Touching down at East Texas Regional Airport in Longview places you close to cities like Tyler, Kilgore, and Marshall, all easily reachable. Longview sits in the Piney Woods of East Texas, an oil-boom town turned regional hub with a walkable downtown, a strong arts scene, and a July balloon festival that fills the sky. The feel is small-city Southern with a Texas accent and tall pines on every horizon.

Standout things to do around Longview: - Watch dozens of balloons lift off at the Great Texas Balloon Race each July - Browse the Longview Museum of Fine Arts and the Gregg County Historical Museum - Learn how the 1930s oil boom reshaped the region at the East Texas Oil Museum in Kilgore - Catch the Texas Shakespeare Festival in Kilgore each summer - Walk the trails and boardwalks at the Longview Arboretum and Nature Center - Paddle among the cypress and Spanish moss on Caddo Lake - Antique your way through the old riverport town of Jefferson - Smell the roses at the Tyler Municipal Rose Garden

Longview is the center of a cluster of East Texas towns worth a loop. Kilgore and its restored downtown are 15 minutes away, Marshall and its Christmas Wonderland of Lights are 25 minutes east, and Tyler is about 40 minutes west. Jefferson, Caddo Lake, and Lake O' the Pines are all within an hour, Shreveport is about an hour east, and Nacogdoches, the oldest town in Texas, is about an hour and 15 minutes south. Hot links, fried catfish, and pecan pie are the regional staples. Longview is the easy base for all of it.