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I am not from Texas & have never lived there but I have spent significant time in D/FW, Austin & Houston/Galveston for work. Austin was really fun when I was there as I was just out of college and still fit in with the UT crowd. My cousin lives in Austin and I was able to stay at his place instead of hotels so I somewhat got to experience the day to day of residential Austin. He is the manager of the III Forks there which I love. However, my friend from Texas (San Antonio) said only ******* in Texas go to steakhouses... but I'm not much of a steak eater / BBQer but I love high end steakhouses. Dallas was okay IMO, nothing special - but I had some great nights in FW / the Stockyards District. People were really friendly there. I stayed at hotel in Irving for a few nights also and went to a Rangers game in Arlington and had a good time at the game but there isn't much in the area. Houston / Galveston was an awful experience, but to be fair, I was mainly in the worst parts of each as I was doing property claims adjusting during / after Hurricane Ike at the time. I once drove from California to Texas and back, I spent some nights in El Paso but didn't really do much. I interned for the FBI in Juarez and it wasn't the best experience in the world, but was pretty exciting. I mention that because I was in and out of El Paso at the time. I spent some time in Odessa and felt like I was in the middle of nowhere. I saw a bunch of Permian Panthers clothing at the Costco!
Scenery: Austin, the Hill Country is the most beautiful scenery in Texas.
Lifestyle: Austin, more laid back compared to the chaos of Houston and Dallas.
People: Austin, less conservatives and more liberals.
Transportation: They are all equally bad.
Weather: Dallas, they actually have a real winter.
Sports: Dallas, they have a pro hockey team.
Education: Austin, University of Texas.
Economy: Houston, if you work in oil or healthcare it's the place to be.
Location: Austin and Houston tie, Austin for the hills and Houston for the coast.
Location: Baghdad by the Bay (San Francisco, California)
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I think Houston is my overall favorite city in Texas. Given the criteria in the OP, though, it doesn't fare well. Houston is one of those places that loses on most individual criteria, but somehow the whole is bigger than the parts. In other words, it's not really great on any front, but it ultimately satisfies by giving you a fairly good experience in the middle.
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