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Austin is one of those cities that I was already planning my second visit before my first trip even started. Prior to my plane touching down, I knew I would love this Texas city. Unfortunately the universe confused my desire for a second visit with a nasty virus that required me to spend half my first visit in my hotel room. Thankfully I was able to come back again later the same month as there were way too many things to do in Austin that I still wanted to do.

As an artsy city with a prominent music scene, a rich history, and some of the best food in the USA, there’s something for everyone in Austin. This post includes the most popular and unique things to do in Austin. The following things to do in Austin are roughly divided by history, outdoor, art, nightlife, and foodie activities.

Austin is a great weekend getaway, but there is plenty to do to fill a week or two! Whether you’re looking for the top activities or hidden gems in Austin, you won’t get bored. With more time in Texas visit the other three most visited Texas cities: Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.

The Most Popular & Unique Things to Do in Austin

History Things to Do in Austin

Start with a Downtown Walking Tour

My favorite thing to do in any city is taking a walking tour. Ideally put a walking tour on your Austin itinerary for your first morning. Not only will you learn the history of Austin, but you’ll also receive a lot of local recommendations to use throughout the rest of your trip.

As far as I know, there are two companies giving free downtown walking tours, Tipster Tours and Strawberry Tours. I had originally booked Strawberry Tours as I was planning other tours with Tipster and I wanted to compare the companies. My tour was canceled so I went with Tipster.

The Tipster downtown tour begins at the capital and ends at the Driskill Hotel. It’s about 1.5 hours long and covers Austin’s early years. While there is a large focus on history, there are plenty of other stories and more recent details about the city thrown in as well.

If the free tours aren’t available or don’t work with your schedule, take a paid walking tour of downtown.

Learn the History of Texas at the Bullock Texas State History Museum

Capital cities often have the best US history museums. Texas’ museum is definitely on par with the other top state museums. A trip to the Bullock is definitely one of the best things to do in Austin. The majority of the museum is the Texas History Galleries.

Occupying three floors, the exhibits cover the state’s history chronologically. The first floor begins with the early inhabitants of Texas and the first Spanish and French explorers. The shipwrecked Belle is displayed alongside thousands of objects recovered and a detailed history of her voyage to what is now Texas.

As you continue, you’ll learn about Texas’ history when ruled by Spain and then Mexico. There is an in-depth look at the Texas Revolution and the Civil War from Texas’ perspective. From ranching, to the oil & gas industry, to Austin City Limits, all of what makes Texas, Texas is highlighted.

All three floors are seamlessly connected. Needless to say I learned a lot. There is the perfect balance of written information, visuals, and eye catching displays. The suggested 1 – 2 hours to tour the museum is nowhere near enough time if you like to read everything.

A rotating exhibit on the first floor changes every few months. There is also an IMAX and Texas Spirit Theater with a mix of feature films and Bullock originals. An extra admission fee needs to be purchased for both theaters.

Tour the Texas State Capitol

What they say about everything being bigger in Texas is certainly true. A prime example is the state capitol, the largest in the US. Guided tours are always a good idea to notice and learn things you wouldn’t on your own, but in TX they also help to avoid getting lost in the building! I have an excellent sense of direction, but I even got a little turned around in the giant building when wandering around after the tour.

The free 30 minute tour is pretty fast paced, but it gives an overview of the history of Texas as well as the details of the building. It helped that I had visited the Bullock museum first as I already had a good knowledge of the history. The tour cemented that knowledge, while providing new information about the capitol building.

Delve into American History at the LBJ Presidential Library

Before my visit to the Lyndon B Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, if I was asked to name presidents, it would have taken me a long time to list LBJ. I knew very little about the 36th president of the US. Now I can confidently spew out quite a few facts!

The museum gives an in depth look at the president’s life and what he accomplished in office. Start your visit by watching the introductory film. Then head to the timeline covering important dates in American history and LBJ’s life.

Continuing on to the next floor, the exhibits include more detailed information about his early career in government, the start of his presidency, all the social projects he advocated for within the country, and his role in foreign wars. Considering everything he did while in office, I was shocked that I wasn’t more familiar with him. There’s no doubt about it, he was a very busy man!

Visit the Austin History Center

The Austin History Center is one of the more unique things to do in Austin. The free center is located within the first permanent public library in the city. The building from 1933 is now home to a research reading library. Small exhibits on a variety of Austin historical topics can also be visited for free. When I visited there was an exhibit on Kollective Fusion, an Austin company’s hip hop posters and a photo exhibit on the history of the building.

You don’t need a lot of time to visit the Austin History Center. As someone who typically takes much longer in museums, I spent less than 30 minutes here. Located downtown, it is still worth a visit if you are nearby with some extra time.

Take a Look at the O Henry House Museum

Initially I had no idea who O Henry was, but I decided to visit the O Henry House as it was one of the many free things to do in Austin. I googled O Henry before visiting and realized he was the author of The Gift of the Magi. I was then extra excited to tour his home as every Christmas my mom and I would read the short story!

Self-guided and short guided tours on arrival are both available for free. My guide was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic. While some tours feel scripted, this tour was like a fascinating story.

The house is small, but it contains a lot of the furniture from when William Sydney Porter lived there with his wife. It was years before becoming famous and adopting his pen name. One of the highlights was seeing the actual chairs that inspired the storyline of The Gift of the Magi. Regardless of what name he was using, he was quite the character. You’ll have to take the tour for yourself to find out why!

Remember the Alamo at the Susanna Dickinson Museum

Located next to the O Henry House, I entered this house thinking it was the O Henry House. I was greeted by a friendly guide who offered me a tour. I soon learned it was the former home of Joseph and Susanna Dickinson.

Susanna was one of the few survivors from the Alamo. She was chosen as the messenger to share that the Alamo had fallen. While this part of history is widely shared around Texas, the rest of her life isn’t. It’s always interesting learning about women from history.

Despite my initial intentions to go elsewhere, I am so glad I stumbled upon both of these captivating little hidden gems in Austin.

Outdoor Things to Do in Austin

Kayak Through Downtown

One of the nicest ways to enjoy Austin’s skyline is from the water. I signed up for a two hour guided tour. The gentle paddle is the perfect mix of paddling through the heart of the city along Lady Bird Lake and feeling immersed in nature while kayaking along Barton Creek. The water and shoreline are full of wildlife.

While I have done my fair share of kayaking tours with great guides, the Downtown to Barton Springs guided tour was one of the best. Many guides are expert paddlers and naturalists. That’s what you really need from kayak tours, but my guide went above and beyond. The information and stories about Austin were fascinating and really different from what I had learned elsewhere.

Another option is the guided Sunset Bat Watching Kayaking Tour in March through October. It is the best way to watch the famous Austin bats take flight (described below). I definitely think a guided tour is worth it, but if you prefer to head out on the water on your own kayak rentals are available.

While kayaking is one of the best things to do in Austin year-round, I definitely lucked out with a gorgeous, 70 degree sunny day at the end of December. I was shocked that more people weren’t out on the water. I guess that is cold for the locals!

Watch Austin’s Mexican Free-Tailed Bats Take Flight

Every spring female bats migrate from Mexico to Austin. They make their home under Austin’s Congress Avenue Bridge to have their babies.

The bats fly east every night around sunset until about September or October. Their nightly feeding is quite the show for spectators on, under, and around the bridge. With around 1.5 million bats emerging from under the bridge at once it can be quite impressive.

As I visited Austin out of season, I will have to save this activity for a future visit. It’s definitely one of the more unique things to do in Austin that you can’t observe in many other cities!

Hike or Bike the Ann and Roy Butler Trail

This trail forms a 10 mile loop around the Colorado River, also called Lady Bird Lake and Town Lake. With close proximity to downtown and numerous access points it’s perfect for a short walk or a long hike all the way around. Most of the trail is paved or packed, fine gravel so it’s a good bike route as well. The trail is very well trafficked, especially on nice weekend days.

As there are numerous access points, you can start from anywhere. It’s easy to head out on a hike after kayaking as the trail goes right past all the boat docks. Heading east you’ll cover some new ground from the kayaking trip described above. You may want to go west as It’s always cool to see the same sights from different vantage points.

I walked west about 2.7 miles from the Austin Rowing Club to the Austin Nature & Science Center. This section was perfect as there are great views of the skyline, a lovely walk across the river on Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge, and a feeling of being away from the city while walking along Barton Creek.

If you prefer biking take a guided sightseeing bike tour. You’ll travel on the trail as well as other parts of downtown. Not only do you not need to worry about where you’re going, but you’ll also find out more about the city from your local guide.

Play at Zilker Metropolitan Park

When heading west on the Ann & Roy Butler Trail, you can end up in Zilker Metropolitan Park on the southern side of the river. The 361 acre park is full of large green spaces for all types of activities. There is a playground, disc golf, and five volleyball courts. Some big events, like the Austin City Limits festival, take place here.

Nestled within the park are several other places to visit. Fed from underground springs, Barton Springs Pool is one of the main attractions in the park. At 68 degrees year-round, the pool is open all year. From November to spring break admission is free. I was told the water has healing properties. As I became really sick during my first visit, I wish I would have given the waters a try!

The Zilker Hillside Theater puts on free summer productions. A couple of other places within the park are described below.

Explore the Austin Nature & Science Center and Zilker Nature Preserve

Located within Zilker Park, spending some time at the free nature and science center is one of the best things to do in Austin for families. With hands-on activities and indoor and outdoor wildlife exhibits, there are plenty of ways to learn more about the natural world. The Trade Counter is a really unique concept to share natural wonders. Budding naturalists can bring their nature discoveries and scientific illustrations and exchange them for points. The points can be used to buy a range of natural items.

The center is connected to the Zilker Nature Preserve. While the hike & bike trail and Zilker Park are busy areas, the nature preserve trails are not crowded at all. As the nature preserve is easy to reach from Zilker Park, you’ll be in an uncrowded, natural oasis with little effort!

There are only about 1.2 miles of trails, but with the easy, dirt and rocky trails it’s a nice way to get off the paved trails. The short, but steep lookout trail leads to an amazing view of downtown. There is an interesting section of cacti on the meadow trail. Few people seem to know about the trails, making them one of the many unique things to do in Austin outdoors.

Stop and Smell the Flowers at a Botanical Garden

Austin is home to two botanical gardens. Zilker Botanical Gardens is located within Zilker Park. The prehistoric garden was a unique section that I hadn’t seen at other gardens. My favorite part was the Japanese Garden with weaving paths taking you across and over ponds.

I admit I was a little underwhelmed by the garden. It didn’t have that bright green well-maintained, garden look. It seemed more like a simple, public park that needed some extra love. Part of the reason may have been the time of year I visited (January), but I have been to other botanical gardens in the southwest in the winter that have been impressive. I wouldn’t go out of your way to visit, but if you’re in the area or can visit with free admission, it’s still a nice place to walk around in.

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is about a 15 minutes drive from downtown. It features hundreds of native Texas plants.

Hike Barton Creek Greenbelt

You don’t need to leave the city to “leave the city” behind. Only a few miles southwest of downtown is the Barton Creek Greenbelt. It runs along the creek for 7.5 miles and offers 12 miles of trails in total.

In addition to hiking you can bike, rock-climb, boulder, and swim (when the creek ain’t dry)! We parked at the 360 lot and hiked to Twin Falls. As expected it was completely dry in December. Despite the lack of a creek it was an easy hike and a nice way to spend the afternoon outdoors.

There are currently seven official trailheads. These are the beginning, middle, and end access points:

Zilker: 2212 William Barton Drive – parking free on weekdays & $5 on weekends/holidays, pit toilet (you can walk from Zilker Park)
360: 3753 S Capitol of TX hwy – free parking & pit toilet
Trail’s End: 1712 Camp Craft Rd – limited street parking

Art Things to Do in Austin

Join an East Side Art Tour

Tipster also offers free East Side art tours. The tours focus on the art, artists, and history of the neighborhood. Looking at street art is always fun, but with a guide you don’t need to find it on your own. Plus there is so much to the art that you wouldn’t know without a guide.

We learned about various types of street art including both murals and graffiti. It was really interesting to find out about the connections between the two, both the commissioned pieces that incorporated both and the taggers who spray over murals illegally.

If bicycling is more your style, there is an art and architecture bicycle tour. You’ll pedal by some of the best street art in downtown Austin. The arts and architecture city bus tour is a a relaxing way to see a lot of the city’s art in different neighborhoods.

Go on a Self-Guided Street Art Tour

The free tour is typically only offered once a week so you may need to search for art yourself. Whether you take the East Side art tour or not, there is so much street art on the East Side and the rest of Austin that you’ll want to explore some more on your own.

You’ll find street art all around the city. East Austin and South Congress are two of the best areas. The Greetings from Austin is a favorite stop on S 1st Street a couple of blocks west of S Congress.

Admire Art at the Blanton Museum of Art

There is a wide range of art within the Blanton Museum of Art. A good portion of the permanent collection includes European paintings, modern and contemporary American and Latin American Art, and prints and drawings.

The portraits, scenes from daily lives, and landscape paintings from the 1600s and 1700s were my favorite sections. There are usually one or two special, temporary exhibitions too.

Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin is in a separate building and included with admission. The entire stone building with colored glass windows and a totem pole and marble panels is Kelly’s work. It receives rave reviews from most visitors, but didn’t have that effect on me.

Discover the Harry Ransom Center

If you’re looking for unique things to do in Austin, go to the Harry Ransom Center. The center includes a library and a museum focused on the study of arts and humanities. I debated whether to include it under history or art as it is a little bit of both.

The Niépce Heliograph (the earliest photograph), one of only 20 complete copies of the Gutenberg Bible, and a Frida Kahlo self-portrait are always on view. The rest of the small museum space has rotating exhibits.

The exhibits cover a variety of topics that you typically won’t see in other larger, mainstream museums. When I visited I was drawn into the “Words into Worlds” exhibit. It showed how theater productions go from a written script into a physical set on stage.

Live Music & Nightlife Things to Do in Austin

Go on a Music Walking Tour

Tipster’s free music walking tour is completely different from the downtown and East Side tours. It covers different ground geographically and topically. Known as the live music capital of the world, you definitely want to learn about Austin’s music scene.

The tour is great if you simply want to learn about the history and current music scene in Austin. It’s also perfect if you love live music and want venue recommendations. My favorite part was all of the stories about the musicians.

Listen to Live Music

Of course you don’t just want to learn about music, you also want to listen to some live music. The cool thing about Austin is the diverse range of types of venues and musical styles you can listen to on any given night. The city has you covered whether you want a casual night listening to music or a rowdy party dancing the night away.

6th Street is full of sports bars and a rowdier crowd mostly consisting of tourists and college kids. The live music is mainly from cover bands playing current songs. Flamingo Cantina is one of the only venues with original music on 6th. They have a 90s eclectic Austin vibe with reggae and ska musicians. The Red River District is more local with many live music venues right next to each other.

Elephant Room, Parker Jazz Club, and Monks are all top choices for jazz music. The Elephant room has more of a party atmosphere, whereas Parker is an upscale, quieter spot where people actually listen as they sip their drinks.

C-Boy’s Heart & Soul is a nightclub known for R & B. A local long-standing favorite, Antone’s, is known for blues. You’ll find a variety of music at the Continental Club. Hotel Vegas also has different types of music and multiple stages.

Laugh at a Comedy Show

Comedy clubs are also quite popular in Austin. Esther’s Follies is an Austin staple with a variety performance of music, comedy, magic, and political satire.

Hideout Theatre is an improv theater that uses a lot of audience participation for both show ideas and as actual participants. I brought in 2024 at their NYE show. It was a lot of fun with a variety of games and then a big, noisy countdown at midnight.

Comedy Mothership, Rozcos, and Creek & Cave are also popular comedy clubs.

Foodie Things to Do in Austin

Dine at the Best Austin Restaurants

Eating is truly one of the best things to do in Austin! The great part about Austin is that it does several types of foods and cuisines really well, including BBQ, Tex-Mex, and Mexican. While those are the claim to fame, the city is a foodie mecca with a lot of other great cuisines too.

My places to eat in Austin post will lead you to all the best spots to dine.

Eat Your Way Through Austin with a Guide

With so many good places to eat in Austin it can be hard to know where to begin. Austin’s Secret Food Tour is the way to go. The guided tour is a great way to try a lot of different foods. The tour is really well designed to include a variety of types of food.

I also liked that it was a walking tour. As we were enjoying the local cuisine, we also learned about the city. Like all tours, it’s best to do the food tour towards the beginning of your time in Austin.

As a popular foodie city there are several other options for food tours:

BBQ & Food Tour: Another Austin food tour with a variety of food stops.
Street Food Guided Walking Tour: Visit many of Austin’s popular sights when having some great street food.
Taco Tasting Walking Tour: This tour focuses on one of Austin’s most popular foods, tacos!
Breakfast Taco Tour: This tour is all about one of the most loved kinds of tacos, breakfast tacos.
Hill Country BBQ & Wine Shuttle: Head out of Austin to one of the best BBQ spots in Texas and try local wines.

Where to Stay in Austin

Now that you know the most popular and unique things to do in Austin, you need to know where to stay in Austin.

Element Austin

Element Hotel won’t be the cheapest hotel in Austin, but it’s in a perfect location. If you don’t have a car you definitely want to stay within walking distance from everything.

I don’t wish sickness on anyone, especially in Austin. There are way too many unique things to do in Austin to spend your time in a hotel room, but when I became sick I was thankful for my room at Element Hotel. The rooms are well equipped with a full kitchen. The Marriott app makes it easy to request anything you need and have it delivered to your room. The service is really good at Element. They did everything they could to make my stay as nice and comfortable as possible.

One of my favorite parts of the hotel was the breakfast. Of course my favorite part includes food! Unlike most American chain hotels the breakfast was a little healthier. There was cereal, a yogurt bar, oatmeal packets & a wide selection of toppings, baked goods, and whole pieces of fruit. In addition there was a made to order item that changed every morning.

Hyatt House Austin

On my next visit to Austin I stayed at the Hyatt House. While it is downtown and close to all the cool things to do in Austin, I didn’t like the location quite as well. The hotel block is nice, but the one or two blocks to the south and west aren’t the nicest. Those blocks are mostly parking garages so there are not a lot of people around except for a large homeless population.

The hotel also backs up to Red River St which is one of the biggest spots for live music. It’s handy if you want to be out late drinking and listening to music. You’ll just have a short, but steep hill to stumble up at the end of your night. It can be quite loud if you’re trying to sleep before 2am though. My room faced E 10th St. When Mohawk Austin didn’t have outdoor concerts I couldn’t hear music. Check their schedule if you’re concerned about noise. Rooms higher up and facing Neches St will be the quietest.

Location and noise aside, the hotel is very nice. The breakfast buffet includes hot items and three fruit salads!

Other Places to Stay in Austin

The following are all highly rated places to stay in Austin within different price ranges. They are all located downtown or in the surrounding neighborhoods.

Sonder at East 5th: Sonder is a furnished apartment company. I have had a few difficulties with their customer service, but their apartments are usually very nice. Nightly rates are often less than hotels and you receive a bigger space.
East Austin Hotel: A local boutique hotel with an outdoor pool. Rooms with private and shared bathrooms are available.
Hampton Inn & Suites University Capitol: The perfect hotel to visit the Capitol, Bullock History Museum, Blanton Art Museum, and the UT campus.
The Carpenter Hotel: A boutique hotel with a great ambience. There’s an outdoor pool.
The Driskill: A famous, historic hotel right downtown. You’ll receive a free history tour of the property with your stay.

As you can see you won’t have a hard time finding popular or unique things to do in Austin. If I helped you plan your Austin itinerary, please consider supporting me by Buying Me a Coffee.

The Most Popular and Unique Things to Do in Austin

The Most Popular & Unique Things to Do in Austin