For more information and to book please visit www.mrandmrssmith.com or let us arrange your whole trip, by calling +44 (0)20 8987 4312 or from the USA dial 1 866 610 3867.
Forget the Wild West, Austin is the mild West, with its relaxed pace of life, barbecue summers and colour-rich hills and parks. Cowboy charm endures, courtesy of honky-tonk bars, plaid-shirt-stuffed stores and Mexican-influenced eateries. For evidence of the city’s modern milieu, take a peek at its skyline: sleek skyscrapers looming in spiky clusters beside the lakes. SoCo, or South Congress Avenue, is now a magnet for cool cats. Austin is a city for the ears as much as the eyes: expect to hear the guitar-twanging, foot-stomping strains of country music, darkened with a dose of blues, wafting from 6th Street’s dance halls and bars. The Texan capital also hosts America’s largest music festival, South by Southwest, which has lured the likes of Bloc Party, Van Morrison, the Killers and the Fratellis. Characterful Austinites are as colourful as the scenery. Their unofficial slogan (plastered across bumpers and T-shirts) is, appropriately enough, ‘Keeping Austin weird’.
Gotham’s got nothing on this bat city, home to North America’s largest urban colony of bats (approximately 1.5 million, for the statisticians out there). Between late April and September, locals and visitors gather at dusk, to watch the winged wonders emerge from beneath the Ann Richards Congress Avenue Bridge. In September, the aptly named Bat Fest (www.roadwayevents.com) celebrates Austin’s resident critters, with tours, talks, carnival rides, bridge bungee jumping and, of course, barbecues.
Sampling Austin’s take on street food – southern-style treats served up from shiny silver Airstream trailers. Hey Cupcake! (www.heycupcake.com) at 1600 Block, at South Congress Avenue, is the go-to spot for sweet-toothed locals. If you’re more savoury-inclined, head to trailer-park style Torchy’s Tacos (www.torchystacos.com) at 2809 South 1st Street.
Our round-up of the hippest hideaways and romantic boutique hotels in Austin
Hotel Saint Cecilia’s historic house, stylish studios and boho bungalows emanate rebellious rock ’n’ roll character, with sensual, sultry decor inspired by The Stones, Warhol and Miro.
A magnet for music lovers and arty types, Hotel San José in Austin is a masterclass in stylish understatement with chilled-out charm on South Congress Avenue.
Planes, trains, automobiles, or maybe even helicopter – we tell you the best way to go.
March Music festival South by South West (http://sxsw.com) has global stature, yet manages to stay low key thanks to its laid-back Austinite hosts. Over four days, more than 1,800 music acts descend on the city and there are plenty of unofficial gigs around the official nightly line-up. Where else can you catch Joss Stone singing barefoot in a teeny bar or The Boss rasping his finest, acoustic-style, in a honky tonk. April Feast upon Texan cuisine at the Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Festival (www.texaswineandfood.org). Hear some of R&B and neo soul’s established and emerging talents at the Urban Music Festival (www.urbanmusicfest.com), held on the banks of Town Lake, at Auditorium Shores. August What better way to cool down in a hot city than with Austin’s Ice-Cream Festival (www.icecreamfestival.org)? Celebrate Austin’s winged residents with Bat Fest (www.roadwayevents.com). October Enjoy tunes in the park at the Austin City Limits Music Festival (www.aclfestival.com). Then swap music for movies at the Austin Film Festival (www.austinfilmfestival.com).
Admire the work of local artists over a freshly made taco or steaming cappuccino, at this bohemian coffee shop.
1501 South 1st Street, Austin, Texas 78704.
Across the parking lot from the San José Hotel, Jo’s is a peppermint-green coffee shack, to which long-haired, guitar-strumming types are drawn as irresistibly as teens to Topshop. There’s also a downtown branch on West 2nd Street.
1300 South Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas 78701.
This casual pizza bar is the perfect pit-stop between shops on South Congress strip. The Margherita slice is heaped with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, garlic and basil and the perma-queue snaking outside speaks volumes.
1415 South Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas 78704.
Head here on a sunny day or balmy evening and sit under the striped parasols, on the butter-yellow chairs, with a bowl of bouillabaisse and saffron rouille before you.
1400 South Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas 78704
The Italian offerings at this casual eatery are delicious, and its owner, Scott, has an encyclopaedic knowledge of Austin and can tell you the best place to go for live music on any given night.
1610 South Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas 78704
Street food is given a sophisticated rethink at this hip Mexican restaurant, which also boasts over 80 varieties of blue agave tequila. The food is fresh and flavoursome, and the Margarita La Condesa (a muddle of spirits, pineapple juice and lime, with a cactus-salt rim) is a dangerously tasty thirst-quencher.
400-A West 2nd Street, Austin, Texas 78701
This is the place for what locals call ‘fancy barbecue’ (if that’s not a contradiction in terms). The exposed brick interior and sleek green leather booths provide a stylish backdrop to the regular live music events hosted here.
401 West 2nd Street, Austin, Texas 78701
A honky-tonk roadside shack, where suits and truckers hunker down in harmony to enjoy the deliciously divey barbecue fare.
1400 Barton Springs Road, Austin, Texas 78704
Escape the meat-fest with sushi at Uchi. This eatery, with its sexy decor and lengthy wait list, is a shot of Manhattan glam in cowboy country. Reservations are a must if you don’t want to wait an hour in line. There’s also a dark and romantic champagne bar.
801 South Lamar Boulevard, Austin, Texas 78704
Navigate your way past the lively locals at the bar, the red neon signage and photos of famous faces covering the walls, and make for the mellow upstairs Gallery Bar. This dark and dirty (in the best possible way) blues club has hosted Stevie Ray Vaughn, Sheryl Crow and Bonnie Ray.
1315 South Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas
Sit in the pretty courtyard of the Smith-approved San José Hotel and sip one of their fabulous cocktails. Every Wednesday, the house DJ Waxploitation scratches up a storm and there are Rock n’ Reel nights, where you can enjoy live music followed by a movie under the stars.
1316 South Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas 78704
Follow in the cowboy boot-clad footsteps of Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson and while away an evening here, listening and line-dancing to lively country music, and sampling the home-style Texan cooking.
3201 South Lamar Boulevard, Austin, Texas 78704
This former railroad saloon hosts country gigs, to the delight of cowboys, tattooed bikers and trendy locals, who all congregate here for casual beers and gigs.
1308 East 4th Street, Austin, Texas 78702
©2010 Mr & Mrs Smith
