Skip to content
viewyas
EN

United States United States observation tower

Tower of the Americas

You can see 42 km from here, looking north-west.

54Viewyas Score

TowerSunset360°

Calculating the panorama…

Drag to turn around. The relief is drawn 2.2 times taller so the ridges can be read; far ridges are paler, as in the real air.

The view

Up to 42 km away.

Calculated on the relief one degree at a time, up to 250 km, with the curvature of the Earth and the refraction of the air: what stands above the horizon from here.

54out of 100

Our own rating, from the relief and the climate only: open horizon (35 points), how far you see (25), sea and named peaks in view (20) and clear months (20).

  • 42 kmFarthest ridgelooking north-west
  • 100%Open horizonof the circle where the horizon is below your eyes
  • 1Peaks in viewnamed summits that rise above the relief in front
  • 204 mAltitudeabove the sea, at the highest point of the viewpoint

The 1 peaks you can name from here

From west to east as you turn around: height, distance and direction. Each one links to its guide on Peakyas, our mountain atlas.

Cap Mountain586 m · 53 km · north-west

From the relief only: buildings, trees and haze are not in the model. On a hazy day you see much less; 250 km is the limit of our calculation.

The sun

The best sunsets are from June to August and in October.

When the sun really disappears from this viewpoint — behind the relief or into the sea — and in which direction, on the 15th of each month, in local time.

  1. Jansouth-west4 min before the sea-level sunset45%
  2. Febwest4 min before the sea-level sunset40%
  3. Marwest4 min before the sea-level sunset39%
  4. Aprwest4 min before the sea-level sunset40%
  5. Maywest4 min before the sea-level sunset40%
  6. Junnorth-west6 min before the sea-level sunset54%
  7. Julnorth-west4 min before the sea-level sunset56%
  8. Augwest6 min before the sea-level sunset59%
  9. Sepwest4 min before the sea-level sunset54%
  10. Octwest4 min before the sea-level sunset59%
  11. Novwest4 min before the sea-level sunset50%
  12. Decsouth-west4 min before the sea-level sunset45%
  • Time: when the sun goes behind the horizon you see from here.
  • Minutes: how much earlier the relief hides the sun.
  • %: share of clear sky that month (NASA, 2001–2020).

The highlighted months are the clearest. Golden hour starts about an hour before.

The place

Tower of the Americas.

Observation tower in San Antonio, Texas, USA

Tower of the Americas is an observation tower in United States, 204 m above the sea.

On a clear day the farthest ridge you can see is 42 km away, looking north-west.

1 named peaks rise above the relief in front; the most prominent is Cap Mountain (586 m), 53 km away.

The horizon is open, below your eyes, over 100% of the circle.

The skies are clearest from June to August and in October.

Tower of the americas 2013
Larry D. Moore · CC BY 4.0

Get there and stay

Plan the visit

A guided tour, a bed nearby, a car.

Tours, cable cars and tickets for Tower of the AmericasGetYourGuideSee prices Stays with a view near Tower of the AmericasBooking.comSee prices Car hire at AUS airport (Austin)Discover CarsSee prices 

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

From above

The viewpoint and its surroundings.

The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the viewpoint, with what OpenStreetMap shows nearby.

Tower of the Americas seen from above (Sentinel-2)
Seen from above: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6 × 6 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Around, in OpenStreetMap

  • 7other viewpoints within 5 kmWoodlawn Lake Lighthouse, Woodlawn Lake West Shore, Woodlawn Lake North Shore and 4 more
  • 107shelters and huts within 5 km
  • 584car parks within 3 km
  • 153restaurants and cafés within 3 km
  • 5campsites within 10 kmTraveler's World RV Resort, KOA Kampground, Mission City RV Park and 2 more
  • 198places to stay within 10 kmBeauregard House B&B, AC Hotel, Element and 195 more
  • named peaks within 5 km
  • cable car and funicular stations within 5 km
  • marked trails within 3 km
  • visitor centres within 5 km

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.

In our other atlases

What you see from Tower of the Americas, and what is near.

Everything around this viewpoint — mountains, water, forests, birds, caves and the night sky — in the family's atlases.

Peakyas9 mountains within 25 km
Prickly Pear Hill · 10 kmCurly Hill · 12 kmRed Oak Hill · 13 kmCalf Hill · 14 kmNinemile Hill · 14 kmTheis Hill · 19 kmPadrone Hill · 23 kmBush Hill · 25 km
Lakeyas1 lakes within 15 km
Mitchell Lake2.2 km² · 14 km
Forestyas1 forests and trees within 15 km
San Antonio Botanical Garden · 5.1 km

Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap, GBIF). Links open when each site is online.

Photographs

The view, as people saw it.

Entrance to Tower of the Americas IMG 4576
Billy Hathorn · CC BY 3.0
San Antonio May 2018 8 (Tower of the Americas)
Michael Barera · CC BY-SA 4.0
Top of tower of americas
J.Paylor · CC BY-SA 4.0

Where these figures come from

Name and typeWikidata (Q1300520) · CC0
SunJ. Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms
Peaks in viewPeakyas (Wikidata, CC0)
Panorama and altitudeCopernicus DEM GLO-90 / GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
CloudsNASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2)
What is around© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Sister atlasesPeakyas, Lakeyas, Forestyas

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.

beachesCoastyaFind your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit lakesLakeyasEvery lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Visit mountainsPeakyasEvery summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit waterfallsCascadyasEvery waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Visit islandsIslandyasEvery island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Visit riversRiveryasEvery river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.Visit canyonsCanyonyasEvery canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Visit cavesCavernyasEvery cave with its real depth and length: the rock above, the temperature inside all year, and how to visit.Visit dark skiesDarkskyasWhere the night is still dark: the sky of every place, the Milky Way month by month, the Moon, eclipses and auroras.Visit
viewpointsViewyasEvery viewpoint with its real 360° panorama: the peaks you can name, how far you see and where the sun sets.You are here
birdwatchingBirdyasEvery bird sanctuary and wetland with the species recorded month by month: who is resident, who comes for the summer, who only passes through.Visit forestsForestyasEvery forest with its land-cover rings, what grows and lives in it, and the best months to walk it.Visit