As we moved to the United States a few weeks before, we took advantage of a conference my wife was attending in the Texan city to spend a few days there.
General organization
While my wife’s conference starts on Tuesday, we chose to leave on Friday evening and spend a long weekend there, Monday being Easter Monday.
Flights
As far as flights are concerned, my wife is flying on Delta, so I will follow her for the outbound trip by booking Economy Comfort one-way.
For the return trip, it will be United First with a connection at Chicago O’Hare.
Hotel
For the hotel, I obviously prefer Marriott Bonvoy, and the choice is extensive. I will choose the Otis Hotel, an Autograph Collection which has good reviews.
Restaurants
As for the restaurants, I followed both my intuition and their evaluation on OpenTable. However, I will make some changes on the spot related to our evolving activities.
On our first night, I will cancel the reservation for us to have dinner at the hotel, and will modify the second night’s reservation to accommodate our desire for a Barbecue.
Activities
The city of Austin is quite small. Also, our program will be light enough to allow us to rest as well.
Day 1
For this first day, we will walk around downtown Austin from our hotel.
We will start the day with the Texas Capitol, the state parliament of which Austin is the capital. The building is impressive, and we learnt a lot… Did you know that Texas was a French colony? Not me!
We go on with the Museum of Modern Art, at least the part located in downtown of this institution. Very interesting exhibition of the artist Eamon Ore-Giron and of all the periods of his life. Very interesting.
The rest of Downtown Austin is a bit deserted, the center of Austin has not yet benefited from the gentrification of the American cities downtowns.
We will finally stop in front of The Driskill Hotel unfortunately in a bad neighborhood in spite of its beautiful historical facade and from now on affiliated with Hyatt.
Day 2
We will start the morning with a visit of the University of Texas at Austin campus. The campus is large and its discovery under a very temporary sun will be pleasant.
We will then visit the LBG Presidential Library, a sort of museum that traces the life of former President Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy after his assassination in the streets of Dallas. Very interesting!
We will finish the day sipping cocktails before going to dinner at a Barbecue restaurant.
Day 3
Day 3 will be dedicated to rest, my wife having to work remotely in the morning.
We will go for a walk in the late morning before going to the movies in the early afternoon.
We will finish the day with a dinner in a Southern Food restaurant.
Final itinerary
Here is the final itinerary of this trip:
