Things to Do in Irving, Texas

The Toyota Music Factory is one of Irving's biggest draws — an entertainment complex anchored by The Pavilion, a Live Nation venue that converts from a 4,000-seat indoor hall to an 8,000-seat outdoor amphitheater, drawing touring acts from around the world. Around it sit more than a dozen restaurants and bars and a movie theater.

It's built for a full night out — dinner, a concert, and a drink in one district — and it's a major live-music destination for the whole Metroplex.

The Mustangs of Las Colinas is one of the metro's most striking sights — a sculpture of nine bronze mustangs galloping across a granite prairie stream, one of the largest equestrian sculptures in the world. The sculpture park is open daily and free to visit.

The realism of the horses and the water splashing at their hooves make it a genuine work of public art, and it's become a symbol of Las Colinas and Irving as a whole.

The Mandalay Canal winds through the Las Colinas Urban Center as a Venice-inspired waterway, past restaurants, shops, and hotels, with waterfalls, vine-covered bridges, and Old World charm. Gondola Adventures of Las Colinas offers cruises, including dinner cruises, with gondoliers who sing or play romantic music.

Walking the canal or taking a gondola ride is a distinctly different experience from the rest of the suburbs, and it's one of the more romantic outings in the metro.

The whole Las Colinas district — one of the country's first master-planned communities, built around Lake Carolyn and home to numerous Fortune 500 headquarters — is a destination for its high-rises, entertainment, and scenery.

And because Irving sits right at DFW Airport between Dallas and Fort Worth, the entire metro is within easy reach. But between the music factory, the Mustangs, and the canal, Irving fills a day on its own.