I won’t write any basic advice down here such as “eat local food,” “get travel insurance,” or “slow down and enjoy the scenery.”

Here I present some things I’ve learned about travel (as well as some nice advice I’ve shamelessly stolen, but cited of course, from others). This is mostly travel for pleasure. My business travel looks much different (it’s a lot less freewheeling).

I’ll add to this list sporadically as I learn more stuff, but for now, here’s my wisdom

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1. If you’re working on the road, opt for an Irish pub over a coffee shop. Irish pubs are almost always open during the day, somewhat empty with lots of table space, have outlets available, and have great WiFi. Plus, you can grab a delicious Irish coffee for any creative work you need to get done.

2. Also, Starbucks at home is the middle road, but it’s awesome when you’re traveling and need WiFi and a big ass cup of American-style coffee (often a luxury we take for granted). Their cold brew really isn’t bad either (clearly, though, get good coffee in places where that is possible and preferred, e.g. Panamá).

3. Build a cumulative playlist for your travels. I have a Spotify “discovery” playlist that I always add to and listen to when I’m traveling. It’s become an emotional memento of my travels. When I listen to it at home, I can often connect a place or time with a particular song. I also create playlists for all of my favorite cities (including of course my home city of Austin – check it out).

4. Eat at off-times. If you want to get to nice restaurants with no wait time, hit them up at like 430pm. Especially if you’re on vacation, use your flexibility to your advantage (I do this at home with remote work, generally, too). Do everything at off-times. Throw a wrench into your routine. Don’t be such a slave to your itinerary and routine.

5. Skip tourist stuff that sounds dull to you (especially the Hollywood walk of fame and stuff like that). Don’t like art much? Don’t be ashamed and feel like you have to check out the art museum (unless it’s super famous like the Louvre. Go see stuff like that – there’s a reason they’re so well known and loved). Traveling isn’t a checklist; do what you want to do.

6. Actually, fuck it – if you don’t want to see the Louvre, you don’t have to go see the Louvre. I always tell myself, when I visit a city, that I’ll come back again (and in many cases that’s actually been true). So it’s not the worst thing in the world to leave a couple things for next time. For instance, I’ve done Amsterdam like 4-5 times now and still haven’t seen the Van Gogh museum. However, I’ll be there this February again, so I can change that if I desire.

7. Spend as much time as you want doing the things you do want to do, and don’t feel like you need to rush or hurry them up. I’ve been to London countless times and I’ve spent several hours in the Winston Churchill war rooms every time I’ve been (as well as pub crawling in Shoreditch, hitting up my favorite heavy metal dive bar, Crobar, and hitting up the Madison, but those are other stories).

8. Being able to speak the language is way cooler than not being able to speak the language. Completely different travel experience. Learn at least another language so you can experience this and feel the difference. It really feels like you ‘unlock’ something completely new. Mein Deutsch hilft mir jetzt in der Schweiz (writing this sentence in Switzerland – I’m being slightly facetious, as I’ve not really had to use any German. English is prevalent. Still, cool to understand what people are saying a bit.)

9. Recharge.co lets you book living space for a few hours if you need a nap or something. Breather lets you book workspace on demand. Regus is an office space company that has a $99 plan where you can use their lounges across the world (pretty much in every major city). All excellent options for the working traveler.

10. Airhelp helps you claim compensation for flight delays, cancellations, and other mishaps. I also just write angry emails to customer service every time I have a really bad experience (also, it’s *always* on American Airlines. High probability of abysmal experience with AA).

11. Scott’s Cheap Flights is worth the premium membership. Flightfox also helps you optimize your flights and get the best deals.

12. Solo travel is generally better (but different) than group travel, especially if you plan on meeting up with friends in your destination place. Group travel is good for partying, bachelor parties, and all that, but if you don’t have the right group, it can get annoying. I do like traveling with one or two friends though, as long as they fit the bill of a good travel friend (flexible, adaptable, few annoying habits, socially intelligent, etc.). I’ve got a short list of friends like that (Neal Gordon, Mark Lindquist, Ryan Farley). Solo traveling is my favorite though.

13. If you’re solo traveling, do a pub crawl. They’re usually led by hostels, but you can go even if you’re not staying in the hostel. It’s a good way to get acquainted with the nightlife in a city. I like to get good and drunk on these and meet a bunch of new people.

14. Bring healthy snacks and drinks with you. I’m a biohacker/nerd/fitness freak, so I bring with me Four Sigmatic mushroom coffees, Pique Tea products (love this stuff), nootropics like TruBrain, Bulletproof protein bars, and more. My suitcase is ⅓ clothes, ⅓ books, and ⅓ supplements and food items. It really helps when it comes to energy and maintaining health and fitness while abroad though.

16. Fly back to the states through Dublin if you’re in Europe; you get to do all your US border control stuff in Dublin, saving you time on the other side. This is especially awesome if you have a connecting flight in the states.

17. Don’t stay in a boring expensive hotels surrounded by tourists. Use Airbnb and stay with a local host, Couchsurfing if you’re really down for a cheap stay, or try to book a hostel or boutique hotel. The weirder/more unique the lodging, the better (to a point, obviously).

18. Go see weird stuff you find on Atlas Obscura. I find this vastly more helpful than guidebooks and especially TripAdvisor (TripAdvisor is the absolute worst for discovery. It’s only useful for avoiding bad spots).

19. Spend time flaneuring in local cafes or pubs. Listen in and meditate on your surroundings. Wander around the city aimlessly.

20. Also, fuck naysayers who criticize your reasons for travel because they’re different than their own. If you want to travel for Instagram photos, go for it. I question your reliance on external validation for happiness, but hey, who am I to judge? Do what you want. I think that getting lost and exploring can have unintended benefits, as well. Good TedX talk on the subject:

21, Stop lining up to board the plane so damn early. It’s unnecessary and makes me feel second hand anxiety. Go grab a coffee and a book or something.

22. Don’t take your shoes off on a plane. It’s not your living room.

23, Be a generally courteous traveler. I’m going to steal a bunch of rules from Ryan Holiday here, all of which I agree with:

• The middle of places is not a good place to stop
• Yelling at anyone says more about you than it does about them
• Get on the plane quickly, get off the plane quickly—actually, do everything quickly
• The middle seat gets both armrests
• Passengers must help each other
• No one should buy anything from Cinnabon. Ever.
• Until the technology improves, the honorable thing to do is to print your boarding pass before you go through security
• The place to wait for your gatechecked bag is against the opposite wall in a line

All good stuff.

24, There are many ways to find good food, and everyone has their own tip. I like to watch a Bourdain episode about the destination (if there is one), ask friends who live there (if I have them), and then ask the hotel/Airbnb host or locals for recommendations if I don’t have the first two options. And then sometimes I still like to just wander around and stumble into a place that looks great, which has worked out both very well and quite poorly for me in the past. But I love variance, especially so when I’m traveling.

25, Guidebooks are usually unhelpful, but sometimes they’re not.

26, Exercise as soon as you land, especially if you don’t feel like it. It’s a great way to beat jet lag. The best possible action is to jog around the city, as you also get to know it much better.

27, Just walk around different neighborhoods and be mindful.

The post Some Travel Tips for a Leisurely, Memorable, and Impactful Adventure appeared first on Alex Birkett.

After having answered the question similarly each time, I decided to write down what I would consider an optimal weekend spent here.

Note, this is one man’s opinion, and my friends and I could have different interests than yours. Feel free to throw out any bad advice that follows, but keep the good stuff while you do.

Top 7 Things to do While in Austin for a Weekend

I tested this out on a recent trip my brother took down to Austin. If you can only do 7 things, do these things:

• See the Congress bridge bats
• Eat at Torchy’s
• Eat good BBQ (many options)
• Go out on dirty 6th street
• See live music on Rainey street
• Check out Barton Springs
• Take photos at the graffiti wall

Of course, a summary like that could be missing a lot (and it’s only my opinion), depending on your interests and time allotment. Read the rest of the article if you’d like a better selection for your weekend in Austin.

Best Neighborhoods to Explore

Austin, in my mind, is separated North/South by the Colorado River, otherwise known in this part as Lady Bird Lake. North of the bridge, you can find downtown, which includes a few different neighborhoods:

• Seaholm
• Clarksville
• Market District

Etc, etc. There’s also the University of Texas campus and a couple interesting post graduate neighborhoods like Hyde Park. To be honest, most of North Austin, apart from UT, is pretty boring to me. The Domain is kinda cool, and it has things like Topgolf, but The Domain seems like every other city in the states. It’s not very unique.

South of the bridge you have some interesting things, such as Barton Springs and Zilker park (and also an entrance into the Greenbelt hiking trail), South Lamar, South Congress, South First, and Riverside. There’s a lot of cool shops, taco trucks, music venues, etc. around here. This is where you’ll find a lot of the coolest places to visit in Austin, in my opinion. However, it’s also where you’ll find some of the most overrated spots.

I actually don’t want to dive too much into different neighborhoods, because there are merits to any of them. But your best bet is to stay around 78701, 78702, 78703, and 78704 neighborhoods. They give you the best walking access to everything you’ll want to see.

Getting Around Austin

Austin doesn’t have a great public transit system, so try to stay in one of the aforementioned neighborhoods with easy walking access. If you want to do a trip outside of city limits into hill country, Lake Travis, Hamilton pool, etc., then you’ll need to rent a car. Otherwise, you can get away using these:

• Lyft/Uber – obviously
• Bus – it’s not the best system, but if you want to save money it’s not the worst. Get the Capital Metro app and the day pass.
• Bird scooters – 100% the best way to get around town. These things are awesome. Use my code to signup.
• Car2Go – also very convenient if you want to drive around but not rent a car.

Alright, the basics are covered, now let’s dive right into things to eat/do/see.

Things to Eat in Austin

Two words: tacos & barbecue.

Eat as much of both as you can. They are both elevated to art forms in Austin.

Austin is a great place for fusion as well. We have places like Chi’lanto for Korean/Mexican BBQ fusion, East Side King for Asian Fusion with an Austin flair, and on and on.

Austin also has pretty decent gulf oysters, as well as crawfish if you’re here during the right season (definitely try to attend a crawfish boil if you can).

In general, though, the best spots you absolutely need to check out are:

• Torchy’s – Very popular, but not overrated. Amazing tacos.
• Veracruz – Again, just super amazing tacos.
• Clark’s Oysters – great oysters, not bad prices.
• East Side King – Asian fusion, really unique Austin restaurant.
• Chi’Lantro – get the Kimchi fries.
• Cooper’s BBQ – feels like Texas. Awesome BBQ and right downtown.
• Tumble 22 – a new hot chicken food truck that is probably the best fried chicken I’ve ever had.
• Austin Habibi – Mediterranean cuisine, gyro plates, and whatnot. I just really like this place.
• Terry Black’s BBQ – amazing BBQ.

Things to Do in Austin

You can’t climb a mountain or ski in Austin, but you can:

• Drink/explore nightlife
• Dance/See live music
• Hike
• Do things on the water
• Play golf
• Go to cool coffee shops

Drink/nightlife

Austin is a party city. The nightlife is great, which is probably part of the reason so many young people flock here every day.

If you’re not a drinker, no worries, there’s still tons of stuff to do here. But I actually believe that, if you don’t get good and drunk at least one of the days you’re here, you’re missing out on a big chunk of the cultural appetite here.

So, here are my tips on where to get liquor’d up.

Dirty 6th

Dirty 6th street is infamous, and it’s for just the reason you’d guess: it’s a dirty place. Shit gets weird there.

There are tons of cheap drinks, and it’s quite anarchic on the weekends. It’s not a place you want to spend a lot of time, but you should definitely take a peak just to see what it’s all about.

There’s a big guide on 6th street bars here, but I’ll save you some time and recommend the top 5 you should check out:

• Shakespeare’s
• Blind Pig
• Maggie Maes
• Easy Tiger
• Jackalope (side note: best burgers in town).

Rainey Street

Rainey Street is a unique collection of houses turned bars. It’s great place to hang out, especially during the day time, and specifically on a Sunday. It’s filled with awesome spots, like Clive Bar (cocktails), Craft Pride (craft beer), Bangers (sausage and beer), and Bungalow (just a cool bar).

Just walk down Rainey and pop into whatever looks cool.

West 6th

West is in my neck of the woods. It’s not super unique, but it’s fun, and there are a few spots worth checking out.

• Rustic Tap – classic Americana bar with blues/country bands, whiskey shots, and giant beer pong.
• Kung Fu – video game arcade.
• Dogwood – great food and vibe.
• Buford’s – spacious bar with good beer selection and lots of bar games.

There are a few other bars worth checking out as well, some of which I’ll cover in the dance/live music section. Depending on your desires, you may also want to get Purple Ritas at Baby A’s. They’re super strong, though, so be warned. Also, Ego’s is a hilarious dive karaoke bar. Possibly worth checking out, though maybe on your next visit.

Iffff you have time, there are two great breweries worth checking out:

• Jester King – my favorite spot. Out in the country and has some great stone oven pizza. They specialize in sour farmhouse ales.
• Blue Owl Brewing – also sour beer, but closer to the city’s core, so easier to get to than Jester King (though less cool as a spot to chill).
• Infinite Monkey Theorem – not a brewery, but a winery, but I added it because it’s not a typical watering hole. If you like wine, this is the spot.

East Austin

Some people like going on out the East Side, too. I’m not a big fan, but a few key spots over there are:

• Hotel Vegas (nice backyard)
• White Horse (actually a really cool place – I mention it below on dance spots)
• Yellow Jacket Social Club (grimey)
• Craftsman (chill spot)

Dance/See Live Music

Austin bills itself as the “live music Capital of the world.” As such, there’s a ton of awesome live music.

You couldn’t go wrong just stepping into a random bar on 7th and Red River or even on Dirty 6th on the right night. In my opinion, the best music is found on weeknights and is in bars and venues you wouldn’t expect (so not Stubb’s).

Here are some of the top spots:

• White Horse – for two stepping & country.
• Broken Spoke – same.
• Rustic Tap – there’s always classic country or blues rock here.
• The Mohawk (I love this venue).
• Empire Control Room

Hike

You’ve got one real option: Greenbelt. It’s really nice.

Other than that, there are a few dispersed parks and trails, but nothing special.

It’s not really hiking, but you have to climb up some stairs to get to the top of Mount Bonnell, and that’s a big tourist spot (though I think it’s overrated).

Another good view that isn’t really hiking is the Pennybacker bridge. I think the 360 bridge view is actually pretty cool and worth it if you can make it out there.

Do things on the water

Water is really the specialty of Austin’s outdoors life. The big one is Barton Springs, which is a man made pool fed from underground springs. It’s probably my one “can’t miss” spot in Austin, regardless of the season:

Deep Eddy Pool is cool too:

Then, there’s Lady Bird Lake, right in the middle of the city, where you should definitely rent a kayak or stand up paddle board.

If you can make the trip, hit up Hamilton Pool. It’s 30-40 minute from downtown, but it’s beautiful:

Also, we have a super cool indoor surf park in Austin. I think it’s one of the only surf parks like it in the country.

Play Golf

Other than Topgolf and regular golf courses, Austin has two cool spots worth checking out:

• Pitch and Putt (super fun! BYOB 80 yard holes).
• Peter Pan’s Mini Golf (historic spot, less fun overall but still awesome).

Drink Coffee

Austin is the city where I became a coffee snob. Hit up these spots:

• Caffe Medici (has tons of locations)
• Houndstooth (best cappuccino in town).
• Mozart’s (amazing views)
• Radio (cool vibes, and a Veracruz truck in the back).
• The Hideout (great chill spot + it’s an improv theater).
• Alta’s (also awesome lake views and right downtown).

Things to See in Austin

For the most part, Austin is an active participation city; You do things, not just see sites. Though there are a cool things to just take in:

• Bats on the Congress Bridge (take a boat tour if possible).
• Street Art (it’s everywhere)
• Graffiti Park
• Capitol Building – straight Texas brownstone architecture

If you’re around for a UT football game, try to go (or at least tailgate). There aren’t any pro sports in Austin, so UT is treated like a pro team.

Things to Skip in Austin

There’s a ton of super touristy things in every city, some of which are actually worth it but many of which are frankly not. Austin is no difference. This section will probably get some heat, but here’s what I would skip.

Jo’s Coffee and the “I Love You So Much…” Graffiti

I think, if you want to grab a selfie or two, Austin’s murals aren’t a bad idea. But just be clear that you just want a quick selfie; there’s nothing really impressive about the most popular murals here, specifically the “I Love You So Much” one, which I consider pretty overrated. There’s always a huge line for it. There’s always a huge line for photos at Machu Picchu, too, but you know…

I actually like two murals better:

• You’re My Butter Half
• Greetings from Austin

Though there’s lots of great street art around. I recommend just exploring and snapping photos in front of the ones you think are cool, not just the popular touristy ones.

Hopdoddy’s and other restaurants with asburd lines

Hopdoddy’s sells burgers. Burgers! They’re tasty, but not even the best in Austin (Jackalope is better). Don’t wait in line for an hour for a burger. Also, don’t come to Austin to eat burgers (again, go for the tacos and BBQ)

Conclusion

Austin is an amazing city, full of great stuff to do and even more great stuff to eat. A weekend isn’t long enough to do it all, but it’s enough to fall in love enough that you come back eventually.

The post Your Three Days in Austin Itinerary appeared first on Alex Birkett.