How a two-night stay near the UT Austin campus turned familiar landmarks, live music, museums, local flavors, and iconic experiences into a fresh look at the city close to home.

 

Living in Southwest Austin, I sometimes forget how different the city feels once I’m in the middle of it.

From our house, downtown can easily be a 35-minute drive, longer when traffic has other ideas. We might come in for dinner, a museum or a concert, but there is usually that moment when one of us checks the time and starts thinking about the drive home.

So, my husband, Dave, and I changed the rhythm. Instead of visiting Austin for a few hours, we checked into the AT&T Hotel and Conference Center for a two-night Austin staycation.

That simple decision made our own city feel surprisingly new.

An Austin Staycation Begins on Campus

 

 

The AT&T Hotel and Conference Center sits at the south entrance to The University of Texas at Austin campus, close to downtown but surrounded by the museums, architecture and energy of UT.

Our timing added another layer: it was the first week of school.

Students streamed past with backpacks and coffee cups, gathering outside buildings and hurrying to class. With about 55,000 students enrolled at UT, the campus pulsed with new-semester energy.

The hotel has 297 guest rooms, extensive conference space and has been undergoing a major renovation and refresh. But for us, its biggest luxury was location.

We could walk out the door and be at the Bullock Texas State History Museum in minutes.

“That simple decision made our own city feel surprisingly new.”

 

Where Old Austin Meets Big Texas

The Bullock is the kind of museum many Central Texans mean to visit and somehow keep putting off.

Its galleries tell the broad “Story of Texas,” from Indigenous cultures and Spanish exploration through revolution, ranching, oil, politics and space exploration.

We followed that with lunch at the Texas Chili Parlor, wonderfully resistant to reinvention. Dark, casual and unfussy, it’s the kind of place that reminds you there was an Austin before glass towers and rooftop bars.

 

Then I walked to the Texas State Capitol and joined a free guided tour.

 

I had seen the Capitol before but seeing it with a guide was different. We stepped into the Texas House and Senate chambers, noticed details I had missed and heard stories that brought the building to life.

Completed in 1888, the pink-granite Capitol is impressive from any angle. One of my favorite fun facts: it’s about 15 feet taller than the U.S. Capitol in Washington.

Wandering Beyond Campus

Staying near UT also gave me time to wander.

Austin still has the quirky, youthful energy that’s easy to miss when you’re simply driving through.

I love thrifting, so Monkies Vintage & Thrift, directly across from campus, immediately caught my eye. The racks are packed with vintage T-shirts, denim and sportswear—the sort of place where I can happily lose track of time.

I even scored an Austin FC soccer T-shirt to wear on an upcoming trip, a souvenir from my own city that will soon be traveling with me.

Austin’s Live Music Legacy

 

If one experience made the staycation feel genuinely special, it was Austin City Limits.

Austin’s Live Music Capital of the World reputation can become background noise when you live here. Then you sit inside ACL Live at the Moody Theater during a taping and suddenly the slogan makes sense again.

We had tickets to a Season 52 taping featuring Maggie Rose, making her ACL debut.

Before the show, we had margaritas and a happy-hour spread at ATX Cocina, then walked to the theater.

Once inside, the phones and cameras went away, and the room focused entirely on the stage.

There was something electric about watching a performance being captured for a television program I had seen for years. Austin City Limits is the longest-running music series in American television history and remains one of the clearest expressions of Austin’s musical identity.

For me, this was the moment our Austin staycation really began to feel like travel.

“Then you sit inside ACL Live during a taping, and suddenly the ‘Live Music Capital of the World’ slogan makes sense again.”

 

Art, Light and Presidential History

Austin’s personality isn’t only about music.

At the Blanton Museum of Art, I stepped inside Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin, the only building the American artist ever designed. Colored glass windows, marble panels and sculpture come together as one complete work of art, while shifting Texas sunlight fills the interior with changing color. Standing inside it was one of the quietest and most memorable moments of our staycation.

Not far away, the LBJ Presidential Library offers a completely different kind of experience.

 

Dedicated in 1971, the library chronicles Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency through civil rights, the Great Society, Vietnam and the upheavals of the 1960s. Johnson died less than two years after it opened.

The Blanton and LBJ Library sit close enough together that you can move from contemporary art to presidential history without leaving the UT Austin campus.

Dinner, Then Back Out Again

 

 

That afternoon I toured the AT&T Hotel and Conference Center before Dave and I had dinner at The Carillon, the hotel’s signature restaurant.

After dinner, we went upstairs to change and regroup before heading out by Uber to the Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge.

That flexibility was one of the pleasures of staying in the city. We could enjoy dinner, take a breather and still have another Austin experience ahead of us.

Austin Staycation Highlight: The Bats

The Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge crosses Lady Bird Lake, the stretch of the Colorado River running through downtown Austin, and during the warmer months it becomes home to one of the city’s most famous residents: Mexican free-tailed bats.

Dave watched from the bridge while I went down closer to the water, giving us two different perspectives. As dusk settled in, boats gathered below, people lined the shoreline and the skyline began to glow.

Then the bats emerged.

As many as 1.5 million can occupy the bridge during peak season, making it the largest urban bat colony in the world. But the numbers are only part of it. The experience is really about the setting—skyscrapers behind you, kayaks beneath you and thousands upon thousands of bats streaming into the evening sky.

It is weird, beautiful and completely Austin.

“Skyscrapers behind you, kayaks beneath you and thousands of bats overhead—it is weird, beautiful and completely Austin.”

 

Outdoor Austin Can Wait for Cooler Weather

One of Austin’s best features is how easy it is to get outdoors around Lady Bird Lake. The Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail loops for about 10 miles around the water, while kayakers and paddleboarders take in the skyline from the lake itself.

We had hoped to spend more time outside, especially with the new Wishbone Bridge and Unity Underpass adding another connection along the trail.

But Austin was under a serious heat alert. Triple-digit temperatures made hiking, biking or paddling a poor idea during our stay, so we saved that part of Austin for cooler weather.

 Seeing Austin Differently

Two nights didn’t turn us into tourists. They simply gave us time to experience Austin without rushing back home.

That may be the best reason for Central Texans to plan an Austin staycation: you don’t have to go far to see your own city differently.

Sometimes the getaway you need is right across town.

Listen to Sharon talk about her Austin Staycation with TLM’s Marika Flatt on her “Wander the World” Podcast, available on your favorite streaming platform or here on YouTube.

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Cover Photo Sharon Kurtz

Sharon Kurtz is a travel writer based in Southwest Austin, just a stone’s throw from the legendary Salt Lick BBQ. When she’s not discovering new corners of the world, she’s savoring brisket and Texas sunshine at home. Follow her adventures on Instagram @shar_kurtz or connect on LinkedIn.