The Top Things To Do In Austin, Texas

Getting Weird In Austin, TX

A few weeks back, Doug and I visited Austin Texas with a few friends, and it quickly became one of my most favorite cities to date. We were there for our friend’s wedding, and because the wedding was on Sunday, we had the whole weekend to explore. There are so many amazing things to do in Austin! Despite it raining basically the whole time, we felt like we were able to get a great feel for the city. Here’s the net net: Yes, it’s weird. And, yes, it’s amazing.

We had a ton of great recommendations from our friends who live there, and many of you also sent along some amazing ideas! I wish we had a whole week there because we only scratched the surface of all that there is to do in this city. But I have to say, even with limited time, I feel like we did a really killer job with seeing some great highlights and experiencing all the city has to offer.

Here’s all that we did and saw in Austin. If you are taking a trip there soon, bookmark this post, because this is comprised of the “Best of the best” — all the great things that we did, and all the recos that people gave us!

Top Things To Do In Austin, Texas

Swing by the “Greetings From Austin” mural (1720 S. 1st St.)

While you’re at it, walk around South 1st. This was an area right near our Air B&B and as we drove through it on our way in, we knew immediately it was a place to explore. There are a lot of food trucks, shops, and boutiques worth checking out.

Walk Around – And Grab Drinks – At Rainey Street

I will caveat this recommendation by saying that we went late night, and found Rainey Street to be equivalent to a mini-Nashville! It was wild. The entire street is basically old houses turned into bars, and it’s filled with live music, people dancing, and having fun. It’s definitely worth visiting, especially if you want to get your groove on! We went to a bar that had all music from our college days, and another with a really cool live band. I have literally no idea what the names of the bars were, ha, but trust me — if you just walk around, you’ll find something you like!

Rent Scooters And Go Get Lost

Scooting around the city was, hands down, one of our favorite things to do. It was really cool to roll around the different areas, and it certainly gave us a better feel for the city than if we were to explore on foot.

Austin has an abundance of scooters available for quick rental. You literally can just pull up your Uber or Lyft app (or download one of the many others that help to rent scooters in the city), and it’ll show you the available scooters to rent in the area. Super easy, and really fun. Just be careful, because one of the people attending the wedding actually fell off one and broke his hip. Yikes! If you’re nervous about scooters, play it safe and rent bikes. 🙂

Walk around South Congress and Explore

We started our Congress walk at Cafe No Se. While we waited for our table, we shopped around in the area, which has some of the cutest shops, including the Kendra Scott flagship store, some adorable vintage/boutique stores down on Milton Street (Right across the street from Cafe No Se), and Allens Boots, where Doug and I got some boots!

After brunch, we continued to walk down South Congress Street, which lead us to the famous “I Love You So Much” mural at Jo’s Hot Coffee and Good Food. We ended up grabbing cocktails at Joann’s Fine Foods, which is connected to the Austin Motel and a great photo opp!

Eat, Eat, Eat!

The list of places to eat at are endless. You can literally walk around from restaurant to restaurant and eat all. day. long. We had an ever-growing list of places we wanted to try, but the restaurants we went to and I’d highly recommend are: Cafe No Se for brunch, Joann’s Fine Foods for cocktails, Laundrette for dinner (SO GOOD), and Licha’s Cantina for breakfast (They have a cool and eclectic outdoor patio).

There are also a ton of food trucks in Austin! One that we particularly loved was Gourdough’s Donuts, which are literally making me drool while typing this. One food truck that a reader highly suggested that we didn’t get to try was The Art of Taco’s!

Also on the list to try for next time that came highly recommended are: Josephine House, Lucy’s Fried Chicken, Matt’s El Rancho, La Barbecue, Fresca’s, June’s All Day, Lin Asian Dim Sum, and ATX Cocina.

See The Bats

Nearly 1.5 million bats live under Congress Bridge, and at dusk every night, people gather to see them fly out. I have to tell you, this was super interesting to see, though it was basically impossible to grab any photos because it was dark when they actually started flying out.

It was cool to see the progression of how they woke up and emerge from under the bridge. It all started with a bat or two flying around in circles under the bridge, then a few would join in, and that circle of flying bats kept growing. Before we knew it, there was a swarm of thousands of bats flying around right below us. It got too dark to see the big swarm officially leave from under the bridge, but apparently there’s usually a huge exit that’s spectacular. (We heard that this was likely due to the rain. Usually they fly out earlier and you can see them better!)

Dance With ‘Yer Boots On At Broken Spoke

If you like authentic, twangy country, this is the place for you! We went here late night and it was amazing. Line dancing, a live honky-tonk band, and more cowboy boots than you can imagine. So much fun!

Visit Lake Travis

Our plan was to rent a boat on Lake Travis and cruise around one morning, but we were met with a huge thunderstorm so we pivoted. (Which allowed us to explore more of Austin, so not complaining!)

Luckily we got to see Lake Travis regardless, because the wedding that we were in Austin for was actually overlooking the lake. On that note, if you are looking for a wedding venue near Austin, definitely look into Villa Del Lago. It was absolutely spectacular; it felt like we were in Italy and is hands down one of the most lovely wedding venues I’ve ever been to!

So, even though we spent out time at Lake Travis overlooking the lake, I could tell from our experience that it’s incredible to explore as a nice little getaway/change of pace from the city. You can tell it’s a basically a huge adult play pen when it’s nice out. If we go back to Austin, I’ll definitely be renting a boat and spending more time in the water!

Honorable mentions that came highly recommended by we didn’t get to do (Either because of rain or we ran out of time!)

Go on a Riverboat Ride on Lake Austin + Climb Mount Bonnell (The views from the top are amazing!) + Bike the Lady Bird Trail + Visit Hamilton Pool

Have you been to Austin? What other recommendations do you have as “Must Do’s” for the city? Leave your suggestions in the comments below!