Road trip to Austin

May 27, 2017 6:34 PM

My sister has rented an AirBnb in Austin from June 30/July 6 which coincides with a downtime for me work wise. I am looking to plan a road trip either to Austin or from Austin to a city to be determined (ideally the cheapest flight from BOS/BDL) with multiple stops along the way - plan to either sleep in rented SUV or hotels along the way.

I enjoy both city life and seeing as much of nature as I can. I am open to flexibility but want to get a general plan settled for a route once I pick a starting/end location from Austin. Open to all suggestions or advice from anyone who has done something similar.

posted by Bossypants to Travel & Transportation (4 answers total)

I drove from Austin to Albuquerque recently, pretty, nice, and cheap if you like open semi-arid to desert landscapes. ABQ also has stuff to offer, and it should be much cooler at that time than Austin or the Southeast.
posted by SaltySalticid at 7:15 PM on May 27, 2017

There is so much to explore around Austin that you could easily make a road trip just doing that. The hill country to the west of Austin is beautiful with lots of little scenic towns, historic dance halls, good BBQ, tubing on the river, etc. to keep you busy for days. Drive down to San Antonio to see the Alamo and enjoy the Riverwalk, go southeast to Houston or even Galveston to the beach. Flying into DFW and driving to Austin is pretty much a nightmare of construction. Driving from Albuquerque will be a long tedious drive through mostly desert until you reach central Texas, although there are a few interesting places on the way.
posted by tamitang at 8:50 PM on May 27, 2017

You can aleso take the train from Oklahoma City to Austin, with a change in Ft. Worth. It will be hot so staying in your car might not be very comfortable.
posted by tamitang at 8:53 PM on May 27, 2017

I've road tripped between Dallas and San Antonio many times, although that was years ago. It might be better to fly into Houston, head west to San Antonio, and then north to Austin. I've been planning a return road trip in the area, and some of things I want to hit between San Antonio and Austin are Natural Bridge Caverns, Schlitterbahn, and Whitewater Sports (the latter two are in New Braunfels).

Closer to Austin, there's McKinney Falls State Park and Hamilton Pool (which requires a reservation). Further west from Hamilton Pool is Enchanted Rock, which is fun to climb. It's near another Texas German town, Fredericksburg.

Just north of Austin, there's another cool cave, Inner Space Cavern.
posted by neushoorn at 1:30 AM on May 28, 2017