This spring, Trot Op! travelled to Texas for a road trip through three of the state’s most exciting cities. One of the undisputed highlights? Austin: not only the Texan capital, but the self-proclaimed “Live Music Capital of the World”. Known for its progressive mindset, legendary nightlife and wonderfully weird personality, Austin has long been one of the most beloved cities in the American South. But does it live up to the hype? We were very happy to find out.
Austin almost immediately feels different from the rest of Texas. It’s a college town with a renowned university, a long-standing safe space for the LGBT community, and a city where creativity, music and general quirkiness are not marketing slogans but daily reality. “Keep Austin Weird” is not an empty phrase here. Downtown sometimes feels like one huge party, but quieter, alternative neighbourhoods, beautiful lakes and hiking trails are just a short drive away.
One of the more noticeable differences between (Northern) Europeans and your average American is the almost universal friendliness he’ll slap you in the face with – especially in the South. They’re nice to such an extent, you might need a moment or two to get used to it initially. No one ever seems to be at a loss for words here. While in Europe we deliberately look the other way at the bus stop just to avoid having to talk to any strangers, everyone in Austin (and Texas in general) seems ready for a chat all of the time. You’ll always get a friendly word at the supermarket checkout; waiters introduce themselves, know the entire menu by heart and will happily give suggestions, and “yes sirs” or “yes ma’ams” get thrown around all over the place.
“One of the more noticeable differences between us (Northern) Europeans and your average American, is the almost universal friendliness he’ll slap you in the face with – especially in the South.”
More cynical Europeans will usually dismiss this as just superficial small talk: a torrent of empty words you spit out because it’s expected, without saying anything actually worth saying. This is of course nonsense. Southern hospitality is a genuine way of life here, woven into every aspect of society. People simply do their utmost to make you feel at ease. Fumble with a map somewhere in public, and it’s very likely someone will not only ask where you want to go but will enthusiastically offer a bunch of tips as well.
There’s also a subtle gentleness hidden in many interactions, that I somewhat missed when I got back home. One evening, I visited an old country bar where people were two-stepping to the music. Everyone was courteously asked for a dance; didn’t matter whether it was by some goofy twenty-year-old or your rugged outlaw type. Young danced with old, black with white, woman with woman: it was all good and everyone was having fun. If there’s one habit we could adopt from (these) Americans, let it be that gentleness. A simple greeting or even an unexpected smile on the street could elevate someone’s whole day from lousy to bearable. Wouldn’t hurt to try.
Why Austin is different from the rest of Texas
Austin is Texas’ most progressive bastion, but above all it’s a city by and for musicians. The number of live venues seems almost endless, and they can be found far into the suburbs. Almost every genre is played: from good old country to funk, blues and hard rock. This combo and the general Texas economic boom, make the city a very popular place to live. As a result, Austin is bursting at the seams. Much more so than in Dallas, construction cranes dominate the skyline, and the city seems to reinvent itself and the way it looks almost every year.
Austin is not just another Texan city with a few cool bars and some good food. It’s a cultural outlier in the state: politically, socially and artistically. A city shaped by students, musicians, activists and, where diversity is visible on the streets and individuality is not something to hide. It’s a place where dive bars and tech startups coexist, where drag shows and country dancing happen in the same neighbourhoods and where live music spills out of venues on almost every corner. In this guide, you’ll discover the different faces of Austin: we’ll start with its legendary live music and party scene, then we’ll venture into the more alternative suburbs to eventually take a look at the nature outside the city.
Read more about the same trip in my Dallas city guide, focused on its alternative neighbourhoods, food and museums, and in my San Antonio city guide, where I talk about the city’s latin history and culture, and attend the biggest street festival of the year.
Live music & nightlife in Austin
More than anything, Austin is a city to experience after sunset. The place lives and breathes music. From legendary concert venues to wild party streets and surprisingly inclusive queer dance floors, Austin offers a nighttime experience like no other. Whether you want to carefully plan your evenings around live shows or just stumble from bar to bar until closing time, this is where Austin comes alive.
Immerse yourself in the Austin live music scene
Let’s be clear: Austin didn’t exactly steal its title as Live Music Capital of the World. Several musical legends are associated with Austin. Local mascot, fervent weed smoker and generally very old person Willie Nelson is probably the most obvious one, but other top artists like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Janis Joplin also made it big in Austin, as did local bands such as Spoon and Explosions in the Sky.
There are more than 270 venues in Austin where you can enjoy a concert, often well hidden in neighbourhoods you’d never visit as a tourist. To lessen the agony of choice, we enlisted the help of Austin Detours (book their awesome tour here). They offer live music crawls on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings. Two local guides drive you around in a small van to visit three different places where they think the best mix of styles is being played that night.
Our first stop was The White Horse: an old-fashioned pub with a dance floor where a country band was playing. Then we visited The Skylark Lounge: a blues bar you’d never find unless you knew it was there. Paul Val was playing: a fantastic local guitarist in the style of Vaughan. We ended our evening at the more well-known C-Boy’s Heart and Soul on South Congress Avenue, where a great funk band got the party started. Austin Detours isn’t super cheap (around $75 for the tour), but you’ll have a great evening, guided by locals who truly want you to leave with the best possible experience.
Party the night away on 6th Street
Austin is not only known for its live music; it’s also the perfect place to party hard. 6th Street, right in the city centre, is the wildest nightlife area. Picture masses of drunken students and tourists, and lots of out-of-control bachelor parties. The main part of the street is closed to all traffic from Wednesday to Saturday, giving partygoers free rein. This quickly makes the nickname “Dirty 6th” a reality.
It’s an absolute playground for those looking to observe humanity in all of its wondrous glory, but in between the many dive bars where you order shots by the tray, there are a few hidden gems to be found. The Jackalope, for example, is a chaotic bar where you can pose with a statue of a giant antlered hare (that’s what a jackalope is). The Driskill Bar is located in a hotel with the same name (the most beautiful and one of the most luxurious in the city) where you can sip your whiskey in a setting straight from the roaring twenties. Midnight Cowboy is a fun speakeasy with a more intimate vibe. The Blind Pig Pub on the other hand, has a rooftop terrace offering great views of the Austin skyline.
The party options on 6th Street are close to unlimited, but the choice is all yours. Head there on a Friday or Saturday night and go all out. Just make sure you don’t have a flight to catch the next morning.
Tip: want to go for a pub crawl with a whole bunch of other people? Book a fun one here (with some free drinks included).
Oilcan Harry’s: go dancing in a Texas gay bar
What sets Austin most apart from the rest of Texas is the thriving queer community that has found a home here throughout the years. This is clearly visible on the streets in the city centre, where multiple zebra crossings have been painted in rainbow colours. There are also plenty of wild gay and drag bars to visit, mainly concentrated around 4th Street, and they’re a must if you really want to experience the city as a whole.
Oilcan Harry’s is the oldest of them all, and the one I’ve been to myself. The interior is strongly reminiscent of the Blue Oyster Club from Police Academy, but the atmosphere is great. They host a hilarious drag show almost every day – before the dance floor fills up later in the evening. Other options nearby are Neon Grotto, Rain and the Coconut Club (haha). A little further away is Cheer Up Charlies. They have a large dance floor and regularly play live music.
Don’t be silly and go have some fun. It’s 2026 people. These aren’t the happiest days to be gay in the USA, but a lot more scary stuff will have to happen in the rest of the country before anyone even starts thinking of giving up on the openness and freedom of expression they have here in Austin – it’s literally what defines the city.
Eating & drinking in Austin
The whole of Texas is incredibly serious about its food, and Austin lives up to that reputation. It’s a place to truly beef up: Texans are famously proud of their barbecue traditions. Slow-smoked brisket, sausages and ribs: everything gets treated with near-religious devotion, and there’s plenty of BBQ joints to enjoy them in. One name you’ll hear again and again is Franklin Barbecue east of downtown: widely considered one of the best in the state. Sounds fantastic, but the queues are almost as legendary as the venue and can stretch for hours. But if you have the patience (I sure didn’t), you’re in for a mythical Austin experience. At least you’ll be super hungry by the time it’s finally your turn to order.
Austin’s food scene goes far beyond barbecue. Strong Mexican influences, a young and creative population and a thriving food truck culture have turned the city into a paradise for casual and affordable comfort food. Add a booming craft beer and distilling scene and it quickly becomes clear that eating and drinking your way through Austin isn’t exactly the hardest thing to do.
Go on an Austin Breakfast Taco Tour
One of the true cornerstones of Texan cuisine is the taco. You can get them literally everywhere and they’re eaten all day long. Breakfast tacos are particularly popular, and understandably so. They’re savoury and cheap, you can quickly stuff your face with them and in terms of toppings you can do whatever you want: from your standard bacon, eggs and cheese to various exotic combos.
You can hardly go wrong by stepping into any random taco shop in Austin, but to bring some clarity to the abundance of choice, we contacted Austin Detours once again for a Breakfast Taco Tour. They took us to their favourite spots in the south of the city. We started at El Chilito: a fun little place where I opted for a simple bacon and egg taco (which was very nice). Papalote was the next stop on the tour and perhaps my favourite of the bunch. I had a cactus taco (yep) and got a horchata to go with it: a refreshing milky drink made from almonds and cinnamon. The final stop was Veracruz All Natural: a popular food truck in an outdoor co-working hipster coffee bar. Perfect place to get a latte with your taco.
Have Texas whiskey at The Yard
There’s plenty to do in the Austin suburbs as well. One evening, we headed to The Yard in South Austin. This is a former industrial area transformed into a varied assortment of breweries, wineries, coffee roasters, restaurants and sports facilities. Outside, food trucks and tables are set up: convenient if you want a little taste of everything.
We visited Still Austin: a relatively new distillery making Texan whiskey, bourbon and gin. You can book a tour if you want. They’re quite interesting. The large steel tanks holding the liquor were named after various alcoholic authors, ranked by their level of debauchery. The Charles Bukowski tank stood somewhere in the middle of the pack, which says a lot about the names that still had to follow. The tour of course ends with a tasting session, which was very nice indeed.
Nearby is one of the more photogenic sights in Austin: The Cathedral of Junk. This is a three-storey structure someone built in their backyard for some reason, using only junk and recycled materials. You just have to have the time for it I guess.
Austin neighbourhoods and shopping
Austin’s neighbourhoods come in a lot of different vibes. From the party chaos of downtown and 6th Street to laid-back East Austin, the leafy residential streets around Zilker and Clarksville, and the more alternative area north of the university, the city often shifts in tone as you move around. Some areas are best explored at night, others during the day, but if there’s one place where many of Austin’s defining characteristics come together – shopping, food, music and street life – it’s South Congress Avenue.
South Congress Avenue: Austin’s hippest boulevard
South Congress Avenue (SoCo for the locals) is one of Austin’s most iconic streets and offers a glimpse of what most of the city used to look like. SoCo is a long boulevard across from the Colorado river to the south of the city centre, and offers an eclectic mix of quirky shops, funny street art, authentic restaurants and a handful of live music venues. Together, they form a lively neighbourhood: the perfect place to browse for more unusual souvenirs.
Start your walk at Jo’s Coffee. This is an immensely popular coffee shop where you can people-watch under a canopy outside. On the side of the stall, you can take a selfie in front of the famous “I love you so much” mural. Across the street is Amy’s Ice Creams, where you can order ice cream in all sorts of creative flavours. Almost right next to it is Home Slice Pizza, selling NY-style pizzas by the slice. Further still (past the “Willie For President” mural) you’ll find Big Top Candy Shop: a candy store that could have come straight out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. South Congress Avenue is a delightful place to spend a few hours, both for shopping and for simply soaking up the atmosphere.
Tip: this is a really good tour if you want to do a bunch of Austin hotspots in one go: from 6th Street to South Congress Avenue and the Capitol Building.
Get dressed like a cowboy in Allen’s Boots and Maufrais
I already covered two cities in Texas, and I’ve yet to mention the cowboy culture and its symbols. It is what it is, but if you don’t want to be the odd one out, take two small stops on South Congress Avenue and you’ll look like a real John Wayne in no time.
First, take off your old sneakers, toss them into the nearest bin, and set foot into the legendary Allen’s Boots. Once there, pick and buy one of countless pairs of authentic leather cowboy boots. Next, head to nearby Maufrais and have your dome measured. They’ll immediately get to work, and a couple of minutes later you’ll have a real cowboy hat in hand, custom-fitted to your melon of a head.
The lovely lady behind the counter will steam the hat to fold it perfectly into the right shape. This while casually chatting with you as if it’s no big deal at all. Interesting process to watch up close, and your new hat will immediately keep your noggin safe from the Texan sun as well.
Culture, Sights & Weird Austin
Beyond music, food and nightlife, Austin is shaped by education, politics and a long tradition of cultural independence. The presence of the University of Texas at Austin plays a huge role in this. Its beautiful campus sits just north of downtown and gives the city much of its youthful, progressive energy. The UT Tower rises high above the surrounding buildings and is one of Austin’s most recognisable landmarks, visible from far across the city. Together with the state government institutions clustered around Congress Avenue, this is where you’ll want to do many of your daytime Austin visits.
Visit the Texas State Capitol and some of Austin’s museums
The most beautiful building in Austin is probably the Texas State Capitol. This impressive structure dominates the city centre and is topped by a stunning dome you can actually climb. Because everything is bigger in Texas, they made it about four metres taller than the Capitol in Washington DC. For those looking for some enlightenment or culture, Austin has several museums worth visiting. Here are some of the main ones:
–Blanton Museum of Art: gigantic building on the university campus, with an extensive collection of European and American art, and plenty of Latin American works as well.
–Bullock Texas State History Museum: museum about the history of Texas, full of interactive exhibits and an IMAX theatre (no idea what they’re playing though).
–The Contemporary Austin: modern art museum on two locations. One is on Congress Avenue, the other near Lake Austin. The latter includes a large sculpture park.
–Thinkery: children’s museum about science, technology, art, and mathematics. An interactive place aimed at making learning fun.
–Texas Science & Natural History Museum: another museum on the university campus, featuring various dinosaur skeletons and fossils.
Watch millions of bats take flight at Congress Avenue Bridge
*Left picture by Grace Kim, right picture by Christopher Sherman
Every summer, you can enjoy an extraordinary natural spectacle in downtown Austin. Over one and a half million Mexican free-tailed bats come roost on the platform under Congress Avenue Bridge (They’re called “guano bats” in Dutch. Guano means bat shit, which means don’t be under the actual bridge when they’re there.).
Just before sunset they all fly out, to eat around fourteen tons of insects every night. This is not only very considerate to everyone troubled by mosquitoes at night, it also makes for one of the most spectacular sights you can witness in Texas.
So if you want to feel like Batman for a moment, you know where to go. Unfortunately you’ll never be the only person there. Want to escape the crowds? Book a boat tour or rent a kayak and watch everything from the water. The bats are in Austin from March to November, but I’ve been told the most spectacular swarms can be seen in August.
Nature & Hiking around Austin
One of Austin’s greatest assets is how effortlessly it combines city life with nature. Even if you’re only in town for a short stay, green spaces, swimming spots and hiking trails are never far away. Lakes, parks and limestone hills surround the city, offering an escape from the summer heat and the crowds.
Go hiking along Lady Bird Lake
*Pictures by Morgane Vander Linden of Morgane’s Travel Tales.
I happen to know someone who moved to the US for love and has since settled in Austin permanently. And it’s none other than the lovely Morgane, who was the face of Wallonia for every Flemish travel journalist for many years and recently became a travel blogger herself. I asked her to share her favourite outdoor spot in Austin below, in her own words (which I absolutely haven’t altered in any way).
“Thank you for letting me have my say, Jonathan. I greatly appreciate it, especially as you’ve always been my favourite, most handsome and most sharply dressed travel journalist by far (I swear I didn’t mess with the text). The best hike you can take in Austin is the one following the Ann & Roy Butler Hike & Bike Trail. This lovely route transitions from a green, unpaved path to an impressive walkway built over the water. It encircles the entire perimeter of Lady Bird Lake (the dammed section of the Colorado River) and you’ll walk through lush nature you wouldn’t expect to find this close to a big city. The sections running over the river offer stunning views of the lake and the Austin skyline. Along the way, you’ll encounter a variety of wildlife as well: from hyperactive squirrels on the shore to funny turtles in the water, various large bird species, and even fireflies after sunset. Wonderful place.”
Cool off at Barton Springs Pool & Explore Zilker Park
Just west of downtown lies Zilker Park, Austin’s main green lung and one of the city’s most popular hangout spots. Locals come here to picnic, play sports or simply escape the heat. Within the park you’ll find Barton Springs Pool: a natural spring-fed swimming pool with crystal-clear water that stays cool year-round. By far the best (and most iconic) place to be on a hot Texan day in Austin.
Enjoy the view from Mount Bonnell
For a slightly more elevated view, head to Mount Bonnell: one of the highest points in Austin. The short climb up the steps rewards you with panoramic views over the Colorado River and the surrounding hills. It’s an easy hike, and especially popular around sunset.
Practical information for visiting Austin
**This article contains a number of useful affiliate links. These were all selected by me to make sure they add value. Were you already planning to book a hotel or activity in Austin? Consider doing so through one of these links. Doesn’t cost you an extra dime and I get a small compensation for my writing. Thank you very much.**
Where to stay in Austin?
We stayed at the Hyatt Centric Congress Avenue Austin hotel. It offers lovely, practical rooms and is right next to the iconic Paramount Theatre (didn’t bother me at all by the way: no noise pollution whatsoever).
Here are a couple of other hotels/hostels in Austin:
–Firehouse Hostel: the only hostel in downtown Austin and it’s a good one as well. Perfect for budget travellers: you’ll get a bed for around $30 and a four-bed room for around $100.
–Frame Hotel SoCo: small new boutique hotel right on South Congress Avenue. Great for people who prefer to stay in this part of the city, far away from the craziness of 6th Street, but with a very cool vibe nonetheless.
–Hotel Ella: pretty boutique hotel in a historic venue in the city centre. Very nicely decorated.
Tours & things to do in Austin
Looking for some other cool things to do in Austin? GetYourGuide and Viator offer a wide range of activities:
-enjoy wine and a BBQ in Hill Country
-book a guided cycling tour through the city centre
-book a boat tour taking far outside the city
-go for a nightly ghost tour
-release your inner cowboy and go horse riding in nature
Getting around Texas
You’re obviously going to need a car if you’re planning a road trip through Texas (it’s pretty big, you know). I usually book with DiscoverCars. Their platform allows you to compare local providers and find the best deals for every destination.
Stay Connected
Looking for mobile data while in the States? Airalo offers cheap eSIMs for almost every country on the planet, including the US of course.
Useful resources and further reading
Everything on Austin as a destination: www.austintexas.org
All info on what to do where in Texas: www.traveltexas.com.
If you’re doing a Texas road trip, Waco makes for an easy detour between Dallas and Austin. For more information, check www.destinationwaco.org
Read my articles on Dallas & San Antonio here.
Looking for some other road trips? Read my posts on Eswatini, Malawi, the Black Forest, Scotland, Croatia and Crete.
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