Today I’m sharing a photo diary of my weekend in Austin, Texas.
Get ready for a few more pictures than usual in this blog post! If you follow me on Instagram or Snapchat you might remember that last weekend I hopped a red eye to Austin, Texas for a weekend getaway of fun, food, exploration and relaxing.
A sweet and bubbly welcome to Austin, can you see my picture printed on the chocolate?!
A few of the highlights in case you want the quick look on my favorite Austin places:
Stay: Four Seasons Hotel Austin
Fly: Alaska Airlines
Getting around Austin: everything is pretty walkable, otherwise there’s Uber!
BBQ: The Salt Lick (everyone has their separate opinions on where the best places are, I really enjoyed The Salt Lick). Franklin’s is another place people mentioned as being the best place to go, the only drawback there is you have to lineup super early in the morning in hopes of getting food, I’ve heard the wait can be 2-4 hours…)
Breakfast and breakfast tacos: Torchy’s Tacos, Alta’s Cafe, TRIO for brunch, Gourdough’s.
Mexican food: Tacos and Tequila, La Condesa, El Naranjo
Drinks: The Driskill Bar, Lucile and Clive on Rainey Street, The Brew and Brew.
See: Barton Springs, walking and shopping in South Congress, Mount Bonnell, Texas State Capitol, Rainey Street, paddle boarding on Lake Lady Bird.
Important things to pack: Breezy dresses, sunglasses, a bathing suit, good walking shoes, SPF and a hat. Don’t bother packing heels, everywhere is pretty casual. Not once on this trip did I wear heels or wedges, it was pretty nice for a change.
Austin is a really cool city, a few things I took away from my time there, people are really friendly and open to sharing tips on their favorite restaurants, bars, and things to see (also everyone has varied opinions on where the best BBQ and tacos are from), Rainey Street is awesome, the BBQ truly is worth the trip, tacos for breakfast is a thing and the Four Seasons Hotel in Austin is a wonderful place to stay (that’s where I stayed). Their beds are like sleeping on clouds, they offer complimentary lattes, cappuccinos and coffee every morning in the hotel lobby, entertain with live music on weekends, have a fabulous pool to lounge by, a luxurious spa, boast an incredible Sunday brunch and finally, the staff go out of their way to make you feel extra special. The hotel is in an excellent location within walking distance to pretty much everything you’d want to do or a quick and easy Uber ride. From the hotel I walked down a street called Congress to see the Texas State Capitol, walked to Rainey Street for a Saturday night out, walked to 2nd Street where there are more shops and restaurants, I even walked to South Congress (another cool shopping area with unique places to eat and drink) from the hotel. I’m telling you, it’s in an excellent location.
The hotel is also very accommodating in helping you plan your stay, to prepare for my trip the FS Austin created a cool Pinterest board filled with recommendations on things to see, places to eat and cool bars to check out. I shared with them what I was hoping to do and with that information they created a custom Pinterest board just for me, how cool is that?
This was the view from my room, the water you see is called Lady Bird Lake. There you could rent little paddle boats, kayaks and stand up paddle boards to enjoy a fun time on the water in the sunshine. I spent a great deal of time out on the balcony of my room taking in the enchanting view.
Another view from my room of the Congress Avenue Bridge, here you’ll notice there are people gathered in boats and on the bridge to see bats! Yes, bats. Apparently this bridge is home to the world’s largest urban bat colony, more than a million bats. Crazy right? I was happy to have a comfortable view from my room to try and catch them, on summer nights the bats leave the bridge and it’s like a big black cloud that emerges from under the bridge. Unfortunately I didn’t see the huge group of bats fly out from under the bridge, but I did see a few flying by my balcony. As soon as I saw them going by I ran back into my room.
Catching the sunset from my balcony at the Four Seasons Hotel Austin.
The pool! I made sure to spend lots of quality time at the pool each day I was in Austin. It was really hot while I was there so hanging out in the shade with my September issues of magazines was relaxing. I split my time between jumping into the pool to cool off and lounging.
Friday night was my first official night in Austin, for my first meal in Texas it only made sense to have some authentic Texas BBQ. My boyfriend and I have friends who live in Austin and they kindly drove us out to a place called The Salt Lick, it’s a ways out from downtown Austin but in my opinion totally worth the drive. The food was excellent and so was the ambiance, you get to bring your own booze! That’s not really a thing in Seattle so I thought that was cool and unique. We shared all of our food family style and enjoyed our meal over lots of laughs and rib refills in the comfort of a quaint air conditioned dining room.
We feasted on ribs, brisket, sausage, potato salad, bread, baked beans, all the good stuff! Then for dessert went with a fresh blackberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream, it would be accurate to say that I was super full by the time the bill arrived.
On the grounds where The Salt Lick is, is Salt Lick Cellars, we didn’t do any wine tasting but walked around and the scene was beautiful. So naturally I had to snap a few outfit photos.
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Since it was so hot in Austin (I’m talking 99-100 degrees with humidity) I wore a lot of tank tops, shorts and skirts.
The entrance to Salt Lick Cellars.
After our BBQ feast we walked off dinner and checked out the view from the top of Mount Bonnell.
If you follow me on Snapchat (MollieinSeattle is my username) you’ll remember that I was snapping my Saturday afternoon of exploring around Austin. My first stop was to check out the Texas State Capitol.
Oh my gosh, The Driskill Hotel. If you ever visit Austin be sure to make time to check out this historic hotel. It immediately caught my eye as I was walking by and I probably stood outside starring at it’s beauty for like 10 minutes before moving along. Later on that day I returned to check out the inside and to have a drink at the hotel bar. There was live music, dancing and great drinks there, definitely worth a visit.
Exploring the cool shops on South Congress. If you like shopping I recommend walking around South Congress checking out all the cool shops.
I didn’t leave with any new boots but I did leave with this photo, there were so many different colors and styles!
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This was a cool wall near South Congress, a place where people can write all the things they want to do before they die.
A quick snap of my outfit in an Uber for going out Saturday night on Rainey Street.
Waking up in a Four Seasons bed on a Sunday morning and reading the Sunday Styles in the New York Times is probably one of my most favorite things to do ever. Oh and having coffee to go along with it too.
Sunday brunching at TRIO at the Four Seasons Austin, it’s a buffet style brunch with bottomless mimosas! Basically imagine endless breakfast possibilities and all the yummy desserts you can imagine.
Brunching at TRIO was definitely a highlight of the trip.
After brunch I recommend walking around the grounds of the Four Seasons Austin.
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I checked into the Spa at the Four Seasons Hotel Austin for a little RnR and me time. After a massage and a facial I felt like a brand new person. The spa also offers a Spa Happy Hour where you can get receive $50 off a spa treatment, learn more about that here.
The last stop before heading back to the airport was a place called Corner at the JW Marriott in downtown Austin. Their outdoor seating is cool, you get to sit on comfy couches!
Their tacos and margaritas are tasty.
I’ve gotten a lot of questions on where these sneakers are from, they are Nike Air Max 90 HYP Premium ID sneakers. I just picked all the pink options when I was customizing them, because if you didn’t already know, pink is my favorite color. Austin, TX is awesome, it’s a must visit place if you ask me and a quick and easy trip to do for a weekend from Seattle. If you have any additional questions about my time in Austin or you need recommendations on things to see or do, leave me a comment or shoot me an email.
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