6 Reasons to Visit Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas is such a happening city, I was soo excited to see it. Many people say it is similar to Portland which is my home town. Austin reminded me of a mix between Portland and what I expected of a southern state.
Scenery
It was much greener than I thought. I expected brown dirt and a western movie. Maybe movies gave me a different impression of what Texas would be! I also loved just walking around the downtown for the city scape. Some of the rooftop bars and restaurants had views to die for of the Austin skyline.
Culture
Austin is a foodie place just like Portland with Voodoo Donuts and crazy flavor ice cream parlors. The barbecue was to die for! There would be lines winding through the local barbecue joint. In many ways, Austin was just like what I expected of Texas with old saloons and live music. These are my favorite, because you can’t get country saloons where I’m from and live country bands. There was even couches in these bars! It made for a relaxing, yet fun atmosphere. On the other hand, the city felt very not Texas. Austin is young and hip with 6th street just blowing me away! 6th street is a street that shuts down traffic at night and has a line of bars and restaurants that you can hop to and from. It felt so alive with such a fun but laid back culture! One of my favorite bars had a patio with strung up lights and dancing underneath. Lots of bars with cornhole, games, outdoor patios, and so much space! California, take some notes! It helps when there are so many bars per capita, California just does not have the real estate to support this type of street, nor the same culture. The culture was by far my favorite part of Austin!
Lake Travis
Not far from downtown Austin, you can go to Lake Travis and be boating for the day. When it’s nice, hot, and humid, Lake Travis sure is a good option to cool off. It gets you outside and tanning too! I think it’s a great day trip to escape the city and do something in Austin besides bar hop (as fun as it is). There are many tour groups that go here. I went on the 4th of July with a tour that provided both transportation and beer! Steal! The great part about Austin is that there seems to be no shortage of other people in their 20s enjoying the lake.
Tubing the river
Another local favorite in the hot summer months is to tube down a local river! Once again you are able to use a tour company which will provide transportation, coolers, and the floats! They even stop at a gas station on the way so you don’t have to carry your beer to the pick up location! This makes it very easy for tourists like myself who did not have a car. I kid you not there are hundreds, hundreds of people floating down the river in the summer months. The whole river is rows on rows of bright colorful tubes. There are some “rapids” which are kind of fun to go down! Seriously SUCH a blast and not something you can do anywhere. The whole experience was a big party too with every island being “shotgun island” and some parts of the river with a lot of congestion on the side as people stopped to hang out!
Downtown
Downtown feels spacious with no shortage of places to see and things to do. The have the scooters in Austin so it’s easy to get around. It is a fun city to visit, and I don’t say that very often about downtown areas. The rooftop bar views and the culture downtown is really what made it for me. I found the cutest bar that you entered through a bookcase. Seriously, please put downtown Austin next to where I live!
Campus
The Texas campus is also right there in Austin. In the fall for game day, I can only imagine the energy and excitement. Even outside of the school season, it’s fun to walk around and see another campus.
There are many reasons to visit Austin!
It truly was a blast to see and I think makes for a perfect weekend trip. I will say, after a long weekend of 4 days, I was racking my brain of what to do besides bar hop and drink. As fun as downtown is, you can only do that for so many hours and you can’t always be taking tour groups to the fun in the sun activities.
