Austin Adventures
Austin, Texas Travel Itinerary & Guide
4 Days in Austin, Texas
Austin is a beautiful oasis-like city in the heart of Texas. With tons of great food, bodies of water, and nightlight, Austin should be next on your bucket list. This itinerary includes the best things to do and restaurants to eat at!
Day 1:
Spend the day eating delicious food and enjoying the wonderful sun. It’s really helpful to have a rental car to get around easily, but Uber/Lyft are affordable and work well.
Torchy's Tacos
Start your day off the right way with some chips and queso and wait for it…breakfast tacos! Yes, that’s right Torchy’s tacos takes the magical awesomeness of a taco and gives it a breakfast flare that is delicious! I would highly recommend ordering the chips and queso (a Tex-Mex favorite), the Wrangler (scrambled eggs and potatoes topped with smoked beef brisket), the Monk Special (Scrambled eggs, bacon, green chiles, cheese and a sauce), and the Ranch Hand (Scrambled eggs, marinated & grilled beef fajita, with cheese, and a delicious sauce). The location is quite large with great indoor and outdoor seating. There is a cool outdoor bar on the patio. There are multiple locations, but I recommend this location, just for the sheer retro architecture.
Barton Springs Pool
Barton Springs Pool is a recreational outdoor swimming pool that is filled entirely with water from nearby natural springs. It’s the perfect place to beat the Austin heat, by dipping your feet into the water or going for a swim. Some areas are about 3 feet deep where you can stand and hang out. I think it goes about 8 feet deep if you’d like to go swimming. There is tons of lawn space to soak up the sun as well. Bring water shoes as the pools can be mossy and very slippery. Also, they have a great diving board, where you can watch people do flips and other tricks…or like me, you can take your shot at a belly flop. The pools have lifeguards on duty during regular hours.
There is plenty of parking and two entrances to get in (the entrance line can get long towards the afternoon). The cost is $8 for adult non-Austin residents. If you have a dog, just outside is a more natural area where dogs are allowed.
HandleBar
Grab happy hour drinks at Handlebar. Be sure to head up to the rooftop, which is perfect on a nice day. The decor is really interesting inside, but the best part is the seesaw featured on the roof (take a mustache seesaw ride)! They have great drinks as well and daily happy hour deals.
Gus's Fried Chicken
You can’t visit Texas without getting some delicious fried chicken, and Gus’s Famous Fried Chicken will hit the spot. With affordable prices and savory chicken, this place better be on your bucket list. We ordered the 2 piece white (breast & wing) meal but substituted the slaw for macaroni and cheese (great choice!!!) and added a leg to get some dark meat (another great choice). Make sure to get a Shiner Bock, the famous Texas beer! (Gus’s Fried Chicken is a quick 5-minute walk from Handlebar.)
VooDoo Donut V
Not an Austin native, but still delicious and a great new location, Voodoo Donut’s 5th location is worth checking out and grabbing something sweet.
Fareground
Grab a drink and sit outside at the excellent collectively eatery! They have a bar with pre-mixed kegged cocktails that are delicious.
Corner Bar
Keep the bar hop going and stop at the Corner for some frose (yes: frozen rose!). It’s a great upscale atmosphere. Hang out until the sunset starts to go down as this bar is very close to the Congress Avenue Bridge where the bats come out.
Congress Avenue Bridge Bats
Head towards the Congress Avenue Bridge towards sundown to see around 500,000 to 1 million bats fly out. I recommend going down the bridge further towards the Hyatt Regency. We waited around an hour for the bats to come out, but there are beautiful views of the sun setting on the river and one of the local hotels on the weekends does a small dance show in the windows while you wait.
Azul Rooftop Pool Bar & Lounge
Azul rooftop bar, situated on the top of the Westin Downtown offers beautiful views and a very great relaxing vibe to kick off the night. When you arrive at the Westin’s head to the front desk for an access key to take the elevator up. By the elevators, there is a cool ATX sign that’s a perfect photo op.
Day 2:
We visited the outskirts of Austin during the day to check out some distilleries and wineries. A rental car and a sober designated driver was required for this. We then finished off the evening and night back in Austin.
Fortright
Grab a delicious and picture perfect brunch at Forthright. When we arrived around 10 am there was about a 45-minute wait, but they’ll serve you drinks, like their delicious bloody mary while you wait in the parking lot area. They have both indoor and outdoor seating.
On the menu for drinks, we enjoyed the cold brew coffee ice cubes in cashew milk (let the ice cubes melt for a few minutes to enjoy the perfect flavor), spicy Paloma, and of course the bloody mary. We also saw a group of women order a mimosa flight! It looked cool, featuring a bottle of champagne and various juices that could be shared among a group of friends. Next time we go, I would absolutely order this. Moving onto the food, we ordered quite a lot and had no regrets! Our order included the organic chia pudding (Chia seeds, fresh berries, maple syrup, coconut milk) which was unique and delicious.
The Pork Belly Hash (Maple-glazed Pork belly, sweet potato, pickled poblano, fried eggs, rosemary) that was very rich and on the sweeter side!
Avocado Toast (Thick-cut toast, smashed avocado, crushed red pepper, pepitas)…well because we’re millennials.
Eggs Benedict (A beautiful twist on the original but with crispy pork belly)
Polished off with a blueberry muffin.
Iron Wolf Ranch and Distillery
Iron Wolf is a unique and laid back distillery, ranch and Frisbee golf course located just a short 30 to 45-minute drive from central Austin. With a beautiful property, great liqueur, cocktails, games, and very nice staff; Iron Wolf will easily become one of your favorite hidden gems!
Bell Springs Winery
Bell Springs Winery is a very relaxed and casual winery and tasting room. The wine was good, our favorite was the Needy Bitch! Be sure to pick up a bottle for your…needy bitch friend!
Deep Eddy Vodka Distillery
Deep Eddy Vodka isn’t too far from Bell Springs Winery. They have an indoor bar, gift shop, sitting area, and outside are games like cornhole.
Be sure to arrive at least 30-minutes before their closing time (5:00 pm) to be able to get a drink.
Treaty Oak Distilling Ranch
Treaty Oak was my favorite place we visited that day. A large property with a bar, restaurant, stage for bands, a games area, barn, and distillery tours, which make it the perfect place to hang out on a nice day. They have premade cocktails using the alcohol from their distillery that is terrific! They have one drink that is similar to an Arnold Palmer but with vodka which is very refreshing…and slightly addicting! We didn’t get any BBQ while we were there but the BBQ restaurant smelled great!
Fortney Home
We stumbled on this unusual and eccentric shop when finding parking for Cafe Josie. I really don’t know how to describe this place, but it is filled with unique pieces of art from all over the world. It honestly reminds of a store you would see in a 90s movie like Jumanji, where some kids would stumble on an old artifact with magical powers. Worth stopping and taking a look around.
Cafe Josie
Cafe Josie is one of the top five meals I have ever eaten…yes I know that’s a bold statement but it’s true. At Cafe Josie, they offer the experience which is an all-you-can-eat tasting menu of around 15 very diverse dishes for only $45. They also have a few specials that are not listed on the main menu. (Unfortunately, this doesn’t include dessert though.) We had three peoples with us and we were able to try everything, and then we revisited 3-4 dishes. The service is terrific. The environment is higher-end casual, so jeans and a button up shirt would be perfect. Make a reservation beforehand as this is a very popular spot. There is street parking all around. They also offer a brunch experience too for cheaper.
Rainey Street
Rainey Street is a unique nightlife scene and environment. Most of the famous bars and restaurants were at one time, homes! A little different from the theme but still cool is the container bar which is made out of old shipping containers. We were visiting over Memorial Day weekend, so there was about a 10-minute wait going into each bar. It was fun to check out for one night, but it was a bit douchey and immature…after getting cut in line by groups of girls/frat guys or other groups of girls trying to pay bouncers to get in ahead of everyone else (was kind of funny to watch them get turned down!) it kind of turned us off.
We visited Container Bar, Half Step (this bar was my favorite, really great atmosphere, not too crowded and authentic craft cocktails), Unbarlievable (gimmicky but still fun with their slide and other unique features).
Day 3:
Lamberts
We originally planned on going to Bangers for brunch, but after waiting an hour to put our name on the list only to find out it was an additional two-hour wait (Memorial Day weekend), we decided to explore the area and stumbled on Lambert’s. A delicious bbq restaurant with a great brunch. If you can, I recommend sitting upstairs to listen to the live music. We ordered the queso, which was good, especially after you add in all the accompanying fixings. Then I had the 3-meat bbq special with brisket, pulled pork, and pork ribs. For sides, I had the baked Mac n cheese and collard greens. Everything was cooked perfectly! My favorite was the pulled pork with their delicious sauce!
Lake Travis
Again, this was the day of nothing going according to plan. Initially, we wanted to visit the Hamilton Pools just outside of Austin, but you need a reservation, and they were booked up every weekend for the next 2-months…moral of the story is make a reservation for the pools right when you book your flights!
We ended up heading out to Lake Travis for some fun in the sun and enjoyed it. You can get an Uber pretty easily to and from there. Just be careful on big weekends like Labor Day, the beach areas controlled by the state park rangers can reach capacity, and they are very strict about not letting in more people.
Toss Pizzeria and Pub
The theme of changing plans kept running throughout the day, we originally planned on going to Homeslice Pizza, Austin’s famous pizza place but a friend recommended Toss, which menu looked too good to pass up! Also, on Sundays after 8 p.m. is half price full-size pizzas!!! We ordered two pizzas and did half toppings on each, so we were able to try more, this included the Pulled Pork Jalapeño, Pork Belly Carbonera, Texas BBQ Brisket, and pepperoni! Everything was delicious! The pizzas are quite large, but we managed to finish everything between four of us, except for two slices. They have a great beer menu as well.
Amy's Icecream
Amy’s was really good ice cream with a similar style to cold stone where they pound and mix in a variety of toppings and flavors. I had the preset flavor called the Turtle which featured Mexican vanilla, hot fudge, and pecan praline! Yum!
Pete's Dueling Piano Bar
Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar is a great way to start your night or even end it on 6th Street. With a fun atmosphere and the best singalongs mixed with off the cuff humor, it’s a must-do while in Austin. Many of their drinks even come with ping pong balls and rubber duckies, so you know you’re in for a good time. Note, there is a cover to enter.
Day 4:
We spent a little over half a day continuing to explore Austin before our flight home.
El Primo
Continuing the breakfast taco tour we checked out the mom and pop food truck, El Primo. It was good (still think Torchys was better) but worth checking out, especially for how cheap it was. Remember it’s cash only.
Paddle Board on Lady Bird Lake
We rented paddle boards and paddle boarded down Lady Bird Lake with beautiful views and nice weather. You can make a reservation ahead of time, but we didn’t need one. There are only porta-potties if you need to use the restroom.
Banger's Sausage House & Beer Garden
We stopped by Banger’s which had a Memorial Day Weekend band. There was tons of open seating after we ordered beer from their extensive beer list. They also have a Manmosa that has one liter of champagne!
Tacodeli
We finished off our journey with what we would miss most, Texas tacos! Tacodeli was delicious and every single bite we kept raving about how good it was! I recommend the Cowboy and the Conquistador…and, of course, the queso!
Greetings from Austin Mural
Not too far from the restaurant, we took pictures at the iconic Austin mural.
Graffiti Park
We made one quick stop on the way out at Graffiti Park, which is really fun to explore and take great pictures! Parking can be a bit tight.
Tips and Tricks:
Strongly recommend staying in Lower Congress area as it’s very central to most things. A car is only necessary if you plan on going outside of Austin or to the outskirts, but you could use Uber/Lyft.