AUSTIN · TEXAS
Bats, barbecue, and a band on every block.
The Congress Avenue bats and a paddle on Lady Bird Lake, oak-smoked brisket and breakfast tacos, live music after dark and the Hill Country wineries an hour west. Every good day in Austin, and every road out of town.
Only in Austin
Three things you can only do here.
Boat rides and food tours turn up in every city. A million bats off a downtown bridge, live music on every block, and a Hill Country barbecue run do not.
A million wings
The Congress Avenue Bats
From spring to fall, around 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats stream out from under the Congress Avenue Bridge at dusk, the largest urban bat colony in North America. The bridge and the lawn fill up, but the best seats are on the water, on a kayak or an electric boat right under the flight path. Nowhere else in the country empties the sky out like this.
- 1 Congress Avenue Bat Bridge Kayak Tour in Austin
- 2 Austin: Sunset Bat Watching Kayak Tour
- 3 Downtown Austin Sunset Kayak Tour with 1.5 Million Bats
Live Music Capital
A City That Plays Every Night
Austin trademarked "Live Music Capital of the World", and it earns it: more stages per head than anywhere in the country, and a band playing somewhere every night of the week. From the two-step at the Broken Spoke to the clubs of Red River and the patios of South Congress, the trick is just knowing which door to open.
- 1 Austin Live Music Crawl
- 2 Downtown Austin Live Music Pub Crawl
- 3 Austin: Downtown Live Music Pub Crawl
Texas on a plate
Barbecue & the Hill Country
Central Texas barbecue is a pilgrimage: oak-smoked brisket pulled apart with a fork, sausage by the link, a line out the door that is half the fun. Pair it with the Hill Country an hour west, where the vineyards and peach orchards around Fredericksburg roll out under a huge sky. Smoke and grape, one long day built around both.
- 1 From Austin: Hill Country BBQ & Wine Shuttle
- 2 Austin and Hill Country Sightseeing Tour
- 3 Austin and Hill Country Panoramic Sightseeing Tour
Start here
The one almost everyone books first.
If you only have time for a single tour in Austin, more visitors start with this one than anything else on the list.
Where most people start
Austin's Most Popular Tours
The bats, a lake paddle, a barbecue run and the night-time music crawls. The days most visitors come to Austin for.
Where to begin
The days an Austin trip is built around.
The bats, the lake, the barbecue, the Hill Country wineries, the live music and the haunted old town. The handful of days most visits are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The nightly show
How to see the Congress bats.
Roughly 1.5 million bats lift off the Congress Avenue Bridge at dusk from spring through fall, and where you stand changes the whole thing. Three ways to catch the emergence, depending on how close you want to be.
BBQ & tacos
Brisket by the pound, tacos by the dozen.
Austin eats with its hands. Oak-smoked brisket and ribs off the pit, sausage by the link, a breakfast taco on the way to everything, and a food-truck lot on what feels like every corner. The best meals in town come on butcher paper, with a line out front that is half the point.
Read the guide: the best BBQ & taco tours in Austin →After the sun drops
Austin really starts after dark.
The city saves its best for night. The bats lift off the bridge at dusk, the patios of South Congress fill up, a band starts on Red River, and a comedy club or a haunted-history walk takes you into the small hours. Pick a lane and the night runs itself.
See the evening experiences →On the water
Texas at its most scenic is 30 minutes out.
Northwest of downtown the Colorado River widens into Lake Travis and Lake Austin, all limestone cliffs, hidden coves and cypress shoreline. Spend an afternoon on a boat, swim off the rocks, watch the sun go down over the dam from the deck. The Hill Country, with a drink in your hand.
Lake cruises & boat trips →Keep Austin Weird
A city that paints its own walls.
"Greetings from Austin", the "I love you so much" scrawl on South Congress, the angel wings, the Hi How Are You frog: the murals are a self-portrait of a town that has always done its own thing. A street-art walk or e-bike loop strings them together through South Congress, East Austin and the warehouse district, with the stories behind each one.
- 1 Austin Mural Selfie Tour by Pedicab
- 2 Austin Art and Architecture Bicycle Tour
- 3 Austin Murals & Mimosas Roofless Party Bus Tour
Plan by distance
Pick how far you want to go today.
Austin sits at the edge of the Hill Country. Keep it downtown for the day, run out to the lakes for an afternoon, or commit a full day to the wineries and barbecue out west.
Downtown
Stay in the city.The Capitol and Congress Avenue, a paddle on Lady Bird Lake, tacos for breakfast and a live band after dark. Days you never need a car.
Half a day on the water
Out to the lakes.A morning on Lake Travis or Lake Austin: a boat, a swim off the cliffs, lunch on the deck, and back downtown before the music starts.
A full day there and back
West to the Hill Country.The wineries and peach stands around Fredericksburg, the barbecue trail, the dance halls of Gruene. The big days that earn an early start.
On two wheels
The best way to cover Austin is by bike.
It is a flat, leafy, bike-mad city, and an electric motor flattens what hills there are. Roll the Lady Bird Lake hike-and-bike loop, the South Congress murals and the East Austin food trucks in a single afternoon, pulling over wherever it looks good, on ground a bus tour never touches.
See all 19 bike & e-bike tours →By place
The city, and the roads out of it.
Downtown for the Capitol and 6th Street. Lady Bird Lake for the paddle and the bats. Lake Travis for the cliffs and coves. The Hill Country for wine and barbecue. Marble Falls up the highway, San Antonio down it.
By activity
Pick what kind of day you want.
The bats if you want the spectacle. A kayak if you want the lake. Barbecue if you came hungry. A bike if you want to cover ground, a ghost walk if you want the city after dark.
Plan it
Three days that cover the essentials.
First time in Austin? Here is how three days plays out without a wasted hour.
Just added