The Top 5 Reasons to Visit Austin, Texas Now
WRITTEN BY 5 REASONS TO VISIT® EDITORIAL STAFF
PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 2022 • 4 min read
What you hear is true. With vibrant entertainment, arts and culture, inspiring cuisine and stunning outdoor experiences—Austin, Texas lets you create a soundtrack all your own. Known for music, the city is also home to a world-class museums, entertainment, local boutiques and shopping centers with high-end brands, plus beautiful outdoor spaces where you can spend your morning paddling Lake Austin.
Image courtesy of Visit Austin
1. THE SHOPPING
Local boutiques are at the heart of Austin and are a big part of what makes the city such a special place to visit and call home. They make neighborhoods more vibrant with shopping experiences that are more personal and represent the area’s culture. Treat yourself to hand crafted jewelry designed by a local artist. Popular boutiques line the streets in Austin and range from locally-made clothing stores and iconic toy stores, to shops full of Austin memorabilia and more. Favorite local boutiques include ByGeorge—Austin’s most fashion-forward shopping destination that offers an impeccably curated mix of apparel, accessories and housewares from European and American designers including Celine, Isabel Marant, Saint Laurent, and Brunello Cucinelli.
Stroll the tree-lined walkways at The Domain, an outdoor shopping mall where luxury brands, department stores and staple shops beckon. This is Austin’s premier destination for fashion and luxury.
The Domain Shopping Center in Austin, Texas
Famous luxury labels that will be calling your name at The Domain include Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co., Gucci, Saint Laurent, and Golden Goose—with designer department stores such as Neiman Marcus and Dillard’s.
2. THE ART
Austin is known for its creativity. With good reason. World-class museums like The Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin with the nation's largest university-owned collection on exhibit, features works by Luis Jiménez and George Segal, along with permanent exhibition Ellsworth Kelly's "Austin", a 2,715-square-foot stone building with brilliant colored glass windows and a totemic wood sculpture.
The Blanton’s permanent collection of more than 21,000 works is recognized for its European paintings, prints and drawings, modern and contemporary American and Latin American art.
Art isn't just a tourist attraction here. It is part of Austin's soul and creative spirit. Austin's buildings and walls may be canvases, but they're anything but blank. Explore any of the city's neighborhoods and you’re bound to stumble on an ever-changing gallery of murals and street art. Grab your camera and take yourself on a sightseeing tour through a wealth of colorful, approachable art on the streets of the city.
3. THE COCKTAILS & CUISINE
1417 French Bistro is a warm and friendly neighborhood restaurant that embraces the culture of dining at a true French bistro. The curated and aesthetically pleasing restaurant space feels inviting, yet is elevated with modern artwork, mid-century furniture and a lush array of plants. The cocktail program is a love note to 1417 offering a mix of classics like sidecars, sazeracs and daiquiris along with original cocktails that should not be overlooked. For your artisanal cocktail fix, we recommend trying the Cucumber Gimlet—concocted with Empress 1908 Gin, St-Germaine, basil, cucumber, and fresh-squeezed lime.
1417 French Bistro in Austin, Texas
Executive Chef Kyle Mulligan of 1417 French Bistro is classically trained in French cuisine and creates timeless dishes with ingredients sourced locally, or imported from France—favorite dishes include Escargot Vol au Vent with charred chive butter, French Onion Soup with toasted homemade baguette and gruyére, Parisian Gnocchi with pâté a choux dumpling, grape tomato, pine nuts, as well as Poisson Meunière with brown butter, lemon and capers.
Savor and enjoy one of many decadent desserts such as a neighborhood favorite like the Pistachio Bombe with blackberry cassis mousse, pistachio sponge and pistachio ice cream or Mousse au Chocolate with salted caramel and potato chips. Hungry yet?
4. THE GARDENS
Tucked away on 26-acres of Austin’s Zilker Metropolitan Park, Zilker Botanical Garden is a lush sanctuary of koi ponds, live oaks, and prickly cactuses of all shapes and sizes. Composed of multiple themed gardens, this natural retreat offers something new around every corner. Witness the colorful blooms of the Mabel Davis Rose Garden and explore the Isamu Taniguchi Japanese Garden, complete with a stone gate gifted by Austin’s Sister City (Oita, Japan), a teahouse, and numerous Japanese maples.
This “jewel in the heart of Austin” features heritage live oaks set into a hillside, and offers a lush, shady respite from everyday urban life with panoramic views to downtown and beyond. Gardens are woven together with pathways, streams, and Koi-filled ponds, creating an urban oasis full of shaded hideaways, sunny lawn areas, and thousands of native and cultivated plants. The Zilker Botanical Garden is open to the public 7 days a week, year-round.
5. THE ARCHITECTURE
Located in the heart of Austin, The Neill-Cochran House Museum was built in 1856 and is of the city's oldest Greek Revival residences. Austin’s economy rapidly expanded after it once again became the capital of Texas in 1845. Many prominent Texans found themselves in the market for finer residences in and around the city. Originally built as a residence, it was the first home for the Texas School for the Blind and a Reconstruction-era military hospital.
The Neill–Cochran House Museum in Austin, Texas
The Slave Quarters building at The Neill-Cochran House Museum is the only intact and publicly accessible slave dwelling that is located within the boundaries of Austin's original townsite. Through the Slave Quarters building, all who live in and visit Austin have the opportunity to walk in the steps of the people, enslaved and free, who built this city. No matter our backgrounds, we can observe and experience the past through their eyes in an immersive and tangible way impossible to replicate anywhere else in the city.
WHERE TO STAY IN AUSTIN, TEXAS
The Four Seasons Hotel Austin is a lakeside retreat as unique as Austin itself. The city’s particular brand of cool is evident in every detail of the hotel, from local art to Texas-inspired spa treatments. Enjoy the saltwater pool, stay for lawn games, walk miles of lakeside trails and relax in spacious guest rooms and suites overlooking idyllic Lady Bird Lake.
