We had such an awesome visit to Austin and San Antonio Texas to see some long time friends of ours who recently moved to Texas. We flew into Austin because the plane tickets were less than half the cost of flying into San Antonio. Prior to this trip, Lucas, my husband and I had been to San Antonio for a hot minute passing through on a road trip at 2am when he got out of the military almost a decade ago. We ate at the only restaurant open at that hour, and took a quick picture in front of the Alamo. Even with our short stop, coming back to San Antonio years later we were floored at how much things have changed in that time. I’d also gone on a trip to Austin for the fourth of July a few years ago with my brother and sister in law and really wanted to take Lucas there to experience the fun weird city that Austin is. However, we had no idea that going to both back to back, that we would enjoy San Antonio more than Austin.
The Riverwalk Boat Tour, although touristy, is worth it. There is so much cool history and it’s a fun way to experience the riverwalk. I would compare the Riverwalk to being a little bit like the Vegas strip without casinos, the Blue Bayou restaurant at Disneyland in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and the Atlanta Beltline combined. San Antonio, specifically is rich in Mexico and Texas history and is fascinating if you’re a history enthusiast like myself. Here are some photos from our trip; scroll to the bottom if you want pinnable recommendations or follow me on Instagram if you want to go through my Texas highlights.
We spent time at the Pearl District and the Riverwalk in San Antonio. We loved our experience at High Street Wine Company and had great wine and small plate pairings. The adult capri suns the vendors sell, I’m sure we’ll eventually be seeing in Atlanta in the future. Feliz Modern Pop has the cutest unique gifts. On the Bend Oyster Bar on the riverwalk has a great upstairs and downstairs patio beside the water and you can watch the boat tours go by. Being a weekend, the live music and ambience was lovely. We went back to the Alamo. We did the boat tour which features the “Selena Bridge” where you can see where Selena got engaged. It’s also visible not from the boat tour but I though the boat tour was rather magical. We also spent a day walking the grounds of the Mexican Cultural Institute and checking out the Tower of the Americas which we chose not to go inside. The only underwhelming food experience we had in San Antonio was Casa Rio. The music was great and it’s one of the more historical restaurants on the Riverwalk but nothing worth heavily recommending.
In Austin, the bat bridge is pretty cool. We didn’t go at sunset but I did during the 4th of July a few years ago and it is an awesome experience. We visited at the beginning of winter, so I didn’t get to take Lucas to Barton Springs. Austin has a special vibe in the summertime. We stayed at the Austin Motel which was cute and instagrammable. The copita boards at Joann’s Fine Foods connected to the motel, consisting of paired Tequila, fruit and sangrita was ridiculously expensive but a fun experience. We had a good experience at Home Slice Pizza. The wait is long, which is an indicator of good food in our experience 65% of the time. The have an outdoor ping pong table and beer bar that made the wait bearable.
My favorite restaurant in Austin, was the Russian House. Wow. It’s not just a Russian restaurant; it’s hilariously Soviet themed and the dining area looked like a grandmother’s dining room. The vodka drinks were fantastic and I had my first bowl of Borscht (although, I did get the warm Ukranian one). Our server had wonderful recommendations. We had such an awesome experience all the way around.
We went to the Texas State Capitol and although we didn’t go with the tour, our friends had been so many times they gave us a personalized tour. There are so many interesting details about the history of some of the hallways and the expansion of the building and I always love a good stroll through state congressional floors. Texas has one of the cooler State Capitol buildings I’ve been to.
We drove outside of Austin to Hill Country and The Salt Lick BBQ was worth it. It’s in a beautiful location in the hills, with awesome food and drinks. Our friends recommended a few wineries too but they were closed so that will have to be saved for our next trip. We finished off our trip with a stop at Austin Ciders in East Austin, and the cider plus ambience is worth noting on the list. Our only Austin disappointment was Lucky Robot. It’s a cute Asian fusion restaurant with a hipster pricepoint to match, but was relatively underwhelming food-wise. Our friends had been a couple times before and had a better experience, and that’s why we went. The restaurant is cute and instagrammable, and the drinks were pretty good, but I don’t know if we’d go again so I left it off the list.
We loved our visit to Texas and look forward to returning. Our next trip we have our hearts set on spending more time in San Antonio. If you haven’t been in the last decade like us, give it a shot because the historical and cultural attractions, and food and drink options all make it a destination worth checking out. We did more in Austin because I had such a good trip in the past so we planned around that, but honestly, I see more people recommending San Antonio as a must see city in the future.
