Fly to Austin for a cheap holiday
Now that peak travel season is officially here in the United States, it’s getting tougher to find a bargain. I recently wrote about how both Las Vegas and Florida always tend to have cheap flights, and I think it’s worth adding one more to that list, namely Austin, Texas.
One of the best parts about the cheap flights to Austin is that it’s an incredibly fun city that has interesting history and a wonderful tourist infrastructure. Many people know of Austin because of the South by Southwest music, film, and technology conferences each spring, or for the University of Texas campus that sits in the center of town. Both of those things contribute to the fact that there are many, many affordable hotels in Austin, which only jack prices up during the conferences themselves.
Destination: Austin, Texas
It can definitely get a bit hot during summer in Austin, Texas, especially during late July and early August, but the cold beers are cheap and easy to find then so it never feels too bad. Flights to Austin from Los Angeles are around $240 roundtrip, even during summer, and about the same from New York and Chicago.
Southwest Airlines has frequent flights into Austin, as do a few other discount airlines, and all that competition helps keep prices down even on the legacy airlines. Austin is also only about 80 miles from San Antonio and a bit under 200 miles from Dallas. With flights into Austin normally being cheaper, it can be worth flying in even if you are headed to one of those other cities.
Entertainment in Austin
If you are a fan of live music then you’ve probably heard about Sixth Street, which runs through the heart of downtown Austin. It has a stretch of about 4 blocks where it’s literally one bar or nightclub after another, and most of them feature live music, at least on weekends.
Again, it’s all that competition that helps keep prices low, except for major national touring acts. If you are just walking down the street looking for a band that sounds good you’ll usually find that even the best places have no cover charge or a very low cover charge. In addition to that, you’ll usually see beer specials advertised outside so that a pint is often $3 or even less. Compared that to $5 or more in New York City or Los Angeles and you’ve got a great deal.
There’s also the Capitol building and Austin City Limits plus a very wide selection of cowboy hats and boots at prices so tempting that many city slickers end up coming back with a full uniform whether they were planning to originally or not.