Best Use: Food and Beverage
Texans are famous, some would say notoriously friendly. Austin is a city where you’ll never stop smiling, whether you’re sharing street food, across a dirty dance floor, or across a steamy body of water. An important swimming hole in the city. Eating out in Austin is thoroughly relaxed, and many of the best meals in town are served by food trucks. Solo travelers join other diners in bar-style seating and never actually eat alone. With more than 1,000 food trucks roaming the city, Gourdough’s donuts are a cult Austin dish, served in a vintage Airstream. Eat big, grilled bananas and bacon.
Stylish hotelier Liz Lambert turns the corner between the sophisticated Hotel St. Cecilia and South Congress, which is lined with organic grocery stores, vintage stores, coffee shops, taco shacks, and music venues such as the legendary Continental Club. We operate a more affordable San Jose hotel located up the hill.
If South Congress is the city’s hipster thoroughfare, the East Side is the up-and-coming creative district, best visited after an afternoon tour and sampling of local brewery Hops & Grain Brewing . Pilgrimage to Rainey Street, a residential street filled with bars and cafes in converted bungalows that has become an urban phenomenon. Get out of bed early in the morning and cycle his 16-mile loop around steaming Lady Bird Lake along new hiking and biking trails. You can also cool off at the beautiful Barton Springs Pool, a vast spring (free until 8am, then £2). – A water supply pool carved out of a rock.
Austin expert guide
