The 508-room Westin La Cantera Resort celebrated its grand opening May 1999 and features 508 luxuriously appointed guest rooms featuring the acclaimed Heavenly Bed and Heavenly Bath, and includes more than 25 suites and an additional 38 spacious villa-style guestrooms located in the resort’s exclusive Casita Village. Tailored to combine elegance with function, The Westin La Cantera Resort meets the needs of both the business and leisure traveler.

For meetings and special events, the resort provides more than 39,000 square feet of thoughtfully designed function space. This elegant hilltop retreat—the only resort in South Texas where you will find 36 holes of golf—offers other exceptional amenities, including a spa, a magnificent, newly renovated Westin WORKOUT fitness center, renowned dining options, and beautifully landscaped lagoon-style pools, creating a package unlike any other in San Antonio.

History

San Antonio captures the spirit of Texas. Now the eighth largest city in the United States, the city has retained its sense of history and tradition, while carefully blending in cosmopolitan progress. The city has always been a crossroads and a meeting place. Sounds and flavors of Native Americans, Old Mexico, Germans, the Wild West, African-Americans and the Deep South mingle and merge. Close to twenty one million visitors a year delight in the discovery of San Antonio’s charms. For history buffs, San Antonio is a mecca. Native Americans first lived along the San Antonio River, calling the area “Yanaguana,” which means “refreshing waters,” or “clear waters.” A band of Spanish explorers and missionaries came upon the river in 1691, and because it was the feast day of St. Anthony, they named the river “San Antonio.” The actual founding of the city came in 1718 by Father Antonio Olivares, when he established Mission San Antonio de Valero, which became permanently etched in the annals of history in 1836 as The Alamo.

Built on the site of an abandoned limestone rock quarry in the stunning Texas Hill Country, the resort pays tribute to the rich cultural and ethnic diversity that shaped the character of the Lone Star State. Architects, interior designers and developers of The Westin La Cantera Resort researched the state’s early history to create a “Texas Colonial” landmark reflective of the traditions, cultures and legends of Texas. Guests will find European influences on the round castle-like towers that grace the resort, and Spanish influence in the iron metalwork and heavy wooden doors. The Texas upscale feel is conveyed through elements taken directly from the legendary King Ranch in South Texas—at one time the ranch was the largest of its kind in the U.S. and today is still owned by the descendants of Captain Richard King.

Once the architectural plans were laid down by Hornberger & Worstell of San Francisco, the interior design company, Wilson & Associates, researched native textiles, artwork, and color palettes. At the same time, developers started combing through material in books, libraries and at the Institute of Texan Cultures to find legendary Texas stories.

From that research came the Esparza Library (the only Alamo defender given a Christian burial by Santa Ana—his descendents celebrated the resort’s grand opening and a plaque with the Esparza coat of arms hangs in the library). Francesca’s at Sunset (a moving story about lost lovers), Steinheimer’s Lounge (with a hand-painted map showing the location of the legendary buried gold painted on the ceiling), Tio's Lobby Lounge (which recreates the feeling of the main entrance to the King Ranch), the Lost Mission Meeting Rooms and many more Texas Legends.

Creating a sense of permanence within the landscaping project are rock outcroppings exposed during the early phases of construction. In addition, San Antonio landscape architect, James Keeter, hauled several large stones—quarried more than 85 years ago and many with the original drilling marks—from San Saba, Texas, to landscape several areas of the resort. Plaza San Saba Courtyard not only boasts actual boulders from San Saba but also natural wildlife and plants in and around the small ponds. The five Lost Quarry Pools, which were designed to reflect the water holes that were left behind in quarry sites after rainstorms, are interconnected through bridges and channels that flow between natural banks and escarpments.