A girl weekend in ATX

Sometimes you need a weekend away…

The trip: My friend and I decided a month or so into the new year that we should sneak away for a much deserved girl weekend. It didn’t take us long to decide on Austin TX! It’s only a 2 hour drive from us and a not so expensive weekend getaway (which is always nice when you’re in your 20’s). We got a list together of what we knew we wanted to do, on that list was shopping (obviously) and we agreed we had to do a hike as well. Before we knew it the weekend was here and we were ready to take ATX by the horns!

Where to stay: We decided on Hotel Granduca it was the perfect in-between for us, located in the hill country and only about a 10 mile drive into the city which was perfect since we wanted to do a hike that was outside of the city limits. The property was gorgeous and the staff were incredibly helpful in every way! We originally wanted to stay in the city in one of the boutique hotels. We looked into Hotel St. Cecilia and Hotel San Jose which were both winners but we will save these for the next trip.

Hotel Links: Hotel St. Cecilia, Hotel Granduca ,Hotel San Jose

Where to eat: So I’ll just tell you where we ate because there are so many awesome restaurants in this city! We ate the best pizza at Homeslice pizza, we are pretty simple so we split a pizza half cheese half pepperoni (about 3-4 slices each). We had a great sit down dinner at Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill. We had our favorite meal (brunch) at Magnolia Cafe, where I believe I had the best banana chocolate chip pancake ever! You can’t go to Austin without having a taco right? While they do have one of these in Houston it is by far one of my favorite taco places of all time, The Velvet Taco! You guys this place, I mean I can’t even tell you, so we started out modest and ordered one taco each, then we both looked at each other and in that moment I believe our brain waves connected and we both got up and placed another order! If body by tacos is a real thing we definitely embodied it that night! If you’re anything like me or I believe the majority of the world doughnuts are  one of life’s little gifts! And fancy gourmet doughnuts… I mean there are no words! So if you’re a doughnut lover you must try Gourdough’s it’s a cute little doughnut truck that has an outdoor seating area/ patio. Best doughnut ever! The last place we indulged was on our way home In-N-Out Burger (so I could finally say I’ve had it).

What to do: So as I stated earlier we knew we wanted to shop and hike. So if you’re looking for some awesome shopping here’s what I would recommend. I love boutique shopping so if you too love that, then shopping on SoCo (south congress) is the best place, it can be a bit pricey but you will definitely find some one of a kind pieces, I can say I was definitely NOT disappointed! The next place I would recommend would be The Domain, this is a fun mix of mainstream shopping and boutiques. I didn’t get a chance to shop here but it will be a must do on my next trip. (Also note The Velvet Taco is located here)!

Hiking: We decided on the Hamilton Pool Preserve. We loved this place, it’s very short hike to the pool/waterfall and totally worth it and will satisfy your instagram dreams ( if you’re a picture geek like me). There is another trail that is a bit longer that goes along the river which was a nice hike as well. We did both and we didn’t regret it. If you choose to do this hike there is a $15 fee per car (cash only) and the pool is not always open for you to swim. Unfortunately when we went we couldn’t swim (the water is crystal clear and very tempting on a hot day). Even so this was one of the most rewarding hikes I’ve done.

The murals: So we knew we wanted to do this but I did not realize these are not all in one place but we had fun finding them and even ran into some fun people from Cali at the you’re my butter half wall!

How to get there: Well for us, Austin is in our backyard so we drove and that also provided us the opportunity to stop at the huge outlets that are about 40 minuets down the highway in San Marcos!

Other things to note: Wear comfortable shoes because you will be walking quite a bit especially if your going into the city. This is Texas so the weather can be unpredictable be prepared for anything… when we arrived it was 80ish degrees when we left let’s just say I had to go to the Gap and pick up a jacket… there was also rain in the forecast for the day we planned our hike luckily it didn’t come until later on that night, which explains the temperature  change.

Also note* Take a friend with you who will let you do crazy things like… letting you  stand on their seats and hang out of their sunroof to capture the perfect picture! Having friends like this only makes trips like this better!

Regardless this is your girl getaway so don’t let anything ruin it for ya, if all else fails just have a cocktail!

xoxo