Buddy Holly captured my teenage heart years ago, so going to his hometown of Lubbock, Texas with grown-up girlfriends opened options to “Rave On” and meet “Peggy Sue” in new ways.
What You’ll Love About Lubbock
- Cotton Court Hotel: Personal private spaces plus girlfriend gathering options
- Wine tastings and restaurants with creative craft cocktails. Way more than barbecue and fried chicken, although Lubbock cooks them too
- Outdoor explorations of archaeology and ranching. No intention to become a rancher or field researcher, but happy to peek into other lifestyles
- Museums with just enough learning, not the overwhelm-me info abundance. Displays both simple and creative, fine for triggering girlfriend observations
Editor’s note: The writer was hosted.
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Getting to Lubbock for a Girlfriend Getaway
Grown-up girls together in Lubbock can explore inside and outdoors, choose fine dining and casual meals too and meet some women who turned their own dreams into lively, much-loved businesses.
Lubbock’s not likely to feel on the way to somewhere else. South Plains means little to me, but northwest Texas and the panhandle gave me some geography planning for a trip with girlfriends.
Driving from Dallas or San Antonio takes five or six hours; Amarillo only two. We chose flights to Dallas, changing planes to LBB, the Lubbock airport.
Where To Stay
On some trips, a clean bed and bath suffice. Girlfriend getaways also need groupings of comfy chairs, preferably a variety of them. Safe smooth places to walk for morning stretches and after-dinner digesting matter too.
That means set the lodging plan first.
Accommodations actually can accommodate girlfriend pleasures. Here’s what we found true at the downtown Cotton Court Hotel:
- Really large courtyard with a multitude of seating spaces, some with fireplaces, a worth-noticing range of chair and sofa styles, groupings large enough for friends, separate enough for privacy. And four side-by-side hammocks
- Swimming pool with plenty of lounge chairs to stretch out
- Full-size fridge in the bedroom, well stocked (extra charges) but ample space to chill self- brought treats. It’s a Smeg, evoking retro feelings through the Italian company launched in 1948. Buddy Holly was 12 years old then.
- Red wooden rocking chair outside every bedroom door, lined along two floors of wide wooden boardwalks, overlooking the tree-dotted courtyard
- Crisp-feeling bathroom with tiny black-and-white tiles
- Sofa, writing desk, full-length mirror
- On-site restaurant named The Midnight Sun, recorded but not written by Buddy Holly
Where’s The Wine?
Adolphos Cellars
Taste the 22 hand-crafted wines at Adelphos Cellars for starters. That’s the way to appreciate West Texas and South Plains terroir: distinctive lands and weather especially nourishing for growing grapes.
Consider that grapes present themselves in 38 species and 34 of them grow in this region. When Quakers sought to settle in this vast flat land in 1874, they declared grapes might be the most successful crop.
Adelphos believes in small batches and poetic imagery. Here’s how to think about their heirloom pale red—white strawberry, melon, fresh rain, tart raspberry with a peachy cream finish.
The winery–with patios and outdoor seating as well as indoor, plus an event center-helps anchor the Texas Artisan Vineyards Cooperative.
SheBuysTravel Tip: Let the winery class schedule influence trip timing. “Petals and Primrose” or “Peonies and Primitives” combine wine tasting with flower arranging. The teacher’s father, Jim Irwin, founded Adelphos, which flourishes as a family affair.
Sangria Flights at Mano Negra
Sure, a brewery invites girlfriend fun – but finding flights of sangria in this Lubbock location is a different kind of special. Five generous tastes
Mano Negra’s founder Daniel Badilio started life in Puerto Rico and sold craft sodas in Lubbock to corral cash to open this brewery. Island music, flavors, hospitality and the art color Mano Negra’s cozy indoor tasting spaces. Patio seating on Cactus Alley connects to downtown.
Getting Around
Walkable often feels easy around Lubbock. Consider downtown drives short and not congested. Empty storefronts here and there bookmark bustling places in between.
Buddy Holly Center
Buddy Holly died young in 1959 yet he still headlines in Lubbock every day at the history museum center on (really!) Crickets Avenue, sporting his name and also the architecturally and acoustically interesting performing arts space known as Buddy Holly Hall.
Bob Dylan said Buddy Holly was a “poet way ahead of his time,” and museum displays link many musicians to him as a prime influence. Here’s a to-the-point declaration from Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards: “Buddy Holly was the start of everything.”
Consider The Buddy Holly Center a campus including the J. I. Allison 1950s house. Standing in the bedroom where “Peggy Sue” and “That’ll Be The Day” came to life, I began to shiver.
SheBuysTravel Tip: Watch the video; gear up for a bunch of reading if you tackle the wordy poster displays. Info’s valuable, but voluminous in today’s quick-reading culture. Do read the Beatles Paul McCartney section: “At least the first 40 songs we wrote were Buddy Holly influenced.”
Buddy Holly Hall
Immerse in ballet at the Buddy Holly Hall of Performing Arts & Sciences, and also the sounds of the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra as well as traveling Broadway shows and well-known artists.
The back story’s dynamic in this multi-theater complex, brand new in January of 2021. Imagine historic tremors because the elegant hall sits on downtown land devastated by a violent 1970 multiple-vortex tornado much remembered today.
Of course the more intimate studio theater, seating 386 people, is named Crickets, for Buddy Holly’s young, formative and influential band. Light and openness define all the spaces, giving Buddy Holly Hall the feel of a public plaza throughout.
The West Table in downtown is a tasty and convenient place for an early dinner before heading to the Buddy Holly Hall. Worked for me with a 5:00 p.m. dinner reservation and 7:00 p.m. ballet tickets.
Best Places To Eat and Drink
Chilton Cocktail Shape-shifting
A wheel of fresh lemon shows up in every Chilton cocktail I met in Lubbock.
Here’s what changes: the color of the drink and the shape of the glass, the kind of vodka, soda water and the salted (or not) rim.
Go to Dirk’s for lunch and the Chilton will include sparkling rainwater, within restaurant walls filled with original cartoons by Dirk West. Dine at The West Table and find ruby red grapefruit.
Keep ordering around town and hear the murky legend that Chilton was a person, a Lubbock physician needing refreshment at the local country club decades ago.
CandleBar Kitchen + Cocktails
Candle Bar’s a curious place, in a good way. Craft cocktails headline the reputation and my lemon meringue martini matched the allure. Blue agave vodka, Licor 43, limoncello, lemon juice and cream blend well.
Shareable plates suited my table of friends. Pappardelle pasta made in house, chef’s slow-cooked bolognese sauce with beef, pork and lamb, abundant garlic and a dollop of parmesan pleased my rarely-eat-meat palate.
SheBuysTravel Tip: Go shopping at Candle Bar + Cocktails. Really. While the bar with its filigreed back panel showcasing the liquor bottles pulls you to the right, go left first. The shop is distinctive, and could make a real dent in your holiday and special occasion gift list. Full disclosure: I don’t like to shop but this space stands out.
The Nicolett
Whatever does “High Plains cuisine” mean? In West Texas, the Lubbock chef who founded The Nicolett defines that. Finn Walter’s a local who also shaped his cooking in Paris, Austin, Napa Valley, New Orleans, San Francisco and Santa Fe.
James Beard seems to approve with semifinalist honors in the Best Chef Texas awards in 2026.
Lavender brioche, local greens slightly fried with their flowers, seared foie gras, farm cheese ravioli with bergamot or an entree of lamb in the style of brisket might be your order.
Or this: caviar atop corn churro, pozole hominy with green chile and roast peppers, chicken in half mourning, a French dish with shaved black truffles under the skin.
Picture the veil of a woman in mourning. Learned this at The Nicolett.
SheBuysTravelTip: Seek a reservation in the greenhouse. While the dining room is quite fine, this building out back is a special experience.
Monomyth Coffee
Six separate spaces at Monomyth Coffee invite conversation along with coffee sipping. Girlfriends traveling together like such spaces.
While Joseph Campbell’s legendary “The Hero With A Thousand Faces” definitely inspired the two brothers naming and opening the Lubbock coffee house in 2019, visitors can sip a favorite doppio or cortado, macchiato or affogato here.
Or find out what each is and how they differ! The hero’s journey, it seems, includes being bold enough to ask about coffee distinctions. Expect to learn when milk’s warm and slightly steamed, foamed or really the cream or gelato underneath a pour of espresso.
Cast Iron Grill
Pie for breakfast lured me to the Cast Iron Grill. I can cook eggs and pancakes at home. The real notion is buy pie for later because they sell out fast but blueberry lemon satisfied me for a Lubbock morning.
Founder/owner Teresa Stephens learned pie baking in 2007 when opening the restaurant. Now, three generations of her family create legends which customers claim.
Some bring their worn-out Texas boots to hang from the rafters, and often sit under that pair. Anniversaries, both happy and sad, propel people to Cast Iron Grill to honor memories. One man reportedly went for breakfast every Monday through Friday for 19 years.
The breakfast and lunch restaurant is not open Saturday or Sunday and stops serving lunch at 2:00 p.m.
“Making a difference in one person’s life” fuels Stephens’ energies. She chats easily with customers, speaks fondly of her 27 employees–many long-term, and readily shares wonder and gratitude for her life’s journey.
Distinctive Things To Do
Lubbock Lake Landmark
Archaeology digs might be daunting work for a girlfriend getaway, but choosing from four miles of meandering trails to take a walk is fine. Fine also to spot prairie dogs on their hind legs or migratory birds going both north and south. Guided stargazing with telescopes at night feels welcoming too.
Lubbock Lake Landmark draws its excellence from Texas Tech University and draws its ancient discoveries from 12,000 years of evidence. Like charred bison bones some 9,800 years old. Radiocarbon tested.
Meandering where ancient people and now extinct animals once walked gave me new ways to think about myself and my friendships. Can’t breathe deeply in lands like these very often.
Sediment matters to archaeologists and Lubbock Lake Landmark illustrates the layers and what they mean on signage around the 336-acre site and in the museum. Short version: Paleo-Indian people lived here 11,500 years ago as did Neolithic people 8,500 years past.
Guided tours offer tons of information. Walk alone and still learn with easy-reading signs along the way.
Meandering seems maybe like aimless wandering, or at least going slow, just right for a girlfriend getaway when West Texas feels hot.
Archaeologists and other scientists see meander as a series of curves in the channel of a river.
Lubbock Lake Landmark guides speak of the meander and the instructive sediments. I liked feeling myself actually in the Pleistocene era and other unfathomable ancient times.
Ranching Without All The Work
National Ranching Heritage Center
I’m no rancher but riding the trolley around the National Ranching Heritage Center in Lubbock let me pretend. Walking works too; the 1.5-mile loop showcases 53 homes and work buildings with history.
Imagining life had I been born there in any of those eras from 1780 to 1950 mostly bewildered me because life looked so different.
Just thinking about access to water challenged me, as did wind power with the multitude of windmills near the homes and barns. They looked like sculptures to me, but I knew they were serious, time-period technology.
Good conversation to have with girlfriends in Lubbock: what would we have been like in those years?
Inside felt very different—Hank the cowdog eased my transition into ranch life. Author John R. Erickson might have created the character for kids but for sure Hank guided me too.
The Ranch Life Learning Center is engaging, well worth several hours. Expect holograms, artistic presentations, video projections, images on glass and a wide range of subjects.
Surprised me to learn that prairies are one of the world’s most complicated ecosystems, surpassed in diversity only by the rainforests of Brazil.
SheBuysTravel Tip: Do watch the video. Opened in 2023, the Learning Center received $3.5 million from the Don-Kay-Clay Cash Foundation. Don’t assume connections to a music family. These philanthropists are tried-and-true Texas Tech Red Rangers with Lubbock roots.
Mosaic Art in Lubbock and Also Glassyalley Gallery
When I sat on the mosaic bench outside Monomyth Coffee in Lubbock I had no idea I’d become a glass artist myself later in the week of girlfriend getaway experiences.
Pauline Mills relocated from Cork City, Ireland in 1986. Her gallery named Glassyalley lets an all-thumbs non-artist like me glue little pieces of cut glass on a wooden form and feel accomplished.
Read More
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- Explore Amazing Texas Weekend Getaways
FAQs
The public art on campus is the reason to arrange an Art Cart tour: minimum five, maximum 12 people. Free but a $10 donation accepted. ArtTrek map helps if choosing the walking tour.
Monomyth Coffee serves Doppio style coffee, and Cortado, Macchiato and Affogato too in a comfy, cozy setting with willing teachers.
Yes, as a volunteer who receives food and lodging. The field research methodology opportunity through Texas Tech’s Lake Landmark site is a serious option, not just an afternoon excursion. Stay six weeks.
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