Austin, Texas Travel Guide
We just got back from Austin, so I am writing this travel guide while it is fresh in my head. I loved Austin. We went for a long weekend and it was the perfect amount of time to explore the city and do plenty of eating and drinking. We flew directly from O’hare to Austin airport and took a quick uber to our hotel, which took about 15 minutes. We stayed at the Intercontinental, which is right off of Congress ave and was a great central location. I would highly recommend this hotel, but I did look at several others that looked great.
Where to Stay
- The Intercontinental
- The Fairmont
- Kimpton Hotel Van Zandt
- South Congress Hotel
- Hilton
What to Eat
I feel this goes without saying, but Austin has awesome food. There is something here for everyone. There are tons of great food trucks, high end fine dining and everything in between. Here are some places we enjoyed and others we didn’t get a chance to get to, but come highly rated. (Bold indicates where we actually ate)
- VeraCruz Food truck
- Hillside Farmacy
- Blue Dahlia Bistro
- Jo’s Coffee (and breakfast tacos)
- Torchy’s Tacos
- Terry’s Black BBQ
- South Congress Cafe
- Magnolia Cafe
- La Barbeque
- Caroline’s Moonshine Grill
Left is Torchy’s Tacos and right is Terry’s Black BBQ
What to do
This list will depend on what kind of group you’re with, but we enjoyed walking around the city and surrounding neighborhoods, eating and drinking.
- Zilker Park
- Walk along Lady Bird
- The Capitol Building
- Barton Springs
- Rainey Street
- 6th Street bars
- 360 Bridge
- Hiking: Walnut Creek trail or St. Edward’s Park or Mount Bonnell
- Walk Down Congress Street/ explore South Congress/shopping
- Walk through Driskill Hotel
- Flagship (and first) Whole Foods
- Find all the different murals around the city
- Go see live music
- See the bats (in season only)
We loved going for walks down by the river trail and all around Lady Bird Lake. We also really liked Rainey Street, which is an area with a bunch of old, restored houses that have been turned into bars. The drinks were great and on Sunday, some of the bars have great deals and live music. Go to dirty 6th street at your own risk. I would compare it to a cleaner Bourbon street. The street gets blocked off through the weekend and there are tons of bars. Definitely worth checking out if you like that kind of thing.
If you are looking for murals, there are many articles that show on a map where all of them are. We just walked around and stopped if we saw them. There are a bunch off of South Congress. Overall, we had a great time in Austin. It’s a great city for a long weekend getaway for a couple, group trip or bachelor/bachelorette party.
