Need Help Planning Austin Trip

D.,
I have been to Austin quite a few times and these are the things that I have done there that I really enjoyed. First of all you aren't a Texan till you've had REAL TX BBQ!!! The best BBQ that I've ever had is at the Salt Lick BBQ. www.saltlickbbq.com Its a little out in the country in fact its in the middle of no where, but it is the neatest restaurant and if your hubby wants to drink, bring a cooler b/c its BYOB!! You can't go to Austin without visiting the Congress Street bridge at dusk b/c there you will see millions and millions of bats, its quite a site!http://www.io.com/house/bats.html
If you'd like to tour Austin, I've been on this tour and it was educational and lots of fun. www.austinducks.com
Another interesting thing is to visit the Texas state capitol. It is really beautiful inside. Did you know that our capitol is taller than the capitol in DC?? My last suggestion is to visit the observation tower on the campus of UT. Back in the 70's a crazy man got up there with a gun and shot a bunch of students and people from the tower so the tower was shut down for 25 yrs but now it has re-opened for people to tour it again. http://www.utexas.edu/student/txunion/ae/towertours/
Oh yeah and I did visit a botanical garden there as well that was pretty neat. http://www.zilkergarden.org/
There are so many nice parks and look-out points around Austin, it really is quite beautiful! Have a wonderful trip. BTW our anniversary is that weekend too (the 7th) 6 yrs for us!

H.

D. - I'm thinking that being preg. may limit your walking, so I will go against the flow and say that I love Austin and think San Antonio is fun but involves a lot of walking -- especially on the river. I grew up in Austin and think it is a great place to get away -- especially for relaxing.
One of my favorite restaurants is The Oasis. http://www.oasis-austin.com/ It is on the lake and a great place to linger over dinner, dessert, tea :). I'd also recommend County Line BBQ. http://www.countyline.com/index.asp YUM!
For a luxury hotel, I would recommend the Renaissance hotel. http://marriott.com/hotels/travel/aussh-renaissance-austi... It is very nice, close enough to stuff to do, but not downtown with the noise of the nightlife. It is in a shopping center that is fun to walk around. Make sure you eat some of Amy's Ice Cream!! It is very tasty.
I'm not a nightlife, bar-hopping kind of gal, so I cannot really recommend places like that -- although Austin is known for some of the best. I think Zilker park is nice to stroll and the botanic gardens that are near there.
Enjoy!!
~M.

Austin is nice, but for the sake of an extra hour and a half south, I would really suggest going to San Antonio. There is so much more to do and see, and in my opinion better restaurants too. You could stay on the Riverwalk there and visit the Alamo. But for Austin, try this website for suggestions: http://www.austintexas.org/visitors/about_austin Have a great time.

In Austin, at sundown, you can see bats going out from under a bridge in downtown. It's something to see. It's under the bridge that cross the river in Austin.

The State Capitol is very interesting.

I heard the night life is fun there.

If you want to drive a little further I suggest you could go to Fredericksburg in the Hill Country. We were there 3 weeks ago. It's about 45 min. - 1 hr from Austin. It's a nice little town founded by German people. Some houses on the main street are inspired from Germany. There are some German restaurants. There is also a very interesting museum on World War II. I didn't expect too much from it, but I found it very interesting. My son (7) loved it!

And in the futur, if you want to do some hiking, you could go to Enchanted Rock State Park.

Finally, San Antonio is another nice place to visit. You can visit the Alamo. Don't miss the Riverwalk. Sea World. And great cavers to visit (Natural bridge caverns).

Have a nice trip!