Austin is one part west-coast hippy, eclectic art scene with a heaping portion of Texas mixed in. As one of the most unique and interesting places to visit in the United States and boasting a phenomenal music scene, Austin should definitely make an appearance on your US travel itinerary.
Places to go in Austin
Rainey Street – Rainey Street is one of the most unique bar districts in America. Converted from a 3 block long stretch of residential housing, each unique bar is set inside former bungalow houses. Each bar has it’s own unique atmosphere with indoor and outdoor sections. Many of the homes have outdoor decks and backyard areas complete with games and other unique attractions. In addition to the converted bungalows, unique bars like Container Bar (made entirely of shipping containers) and Bangers (a large German themed brauhaus with tons of beers on tap and an incredible selection of Bratwurst based meals) are interspersed with wonderful restaurants, wine bars and food trucks. This is the perfect place to spend a day or night drinking for the 30-something crowd. If you’re looking for a trendy place to drink and eat that isn’t overrun with college-aged rowdiness, Rainey Street is a can’t miss when visiting Austin.
Best Places to Drink on Rainey Street
Clive Bar: Large deck, live music and don’t forget to check out their secret Mezcal Bar outback
Lucilles: Their spicy cucumbertini is life changing on a hot Texas day
Half Step: Craft old fashioned cocktail bar with great live music
Bangers: German beer garden with live music, hundreds of beers on tap and a menu full of bratwurst
L’Estelle House: Chill out from the more rukus scene outside in this secluded wine bar with wine on tap and excellent food.
Container Bar: A bar made completely of stacked up shipping containers. Sounds and looks cooler than it is. Often times gets crowded and has a line out the door. Worth checking out for the novelty of it, but there’s plenty of cooler spots within walking distance.
Places to Eat on Rainey Street
El Naranjo: Some of the best Mexican food in town
Graj Mahal: The best Indian food in town
Via 313: Great Detroit style pizza
The Food Court of Food Trucks: Exactly what it sounds like
Emmer & Rye: High end dining with the best chefs tasting menu in town
South Congress – South Congress refers to a 3-4 block area along the Southern stretch of Congress Street. Just south of the river. Lined with cool specialty shops, interesting bars and some pretty outstanding restaurants. South Congress is the perfect spot for a relaxing mid-day stroll and some window shopping complete with easy, unassuming spots to grab drinks and food.
While on South Congress make sure to check out the following places:
– Grab a coffee at local favorite Jo’s Coffee
– After Jo’s Coffee, grab a photo at one of Austin’s most famous murals: “I love you so much…” is located right on the side of Jo’s Coffee (1300 S Congress Ave, Austin, TX)
Check out the cool shops that line the street:
– Yard Dog Art Gallery: Quirky local contemporary folk art
– Allens Boots: Your one stop shop if you are looking for cowboy boots to take home with you from you trip to Austin
– Lucy in Disguise: hands down the best costume shop you’ll ever stumble into
– Monkey See Monkey Do: Gag gifts and toys aimed at adults looking to unlock that nostalgic feeling from their childhoods in the 80s and 90s.
Places to Eat & Drink on South Congress Street
Dirty 6th – 6th Street, or “Dirty 6th” as the locals refer to it, is your classic college aged, wild, Bourbon Street style strip of bars. There are many sections of 6th Street, all with their own unique style, but the famous “Dirty 6th” runs from Rt 35 to Congress Ave along 6th Street, as the name suggests.
If you’re looking to party until the bars close this is your spot. On the evenings of Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights the streets will be blocked off to automobile traffic and packed with college-aged partiers. Live music will be pouring out onto the streets from nearly every bar you pass. If that seems like a little too intense for your taste, we highly suggest that you still take a stroll down 6th Street during daylight hours as it’s the perfect place to bar hop for some day-drinking.
Best Bars on ‘Dirty’ 6th Street
Buck Shot: This bar specializes in hundreds of tasty unique shots. If you want the pure Austin experience, make sure you ask the bartender for the “Ray Charles Shot.” This interactive shot experience is something you’re only going to find in Austin.
Midnight Cowboy: Reservation only speakeasy behind a nondescript door that most people walk right by while traversing down 6th street. Make a reservation online to receive the secret password before knocking on the door. Behind this blank door you’ll find a super cool decorated speakeasy serving some of the coolest cocktails in Austin. If you have a group, reserve a private room. The speakeasy is built in an old strip club so your private cocktail room will be one of the strip club’s former private lap dance rooms. You’ll have your own private bartender that wheels a cart up to your room and makes your drinks for you there.
Firehouse Lounge: Another secret bar, this one can be found behind the bookshelf of a hostel. The drinks are decent, nothing too fancy. The coolest part is just finding the entrance.
Casino El-Camino: As Austin as it gets. Stop in here for Austin’s best burgers and hands down the most extensive, creative and spicy Bloody-Mary menu in town.
Jackalope: Good wings, good burgers and cold beer.
Easy Tiger: German beer garden with 6th streets most extensive beer list. Enjoy homemade bread and sausages.
Esther’s Follies
This is hands down the most Austin thing you can do in Austin. Don’t go to Austin without buying tickets to Austin’s #1 comedy and variety show. Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night Austin’s funniest and most talented performers put on a topical, somewhat political, variety show at the famous Esther’s Follies Comedy Club. Tickets can be purchased in advance online, however, seating is given out on a first come first serve basis so make sure you get there at least a half hour early. There’s a full bar inside and plenty of snacks to buy as well.
West 6th Street: This is the more low key area of Austin’s extensive 6th street drinking district. If you start walking down 6th street, starting at Rt 35 and walking west, you’ll get to the end of ‘Dirty 6th’ around Congress Avenue. If you kept walking west for a number of blocks through a much more business heavy part of town, you’ll arrive at another 3-4 block area populated mostly by bars and restaurants. This is considered West 6th. From about San Antonio St to West Avenue, all along 6th street, you’ll find a number of fun, off the beaten path bars that cater to a more relaxed drinking scene than the party atmosphere of ‘Dirty 6th’
Best Places to go on West 6th Street
Little Woodrows: Relaxed sports bar with over 100 local beers with a very cool dog friendly open patio.
Parlor & Yard: Relaxed, no frills establishment with a nice outdoor area featuring games like corn hole.
Holy Roller: Cool, punk-rock bar with excellent food, good drinks and cool decor/atmosphere.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: A high-class whiskey and craft cocktail bar.
Dogwood: Cool, classy, almost entirely outdoors, but still mostly covered. The type of standard bar you can only find in Austin.
Kung-Fu Saloon: Super fun bar filled with old video games and pinball machines.
The Grove Wine Bar: By far the best place to eat around West 6th. Excellent wine selection and great tapas menu. Perfect for dates or just a casual wine and tapas night. They serve flights of wine and serve some of the best tapas in the city.
East Austin: An area encompassing the few square blocks between 5th and 7th street, East of Rt 35. Here you’ll find some of the most authentically Austin watering holes, a place almost exclusively local. If you like cool local bars, craft breweries, dive bars and absolutely no frills, no tourists and pure authentic Austin culture…head under the 35 overpass on 6th Street heading east and venture around East Austin for an afternoon.
Best Places to Go in East Austin
Wright Brother’s Brew and Brew: Beer, coffee, bagels…what’s not to like.
Shangri-la: Dive bar meets beer garden jukebox bar with large dog friendly patio
Beunos Aires Cafe: Austin’s hippest Argentinian cuisine.
Prohibition Creamery: Super cool spot serving up both boozy and non-boozy ice cream and milkshakes as well as wine and beer in a chic, rustic atmosphere
The White Horse: Live honky-tonk country music with a great taco truck outside
Grackle: Chill hipster hangout with a billiards, darts and a pretty decent jukebox
Whislers’: Easily one of Austin’s coolest bars. Definitely make a point to stop here.
Zilker Brewing Co. & Tap Room: Austin’s famous Zilker Brewing Company has a tasting room here that is well worth your stop to try a flight of their beer.
Lazarus Brewing Company: Another of Austin’s famous local craft breweries.
Salt & Time: Full service butcher shop, salumeria and restaurant featuring fresh cut meats from sustainable Texas ranches. Great place to get a steak or burger and a nice craft beer.
Yellow Jacket Social Club: Cool, outdoor local drinking spot, known for its large patio secluded under trees, bushes and flowers as well as small plates of food to nibble on.
Best Places to Go Elsewhere in Austin
Halcyon – Austin’s #1 coffee bar. If you hadn’t noticed by now Austin has a bit of a drinking culture. Numbers 1 through 4 in any top 10 things to do in Austin seems to involve drinking in some form or another. Even their coffee shops have full bars and Halcyon is no different. This is the perfect spot to stop and get a boozy coffee during your day drinking for a mid day pick me up. Our favorite was always the cappuccino with Bailey’s, Kahlua and Jamison.
The Driskill: Austin’s oldest and most haunted hotel. Located on the corner of 6th Street and Congress Avenue, make sure to walk in and check out these upscale digs. Their bar is pretty cool as well and they have a killer Sunday Brunch complete with a top notch Bloody-Mary Bar.
Vigilante Bar and Gastropub: One of the coolest bars you’ll ever find. This is the perfect place for a group of friends to spend a rainy afternoon. The place is filled with board games, card games and has huge video game projection screens over the bars. It’s a fun place to sit at the bar, drink beer, order from a wide array of delicious sliders while playing Mario Kart or your favorite board game.
Deep Eddy Pool: Need to cool off during Austin’s Hot Summer. Head over to Deep Eddy Municipal Pool for a dip and then head to legendary Deep Eddy Cabaret for some drinks and burgers afterwards.
Franklin’s BBQ: This is literally my death meal…as in if I had one day left to live before I died, I’d eat Franklin’s BBQ. It’s an event as you need to get in line around 8am to get any BBQ when it’s done cooking at around 11am. It’s not as bad as you think though. There’s free lawn chairs you can borrow, people bring coolers of beer and play drinking games and make it more of a tailgate than waiting in line. Once the BBQ is done cooking the line moves pretty quickly.
Billy’s on Burnet: Simple, unassuming bar along Austin’s historic Burnet St. Billy’s has some of the best buffalo wings you’ll find anywhere on Earth. If you love wings don’t miss out on Billy’s. Their homemade blue cheese that they give you with the wings forms new religions.
Gourdough’s: These doughnuts are the destroyers of worlds. They are from another planet. If you are a doughnut head, do not leave Austin without getting one of these treats.
Hope Outdoor Art Park: The original has been torn down to make way for residential buildings, but a new one is set to open near the airport. These cool graffiti parks are a great place to take photos.
Mean Eyed Cat: Classically weird Austin Bar across from the iconic El Arroyo.
Mango8: Stop in for their famous deserts, bubble teas and smoothies. Don’t forget to ask for them to be served in a lightbulb.
Wild Chix and Waffles: Good chicken and waffles, but the absolute best matcha latte you will ever have in your life.
Frank: Best loaded up Hot Dogs in town.
Floppy Disk Repair Shop: Another secret speakeasy hiding behind an out of place floppy disk repair shop. The pass code that you enter on the keypad outside changes weekly. You’ll need to rely on either word of mouth, social media research or if your nice to the bartenders next door at the Handle Bar (which is a pretty sweet bar in its own right) they will sometimes hook you up if you ask nicely.
The Oasis on Lake Travis: Shitty food, standard drinks…but, my god is that view amazing during sunset.
Mayfield Park: Visit the peacocks at Mayfield Park
Things To Do in Austin
The Austin Bat Bridge: Underneath the Congress Street bridge as it crosses the Colorado River live millions of bats. Every night at sunset you can watch the bats storm out from beneath the bridge to go feed on bugs. It’s an epic thing to see how many bats pour out of the bridge. The two best vantage points are from the bridge itself and the small green grassy knoll on the southeast side of the the bridge.
Hiking, Biking, Kayaking: Between Barton Creek, Zilker Park, Lady Bird Lake, Mount Bonnell and McKinney Falls State Park you’ve got plenty of options for hiking, biking, kayaking and other outdoor activities.
Float the River: bring a cooler and a bathing suit and a waterproof speaker and float down the river in an inflatable tube, drinking and singing to tunes with your friends
Rent a Party Barge: Got a big enough group? In town for a bachelor party? Rent a giant party barge complete with a water slide to take out on the lake.
Visit a Watering Hole: Austin has tons of natural and man made water holes to swim in during the hot summer months. Be aware that Hamilton Pool requires tickets that you get online at the beginning of the season and they sell out in days. If you want to go to Hamilton Pool book your tickets early.
Antonelli’s Cheese Tasting Room: Antonelli’s is one of Austin’s most revered culinary institutions. This cheese shop in North Austin has a separate bungalow across the street where they host nightly cheese tasting events and dining experiences. If you are a cheese lover, look up their events and book one early as they fill up fast. They also do some incredible cheese plates and party trays from their cheese shop if you are hosting a party.
Austin’s Escape Room: Some of the most fun we had with our group of friends in Austin. Went multiple times.
Visit the State Capitol Building: Cool historic building to check out on an afternoon.
Roadhouse Relics: Studio and gallery where local neon artist Todd Sanders crafts his vintage-style designs
The Cathedral of Junk: Local resident Vince, has spent 30 years collecting other peoples junk and turning his own backyard into a 3 story cathedral of repurposed relics. Visiting is free although donations are encouraged. In order to stop by, you literally need to call Vince on his cell phone (512-299-7413) and see if he’s home. He’s a super nice guy and is always willing to give you a tour of his one of a kind backyard if he’s home. When I asked Vince why he decided to build this in his backyard he said this, “I get asked that a lot, and the best way I can answer it is to say, ‘Children never ask me that question. They inherently get it. It’s a fort. It’s a fun, magical place to retreat to. You don’t have to explain it to a child. They know the moment they see it, what it is. Adult’s though ask that all the time.”
Chicken Shit Bingo: Over-crowded and a bit disappointing, but who am I to tell you to miss out on this Austin staple where people pack into the Little Longhorn Saloon to play bingo by watching a chicken shit on letters and numbers.
Aquafly Austin: These jet packs attached to your feet that blast you off Lake Austin with water are quite possibly the funnest thing we did in Austin. They offer great package deals for groups.
University of Texas Football Games: In the fall there’s literally nothing more fun than going to a Longhorns’ Football Game
Other Fun Things to Do and See Around Austin
Mikey V’s Cooking Class: 20 mins north of Austin in the adorable, quaint little town of Georgetown, TX is an absolute super star in the craft hot sauce world. Mikey V is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. A former marine, he decided to follow his passion for hot sauce and now has a successful business, a brick and mortar shop in Georgetown’s famous square and a world famous line of hot sauces and salsas. His homemade salsa, made fresh multiple times per week since he doesn’t use preservatives is the best salsa you will ever try. If you contact him directly he will set up a private hot sauce and salsa making class for you and your friends. You’ll join him in his large industrial kitchen complete with all the ingredients you could ever as for as he teaches you how to make salsa and hot sauce. You’ll come home with jars of your own creations. At the end of the night you’ll crack open some beers and enjoy homemade tacos that his father-in-law has prepared for you. One of the most unique and personal experiences you can have in the area and well worth the drive.
Visit Fredericksburg’s Wineries: About an hour and a half drive outside of Austin is a wonderful little wine village called Fredericksburg. The wines at the top wineries are fairly decent and the town of Fredericksburg is gorgeous. It’s a fun day trip from Austin. If you don’t feel like driving yourself, check out the Texas Winos Winery Tour that leaves from Austin. It’s the perfect way to experience the wineries in one day without having to worry about driving yourself. Please click below on our guide to the Fredericksburg Wineries for more detailed information if you choose to plan your own trip.
Take a Haunted Tour of Austin in a Hearse: Exactly what it sounds like.
Visit Jester King Brewery: Giant compound out in the hills of Texas with a tasting room, kitchen and tours of the brewery.
Austin’s Music Scene
Austin has arguably the best music scene in the country. Below is a list of some of our favorite venues and bars for seeing live music:
ACL Live at the Moody Theater – Austin’s Premier Music Venue
Stubb’s – A dirt floored music venue attached to a BBQ restaurant…what could be more Austin than that?
The Elephant Room – Austin’s spot for live jazz music
Continental Club – Iconic live music venue
Antone’s – Another Iconic live music venue
White Horse: Country Music and Line Dancing
Stay Gold: Best live music venue in East Austin
The Historic Scoot Inn: Another dirt floored, outdoor music jaunt that is quintessential Austin.
Cheer-up Charlies: Vegan, LGTBQ-friendly, psychedelic feel good spot for upbeat music
So Far Sound Austin: I would be remiss if I didn’t mention one of our favorite Austin past times. So Far Sound is not exclusive to Austin. They are in a bunch of major cities around the globe. But, they are particularly active in Austin. So Far Sound puts on secret shows at random locations like people’s houses, abandoned warehouses, breweries and other odd places around the city. To get tickets you go to their website and see when shows are planned for (usually 2-3 per week). You request tickets to the show you want and will receive an email if there are spots available which will give you a chance to reserve a spot. Tickets are about $15. On the day of the show you will get another email telling you where the show is taking place. The shows consist of 3 acts that play for 15-20 min each. It’s a really fun way to experience an unusual side of Austin.
Austin Festivals and Events
Where to Stay in Austin
The Van Zandt – Simply the best place to stay in Austin. Cool, retro, incredible atmosphere, best location in town, amazing restaurant, bar and pool deck. Nothing wrong with this hotel at all. It’s expensive, but if cost isn’t an issue this is where you should stay.
The Driskill – Classic. Old, victorian, steeped in history and some say it’s even haunted. Still one of the coolest and fanciest places you can stay in Austin.
Hotel San Jose – Bungalow style hotel in the chic SoCo neighborhood. Excellent location and very comfortable amenities.
The Austin Motel – After three fairly expensive options. This is a wonderful budget option for the city of Austin. Right next to the Hotel San Jose, so the location is fantastic. The decor is cool and retro and the rooms are plenty comfortable.
Austin’s Best Restaurants
Austin’s Best Bars
Austin’s Guide to BBQ
Guide to Fredericksburg Wineries