Austin Travel Guide

Mar 10, 2017
3 min read

A surprise birthday trip to Austin - woop woop - following that back in December, here is a quick guide on a weekend trip to the marvelous Austin.

Treated by Mr B to a stay in the relatively recently completed South Congress Hotel - a gorgeous boutique hotel which has a more of an LA feel to it than a Texan feel but fits perfectly in this trendy area of Austin. Located on South Congress Avenue a.k.a SoCo - it is full of custom made furniture, calm earth tones with pops of cool blue and fiery rust. The potted tropical plants and succulents add a green feel to the space accompanied with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves which display handmade pottery and rows of books on Frank Lloyd Wright, the Bauhaus movement and Japanese cuisine. Full of super trendy's and hipsters, the lobby bar itself seemed to be a must see destination.

Pretty sleepy after the drive from Houston (still not used to the highways here) - we had a relatively quiet night trying for the first time Hopdoddy Burger Bar. Epic wouldn't even begin to describe it - not had a lot of burgers since being in the US but these were brilliant. Its a first come first serve type thing, which they seem mad on in the States and I usually hate but this queue is softened by the massive frozen margaritas or epic beers that you get whilst you are in the queue, really does seem to speed up the whole thing! I went for the El Diablo, was a little bit more fiery than I was expecting! Ooocha! But the milkshake afterwards helped numbed the pain!

In a food coma we headed back to our hotel for an early night.

Saturday in Austin started with a run up to the State Capital Building to try and make a dent in the meal last night.

Austin really has so much to see and some highlights I would include would be The State Capital, The Botanic gardens, the bats at Sunset on Congress Bridge and bit of paddle boarding. But the food and music scene is fantastic too - the students make it a walking friendly city with a great chilled out vibe throughout - there is definitely something for everybody and is a fairly affordable place with a number of the highlights being free!

Saturday night for us started with cocktails in the Driskell Hotel Bar - recently awarded the best cocktail bar in Austin. The vibe throws you back to the reality that you are in fact in Texas with cow hide tables and chairs, heavy decor and great people watching with your rich oil barons wandering around in their cowboy hats and their glamours wives with bags of shopping heading up to their rooms.

Following this we hit up Italic Restaurant - a friend of ours is the chef here and I would highly recommend, great food, wines, cocktails and atmosphere.

We then went on to listen to some live music in a bar somewhere but I am afraid the cocktails at this stage had hit the spot and have no idea where we went!

Sunday morning - was brought in with breakfast at our Hotel, Cafe no Se delicious in every way - bright and gorgeous interiors and the food is fresh, nutritious and tasty! Followed by a stroll in the sunshine down South Congress Avenue taking in the gorgeous little boutique shops before heading back on the open road to Houston. #Sundaynightfear...