My husband recently had a work conference/event in Austin, TX, and considering I’d never been to the Lone Star State, we decided to tack on a little vacation and fly me out to meet him for a few days.
It ended up being such a fun and eventful trip – we literally ate, drank, and Ubered our way through the city – so I wanted to share a recap of our trip with you in case it lands itself on your travel list, too!
We received some great recommendations from friends, Austin locals, and also did our homework by researching and reading reviews on a lot of places.
The Recap
Day 1
I flew in on Wednesday morning and checked in to our hotel downtown. It was on E 3rd street, which ended up being a perfect location for us.
My husband (Connor) and I met up early afternoon and started the little vacay off right with a late lunch at True Food Kitchen. It was a really lively spot that was about as chic of a health-driven restaurant as it gets. I loved their Citrus Margarita and the Cashew Pad Thai with Chicken, and Connor had the Grain Bowl with Chicken.
Later that afternoon we headed out to Lake Travis to grab some drinks at Oasis Texas Brewing Company and catch the sunset.
Such a perfect evening! Never mind that my glass of rosé looks like a huge glass of whiskey – ha!
Early evening, we headed back downtown and stopped at one of Austin’s many, many food trucks – Little Lucy’s Mini Donuts on Rainey Street. A little something sweet and a coffee kept us up to hit one more spot for the night.
We wandered into Lucille’s for a nightcap out on the patio. We both got some kind of grapefruit gin drink off the cocktail list – super good and really cool atmosphere.
Day 2
The next morning we grabbed breakfast at the hotel before wandering down to Houndstooth Coffee to catch up on a few emails and a client project. It was one of the liveliest coffee shops I’ve been to…maybe ever? We loved it and my almond milk cappuccino was perfect.
Mid-morning we kept exploring Downtown, including visiting the Capitol Building.
We’d gotten a tip about the Domain shopping center, so we decided to hop into yet another Uber and head North to check it out.
Considering we don’t exactly have anything that extravagant back home, it was the perfect place to spend the afternoon. Our first stop was lunch, and we decided on Cru Wine Bar, which was easily one of our favorite spots.
I’m sure the 1/2 price bottle of bubbly, calamari, pizza, and fish tacos helped with that. 😉
Don’t mind my super cute workout clothes at a nice lunch – clearly didn’t plan on a spontaneous shopping trip, but I was happy as a clam.
We did some sunglasses shopping and then hit up cool stores like the Tesla showroom, Casper, Burberry, TUMI, etc. I definitely fell in love with all things Tesla even more. You guys, it’s UNREAL.
After an awesome day and a little nap, we headed back out, this time to the South Congress district for an Italian dinner at Vespaio – which came pretty highly recommended!
We had our fair share of the bread basket, caesar salad, and the most decadent sage & browned butter butternut squash ravioli dish. As if that wasn’t enough, I had to splurge for some tiramisu + espresso – hands down my favorite dessert and a must when I’m at an Italian restaurant.
After dinner, we walked around South Congress a bit more and popped into the South Congress Hotel but it was a bit too lively for us at the moment, so we wandered into Perla’s (a nice seafood restaurant) instead. We grabbed a drink in the bar area and had some great conversation, before noticing Tim Ferris was sitting right behind us.
If you love TedTalks and entrepreneurship, I’m sure you know who he is!
Day 3
On Day 3, we headed back down to South Congress to see more of the shops and boutique in the area – like TOMS, CoStar, the original Kendra Scott store, and some other eclectic places.
Hungry, yet again, I begged to head back downtown and finally hit up this Juiceland I’d been hearing about. I loooved my smoothie bowl!
At this point we were pretty beat (can you blame us!?) so we layed low at the hotel that afternoon before a big last night out.
Around 5pm, we headed back out to try a few popular happy hour spots and explore East Austin. We started at Parkside for some 1/2 off cocktails and apps like calamari and ceviche. The salmon ceviche was amazing. If you like that kind of thing, get it!
Next up was another trip favorite – Bufalina Pizza. We got there just in the knick of time to snag a prime seat at the bar before it really started filling up. We split the roasted broccoli and the Fresca pizza which were both out of this world. It smelt so good in there, so I really don’t think you can go wrong. Definitely worth the hype.
For the rest of the evening, we somehow managed to make it to Weather Up, Voodoo, and Pete’s Dueling Karaoke Bar – (so fun). All unique places in their own right and quite the end to an awesome couple of days in ATX!
There’s definitely some more things we’d wanted to try, but for a short trip, I think we covered some serious ground. It’s a perfect place for a domestic little getaway!
Have you been to Austin? What are your favorite spots?
x, Kaitlyn
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