I’m going to the Pecan Street Festival. At least that’s my plan.
But that will just make for a few hours of fun. I need some other things to do. I already have Mount Bonnell on my list. Are there any other cool natural and cultural areas in and close to the city? I won’t have a car; I’m hoofing it and taking public transit whenever possible. I’m also game for a day tour some place far away.
Help me cram as much stuff into three days as possible!
I’m guessing that this wasn’t supposed to be a Great Debate. I’ll report it for you.
You could walk up and down South Congress (don’t call it ‘SoCo’, that is just plain stupid) stuffing your face from the food trucks.
You could hang out at Zilker Park and visit Barton Springs.
Run around the Town Lake Hike and Bike Trail.
Go canoeing on Town Lake (Some people will tell you that it’s called ‘Lady Bird Lake’, tell them to go jump in it.)
Hike the Barton Creek Greenbelt.
I’m a big fan of botanical gardens, and Ziker Park has one of the best Japanese gardens in the USA.
That it does.
I guess I should mention that in Sept it is still going to be hot as hell down here. Expect daily highs in the 100s. And it is not the ‘dry’ kind of heat. It is the ‘hot’ kind of heat. If you need more indoors kind of things to do you could go to:
The Alamo drafthouse. There is one downtown and another on South Lamar. They are the go and eat food while watching a movie kind of place. Full on Austin vibe kind of places.
The Bob Bullock Museum. Mostly Texas history stuff but they have one of those fancy 3D theaters in there, the kind with the wrap around screen.
The Blanton Museum, across the street from the Bob Bullock but on the UT Campus.
Both of these are within sight of the Capital Building. Due to recent events, I don’t think you can bring your gun to the Capital anymore.
It is more of a hike but you could get to the LBJ Museum on campus as well.
During the Pecan Street Festival, the idiots that run the public transportation system here will probably allow the Metro Rail system to run on the weekend. You can ride it out to Cedar Park. There is nothing to do out there but I mention it for completeness. If you do go, pay attention to the schedule. The trains don’t run past a useful time.
Speaking of trains. There is a Steam Train Association here that runs excursions out to the Hill Country. That don’t have an actual stream locomotive anymore though. It broke years ago.
Austin is a weird place. Roll with it.
(I’m being lazy. I should add links for all these places. Sorry I’m not being a good host.)
Catch a movie with beer and dinner at the Alamo Drafthouse. See if you can catch one of their theme nights, if you can.
It’ll still be (damn) hot, so take a dip in Barton Springs Pool. It’s 72 degrees year round- so, speaking from experience, it’s best to just jump in and get it over with quickly.
Grab a sandwich at Thundercloud Subs. I recommend the Veggie Delight.
Grab some ice cream at Amy’s.
Eat outside at The Shady Grove or Hula Hut- both have their charms.
Thanks, guys. There seems to be lots to do. Yes!
I just wanted to point out that lots of these activities are all clustered pretty closely to one another.
The Capitol is around 15th street (for reference, the Pecan Street Festival is on 6th). The Capitol grounds are great to walk through and are open 24 hours. You should certainly go through the Capitol during the day. Heading north from the Capitol, you’ll pass the Bob Bullock Texas History museum, the Blanton museum, and smack directly into UT. You can go to the clock tower and the LBJ Presidential Library (which is a bit of a hike from campus, but not too bad).
South from the festival and across the river is Zilker Park. Zilker has the botanical gardens, Barton Springs pool, and the full Town Lake hike/bike trail. You can rent a bike from Bicycle Sport Shop on South Lamar. In Zilker is The Rowing Dock, where you can rent kayaks. If you do this, I recommend going away from downtown. You’ll pass through the hills dotted with expensive homes until you hit the dam that separates Town Lake from Lake Austin. From the dock to the dam and circling Redbud Island will take about 1ish hours depending on how fast you kayak and the wind. You can spend a full day in Zilker for sure!
You have to go see the bats come out from under the South Congress bridge! They will still be there in September. After the bats, you can simply walk straight up South Congress toward the food trucks/Amy’s ice cream and all the strange shops.
Finally, if you want to kill an evening, I second the Alamo Drafthouse (one downtown on 6th, one on South Lamar). http://drafthouse.com/ - check out the signature series!
Another possible Cool Option: The Highball on South Lamar. Bowl or don’t, but it’s an atmospheric place to have a drink and/or snack. I’m a Houstonian but realize that most out-of-staters would probably consider a Texas September rather warm. (Austin Hipsters drink Lone Star instead of PBR!)
Do check out the Transit system before you go; Austin’s a compact town & you can see a lot by walking & catching the bus. After the buses stop, cab rides are fairly cheap–especially if you’re in a group. When I visited last summer, we discovered that flagging them down works better than phoning first–especially if you’re centrally located. Take a cab to The Broken Spoke. Yee haw!
The Austin Chronicle lists events of all sorts by date.
Best day tour? To San Antonio, definitely. If you have a car or know somebody who does…
Oh yeah, The Violet Crown is another downtown movie house. Honestly, I’ve been meaning to go there but haven’t made it yet. I think it is another one of those “dinner and a movie” places but I’m not sure. I think they show a lot of those indie films there.
Mount Bonnell is a ways north of downtown Austin. I’m not sure if there is any public transportation that will take you there. Although, it has probably been 15 years since I have been down there so it may have changed.
I’ll add my agreement to Zilker Park and Barton Springs. Renting a canoe or kayak is relatively cheap and a great why to kill an hour or two in the heat. Also, if you don’t want to pay to swim in the pool at Barton Springs, go to the far east end of the pool, just outside the fence, there is an area where the locals swim and bring their dogs to swim. My kids have always liked that area better than the pool itself. Years ago they used to allow nude sunbathing on top of the hill on the south side of the pool. Not sure if they still do, but if you’re interested, you could check that out too 
As others have said, the Blanton, the Bob Bullock and the Harry Ransom museums are all near each other and good choices on 100 degree days.
South Congress is a neat area, but it is a lot like what you are going to see at the Pecan Street Festival anyway. (Funky, artsy, stuff and food).
Are you going to be in town for just a day, or for a more extended time?
I know it’s not walking distance. I have found, however, the closest bus stop to it, and it’s about 1.5-2 miles away.
I was reading a Wiki article about Austin, and it mentioned some type of nudist park within the city limits. Is this what you’re talking about? I’m not sure I want to go there, but I was thinking it might be a different experience to try, if not fun.
I wish I had the upper-body strength to kayak/canoe. Alas, all my muscles are in my legs.
I will get there Friday morning and leave Monday morning/late afternoon (still haven’t made the reservation yet).
In theory, toplessness is allowed at Barton Springs pool. In fact, it’s pretty rare. The only nudity is in the bathhouse. If you want full on nudity you’d need to go out to Hippy Hollow at Lake Travis. I don’t recommend it though. Unless we get a few significant flooding events between now and Sept the lake level will be at an all time low by then. It won’t be a pretty sight, neither the nudes nor the lake.
Hmm… Well, if you are going to hike from 35th & Exposition then be sure and stop at MayField Park and/or Laguna Gloria Art Museum. They’ll be on your route. Google Maps doesn’t make it clear though that you’ll be hiking downhill towards the river before you turn (straight) uphill towards Mt. Bonnell. That will get you to the bottom of the stairs. Bring some water.
If you have the leg muscles to ride a bike up some hills, you can easily bike to Mount Bonnell from Zilker Park. I do it frequently because it is a nice ride through the rich part of Austin.
Here is the bike mapof Austin showing all the bike lanes. You can easily follow Route 23 (there are signs on the roads, so you won’t get lost) right to the top of Mount Bonnell. It will be much more pleasant than walking, that is for sure. If you rent from Bicycle Sport Shop on S. Lamar, you can easily ride through Zilker around the Town Lake Walking/Biking trail and then simply cross the river, follow Lake Austin Blvd (bike route 52) on the map out to where the excellent Mozart’s coffee shop is, then turn up Enfield and then Pecos through the rich people part of town until you hit Mount Bonnell. It is really not that far on a bike!
This is a great idea, especially because it will be 95F or hotter and Barton is spring fed and deliciously cold.
Bob Bullock is a GREAT museum, imho. It’s very easy to do the Bob Bullock and then walk 4 blocks south to the State Capitol (which is free to enter and walk around in).
The bats on the Congress bridge is a classic thing to do in Austin. Show up before sunset and face east to see hundreds of thousands of bats scurrying out.
I would strongly recommend against going to Mt. Bonnell if you don’t have a car. Public transport and hiking will make this a round trip of 4 hours. The view up there is cool, but it’s not going to blow you away. Try the Texas Tower tour if that’s your thing (reservations required).
For live music, I cannot recommend The Saxon Pub highly enough. This is the kind of club (bar) where musicians come to listen to other musicians play, and they have quality acts every day of the week. Truly one of the gems in the live music capital of the world. Located on South Congress–walk up here after you check out the bats! Or try the Continental club, also on south congress. Further north in the U.T. area, Hole in the Wall is a very affordable way to see music, cover is usally $0 or $5, and drinks are cheap.
If you want to venture east of downtown, 6th St has a few interesting venues about 4-8 blocks east of the I-35 freeway that divides downtown proper from “the East side.” The Good Knight has cool old fashioned cocktails, and just a couple blocks away is Shangri-La, a great dive bar with a big backyard that you can cool off in.
Did you not get the memo? We aren’t telling visitors about the East Side. It is the only sanctuary we have left.
The Office Favorite has egg salad, bacon, and cheese. I get it with mayo, and allow myself one per year.
Sorry.
“OP and other visitors, do not go to the East Side. There is absolutely nothing cool to do there, and it is filled with criminals and/or poor people. Stay away!!”
Well, it’s not like we were going to be able to keep it a secret forever. Gourdough’s was supposed to keep them distracted but some of them got through anyway.