We went to Austin! We had a wonderful time full of food, walking, and sightseeing. Also Uber and Lyft are my NEW FAVORITE THINGS. We live in a small town in Iowa and I hadn’t tried this new-fangled technology yet, but oh my word - it was the easiest, best, most convenient way to get around Austin. 10/10 would recommend. If you haven’t downloaded the apps yet, you can use these codes for money towards your first ride when you do.

Accomodations

Paul travels quite often for work, so he had a TON of IHG Rewards points saved up. If you travel at all I’d highly recommend signing up for hotel and airline rewards. We were able to stay at Holiday Inn Express & Suites Austin Downtown for free, and we were upgraded to a suite. See Paul’s name up top there? I mean, having him gone for weeks at a time really might not be worth the free upgrade, but it doesn’t hurt :)

It was really nice to be within walking distance of most of the main attractions that we had on our itinerary - and we felt very safe walking at all hours of the day/night. Plus, Hotel Indigo is connected to this hotel, and they offer a free shuttle within 3-5 miles of the hotel from 5pm-10pm daily, so that was very handy and saved us some money!

Things To Do

There is no shortage of things to do in this beautiful city. I could make a huge list, but I’ll just share a few of the things we did.

Capitol Building

This is an obvious one but still highly recommended. If you can, catch one of the free tours they offer. I actually had no idea the capitol building did free tours, I dragged Paul inside because I had to pee, and we ended up right on time. We learned Texans are very proud of their state and that each door hinge in the capitol building was custom-made and weighs seven pounds. I don’t remember much else, oops. There were a few school groups, but I’m guessing that by going on a Friday morning we missed some of the heavier weekend crowds.

Waitress the Musical

Sadly the only picture I have of this event is fuzzy and then I got a scolding for having a camera in the auditorium. But we went to the Broadway musical Waitress at Bass Concert Hall. I was able to get tickets off of Ticketmaster. We were up in the nosebleeds, but we had a marvelous time. If you enjoy shows, there are plenty of options in Austin! We were also able to get a ride here on the free hotel shuttle - yay for saving money.

Still Austin Distillery Tour

So neither of us are that into whiskey, but we figured it would be cool to tour a local distillery to see how it’s made! It was fun to learn that alcohol is really just a bunch of boiled down carbs. Makes me feel really great about drinking it.

But really, it was fun. We got to sample some whiskey and meet some interesting people.

Austin Mural

The cover photo for this post is the Austin mural. Really it’s just plastered onto the side of a building with nothing else around it to see, but it’s a good photo op if you’re into that kind of thing (obvs we are).

Museums in the area

So a lot of interesting things are right on Congress Ave, which was a very nice walk from our hotel, including the capitol building and all of the museums below.

I’d highly recommend The Bullock Texas State History Museum. It’s just a short walk from the capitol building, there’s a lot to see, it’s great for kids, and it wasn’t too expensive.

There’s also another great art museum right on Congress Ave called The Contemporary Austin. The display was unique and definitely contemporary, so don’t go expecting to see the Mona Lisa. Think more, “Paper bag painted with wet leaves.”

Another cute little place that displayed local artists was the Old Bakery and Emporium. It was free and it’s also a gift shop/welcome center, just a block down from the capitol building! Man, putting everything on the same street is so handy.

Restaurants

I won’t bore you with pictures of food because nobody likes that, but here are a few restaurants I’d highly recommend checking out:

• Cooper’s - they had a pit of meat that you just pick from, it was fascinating. This place is also on Congress Ave

• Casino El Camino - possibly the best burger I’ve ever eaten

• Iron Works BBQ

• Voodoo Doughnuts

• Chez Zee - you can make a reservation online ahead of time. I’d recommend checking this spot out for brunch!

All in all, we had a fabulous time. Austin is a great spot for a fun weekend! I didn’t want to bore you with all the details or activities of our trip, so if you have any questions just let me know!

What are your favorite spots to travel to? We’re adding to our list!