Good morning! Happy SPRING! Coming to y’all to chat about our “very first weekend getaway”! Okay yes, not our first weekend getaway of course but it is our first official “John & Brittany’s U.S. Bucket List Weekend Getaway” trip. Several months ago we decided to really take advantage of our every other kidless weekends… ya know the ones you absolutely HATE post divorce but then you eventually just learn to make the best of a little quiet time… yes, those. We decided to embrace those Friday afternoon to Monday morning breaks that we aligned shortly after we first started dating and check off a few boxes on each of our bucket short lists. Nothing too crazy but just places we’d love to see that we’d never make a full trip out of but would love just a day or two to peruse a sight or a city.
A few months back when we decided to make our lists and to make a point to book these getaways, I decided to also try out A CHEAP FLIGHT MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM I had been wanting to join for some time now. We are huge on credit card travel points but a cheap flight is a cheap flight! Plus, that would free up points for hotels those weekends instead! The way the program works is that you enter your ideal fly-out city(s) (for us I chose Atlanta) and then they will e-mail out deals for trips departing from your chosen airport. Shortly after we joined, Austin, Texas popped up and I booked away!!!
P.S. For those who’ve asked, Capitol One is the best overall for reward points in my opinion! Their points are 2X on ALL PURCHASES! I just got one for our business but up until now I have been using our local back card Synovus which had given us 1.5X purchases in points. I kind of have a little “system” I’ve created that maxes out points for us since I obviously LOVE to travel! So we are now transitioning over to using Capitol One for most everything (2X points) but then Synovus still for gas (you can choose one category for 3X points!) and then American Express for restaurants, grocery stores and airfare (3-4X points for those categories!)
LINKING MY CHEAP FLIGHT “SECRET” HERE!
As always, I LIVE BY your recommendations ALWAYS so if you can think of any amazing places we should add, DO SHARE! Here is a peek at our “short list” of destinations … Sedona, Grand Canyon, Mt. Rushmore, Portland, San Juan Islands, New Mexico, Boston, Mackinaw Island, Pittsburgh- Falling Water, Glacier National Park, Yellowstone, Napa, San Diego, Martha’s Vineyard and Maine.
P.S.S. and YES, we only took ONE CARRY-ON total for both of us plus my little packing secret… this UNDERSEAT CARRY-ON PERSONAL ITEM…
John’s Tee / His Favorite Jeans / Underseater
Our Hotel…
I went round and round trying to decide on a hotel but ending up going with one of your suggestions on IG stories… HOTEL ZAZA. I would absolutely recommend this hotel. It was beautiful, in a great downtown location and the rooms are beautiful!
Our Hotel Details… CLICK HERE!
Another hotel that came very highly recommended was the Austin Proper Hotel! It is STUNNING and I had actually booked it for our stay when we were headed to Austin two weeks prior but when our trip got bumped, their rates went way way higher so I changed it up. Definitely look into that one too though if you are headed to Austin. It was designed by Kelly Wearstler and it is GORGEOUSSSS!
We also enjoyed quite a few drinks at their 11th story pool/restaurant/bar area! John’s go-to is an Old Fashioned and mine is a French 75!
Before I really start chatting about Austin, let me share a little disclaimer… First, sometimes I feel like weather can really make or break a trip and an overall experience and it was pretty chilly and dreary during most of our stay. Secondly, I think John and I had heard how fabulous Austin is for so so long that we had maybe built up a much different image of what we thought it would be than we should have. And finally, FOOD. We are such foodies and I think we sometimes mess up a true food experience in a city by “snacking” and app-hopping a lot. Meaning that we sometimes miss out on good, big meals and a true restaurant experience by doing that too often. But that is honestly our favorite ever! A drink and app here… a drink and app there…
Our first stop of the trip before we even checked into our hotel was Matt’s Famous El Rancho. I think this was probably overall the MOST SUGGESTED restaurant on my IG story questionnaire! I cannot say that either of us were super impressed but once again, maybe because we only got margaritas and shared nachos. It seemed to be a very very popular, authentic Mexican hot spot!
My Crop Top / Wide Leg Pants
Our First Day…
After checking into our hotel after Matt’s El Rancho, we headed to another of your suggestions… Rainey Street!
Rainey Street gave us mega Southern college town vibes. Blame it on our 40’s! 😉 Some of the bars are nicer than others but it had that overall feel. Along this little strip there is everything from super cute little historic homes to trendy container buildings that have all been turned into bars. Worth a stop for sure but we didn’t hang out in that area for too too long. We did stop and get apps and drinks at Anthem toward the end of the street and it was very much our vibe! Super cute decor and yummy food and drinks!
My Crop Top / Wide Leg Pants
John’s Tee / His Favorite Jeans
For dinner, we kind of dropped the ball on making reservations which I would very much advise doing in advance so we just had sushi close to the hotel. It was okay but not a place I would necessarily recommend…
Day Two…
Our second day in Austin was much more of a full day and we kind of found our groove on where to go and what to do. I will say that in my opinion, either visit Austin for maybe two days and bop around the same areas we did OR stay longer and venture outside the city. Soooo many recommendations were outside the city but we just didn’t feel like we had long enough to spend a lot of time in an Uber or in renting a car. Everything from Lake Travis to local wineries/vineyards seemed amazing but two days just wasn’t enough for that!
My Dress
We started our second day at Forthright for brunch and it was EXCELLENT!!! Their latte with honey, cinnamon and vanilla beans was one of the best coffees I have ever had!
From there we took an Uber to another area someone local had suggested and after walking around a bit we ended up at Easy Tiger where we sat outside and played cards for quite a while! Cute setup and fun atmosphere…
From there, we headed back downtown and had lunch at Velvet Taco which was AMAZING! Quite honestly probably the best meal we had in Austin. It was very casual and more of a “quick bite” kind of place but the tacos were SO GOOD! We walked down a bit from there and hung out at Punchbowl Social for a bit which was THE BEST TIME! We had a few cocktails and played everything from darts to foosball. We love getting a little competitive and playful so it was very much our speed…
As I always say, John and I love app/drink hopping and we almost always bring a deck of cards. One of the places we loved most for doing so was a place just around the corner from our hotel called Corner Restaurant. They had such a fun and cozy outdoor space that we actually went to and hung out at twice over our three days in Austin!
Day Three…
By the time of our third day rolled around, we finally hit up a much recommended area that we should’ve visited day one! It is the strip along S Congress Avenue that begins with this gorgeous mural along the side of the Kendra Scott store…
My Crop Top / My Jeans / John’s Tee / His Jeans
Along this street there are so many cute stores and amazing restuarants! We had brunch at another much recommended spot… Trudy’s and it was EXCELLENT!
Their sweet potato beignets were huge and TO DIE FOR!
We ate and shopped and stopped for cocktails and then ended up at Perla’s for lunch and it was WONDERFUL as well! There are so many places in Austin with such fun outdoor vibes that I know would’ve been a hundred times as fabulous had the weather been better…
From there we stopped at the “famous” Jo’s for an Iced Turbo coffee and a little outdoor country music. John’s fave! 😉
We even had a sweet lady stop and randomly offer to snap our pic…
My Crop Top / My Jeans / John’s Tee / His Jeans
Overall we had a WONDERFUL time in Austin! Like I’d said above, I do think that weather and such played a role in us not loving it quite as much as we thought BUT I am glad we checked it off of our list! See y’all next time! Where should we head next???
XOXO, Brittany Palazzo
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