Hotel at a Glance: Holiday Inn Austin-Town Lake

The Holiday Inn Austin-Town Lake is perched right on Lady Bird Lake, which puts a whole host of activities right at its doorstep. Visitors can explore the 10-mile hike-and-bike trail that winds around the lake, or head out on the water in a kayak or on a standup paddleboard. The lake is also the perfect vantage point for viewing the bats that live under the Congress Avenue Bridge—the world’s largest urban bat colony and a distinctly Austin attraction.

• Take a dip in the heated outdoor rooftop pool.
• Tour the Texas State Capitol, located only 2 miles from the hotel.
• Grab a drink at the cocktail lounge, or enjoy classic American food at the onsite Boathouse restaurant.
• Brush up on presidential history at the Lyndon Johnson Presidential Library, just a 7-minute drive away.
• Explore Zilker Park with its 350 landscaped acres and spring-fed Barton Springs Pool—only 3 miles from the hotel.

Austin, Texas: Proudly Offbeat State Capital and Live-Music Capital of the World

Built in 1888, the pink-granite Texas Capitol building in Austin is the largest state capitol in the country and even taller than the US Capitol in Washington, DC—proof that everything is, indeed, bigger in Texas. Yet Austin stands apart from the rest of the state politically and culturally, a fact that locals seem to revel in. “Keep Austin Weird” is a popular motto here, appearing on bumper stickers and T-shirts. The weirdness manifests itself all over town, where you’ll find a death-metal-themed pizza place, a cathedral made of garbage, and the Museum of Natural & Artificial Ephemerata, which displays an 1893 World’s Fair stereograph and one of Marilyn Monroe’s cigarette butts. Even nature plays along: each night at dusk (from mid-March to November), an estimated 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats emerge from underneath the Congress Avenue Bridge to go hunting for food.

Austin has been dubbed the Live Music Capital of the World thanks to the city’s nearly 200 venues, where bands play everything from blues to punk rock. In fact, Travel + Leisure magazine named Austin one of America’s Best Music Cities, calling it the “mother ship for indie rock and alternative-country types.” Stubb’s Bar-B-Q books some of the bigger acts that come to town, including the White Stripes, Johnny Cash, and Snoop Dogg. In addition to the live entertainment taking place on a nightly basis, two massively popular music festivals—South by Southwest and Austin City Limits—draw in huge crowds each year.

The University of Texas brings its share of cultural attractions to the city as well. For starters, the sprawling campus is home to the Blanton Museum of Art, which boasts one of the country’s most impressive private collections of old-master paintings. UT-Austin is also where you’ll find the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library, dedicated to preserving and exhibiting artifacts related to the 36th president.