What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Austin? For some, it might be music. For others, it might be bars. And still for others, it could be barbecue. Austin is an eclectic city famous for lots of things. No matter what you go to Austin for, you’ll be surrounded by that and much, much more!
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Music
Austin is widely known as the live music capital of the world! This title, in fact, was a marketing ploy from advertising executives in the 1990’s as a tourism campaign to bring more sightseers to Austin. Actually, the first title they were going to give Austin was live music capital of the universe, but they weren’t sure if Mars had better live music or not. So now, Austin is the Live Music Capital of the World!
Why, you might ask? Musicians flock to Austin. Any night of the week, you can find jazz, soul, blues, country, latin, reggae, or any other type of music you can imagine. On weekend nights, you can usually find two or three shows a day. Bands, solo artists, industry people, and fans all flock to Austin to see and be seen. Austin has the most live music venues per capita in the nation. Hosting some of the most famous music festivals in the U.S. doesn’t hurt tourism either.
The SXSW music festival is the second week in March every year. Executives invite over 500 bands to come perform and local venues. It was meant to draw industry people to Austin to discover new talent, but it has grown so much that it now draws more fans than industry people. You can even see bands performing at gas stations!
The Austin City Limits (ACL) music festival has grown to cover two three-day weekends in October every year. Austin City Limits Live is a music tv show filmed in Downtown Austin that feels like being at a concert. The show films at the ACL Live Theater, which looks like a big black box with a statue of Willie Nelson out front. You can find the theater on 2nd street and Willie Nelson Blvd. Tickets are a lottery system, so you might even get lucky enough to attend a live music performance!
The Urban Music Festival is a two-day event with national and local entertainment at the end of March. It celebrates music from an Afrocentric perspective, so it’s not unexpected that it is the largest African American tourist weekend of the year.
The Fun Fun Fun Fest is an annual music and comedy festival in Austin. It’s a genre-based festival with stages that focus on hip hop, dance music, indie rock, punk, metal, and comedy. The festival takes place in early November.
The Pachanga Latino Music Series is the first Latin-themed music festival, originating in Austin. It focuses on music, cultural arts, and food. This one day festival takes place in May.
So by now, you might be asking: what about Nashville? Nashville has a reputation for a music center and is nicknamed Music City. The difference between Austin and Nashville is that Nashville is primarily country music, while Austin has a little of every type of music you could imagine. It’s variety it what sets Austin apart from the other music cities and makes it the Live Music Capital of the World!
No matter what kind of music you like, you will find it in Austin. If you like covers or original music, you’ll have plenty to choose from. If you’re a musician, Austin is your Mecca. And if you don’t like music…why??? But you will after going to Austin. Austin will turn anyone into a music lover!
Barbecue
You can’t go to Austin without having some bbq. Well, I take that back – I did go to Austin and didn’t eat any bbq. But I did regret it! I actually forgot to eat at all while I was there. Apparently I was on a liquid diet (see the next subsection). Don’t forget your barbecue while you’re in Austin!
Besides music, barbecue might be Austin’s biggest export. Like pizza in New York City, pasta in Italy, and tacos in Mexico, barbecue is almost synonymous with Austin. If you’re looking for some smoked meats, you found the right place.
How do you find a legit barbecue joint in Austin? First, follow your nose. Walk into somewhere that smells somewhere between a backyard bbq and a walk through a forest. Second, find that stack of wood that is the source of that smell. There has to be a pit and smokey wood to get the best smoked meats. Third, look for the crowds! There will definitely be a line of locals, and it will be hard to get a seat. Wait for it, it will be worth it. Fourth, there should be a counter where your food is made to order. Fifth, watch out for too much sauce – good barbecue won’t need much and you won’t want to hide that delicious, slow-cooked smokey flavor. And finally, you should be given the option to order by the pound, which is the best way to do it for big groups.
Salt Lick is one of the famous barbecue spots just outside Austin. Pitmasters cook their meats slowly (brisket for 20-24 hours and pork for 2.5-3 hours) and don’t use tomato in their sauces so it doesn’t become bitter. They use live oak which burns cleaner, more uniform, and the smoke particles are smaller. They baste and caramelize to hold moisture in. And there will most definitely be a line around the building. If you only go to one bbq joint in Austin, make this the one!
One thing to note is that in most places, barbecue means pork. In Texas, it means beef. The main entree of any good bbq place will be brisket. Most restaurants will offer a choice between moist (aka, fatty) or lean. If you want it to melt in your mouth, go moist. If you want the lesser evil, choose lean (although like light beer, it’s still not a healthy option!)
Texas chefs swear by the “low and slow” method of smoking meats. That means to cook meats at lower temperatures for longer periods of time (sometimes up to 20 hours). Which means the meat is cooking overnight. Which means quantities are limited, so once they sell out, they sell out. So get your barbecue early – don’t be a disappointed tourist!
Bars
When I first told people I was going to Austin, I must have heard 10 times in 24 hours “Go to Sixth Street!” with a few “Go to Rainey Street” comments thrown in there too. So immediately I knew this was the place to be.
Sixth Street reminds me of Duval Street in Key West mixed with the lights of the Las Vegas Strip and the craziness of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. During the day, the street is open to cars. At night on weekends, police barricade the street and drunk college kids bounce from one side to another like ping pong balls. Sixth Street, or Dirty Sixth as the locals know it, is bar after bar. There might be one or two pizza places squeezed in between bars, but it’s more likely to see a food stand on the sidewalk in front of bars on bars on bars.
The music in the bars blasts out the open fronts of the bars, so when you’re in the street you get a mix of everything. On Sixth Street, you’re more likely to find cover bands or djs, but there are some places you can find original music on Dirty Sixth.
If you’re looking for more original music, hit Rainey Street. Rainey Street is slightly more casual, less drunk, and older clientele. And when I say slightly, I mean slightly. I still heard a girl picking a fight with a bouncer who threw her out at 8:30 pm when I was there, but only one. Rainey Street has a biergarten, sports bars, and some great craft beer bars. If you’re looking to do a bar crawl, this is the spot. If you want to get a seat at the bar, this is the street to be on too.
In Austin, I started at Craft Pride. My Tipster Music Tour guide recommended Craft Pride for the wide craft beer selection, outdoor stage for original live music, and an easy place to hang solo. I had a great time at this spot, but unfortunately it was just too cold to stay for more than one Hefeweizen.
I moved on to Banger’s Sausage House and Beer Garden, which another local recommended to me. While the biergarten had a great selection of beers with descriptions that made it easy to choose what I would like, there was no live music here and it was typical long benches, so it was awkward for me as a solo bar hopper to sit next to a group of friends. I moved on to the next bar pretty quickly.
The last bar a local recommended to me was Bungalow. I decided to skip Bungalow because it looked like more of a lounge for a group of friends, so I made my way back to Dirty Sixth to check out the Saturday night scene.
On Sixth Street, I was happy just to walk the street and people watch! There is a crowd energy that is addicting. Bar employees were calling out specials to call groups of people in to their bar, bars had music blasting out into the street competing with their neighbors, and food vendors had lines for days. As expected, bachelor and bachelorette parties were falling out of bars and into other bars. It was quite the sight.
I decided to stop into Coyote Ugly. Coyote Ugly is a chain, but I have never been to one. I have, however, seen the movie and I wanted to know if the theme was real. Spoiler alert: it is.
Flamingo Cantina is a great place for ska and reggae. You’ll know it by the red, yellow, and green sign out front, and super laid back people inside. Great for a low key night or a solo night out!
If craft beer is what you’re looking for, hit up Rainey Street. If you’re looking for a good party that you may or may not remember, head on down to Sixth Street. Either way, you’re guaranteed to have one good party.
Other Things to Do In Austin
While music, barbecue, and bars are the main attractions to Texas’s capital city, we have to remember that this is actually a capital city and there are other things going on besides being a bachelor party’s destination. If you’re on a family trip or a solo trip like I was, here are some other fun touristy things to do while you’re in town.
Capitol Building
The Texas capitol building is in the Renaissance Revival architectural style. It’s a three-story castle-like structure made of Texas red granite. The 85,000 square foot roof is made of copper, and the Goddess of Liberty sits atop the dome. Another fun fact is that the Texas Capitol Building is taller than the U.S. Capitol Building – because everything is bigger in Texas. Click here for some other fun facts about the Capitol building.
Did you know you can tour the Capitol building for free? You don’t need a reservation either, unless you have a large group (10 or more) or need a tour in a language other than English. The tours leave every 30-45 minutes and last about half an hour. Pictures are allowed!
Baylor Street Wall
Graffiti is a problem in many cities, so Austin found a way to let artists graffiti the walls while not defacing the city. Choose a run down, overgrown area with some concrete walls that aren’t doing much good to anyone and name it Graffiti Park. Let artists bring their own spray paint and create masterpieces! Baylor Street Wall is just outside of Downtown Austin and there is plenty of parking, so it’s worth driving rather than walking. Even the trash cans and benches are painted.
Don’t forget, it’s BYOSP! Bring your own spray paint.
Esther’s Follies
If you like Saturday Night Live for the skits and the music, you will definitely want to stop by Esther’s Follies on Sixth Street. It’s Austin’s version of SNL, with political satire, comedy, magic, and plenty of music. An interesting thing about Esther’s Follies is that the original comedy troupe that started bringing Downtown Austin back to live moved from Second Street to Sixth Street, to Esther’s Follies. While it’s not the same members anymore, it is one of the original comedy troupes of Austin.
Wall Murals Around the City
While Graffiti Park is the biggest place for painted walls, many businesses have allowed artists to paint cute murals on their walls as well. One of the most famous is the I Love You So Much wall at Jo’s Coffee just over the Congress Street Bridge.
Here are some other great murals you can find around Austin.
Cathedral of Junk
You know a city needs a few more tourist attractions when one of the popular tourist attractions is a tower of junk. Off in one of the homelier parts of Austin in the backyard of a suburban neighborhood is the Cathedral of Junk. The owner of the house built the Cathedral as a fun, artsy hideout. He began building it in 1988 and has steadily added to it ever since. Now, as a tourist attraction, sometimes visitors bring their own pieces of junk to add to it. It is something to see, all right.
Breakfast Tacos
Though barbecue is a popular food in Austin, breakfast tacos aren’t something to be overlooked while in Texas. Being so close to Mexico, the tacos are authentic and delicious. If you cut yourself off from your craft beers early enough and happen to be up in time for breakfast, definitely check out one of the local Mexican shops open for breakfast and grab a breakfast taco (or three). They are pretty amazing! Just be sure to save room for your bbq lunch.
Natural Bridge Caverns
Texas is full of secret underground caverns. In some places, the higher ground falls away revealing these caverns. Other places, someone might drill a well and run into a wide open space, causing explorers to go spelunking. About an hour outside Austin in Texas Hill Country are some of the most famous underground caves, called Natural Bridge Caverns. These caverns are the largest commercial caverns in Texas. The caverns go down 180 feet under the earth. Inside, you can see beautiful stalactite and stalagmite formations, underground lakes and rivers, and impressive formations. They offer guided tours of the caverns, lantern tours that go off path and into the mud, a zip line, a maze, and a canopy challenge.
There is also a drive-through wildlife ranch on the property. If you have an hour or two to spend, you can drive your own car through the reserve and see animals like giraffes, zebras, antelope, kangaroos, llamas, lemurs, wildebeests, and rhinos. There’s a walk about but please don’t feed the animals. You can bring your own food for a picnic!
Hamilton Pool Preserve
Like I said before, Texas is full of underground caverns and rivers. Sometimes, the ground above will collapse and form caverns; other times it will form pools, like Mexican cenotes. Hamilton Pool Preserve is a natural pool that formed when the ground above a natural lake fell away due to erosion. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department calls Hamilton Pool Preserve the most significant rural area in Travis County.
Tipster Tours
I have to give a shout out to Tipster tours in Austin. Tipster started doing free walking tours around Austin because a group of kids had such good experiences with tip-based tours in other parts of the world that they wanted to bring that concept to America. The concept is that the tours are free, you just tip what you want based on how what you think the guide deserves. Many other walking tours in the city cost $15-$30 so the free walking tours save you money and put more money (tip-wise) in the guide’s pocket. It makes sense all around!
In Austin, they offer a music tour, a downtown tour, an art tour, and for groups of six or more, a brewery tour and a cocktail tour. I took the music tour and learned a lot about Austin’s music scene, past, present, and future. I really enjoyed it and highly recommend this tour or any of the tours to anyone visiting Austin! Check out Tipster for some really good insider information on local Austin.
Something to Note About Austin
In a city known for its bands and craft beer, what do you think you’re going to find? Hipsters. Austin is a very hipster-ish city. Everyone is very friendly and if you go by yourself, someone will almost definitely by you a drink or ask you to dance. But if you’re wondering what clothes to pack, remember to think hipster! And don’t be afraid to drink those 14% craft beers.
Have you been to Austin? What event brought you to the Live Music Capital of the World? What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think Austin? Tell me about your experiences in the comments below!
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P.S. You might also enjoy 6 Ways to Spot a Tourist Trap or Traveling Solo For the First Time