what is on and what it costs, and prices sit inside the ticketing system rather than on the page.
Where things cluster
El Paso is spread out and the mountain sits in the middle of it, so the northeast and the west side are further apart by road than they look, and the Mission Trail is a separate half day in the other direction.
- Downtown El PasoThe two free city museums, the picture palace, the ballpark and the free streetcar all sit within a few blocks of each other.
- The Franklin MountainsThe largest urban mountain park in the country runs right through the middle of the city, with entrances on both the northeast and the west side.
- The Lower ValleyYsleta, Socorro and San Elizario are strung along the valley southeast of the city, twenty minutes to three quarters of an hour out.
- The Hueco areaGranite hills, pictographs and world class bouldering about half an hour northeast, on a reservation only system.
- Kern Place and Scenic DriveThe road around the mountain shoulder above downtown, holding the overlook and the university end of the streetcar line.
Make it a day
Mountain, museums, overlook
Take the Franklin Mountains first, early, because the heat builds through the day and the gate opens at eight. Come down into downtown for the free art museum and the free history museum, which sit within a few blocks of each other, and use the free streetcar between them rather than moving the car. Give the late afternoon to the Plaza Theatre if a tour is scheduled, and finish at the Scenic Drive overlook at dusk, when both cities in the basin light up.
The city, then the valley or the rocks
Spend the first day on the city: the mountain in the morning, downtown and its free museums in the afternoon, the ballpark or the Lowbrow in the evening. On the second day choose a direction. Southeast takes you down the Mission Trail to Ysleta, Socorro and San Elizario, which has to be a weekday morning because the churches close to visitors at the weekend. Northeast takes you to Hueco Tanks, which needs a reservation booked well before you arrive. Chamizal fits either day and costs nothing.
Map
Best time to visit
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This is the desert and the calendar follows the heat rather than the crowds. Spring and late autumn give you walkable days on the mountain and at Hueco Tanks without the summer temperatures the park itself warns hikers about. Summer is hot enough that the outdoor half of this list has to be done at dawn or not at all, though the free museums, the streetcar, the theater and the ballpark all run through it. Winter is mild and quiet and the mountains occasionally take snow.
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El Paso things to do FAQ
What has been shut since 2018, what needs booking, and what the heat really does to a plan, answered before you go.
Is the Wyler Aerial Tramway open?
No, and it has not been for years. Texas Parks and Wildlife closed the tramway in September 2018 after an engineering report found it unsafe to carry passengers, and its own site still gives no confirmed reopening date. It appears on almost every other things to do list for this city as though the ride were running. Do not plan a trip around it. The Franklin Mountains State Park entrances give you the same range on foot.
Do you need a reservation for Hueco Tanks?
Yes. Visitation is capped to protect the rock art and the site, and a reservation is required. Only North Mountain can be visited self guided, with seventy people admitted at a time, and West Mountain, East Mountain and East Spur can only be entered with a paid tour guide. Turning up without a booking is the most common way people waste a morning here.
What is free to do in El Paso?
More than in most cities this size. The El Paso Museum of Art states that admission is free, always. The Museum of History says admission is always free with a suggested donation. The Museum of Archaeology states free admission. The National Park Service charges nothing at the Chamizal National Memorial. The streetcar is free to ride, the three missions on the Mission Trail charge nothing, the Scenic Drive overlook is a public road, and the Plaza Theatre runs free public tours.
When can you actually visit the missions?
Weekday mornings, mostly. They are active parishes rather than museums, so services come first. Ysleta opens Monday to Saturday from seven until four and closes on Sundays and holidays. Socorro runs different hours on weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays, with a short Sunday morning window only. The San Elizario chapel opens to visitors from seven until half past nine on weekdays and is given over to Mass at the weekend.
How hot does El Paso get?
Hot enough that it changes the plan rather than just the comfort. Franklin Mountains State Park publishes summer temperatures into the mid nineties and tells hikers to prepare for heat and carry more water than they think they need. Between roughly June and September the outdoor half of this list is a dawn activity, and the free museums, the streetcar, the theater and the ballpark carry the middle of the day.
How long do you need in El Paso?
One full day covers the mountain in the morning and downtown in the afternoon, which is the core of the city. Two days lets you add either the Mission Trail southeast or Hueco Tanks northeast, but not comfortably both, because they are in opposite directions and Hueco needs a booking made in advance.
Keep planning
Use these nearby guides to extend an El Paso trip across west Texas and into New Mexico.
Image credits. Hero: Texanguy123 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. 7 Scenic Drive Overlook: Nick Amoscato / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.