Whenever family or friends come to town, we get asked “Where should we go? What should we do?” Over the years, we’ve hodgepodged it only to regret not pointing out something later. “Oh man,” we’d say, “Jim has nice eyelashes; we should have told him about Hippie Hollow!” So, for completeness’s and convenience’s sake, here’s a page for our family, friends, and anyone else that directs y’all to things to see, hear, and taste in and around Austin. This page includes stuff that would be on anyone’s list, includes stuff we’ve been asked about by previous guests, and includes our bias on food, shopping, and general weirdness in this place we call home.
We’ve all heard of wanderlust, so this is a list for lust (when you wander about Austin). Besides the somewhat static pages you’ll see on the menu bar, we’ll also blog about new restaurants and events (or whatever).
Under each main heading above, we’ve included our highest recommendations at the top of the list. However, be sure to check out hours and availability before heading out. And definitely make sure you eat some TexMex, barbecue, and chef’d up food; hear some music; and do something weird on your visit. If Austin is about anything, it’s about grassroots culture and living!
We have our biases, which are informed by (1) which parts of town we live and lived in (we currently live in Allandale and write food reviews and news for the Allandale Neighbor); (2) our food preferences (we’ll eat anything, but we don’t eat a lot of beef and never go out for steak [but will for brisket]); (3) our tenure in this town (we’ve been here since 1991, so we still have a soft spot for old-timer eateries); and (4) a preference for local businesses. When in Rome…
Enjoy your travels around and about our town!
tips on how to use this site
top5 lists out the top 5 (+ runner-ups) on what to see, eat, tour, fest, and weird in Austin.
see lists out what to see in Austin (although this is a work in progress…)
eat lists out restaurants about Austin, including those we’ve reviewed (under the blog) as well as third-party reviews by the local paper, the state monthly, and others. eat also includes a google map of selected restaurants and spots to go with color codes on those we’ve reviewed as well as links to reviews and the restaurants. The blog is mostly restaurant reviews at this point where you can read about places we’ve reviewed as well as see additional photos of food.
tour lists out various tours available in Austin.
fest is an incomplete list of festivals in Austin.
weird is an incomplete list of weird stuff in Austin.
gone… are things we miss that are now gone.
blogs are other blogs out and about town that you might find of interest.
All photos are by us except for the exceptional bat photo!
austin wanderlist 