Austin, United States

South Congress Hotel

Price per night from$245.10

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD245.10), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

South Congress Hotel Photos

Style

Locals' living room

Setting

South Congress representative

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South Congress Hotel houses three restaurants, two bars, a bakery, a rooftop pool, in-house boutiques and a motorcycle shop (yep), so you can soak up the spirit of its SoCo neighbourhood without ever leaving. But we suppose that would defeat the purpose of picking a hotel on Austin’s favourite street, where secret taco joints, music venues, art galleries and swooping bats are all a cowboy-boot-clad strut away. One thing’s for certain, you’ll want to be scooting back for happy hour in the hotel’s perennially buzzing lobby bar. Half-priced hibiscus margarita, anyone? 

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A $25 food and drink credit to be used at Café No Sé, the Lobby Bar or for in-room dining, and 1pm late check-out

Facilities

Photos South Congress Hotel facilities

Need to know

Rooms

83, including 14 suites.

Check–Out

Noon. Earliest check-in, 3pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £229.63 ($287), including tax at 17 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional service charge of $32.76 per room per night on check-out.

More details

Rates don’t usually include breakfast.

Also

All communal spaces and a number of dedicated bedrooms are accessible for wheelchair users.

At the hotel

Rooftop pool, valet parking, electric-car charging, 24-hour gym, two boutiques, motorcycle rentals, and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: TV, locally sourced minibar, Bluetooth alarm clock, clothes steamer, Ursa Major bath products and air-conditioning.

Our favourite rooms

With views over the historic Travis Heights neighbourhood, Heights rooms promise quiet nights. If you can spring for the Congress suite, you’ll feel as though you’ve got your own (ultra-hip) Austin studio apartment with lots of living space, locally made furniture and a deep soaking bath tub.

Poolside

Surrounded by lush greenery and overlooking the sights of South Congress, the hotel’s rooftop pool is the place to beat the Texas heat. The poolside menu includes wine, cocktails, light bites and sandwiches. Celebrating? Book a private cabana for groups of up to four, which includes a bottle of champagne or a bucket of High Noon.

Packing tips

Leave room in your luggage to spirit home finds from the Lobby Shop; its shelves feature an ever-evolving selection of artist collaborations and personal travel essentials, as well as curated books, magazines and gifts.

Also

If your stay at South Congress Hotel falls on the first Thursday of the month (from February to November), you’re in luck. The hotel’s monthly event ‘First Thursdays’ features live music, DJs, drink specials, and more.

Pet‐friendly

Very. All rooms allow dogs and – bark for joy – there are no additional fees for furry friends. Communal water bowls and treats can be found throughout the hotel. See more pet-friendly hotels in Austin.

Children

All ages are welcome. A limited number of cribs and travel cots are available on request and can be added to any room. A children’s menu is available in Café No Sé.

Food and Drink

Photos South Congress Hotel food and drink

Top Table

Drape yourself across one of the velvet-swathed sofas in the sociable Lobby Bar for happy hour (Monday to Thursday, 3-6pm).

Dress Code

Anything goes in so-laid-back-it’s-horizontal Austin. You may want to slip into something a little less comfortable if you’re lucky enough to get a seat at hyper-exclusive Otoko.

Hotel restaurant

There are three on-site. Café No Sé is the hotel’s sunny all-day hangout, featuring brunch, happy hour and dinner. There are wooden tables, wicker chairs, and a scattering of outdoor tables on the patio. The fare feels a little Tex-Mex and a little Southern, like the hearty ‘cowboy breakfast’, served with borracho beans, andouille sausage and a cilantro-buttered biscuit. Lighter plates like kale salads, ceviche and charcuterie boards are available, too. Don’t leave without trying the pastries (particularly the kouign-amann, a butter-laden Breton cake) – everything is made fresh in-house by the award-winning pastry team. 

And, since it would be a crime to come to Texas and not sample any steak, reservations at informal chophouse Maie Day are a must. The menu features mains like prime rib, tenderloin, rib-eye and ‘the big pork chop’, served with family-style sides including a ‘bodacious bloomed onion’, baked potato, or mac ‘n’ cheese. 

For something completely different, Otoko is a 12-seater omakase fine-dining destination (starting from $150 a person) helmed by chef Yoshi Okai, winner of Food and Wine’s ‘Best New Chef’ in 2017. You’ll need to be organised – tickets are released every three months on the restaurant website and are in hot demand.

Hotel bar

The sprawling, minimalist Lobby Bar serves coffee and hand-crafted cocktails, as well as snacks from Café No Sé. During the day, it fills with local creatives locked into their laptops, but with a nightly DJ set, it becomes a hotspot for socialising after 7pm. Next to Otoko, the intimate Japanese-whisky bar Watertrade is open to all. Floor-to-ceiling wood lends a ryokan feel to the suavely dressed space. Choose the omakase cocktail experience for four courses of seasonally crafted cocktails – half the fun is watching the bartenders at work – served with izakaya-style bar snacks made by the Otoko chefs. 

Last orders

Maie Day is open until 10pm (9pm Sundays). Café No Sé is open until 8pm (9pm Fridays and Saturdays). The lobby bar serves until 10pm during the week and midnight Thursday to Saturday. Watertrade is open 5-11pm, Tuesday to Saturday.

Room service

Room service is available from 7am-8pm during the week and until 9pm on Fridays and Saturdays.

Location

Photos South Congress Hotel location
Address
South Congress Hotel
1603 South Congress Avenue
Austin
78704
United States

South Congress Hotel takes up an entire block of its namesake street, one of Austin’s hippest and most locally beloved.

Planes

Austin-Bergstrom International is the closest airport – the drive to the hotel should only take around 15 minutes. You’ll be able to use a taxi-hailing app once you land.

Automobiles

For short stays, the hotel’s neighbourhood can be navigated on foot. But if you want to explore more of Austin or venture further into the Lone Star State, you’ll need wheels. Valet parking at the hotel costs $45 a night.

Worth getting out of bed for

Austin isn’t wanting for namecheck neighborhoods, but SoCo is a firm favourite with much to entertain. Street artists have gone to town on its main drag, resulting in some of the city’s most photographed murals. Another perk to this prime location is its proximity to Congress Avenue Bridge, which acts as a summer home for the most famous bats beyond Dracula – stroll along as the sun sets and you’ll see a colony of 1.5 million swarm the skies. And, you’re just a 10-minute drive from Lady Bird Lake; looped by hiking and biking trails, calm enough for canoeing, kayaking and SUP-ing, and with a romantic boardwalk hovering over its surface, it pulls in locals in bat-rivalling numbers. SoCo also hosts hip indie boutiques, such as Allens Boots, for authentic Western footwear; Feathers Boutique Vintage for flower-child ensembles; and Stag Provisions for masterful menswear. And it’s worth making the pilgrimage to Uncommon Objects, a strange and wonderful flea shop. Swing by Preacher Gallery for more wall candy, or muse over works at the Contemporary Austin and Blanton Museum of Art (home to Ellsworth Kelly’s colourful Austin monument). 

Local restaurants

We hope you’re hungry – Austin has possibly one of America’s greatest food scenes, from scrappy trucks serving laden tacos to elegant date-night eateries. Just down the street, colourful Perla’s focuses on seafood, with Creole oysters, lobster rolls, Gulf catches and a cold bar. Romantic Aba has a gorgeous leafy terrace and delicious Mediterranean dining: grilled carrots with lemon jam and rosemary-smoked yoghurt, eggplant-wrapped leg of lamb with cinnamon and dates, or shawarma-spiced steak with horseradish labneh and a black-garlic jus. A tempting all-day menu at June’s includes ’nduja clams, whipped ricotta with hazelnuts and habanero honey and bone-marrow bolognese. 

Local bars

Come evening, Austin lives up to its Live Music Capital of the World rep. You’re rarely more than a two-step away from a club with an occupied stage, but we like the Continental Club, and the famous Broken Spoke (you’ll need to book a taxi, but it’s worth it), where the country is hot and the dance floor heaving. For a leafy city oasis, Cosmic Coffee and Beer Garden is a reviving garden serving specialty coffee, local beer, craft cocktails, plus it has live music and visiting food trucks. 

Reviews

Photos South Congress Hotel reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this neighbourhood-hangout hotel in Texas and unpacked their eye-watering barbeque sauces and curated gifts from the lobby shop, a full account of their indie city break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside South Congress Hotel in Austin…

At first glance, South Congress Hotel’s exterior may seem unprepossessing, but you’ll soon see that its ‘low-key, no fuss, minimalist’ thing actually belies the miraculous happenings within. Like the three distinct restaurants, each one an Austin destination in itself that draws in-the-know locals as well as wide-eyed visitors. Or the coffee shop with an in-house pastry team that also brews its own fresh kombucha every morning. Or the speakeasy-style Japanese whisky bar that’s so cool, you almost feel reverent when you’re inside. It would be all too easy to spend your entire stay at the hotel, ordering mezcal margaritas to your sunlounger by the rooftop pool. But the sights, sounds, and wafting smells of Tex-Mex will eventually lure you out of the front door and onto Austin’s hippest avenue. You won’t have to venture far, though – you’ll find the city’s best street art, live-music venues, and breakfast-taco trucks right outside. 

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