Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We are taking our pre move trip in late October, over a weekend - we only have 5 days. I KNOW it's not a lot of time to be in Austin for the trip, but it's all we have.
We are going to check out rentals and schools. We are going to attempt to not go crazy and drive across the city during rush hour to see exactly what it is like and how long it takes. We are going to tour around and see places of interests.
We are a family of 4 with a 9 yr old and 3 yr old(they are NOT coming), what other things should we see and do while we are there?
I do want to go clubbing one of the nights to a Latin dance club - which ones do you suggest?
Where should we go eat? (Mexican, Irish, BBQ, Indian(?), etc)
Which bars are fun to go to?
What things in downtown Austin do recommend that we go visit?
What is essential that we go see - farmer's market?, grocery?, what?
What is a better area to stay in so we have ease of travel while there?
go visit?
What is a better area to stay in so we have ease of travel while there?
THANKS!
I would recommend getting an apartment to stay in from this site: Airbnb
I stayed in a couple of their apartments for 2 months, but they rent for as little as one day.
The Round Rock I35 area and the area just across the river in south Austin
seem to have many restaurants to choose from.
I did pretty much the same thing as you are doing, except I had 7 days to view the city and buy a house. Before I came, I took notes of everything that I did in my normal daily routine for a month where I currently lived (i.e. shopping at grocery stores, taking pets to the vet, etc.), the type of restaurants I eat at (i.e. fancy vs. family vs. fast food). I listed what I like to do for entertainment (i.e. go to moves, theater, sports, hobbies etc.). I went to my grocery store and I listed what I usually buy, the brand and the price of each item. I had another list of things that I will need (gas station, laudromat, dry cleaner, IT guy, appliance repair guy, handyman, and someplace that catered to my hobbies, etc.)
The next thing I did was to hire a Realtor to be available for me the duration of my trip. I suggest you do something similar with an apartment locator service or Realtor.
The first thing that I did when I got here was to drive around the area. I knew where I would be working, so I concentrated on being close to work because I didn't want a long commute. However, if you don't know where you need to be, you have a lot of area to cover. I spent my first day doing this and meeting with the Realtor. I went through 200 listings of homes and picked 50 that interested me. During each day we saw 7 houses. If I liked a house, we saw it again that same day. I also put in an offer on the house after the second visit. It was a very busy market when I moved here. I wound up putting in 4 offers on 4 different homes and was out bid each time. I finally had to make an offer on a home sight unseen and that was accepted.
Meanwhile, each home I put an offer in, I drove around the area. I went back to the house at night and I sat in front of the house intermitently from 6:00 PM until 10:00 PM to see what I would be living with (was the neighborhood noisy, would I have trouble sleeping there at night, etc.) I also went into the grocery stores that I would be using. I checked to make sure my products/brands were available. I wrote down how much each cost and compared it to where I currently lived.
I searched for the gas stations, dry cleaners, vet, and everything on my list of stores/services needed that I would be using at each home I made an offer. I tried to recreate what my life was like at home by making sure the services/products were available and affordable. I visited the dog parks for my dog to see what they were like. In your case, I would add going to the schools, physicians, playgrounds, parks, and any other areas you think your children would enjoy.
This did not leave me much time to see tourist areas or go clubbing. I did go to the Texas Capitol Visitors Center and took the tour, I went to the Umlauf sculpture garden which I found very restful and helped me to hear my thoughts, and I went to the LBJ museum at the university. I went to the mall near the area I would be living just to see what stores were there.
Basically, I searched to find the things I needed and to see where they were located, what they looked like, what their services/products cost and compared it to what I was comfortable with and used to.
Ditto that, a lot of the best answers to the questions you asked depend on what part of town you will be working in. Traffic is bad so you should live a reasonable distance from where you work. There are great neighborhoods in both North and South Austin, but generally it is not advisable to live North and work South or vis-versa. Life in Austin definitely requires an automobile, but you can make it less painful by living in the same part of town where you want to spend most of your time.
If the work location does not matter, you work at home, then you basically have to choose from urban, suburban or rural life styles, which also dictates what restaurants, bars, clubs, entertainment you will be closest to.
One of your earlier posts verified that you live in the USVI. I have chartered sailboats there 3 times in the past, so I have a feeling for how slow traffic moves on the island, mostly because of the narrow winding roads. Actually it moves fast for those winding, narrow roads but show in total mph. Here for an example of scale is a photo of the Austin area and the Island of St. Thomas superimposed East of Austin (see photo below). Roads are better here and traffic moves faster MPH over distances. I have known people who drove from Bastrop SE of Austin or Taylor NE of Austin into downtown every day for work. Not advisable but it worked for them as they wanted a more rural small town lifestyle.
What days will you be in Austin? There are lots of thing going on that month every week.
Also where will you be working? That makes a huge difference as you generally don't want to live on the opposite side of town from where you will be working.
Awesome ideas. I had not thought to "my normal routine". I will take note of what we do and try to recreate it.
We are not buying a home - just renting and we have a realtor already working on that. We aren't going to worry about scoping out a home just yet. Once we figure out what area we will be renting in(hopefully BEFORE, we get up there), we will do all the things you mentioned - doctors, playgrounds, sporting locations, etc.
Thank you for the info on the restaurants.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DittoDitto
I did pretty much the same thing as you are doing, except I had 7 days to view the city and buy a house. Before I came, I took notes of everything that I did in my normal daily routine for a month where I currently lived (i.e. shopping at grocery stores, taking pets to the vet, etc.), the type of restaurants I eat at (i.e. fancy vs. family vs. fast food). I listed what I like to do for entertainment (i.e. go to moves, theater, sports, hobbies etc.). I went to my grocery store and I listed what I usually buy, the brand and the price of each item. I had another list of things that I will need (gas station, laudromat, dry cleaner, IT guy, appliance repair guy, handyman, and someplace that catered to my hobbies, etc.)
The next thing I did was to hire a Realtor to be available for me the duration of my trip. I suggest you do something similar with an apartment locator service or Realtor.
The first thing that I did when I got here was to drive around the area. I knew where I would be working, so I concentrated on being close to work because I didn't want a long commute. However, if you don't know where you need to be, you have a lot of area to cover. I spent my first day doing this and meeting with the Realtor. I went through 200 listings of homes and picked 50 that interested me. During each day we saw 7 houses. If I liked a house, we saw it again that same day. I also put in an offer on the house after the second visit. It was a very busy market when I moved here. I wound up putting in 4 offers on 4 different homes and was out bid each time. I finally had to make an offer on a home sight unseen and that was accepted.
Meanwhile, each home I put an offer in, I drove around the area. I went back to the house at night and I sat in front of the house intermitently from 6:00 PM until 10:00 PM to see what I would be living with (was the neighborhood noisy, would I have trouble sleeping there at night, etc.) I also went into the grocery stores that I would be using. I checked to make sure my products/brands were available. I wrote down how much each cost and compared it to where I currently lived.
I searched for the gas stations, dry cleaners, vet, and everything on my list of stores/services needed that I would be using at each home I made an offer. I tried to recreate what my life was like at home by making sure the services/products were available and affordable. I visited the dog parks for my dog to see what they were like. In your case, I would add going to the schools, physicians, playgrounds, parks, and any other areas you think your children would enjoy.
This did not leave me much time to see tourist areas or go clubbing. I did go to the Texas Capitol Visitors Center and took the tour, I went to the Umlauf sculpture garden which I found very restful and helped me to hear my thoughts, and I went to the LBJ museum at the university. I went to the mall near the area I would be living just to see what stores were there.
Basically, I searched to find the things I needed and to see where they were located, what they looked like, what their services/products cost and compared it to what I was comfortable with and used to.
AustinSteve and CaptRN - work is from home, so that is not an issue right now. We also love the idea of our permanent home being in a rural setting but for now, don't care where our first base is. We just need a good school(elem) to work from for the first school year.
Yes, we are coming from the VI and I do recognize how amazingly HUGE Austin is compared to the VI. I have lived in cities that have 1.5m inhabitants, huge highway systems, etc. so a larger city isn't a foreign idea to me. I do realize that traffic moves super fast in Austin compared to the VI, which is one reason we want to drive across Austin in rush hour traffic to get a feel of it.
We will have an automobile once we move - couldn't get along without one here so DEF will need one up there.
Thank you all for your advice
Quote:
Originally Posted by CptnRn
Ditto that, a lot of the best answers to the questions you asked depend on what part of town you will be working in. Traffic is bad so you should live a reasonable distance from where you work. There are great neighborhoods in both North and South Austin, but generally it is not advisable to live North and work South or vis-versa. Life in Austin definitely requires an automobile, but you can make it less painful by living in the same part of town where you want to spend most of your time.
If the work location does not matter, you work at home, then you basically have to choose from urban, suburban or rural life styles, which also dictates what restaurants, bars, clubs, entertainment you will be closest to.
One of your earlier posts verified that you live in the USVI. I have chartered sailboats there 3 times in the past, so I have a feeling for how slow traffic moves on the island, mostly because of the narrow winding roads. Actually it moves fast for those winding, narrow roads but show in total mph. Here for an example of scale is a photo of the Austin area and the Island of St. Thomas superimposed East of Austin (see photo below). Roads are better here and traffic moves faster MPH over distances. I have known people who drove from Bastrop SE of Austin or Taylor NE of Austin into downtown every day for work. Not advisable but it worked for them as they wanted a more rural small town lifestyle.
We will be in Austin from a Thursday through Tuesday. No fixed dates yet. While being able to go out for a nice dinner or dancing would be GREAT, it is not a top priority. Getting a place for rental, figuring out which school our dd would attend, and what docs they need(she is homeschooled now), and getting her enrolled in a swim team take priority.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BevoLJ
What days will you be in Austin? There are lots of thing going on that month every week.
Also where will you be working? That makes a huge difference as you generally don't want to live on the opposite side of town from where you will be working.
If you want to do a year around swim team and work from home I would look into where those teams are located and look around in those areas for houses. Otherwise you are going to be driving for hours to get there. Nitro swimming has two locations and I know lots of folks use them.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
