The foot-tapping lines about the bigness and brightness of our state’s stars should’ve been penned from Marfa, long known as an artists’ oasis next to one of the darkest places in the US, Big Bend National Park. (The lyrics to Texas’s unofficial state song were actually written from Los Angeles, but stick with us.) With streaking meteors, or lucky stars as we like to think of them, Marfa skies also yield a canvas for mysterious lights and minimalist art, luring pilgrims with space to think and room to breathe.

Marfa has blossomed into an even more vibrant desert rose in the past five years. James Beard–nominated restaurants, restored hotels, new digital art galleries and shops, and more owner-operators, rather than ghost investors, have made Marfa a full-stop town, worthy of at least a couple nights’ stay.

The point of making a journey to this far-out place is to take it easy, but if you’re the Rick Steves type, better to plan a stay Wednesday through Sunday when more businesses are open. For a town that’s under two square miles, the quality of attractions and restaurants easily beats most suburbs. So pack a journal, an appetite, and an extra-large bottle of moisturizer. Mentally shift into down gear, and set that auto-reply. Marfa’s newest developments await to be explored.

Begin with activities

The aforementioned stars are best gawked at from the McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis, about 40 miles from Marfa. Reserve a spot at the University of Texas facility for a Star Party, a two-hour constellation tour that begins at twilight.

Back in Marfa, take in Donald Judd’s astronomic works of art, where mill aluminum and concrete transform negative space into a surreal experience. The Chinati Foundation now requires reservation-only guided tours for viewing Judd’s 100 untitled works, which are displayed in former airplane hangars, and Dan Flavin’s fluorescent lights, set in old military barracks. Unless you’re a serious art nomad and want a full-day experience, the three-hour selections tour is plenty and includes the highlights, or go on the 90-minute focus tour with Judd’s 100 distinct boxes and Zoe Leonard’s Al Río/To the River, on exhibit for the first time in the US, until June 22.

Minimalist and contemporary artworks have paved the road for new digital art galleries, including Art Blocks, opened in 2021, with works by generative artists who tap into computer code during the creative process. The next year came Glitch, an analog gallery for blockchain-based art. Even Glitch’s adjoining cocktail bar, Otherside, features an impressive piece of neon-illuminated art in the form of a big, bright-red heart, called Latido de Luz, by Chihuahuan artist Miguel Valverde Castillo.

Marfa is also home to one of the nation’s newest national historic sites, thanks to efforts from former students of the Blackwell School. From 1909 to 1965, the school served Marfa’s Mexican American students, and today it functions as a reminder of injustices caused by de facto segregation.

Fill the vast space within (your belly)

Many of the restaurants and watering holes in Marfa have recently come under new ownership—Para Llevar, Asters Cafe and Bakery, Big Sandy Coffee, and the Pony, for instance. In their wake, a fresh band of culinary and mixology talent has blown into town.

Marfa Spirit Co.’s tumbledown tasting room stands tall among newcomers, with ranch waters, old-fashioneds, and palomas made from its thrice-distilled Desert Rose sotol. Occasional pop-ups and always-on-offer “hot dawgs” help with the drunchies, especially if you’ve mixed liquors, like the distillery’s rum made from Texan and Louisianan sugar cane, or the Texas elk pechuga, produced last year in collaboration with Duck Camp.

Margaret’s in Marfa opened in 2021 with comfort food and an eclectic
wine list in a verdant setting that Poison Ivy, the comic book character, would enjoy. This is the place for a casual night out for a tuna melt and glass of Blaufränkisch, or spaghetti bolognese and a bottle of Carignane. Salads capped with a cobweb-like mountain of finely shredded Parmesan are also recommended, as is the locally made key lime pie.

For Marfa food businesses, 2023 was a fireball year, with Bordo and Angel’s Restaurant beginning to cook up serious crowd-pleasers in super-chill environs. From a team with experience at Marfa’s Cochineal, Houston’s Tiny Champions, and Northern California’s two Michelin–starred Harbor House Inn, Bordo is a must-stop lunch break. Sandwiches come loaded with Italian deli meats and housemade stracciatella on seedy wood-fired bread. Spritzes with pasta straws and house gelato in flavors like oatmeal cream pie draw out one’s happy inner child. Angel’s Restaurant also filled a need when it started offering hearty chiles rellenos, Christmas enchiladas, and Tex-Mex combo plates for lunch and dinner, every day.

Bitter Sugar opened the same year, a bakery owned by a couple who left Houston to move where they honeymooned. Baker Lindsay Smith’s specialties include banana cakes, cinnamon roll–inspired kolaches, and quarter-pounder chocolate chip cookies.

Also in 2023, Little Juice launched its self-service kiosk with cold-pressed juices from inside a tin shack, complete with a bottle recycling drop-off. Next to Little Juice, Larry’s is one of Marfa’s newest spots, serving classic cheeseburgers fulfilling the call for a double-double from a retro, cabin-like space with sunny outdoor seating.

One way entrepreneurs are adapting to the hurdles of owning a business in an expensive yet rural tourist community is with shared rental space, like the friends behind Mutual Friends Coffee and Alta Marfa Wine Bar & Restaurant. The idea is to catch folks in all directions with coffee and pastries in the morning and Texas wines and refined dinners at night. Alta Marfa chef-owner Katie Jablonski, formerly behind the scenes at UB Preserv and Feges BBQ, is now creating vegetable-forward dinners that change weekly with produce from her garden, where grapes for her and her husband’s Alta Marfa wines also grow.

Rest your head 

As El Cosmico builds the world’s first 3D-printed hotel for its 2026 debut, other developers have renovated old spaces into resting quarters. The new Motel, opened last fall, is in an old thrift store, accounting office, hair salon, and auto garage that’s been revamped into five distinct rooms with vintage furnishings, old-school radios, and a palo santo–forward signature scent. A sauna, outdoor soaking tub, and access to washers and dryers make it an obvious choice for trail seekers.

Bohemio, a Jack Kerouac–inspired collection of lodges with supremely cozy suites made from adobe and Marfa’s signature material—concrete—opened in 2022. Last year, the Rebel Lodge expanded into a second Raconteur Lodge, with rooms boasting king-size beds and full kitchens, along with a pickleball court and “movie trailer” in a courtyard with plenty of hammocks.

For an even more residential stay, complete with a cowboy soak tank and a kitchen suited for entertaining, the Lincoln’s bright-pink Mary Todd House is within walking distance of most of Marfa’s star attractions (and is also the farthest away from the nightly train’s blaring whistle). Seeking super-seclusion? The Lincoln’s underground bomb shelter with Fallout-appropriate touches was built in the Cold War era.

Bring home

Once you’ve filled up on Marfa’s luminous stars, art, and gastronomy, only one thing is left to do: Shop!

Marfa Mood Mercantile is an artist’s shop selling gifts Deirdrea Lyon, a potter and painter, buys herself. Ranch Candy is another fresh endeavor with artist-driven ceramics, clothes, jewelry, and more “things you do/do not need,” in addition to a 21-plus recreational room, called Raunch Candy. Photographer Lesley Villarreal, creator of the locally popular, tongue-in-cheek series of prints “Marfa Hated on Yelp,” now has a shop called Love, Marfa. Fans of offbeat T-shirts will find plenty of new threads at June TeeZe. Sticks & Bones desert supply shop is another new gift store to check out, especially if you’re looking for things like high-end knives and clearing tools. On the other end, metaphysical seekers can find candles, tinctures, and amulets at Ocotillo Botánica, where you can also book a tarot reading.

For those who understand that friendship can come between the covers of a book, Stop & Read Books is a tiny shop with a unique selection of memoirs, cookbooks, and fiction, and it also sells wine. As those who live in Marfa will attest, the ability to wear many different hats is the best way to thrive in this town that can hold all types.