Anyone done Austin Texas ?
Discussion
Austin is lively and interesting, as earlier posters have indicated.
Great music scene with some really good record shops. It is also totally unlike the rest of Texas. Infested with hipsters making a fetish of street food and craft beer, but the upside is you could eat well at a different establishment every day of the year. Old favourites such as Threadgill's worth a visit but better food found elsewhere.
If you have time, rent a car and get out into Hill Country - towns like Bandera, Fredericksburg, New Braunfels and Boerne. Great BBQ/Smokehouses, small towns with excellent German pastries (massive German-origin community), good driving roads (buzzing with Alfa 105s at weekends). IIRC, there are around 20 wineries in Fredericksburg alone.
Plenty of outdoors stuff - national parks, hillwalking, rock climbing, riding if that's your thing.
Lyndon B Johnson's birthplace/residence/museum is a small drive west away from Austin.
I rented a Dodge Hemi. Was stopped for speeding by a most courteous Texas Ranger but let off with a warning docket.
San Antonio I also found a bit meh, although the site of the Alamo is probably worth a visit unless you go to Texas often.
I think you can fly direct now but, otherwise, Houston is IMO a much nicer airport than Dallas.
Peter
Great music scene with some really good record shops. It is also totally unlike the rest of Texas. Infested with hipsters making a fetish of street food and craft beer, but the upside is you could eat well at a different establishment every day of the year. Old favourites such as Threadgill's worth a visit but better food found elsewhere.
If you have time, rent a car and get out into Hill Country - towns like Bandera, Fredericksburg, New Braunfels and Boerne. Great BBQ/Smokehouses, small towns with excellent German pastries (massive German-origin community), good driving roads (buzzing with Alfa 105s at weekends). IIRC, there are around 20 wineries in Fredericksburg alone.
Plenty of outdoors stuff - national parks, hillwalking, rock climbing, riding if that's your thing.
Lyndon B Johnson's birthplace/residence/museum is a small drive west away from Austin.
I rented a Dodge Hemi. Was stopped for speeding by a most courteous Texas Ranger but let off with a warning docket.
San Antonio I also found a bit meh, although the site of the Alamo is probably worth a visit unless you go to Texas often.
I think you can fly direct now but, otherwise, Houston is IMO a much nicer airport than Dallas.
Peter
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