Austin travel guide
Where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Things to do in Austin, planned over three days
Best time to visit Austin
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Best overall: 70s to low 80s, wildflowers, bats return, but SXSW spikes March prices and pollen is heavy.
Swimming season and peak bats, but regular 100 to 105 degree heat; outdoors early and late only.
Locals' favourite: back to the 70s and 80s, ACL and F1 early on, then the best window after they clear.
Mild, cheap and underrated, with the easiest bookings; no bats and cedar fever can be brutal.
What's on
- SXSW mid-March
The city is taken over and hotel prices spike; build the trip around it or avoid it.
- Austin City Limits Festival two weekends in October
Festival in Zilker Park; book months ahead or avoid those weekends entirely.
- F1 US Grand Prix fall
Formula 1 at Circuit of the Americas; hotel rates spike across the city.
- Austin Marathon & Half Marathon mid-February
A runner's trip and a driver's headache.
- Rodeo Austin March
Fair, rodeo and concerts.
- ABC Kite Fest spring
Long-running kite festival in Zilker Park, going since 1929.
- Eeyore's Birthday Party late April
Costume drum-circle weirdness in Pease Park, the real Keep Austin Weird.
- Pecan Street Festival May and September
Free festival on 6th Street, held twice a year.
- Fantastic Fest September
Genre film festival.
- Austin Film Festival late October to early November
The writers' festival.
Worth the trip for
Best things to do in Austin
Barton Springs Pool
Spring-fed pool at a steady 68 to 70 degrees inside Zilker Park, the swim locals build Austin summers around.
Congress Avenue Bridge
At dusk in season about 1.5 million bats pour out from under this bridge, the city's best free spectacle.
The Continental Club
Tiny South Congress club since 1955 for roots, rockabilly and blues, standing close with serious sound.
Broken Spoke
Austin's last true Texas dance hall, with live country, a used dance floor and beginner two-step lessons.
Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail
Ten-mile loop around Lady Bird Lake through downtown, best on the boardwalk section at golden hour.
Texas State Capitol
Free to tour, taller than the US Capitol, and the one conventional sight that fully earns a morning.
Bullock Texas State History Museum
Texas history told without sugar-coating, including the La Belle shipwreck, three blocks from the Capitol.
South Congress Avenue
Austin's best visitor street: boots, vintage shops and the Capitol view looking north across the bridge.
Where to stay in Austin
South Congress / Travis Heights / Zilker (78704)
first trip, all-round base
Walk to Barton Springs and the lake trail, with the city's best cluster of boutique hotels, coffee and tacos on one street.
Downtown
no-car, music and convention trips
Everything in the downtown box is a 15-minute walk, but expect visible street homelessness and avoid basing right on Dirty Sixth.
East Austin
food, bars and a second trip
The restaurant and food-truck centre of gravity, more affordable and more local at night, but block-by-block after dark.
Hyde Park / North Loop
quiet, residential, longer stays
Leafy and safe-feeling with vintage shops and cafes, better for longer stays with a car than for nightlife.
The Domain / North Burnet
business in far north Austin only
Clean and polished but suburban, with no walkable access to downtown, Barton Springs or SoCo.
Think twice about
- I-35 motel corridors and Rundberg Lane area
Cheap highway motels, car-dependent, nothing walkable and a long way from anything you came for.
- Riverside Drive east of I-35
Busy arterial with scattered older complexes and car break-ins; fine for a taco truck, not for sleeping.
- Right on Dirty Sixth itself
Noise until 2am, weekend crowd-control problems and the worst downtown street disorder at your door.
- Areas marketed only as 20 minutes to downtown
Usually a freeway exit in Manor, the airport corridor or far Round Rock; fine for an early flight, useless as a leisure base.
Best restaurants in Austin
LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue
New-school Central Texas barbecue: elite brisket plus creative cuts, cauliflower burnt ends and seasonal sides.
InterStellar BBQ
Starred post-oak brisket and peach-tea pork belly in a far-north strip mall, worth the drive.
Franklin Barbecue
The brisket reference point, paid for with a 2 to 4 hour line that locals treat as a social event.
Micklethwait Craft Meats
Brisket Frito pie, inventive sausages and the best sides rotation in the core city, without the Franklin wait.
la Barbecue
Fatty brisket, chipotle slaw and shells and cheese with a much shorter wait than Franklin.
Veracruz All Natural
Handmade corn tortillas, aguas frescas and the migas taco that sets the bar for breakfast tacos in Austin.
Cuantos Tacos
Mexico City-style suadero, cachete and longaniza on nixtamal tortillas at Arbor Food Park.
Discada
One thing only: northern-Mexican discada, mixed meats in a cowboy wok, served as small taquitos all the way.
Outdoor things to do in Austin
Barton Creek Greenbelt
Seven-plus miles of limestone creek trail with swimming holes and climbing minutes from downtown, free to enter.
Rowing Dock
Rent here to paddle the calm west lake toward Red Bud Isle, or east at dusk for the best bat seat in the city.
Fazio Canyons Golf Course
The higher-ranked of two Tom Fazio courses at Barton Creek, carved through Hill Country canyons and creek crossings.
Fazio Foothills Golf Course
The second Fazio course at Barton Creek, also ranked among the best you can play in Texas.
Lions Municipal Golf Course
Historic 141-acre public course under heritage oaks in West Austin, beloved and modestly priced.
Butler Pitch & Putt
Nine-hole par-3 by Barton Springs with real grass, club rentals and night golf, the most social round in town.
Hamilton Pool Preserve
A collapsed-grotto pool under a 50-foot waterfall, reached by a steep quarter-mile trail west of Austin.
Krause Springs
Family-run springs since 1955 with a natural swimming hole, rope swing and the only camping among the classic holes.
Best hotels in Austin
Hotel San José
The original SoCo boutique: a 40-room bungalow court with minimalist design, a courtyard lounge and Jo's Coffee on site.
Hotel Magdalena
Bunkhouse's lake-house-style hotel in trees above Barton Springs Road, with a big pool and a quieter feel.
The Driskill
The 1886 landmark splurge, with one of the great Texas hotel bars, on 6th at Brazos.
Austin Proper Hotel
Design-luxury base in the 2nd Street District, with rooftop pool and an easy walk to the lake trail and ACL Live.
The LINE Austin
Creative-class hotel right at the bat bridge, with lake and trail access and Veracruz tacos on site.
East Austin Hotel
Mid-century boutique on East 6th with pool and bar, walkable to the food-truck and music core.
ARRIVE East Austin
Modern boutique on the main East 6th strip, the safe way to base in East Austin without Dirty Sixth chaos.
Frances Modern Inn
A small, design-led inn for a quieter East side stay, away from the main-strip noise.
Is Austin expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | $85 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | $167 a person |
| Splurge | $400 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- ACL Live at Moody Theater: weeks ahead
- Cathedral of Junk: a few days ahead
- Rowing Dock: a few days ahead
- Fazio Canyons Golf Course: weeks ahead
- Fazio Foothills Golf Course: weeks ahead
- Hamilton Pool Preserve: weeks ahead
- Blue Hole Regional Park: a few days ahead
- Enchanted Rock State Natural Area: weeks ahead
- Check the event calendar before booking: SXSW, ACL, F1 and UT home Saturdays can triple hotel rates months ahead.
- Book Uchi, Hestia, Barley Swine and Odd Duck 2 to 4-plus weeks out for weekends.
- Hamilton Pool needs a Travis County day-use reservation year-round and books out weeks ahead in warm months.
- Book sunset bat boat and kayak tours ahead on summer weekends, and go in July to August for the fullest flight.
Is Austin safe?
- Watch your tab and keep drinks in hand around Dirty Sixth shot bars, where drink-spiking and overcharge complaints cluster.
- Never leave anything visible in the car: Greenbelt and Mount Bonnell trailhead lots are notorious for smash-and-grabs.
- Heat is the number one danger: outdoors before 11am and after 7pm in summer, with shade and water.
- No swimming in Lady Bird Lake by city ordinance; swim at Barton Springs, Deep Eddy and the Greenbelt holes instead.
- In East Austin after dark, stick to lit main streets like East 6th and Cesar Chavez and rideshare door-to-door.
- Check your government's current travel advice before you go.
Austin travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Dirty Sixth as a destination: go once to say you saw it, then drink on West 6th, East 6th or Rainey instead.
- Settling for Torchy's: it is a chain now, so start with Veracruz, Cuantos, Discada and Rosita's.
- Stubb's as a barbecue destination: go for a concert or Gospel Brunch, eat serious barbecue elsewhere.
- The Domain as Austin: it is a nice mall, not what a visitor travelled for.
Getting around Austin: public transport and more
- Do a central trip without a car: walk in clusters and take short rideshares between Downtown, SoCo, Zilker and close-in East Austin.
- Rent a car only for InterStellar BBQ, Hamilton Pool and Hill Country, Lockhart, or a north Austin obligation.
- Avoid crossing I-35 at 4 to 6:30pm, and never schedule a tight airport run across it at rush hour.
- The airport is about 15 minutes from downtown off-peak; rideshare pickup is under the rental-car centre behind the red garage.
Who Austin suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Great |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | Great |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | Great |
Make Austin your trip
Swearby drafts the days from places people swear by. Swap any stop, then invite the crew by text, even friends without the app. Vote on dates, track costs as you go, and everyone gets one number at the end.
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