One month in Austin...

[sendkcone]

I know it sounds nuts leaving the mountains in the summer. It's all about the lack of opportunities to travel when the kids are in school.

[sendkcone]

Thanks for the rv and camping tips by the way.

[atxcio]

You know, you might want to try asking in the Texas forum. When I was thinking about it, I really don't have any recommendations on camping/cabins in the Hill Country because I've never done it... because I live here. Maybe someone in DFW/Houston who comes to visit might know better.

But I will say seriously consider a motel, B&B or at least air conditioned cabin! The heat isn't bad at night or in the early morning, but you will literally be driven out of your campsite by the heat from about 9:30AM-8PM.

[hoffdano]

Inks Lake, part of the same chain of lakes that includes Lake Travis, is next to Longhorn Caverns and Inks Lake State park. It is a pretty lake, not big, and the caverns are fun to visit.

I am not a camper so I have little to say about campgrounds. But most of the state parks offer camping of some sort.

Inks Lake State Park — Texas Parks & Wildlife Department

Link to Enchanted rock area:

Enchanted Rock State Natural Area — Texas Parks & Wildlife Department

Other fun places in Austin include Barton Springs pool, a spring fed swimming pool, nearby Lady Bird Lake (rent a canoe), Mt. Bonnell, a scenic site overlooking Lake Austin, The Oasis, a restaurant/shopping complex on a cliff hundreds of feet above Lake Travis.

For some reason most of my suggestions involve water (!).

[mark311]

Originally Posted by sendkcone

I know it sounds nuts leaving the mountains in the summer. It's all about the lack of opportunities to travel when the kids are in school.

Most of us are looking for ways to escape the heat for a month during the summer. Great suggestions so far especially Schlitterbahn. I would also take the 3 hour drive over to Houston and stay there for a few days. Houston has some pretty good museums that kids (and adults) enjoy like the Space Center, the Aquarium, the Museum of Natural Sciences, along with a pretty nice Zoo that they've added some nice new exhibits to over the last couple years. San Antonio is about a 90 minute drive away and could kill a couple days by visiting the RiverWalk/Alamo area.

If your family includes any sports fans, the Round Rock Express is a great family oriented AAA baseball team for the Rangers organization. Seats are inexpensive and they do a great fireworks show after each Friday night game. Also, hitting a Rangers game in Arlington on the way down would be fun as well.

Just remember that the AC in your RV needs to be a good quality one so it can have a temperature differential that is adequeate for the Texas heat during the summer if you plan on camping in the RV. For example, if it's 103 degrees one of the days that you're here, your RV AC needs to have a temerature differential of about 25 degrees to be fairly comfortable. If it can only do 20 then you might have some issues. Replace your AC filters right before this trip so it will run as efficiently as possible.

I would expect to be moving your RV around quite a bit. The areas that you'll visit around the Austin area are great for 1 to 3 day stays, but my opinion is that you'll want to move on to a different area by the 3rd day.

[sendkcone]

Thank you for the recommendations. This is sounding like a good time but the concerns about the heat have got me looking at vacation rentals instead of rv parks. My wife will be pleased.

Any neighborhoods in the city that I should focus on? Walk to a pool or Barton Springs kind of neighborhood?

[mamacatnv]

I've lived here now, out in the Hill Country in Marble Falls for a little over a month but 5 years ago we brought our kids then ages 8 and 17 to the area for a 10 day vacation in late July. Yes, we melted but we still consider it one of the best family vacations ever.
Here are some of the things we did - some are touristy and cheesy but we loved it anyway.

We stayed in a rental apt. at the Schlitterbahn water park in New Braunfels. We bought season passes so we had daily access to the park.

We rented tubes and tubed the Comal River- can't come to Central Texas and not go tubin!

Snake Farm in New Braunfels - cheesy but really neat at the same time

Natural Bridges Caverns, New Braunfels - we did the main tour and the flashlight tour of one of the smaller caverns, the kids also did the zip line and we bought a bucket of dirt to do some mining. The caverns were awe inspiring, we loved them. LongHorn Caverns are now on our to do list.

We visited the drive through animal safari also in New Braunfels, also a bit cheesy but the ostrich encounter still makes us laugh to this day.

We took a boat to see the bats in Austin at the Congress Ave Bridge

Visited the Alamo, St. Francis Cathedral, the outdoor market and took the River Walk boat tour in San Antonio

Sea World San Antonio was a fun day too.

We ate BBQ at SaltLick in Driftwood and wandered out to LockHart for more BBQ at Blacks and had a very nice dinner at the Gristmill in Gruene prounounced Green. Adorable town with shops and a true Texas dance hall.

As a non native who came from a high altitude area (N. NV) I can say that the lodging choice absolutely should have the best AC you can get your hands on. Its bad enough to be melting during the day but unlike the mountains you come from it does not cool off here when the sun goes down. Its hot all the time, really hot and really humid ALL THE TIME

Bring your bug spray and sun screen and prepare to meet some of the nicest folks I have ever encountered, eat some amazing food and view sights that are just awesome!

[sendkcone]

That is my kind of trip. We should have more than enough To see and do at this point. You've all been very kind.