What’s New at Texas Hill Country Hotels

Driving west out of Austin toward Fredericksburg, the road narrows to one-lane blacktop, and the edges of the city’s suburbs gradually give way to a different kind of Texas, one of ranches, old wooden churches, farm stands and wineries.

This is the Texas Hill Country, a 31,000-square-mile area of rocky karst hills considered the threshold between the Southeast and the Southwest. As the center of the state’s wine tourism, and with a more temperate climate than the nearby cities, the region has lured visitors for generations, whether for the hiking or the tempranillo wine or to just get away from it all.

Figuring out where exactly the Texas Hill Country begins and ends is a task best left to local songwriting legends like Willie Nelson and Lucinda Williams, but over a recent weekend, with Ms. Williams’s gravelly twang on the car speaker, I cruised the region’s back roads to see what was new, particularly in terms of accommodations.

To meet increasing demand over the past 30 years, megaresorts, like the Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort and Spa, opened and now dominate the area’s hotel market. These properties, along with La Cantera Resort & Spa, JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country, Hilton San Antonio Hill Country and Hyatt Regency Lost Pines, are sprawling, multiple-pool complexes, some with children’s zones and lazy rivers, and start at around $200 for weeknights and $450 for weekends.

But in recent years, a different kind of Hill Country hotel has emerged. I found a range of surprising options, from an opulent wellness resort where you can learn country line dancing to a boutique hotel with grazing giraffes and rhinos.

Located 40 minutes from downtown Austin in Dripping Springs, Camp Lucy serves as a popular place for weddings, with statuesque oaks framing bridal photos. But in 2014, the owners also started adding hotel rooms, and in 2020, even better ones — “treetop” rooms, with balconies overlooking the hills. The on-site restaurant, Tillie’s, has elaborate tile work and teal leather bar seats, and the pool is sizable with comfortable lounge spaces. But it’s the country details that make a memorable visit: A communal fire pit is a fun outdoor space to while away the evening, and the front desk provides kibble you can hand-feed to the alpacas on the property. (Nightly rates around $300.)

Farther west, on the outskirts of the town of Fredericksburg, I dropped by Longneck Manor, a small hotel that opened in 2021 with a unique offering:…