Planning a lightning visit to Austin?
You're not alone! I recently visited the city for the first time on a business trip. Even though I only spent one day in Austin, I was determined to make the most of it.
When I arrived, the city felt young and vibrant. People were out walking and cycling in the city's many parks. The downtown had been partially roped off to traffic due to a community event. Tents were set up, volunteers flooded the streets, and political speakers worked the crowds and engaged with their constituents. The city is known as the live music capital of the world, and it really did feel like there was music everywhere I went. The city was buzzing. And at night? If you're lucky, you'll catch a glimpse of the 1.5 million bats that take flight from Congress Bridge.
With seemingly endless activities and places to visit, it can be overwhelming to condense the city's greatest hits into a single day. I'm offering a few suggestions for how to spend a day in Austin, but the only non-negotiables are: injecting the word "y'all" into as many sentences as possible and eating at least one taco.
Breakfast
Start your morning off right with some of the best eats in Austin. For brunch, check out Paperboy. They offer delicious hot meals accompanied by a glorious outdoor patio. Hilariously, despite only being open until 2 or 3pm, they also serve cocktails (no judgment!).
Alternatively, check out Torchy's Tacos in South Congress. Birthed in Austin, Torchy's Tacos is a local(ish - they're growing!) casual Mexican food chain offering breakfast tacos among other flavorful favorites.
Paperboy Address: 1203 E 11th St.
Paperboy Hours: Monday to Thursday 8am-2pm. Friday to Sunday 8am-3pm.
Torchy's Tacos Address: 1822 S Congress Ave.
Torchy's Tacos Hours: Monday to Thursday 9:30am-10pm. Friday to Sunday 9am-10pm.
Texas State Capitol
After breakfast, head over to the Texas State Capitol. Head inside first to avoid the crowds of mid-day, and check out the grounds after your tour of the building.
The Texas State Capitol in Austin.
Take note of the bronze door hinges as you enter that read "Texas Capitol".
Inside the capitol building
The capitol is a gorgeous building with a fascinating history. Free guided tours of the building leave roughly every 30 to 45 minutes from just inside the main entrance on the ground floor. The tours last a similar time frame of roughly 30 to 45 minutes. If you prefer, you can also just grab "A Self-Guided Tour" pamphlet and take yourself for a tour!
Before you begin, remember to peak at the rotunda: look down at your feet to take in the seals on the floor, and look up to see the inside of the dome.
The floor of the rotunda features the six seals of the countries whose flags have flown over Texas: Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Confederate States of America, and finally the USA.
The star in the center of the dome is eight feet from point to point and is 218 feet up.
According to the very lovely worker I spoke with at the capitol, you should start on the top floor and work your way down. Elevators are wedged next to the bathrooms on every floor.
The third floor is home to the Texas Supreme Court Courtroom and the Court of Criminal Appeals Courtroom. The second floor houses both the Senate and House of Representatives Chambers.
Once you've completed your tour of the main building, take an elevator down to the Capitol Extension. An extensive underground space built in 1993, the Capitol Extension has two levels. The extension features offices for members of the House and Senate, hearing rooms, an auditorium, a cafeteria, and a gift shop.
While you're down there, make sure to check out the view of the dome from the glass panels above you.
View of the dome from inside the underground Capitol Extension.
The grounds
Be sure to spend a little time after your visit exploring the capitol grounds. For example, take note of this racist confederate statue that reads these men died for "states rights". It's one of seven Confederate memorials on the grounds. Worse yet, it's placed directly across from the Texas African American History Memorial... yeppppp.
Needless to say, if you visit the capitol, go to see the pretty, pretty building. Just about everything else the place stands for is hard to stomach.
How long until Texas removes this confederate statue?!
Address: 1100 Congress Ave.
Hours: Monday to Friday 7am-8pm. Weekends 9am-8pm.
Cost: Free.
Wander through the Blanton Museum of Art
Your next stop for the day is the Blanton Museum of Art. I'll never say no to a good art museum. The Blanton Museum's collection has Greek and Roman sculptures, Latin American art, and Renaissance to 20th-century American paintings.
Also, be sure to pop inside artist Ellsworth Kelly's structure titled Austin. According to the Blanton Museum's website, it is a "2,715-square-foot stone building with luminous colored glass windows, a totemic wood sculpture, and fourteen black-and-white stone panels in marble".
Depending on the time of day, sunlight passes through the colored glass windows and spills color along the structure's granite floor and white walls.
It's part of the museum's permanent collection and entrance is included with general admission tickets to the art museum.
Address: 200 E Martin Luther King Jr Blvd.
Hours: Wednesday-Saturday 10am-5pm. Sunday 1-5pm. Closed Monday and Tuesday.
Cost: Children 12 and under are free. $5 for youth and college ID holders. Seniors (65+) are $10, and adults are $12.
Lunch
Grab lunch pretty much anywhere downtown - it's really hard to go wrong. Check out Cava for a build-your-own Mediterranean bowls or Koriente for Asian noodles, curries, and bowls. There are also some killer taco trucks downtown.
Cava Address: 515 Congress Ave.
Cava Hours: Open daily from 10:45am to 10pm.
Koriente Address: 621 E 7th St.
Koriente Hours: Monday-Friday 11am-9:30pm. Saturday 1pm-9:30pm. Closed Sunday.
Take a dip at Barton Springs Municipal Pool
In the afternoon, grab your swimsuit and check out Barton Springs Pool. It's a spring-fed, year-round, 68-degree outdoor pool. It's an amazing 3 acres and is beloved by the locals! The pool attracts about 800,000 swimmers every year.
The pool is long and rectangular and in my opinion, it kind of looks like you're going for a swim in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in DC.
The paths and sidewalks next to the pool are paved, and there are lifeguards on duty.
Address: 2201 William Barton Dr.
Hours: Open daily from 5am to 10pm.
Hike or bike around Lady Bird Lake
The entire loop is paved and fairly flat.
Not into swimming? Try going for a hike or take your bike out for a loop around Lady Bird Lake. The lake is actually a river-like reservoir that cuts through the middle of the city. Lady Bird Lake Trail's full loop is almost 10 miles long, but you can pop in at any of the many entrances for a stroll. It's a paved, flat path offering beautiful views of the city and its greenery.
Address: 2 Robert T Martinez Jr St.
Hours: Sunday to Thursday 3am-12am. Friday and Saturday 3am-1:40am.
South Congress
One of the most lively areas of Austin, South Congress has cute vintage stores, clothing boutiques, bookshops, and more. It also has several famous murals for photo ops! The neighborhood came highly recommended to me on my first visit, and rightly so.
Address: South Congress Ave.
Watch the bats take flight from Congress Bridge
People camp out on and under Congress Bridge in hopes of seeing the bats take flight!
As the sun starts to set, head over to Congress Avenue Bridge to watch hundreds of thousands of bats take flight at once as they wake and set out to find food. These Mexican free-tailed bats have been living under Congress Bridge since it was renovated in 1980. The underside of the bridge became their ideal home and Austin's 1.5 million bat population is now the largest urban bat colony in North America.
The nightly bat flight is a seasonal thing, taking place from March into early fall. The flight usually occurs a little before or after sunset, but it changes depending on the time of year. Check out this guide for predictions on when the evening's flight will take place, and be sure to read up on best practices before you go.
One of the best viewing spots is at the Statesman Bat Observation Center. There's a small park where you can picnic and hang out until the bats take flight.
The sun has set, but in the end there were no bats that night.
When I visited, this is where I made camp. The lawn had a lively, community atmosphere with live music. There was also a batman (pun intended) that had set up a table and was swarmed with bat questions all evening. It's a comfortable place to wait, but there's currently a lot of overgrown vegetation which is limiting the view of the bridge. Hopefully, it cuts back for the spring!
Alternatively, you can view the bats from Congress Bridge itself, or even from the water! Grab your kayak or canoe (you can rent one from vendors near the bridge) and get up close and personal with the bats. There really is no better view than being on the water for the flight.
I visited towards the end of the season in late September, and despite a flight the previous evening, viewers had no such luck the night I was there. I can't believe I missed it... and I was only there for one night! I could still see the bats starting to wake. A few took flight but nothing to write home about. Oh well, it's become my incentive to return to Austin someday.
Address: Congress Avenue Bridge, Congress Ave.
Live music
Austin at night from Congress Bridge.
Once it's dark, Austin takes on a whole new life. It has impressive nightlife with hundreds of live music venues throughout the city - hence the city's nickname, the Live Music Capitol of the World. Clubs, bars, concert halls, and coffeehouses transform into musical havens. If you really want to get a sense of the city's culture, this is where it's at.
Get a full list of live music locations on Visit Austin's website.
It'll be a whirlwind of a day, but you can actually see most of Austin's greatest hits in a single day.
Not only will you eat some of the best Tex-Mex you've ever had, but you'll visit some local gems and get a glimpse into Austin's famous live music scene.
Have you ever been to Austin? What did you do, and more importantly, what did you eat? Let me know in the comments! Having only visited for a day, I'm determined to find my way back to explore even more of my new favorite city in Texas.
