Some Hill Country towns announce themselves with traffic and tour buses. Comfort, Texas, doesn’t. It sits just off Interstate 10 in Kendall County, close enough to San Antonio for a morning drive, and still feels like a place where folks wave from the porch and the pace slows down the minute you turn onto High Street.
If you’ve already done Fredericksburg and Boerne and want a quieter day, Comfort is a good answer. Here’s how to spend a few easy hours there.
Where Comfort is and how long it takes to get there
Comfort is an unincorporated community in Kendall County, tucked where Cypress Creek meets the Guadalupe River. From downtown San Antonio it’s roughly 45 minutes to an hour northwest on I-10, depending on traffic. From Austin, plan on about an hour and a half heading west. Kerrville is about 20 minutes farther up the interstate, and Fredericksburg is a short drive north, so Comfort pairs nicely with either one.
Because Comfort isn’t an incorporated city, the Comfort Chamber of Commerce is the best place to start. The chamber office on Highway 27 doubles as a visitor center and has a walking tour of the downtown historic buildings.
Walk the High Street historic district
Comfort was settled in the 1850s by German immigrants, many of them freethinkers, and their limestone and timber buildings are still standing. The old downtown along High Street holds more than a hundred historic structures, with the oldest dating to 1854. That’s a lot of history packed into a few walkable blocks.
Bring comfortable shoes and take your time. Look for the German-style fachwerk construction (timber framing filled with stone or brick), the old storefronts with their tall windows, and the small details that tell you these buildings were built by hand. Most of the old commercial blocks now hold shops, antiques, galleries and eateries, so browsing and sightseeing happen at the same time.
Stop at the Treue der Union monument
A few blocks from the heart of High Street, between Third and Fourth streets, stands one of the most meaningful landmarks in the state. The Treue der Union (“Loyalty to the Union”) monument honors German settlers from this area who were killed in 1862 while trying to reach Mexico rather than serve the Confederacy. The battle took place on August 10, 1862, along the Nueces River, and others in the group were killed in the weeks after.
The remains of the men were gathered and buried here in 1865, and the limestone obelisk was dedicated in 1866. It’s widely described as the oldest Civil War monument in Texas, and the site is one of a handful of places allowed to fly the U.S. flag at half-staff permanently. It’s a quiet, thoughtful stop, and well worth a few minutes. The Boerne Star ran a good history piece on it this summer if you’d like to read up before you go.
Grab a bite in town
For a small place, Comfort has a solid lineup of local eateries, and many of them keep a Wednesday-through-Sunday schedule. That’s the main thing to know: if you show up on a Monday or Tuesday, expect a lot of “closed” signs.
- Comfort Pizza (802 High St.) serves wood-fired pizza with outdoor seating and has been listed as open Wednesday through Sunday. It’s a popular spot, so arriving early is smart.
- High’s Cafe & Store (726 High St.) sits in a building that once housed the local volunteer fire department and serves a casual café menu Wednesday through Sunday.
- Cypress Creek Inn Restaurant (408 State Hwy 27) is a family-owned spot for home-style cooking; it’s listed with lunch and dinner Wednesday through Saturday and lunch on Sunday.
Small-town restaurant hours shift with the seasons, so call ahead or check social media before you drive out just for a meal.
Make it an overnight
If you’d like to stretch the visit, Comfort has some charming places to stay. Hotel Giles, at 717 High St., occupies a building that dates to 1880 and is within easy walking distance of the historic district and the monument. Staying in town means you can enjoy High Street in the cool of the evening and again in the morning before the day-trippers arrive.
A quirky bonus for history buffs: on FM 473 you can see the Hygieostatic Bat Roost, a tall wooden tower built in 1918 as an early experiment to control mosquitoes. It sits on private property, so admire it from the road and don’t trespass.
When to visit
Fall and spring are the sweet spots, with mild days for walking and the creek and river looking their best. Fall is also when the town decorates for the season; the chamber promotes events like its Scarecrow Invasion and Christmas in Comfort, but check the chamber’s events calendar for this year’s dates since they weren’t posted when we wrote this. Summer works too, just plan your walking for the morning.
Good to Know
- Where: Comfort, Kendall County, just off I-10 about 45 minutes to an hour northwest of San Antonio and roughly 1.5 hours west of Austin.
- Visitor center: Comfort Chamber of Commerce, 630 Hwy 27; office open Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–3 p.m.; (830) 995-3131.
- Best days: Wednesday through Sunday, when most local eateries are open.
- Don’t miss: The High Street historic district and the Treue der Union monument (High Street between Third and Fourth).
- Cost: Walking the historic district and visiting the monument are free.
Hours, dates and prices can change. Check the Comfort Chamber of Commerce website before you head out.
Comfort is the kind of town that rewards an unhurried visit. Park the truck, walk High Street, pay your respects at the monument and linger over lunch. Y’all will head home feeling like you found one of the Hill Country’s best-kept secrets.
Featured photo: Larry D. Moore via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.
