Destinations / Texas
Austin
AUSNashville with better food, better water and thirty percent fewer matching shirts.
Get what everyone owes, paste it in the group chat.
The verdict
Austin gives you three different weekends in one city. Rainey Street and East Sixth for the nights, Lake Austin or Lake Travis for the days, and barbecue that justifies the flight on its own. It is the pick for a group that wants nightlife but would be bored doing nothing but nightlife, and it is friendlier on the wallet than Nashville has been in years.
Wrong for anyone who wants everything within walking distance. Austin is spread out, the lake is thirty minutes from downtown, and you will spend more time in cars than you expect. Also wrong in summer: 103 degrees with humidity is not a pool day, it is a hostage situation.
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Where to stay
An East Austin house with a yard
Ten minutes from downtown, half the price of a hotel block, and you can actually sit outside and talk.
Book itHotel Van Zandt, Rainey Street
You are already on the bar street. The rooftop pool does most of the work on Saturday.
Book itA Lake Travis house with a dock
Give up downtown entirely and make the trip about the water. Boat pickup at your own dock is worth the trade.
Book itGet the Austin blueprint
Worth timing the trip around
The things that come back every year and change the price of the weekend. Pick your dates around one of these on purpose.
Formula 1 at COTA
The biggest weekend of Austin's year, and lodging doubles citywide. Race tickets plus the lake day plus Rainey Street is about as good as a bro trip gets.
SXSW
Great if your group is the type, a nightmare if you just wanted a normal weekend downtown. Check the dates before you book anything in March.
UT football Saturdays
One hundred thousand people and downtown stays full from Friday. Buy tickets before flights, and do not expect a table anywhere after the game.
What else to do
Prices checked September 2026
Franklin Barbecue
Line up at 8am with folding chairs and a cooler of beer. The line is the activity.
$25 to $40 a head · 2 to 5 hours with the line · preorder 2 weeks out, to go only
Book itLake Travis party boat with a captain
Six hours, a cliff jump at Devil's Cove, and the reason the group came.
$450 to $1,000 for the boat · 3 to 6 hours · 12 a boat, book 2 weeks out
Book itRainey Street bar crawl
Old bungalows turned into bars on one street, so nobody gets separated.
walk up, pay per drink · evening · walk up, self guided
Book itTexas Hill Country distillery run to Dripping Springs
Forty minutes out, three stops, and a driver so nobody has to be responsible.
about $150 a head for 9 to 13 · 6 hours door to door · book 2 weeks out minimum
Book itButler Pitch and Putt
Nine holes, $12, beer allowed, and no one needs to be good.
$14 to $16 a head · 9 holes, about 1 hour · no tee times, first come only
Book itUT Longhorns game at DKR
One hundred thousand people losing their minds. Buy the tickets before you book the flights.
$80 to $250 a head on resale · about 3.5 hours · season sold out, resale only
Book itAlso worth doing
Barton Springs Pool
Sixty eight degrees year round and the fastest way to fix eight hungover men.
Tours and activities in Austin sell out for groups, so book the ones you care about before you fly.
Browse Austin on ViatorGetting around
Rent one large SUV or a van. Downtown to Lake Travis is 35 to 45 minutes and rideshares out there are expensive and slow to arrive. Airport to downtown is 20 minutes. Park the vehicle downtown at night and use rideshares for bars.
The one thing people screw up
Groups book a Lake Travis boat for Saturday at noon in a drought year and arrive to find the ramp at their marina closed because lake levels dropped. Confirm the marina your captain launches from within the week, and book on Lake Austin instead if Travis is low. Lake Austin is level controlled and never has this problem.
Cost per head, 3 nights, no flights
Per head, based on eight guys on a three night trip. It is a range because a trip is a range.
| Category | Per head |
|---|---|
| Lodging | $280 to $520 |
| Activities | $150 to $400 |
| Food and drink | $280 to $550 |
| Transport | $90 to $180 |
| Total | $616 to $1,162 |
Planning Austin?
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If not Austin
Nashville
The strip everyone goes to, and how not to spend the whole weekend on it.
San Diego
Beach, real golf and a walkable downtown, in the same weekend.
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Three more that work
Same trip, different city. These three are the closest matches.