Our family recently planned a day trip to the Magnolia Market in Waco, Texas. Since it’s only an hour and a half drive it was an easy decision for our labor-day weekend. I wanted to share a few tips because we soon realized that a ton of people from all over the world come to Waco to visit this Chip & Joanna Gaines experience. Everything about the experience is very much that Country modern vibe that we fill on the show Fixer Upper on HGTV.

If you are planning to visit The Magnolia Market anytime soon, here are few things I would suggest:

1. Plan to arrive EARLY. Like around 9am. Then as SOON as the The Table restaurant opens make a reservation as the wait time is usually around 3 hours. Especially on a holiday weekend. Use the 3 hour wait time to then explore the other parts of Magnolia Market. We actually didn’t get there in time for the restaurant due to having two toddlers, one of which is still in diapers and your typically unknowns.

2. The Silos area on the lawn is a fun place to chill out and relax. They have tons of food trucks there that will be great to hold you over until your reservation is ready. Plan to go when the weather isn’t super hot in Texas. The day we went it just happened to be in the 80s which is unusal for Texas in August, but it was just right with enough overcast to shade the sun. If you go on a typical hot Texas day, you won’t last very long. It will be too hot to be outside on the lawn.

3. They do try to make it better with the water fan going but just try to think about that.

4. Try the Watermelon Juice from one of the food truck. It is delicious and makes for a great photo opp as well!

5. Bring a stroller. Even if you have a stroller they have “large Trolleys” that are basically city sized buses that will take you from one side of the market to the other side. They also have the smaller trolley’s as well to help.

6. The earlier you get there the more crowded it will be so plan to walk

7. I suggest if you are coming in from out of town, plan other things to do. This is a small but fun experience. I just don’t want people to get disappointed for traveling SO far for only a little experience in my opinion.

8. It’s kid-friendly but not a kid-attraction if you know what I mean. They have small games to play but my 10 year old nephew was bored after a while and was ready to go after a few hours.

I have included pictures and a video from our trip below to give all of this some context but the main thing to know is that we did not experience the entire Magnolia Market. We mainly experienced the Silos, the lawn, the store, the food trucks, the bakery and the garden. We will be going back to visit the restaurant as well.