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Hey everybody! Our family is considering moving to Georgetown and I was hoping you could recommend some fun family activities when we come by for a visit next week. What are your favorite Georgetown restaurants? What parks do you frequent with your kiddos? What areas of Georgetown do you consider to be the "nicest" and why? We will be meeting with a realtor to look at homes, but in my experience, you get a more honest opinion from the locals as far as where you would actually want to live. We're your typical middle class family, the hubby works while I stay at home with our kids. We love spending time together as a family, especially outdoors, we go camping a lot! We also like to go swimming during the summer months, so recommendations on your favorite swim sports would also be greatly appreciated! Our son is in 3rd grade, and our daughter will be starting Kindergarten next year. If you like a particular elementary school in Georgetown, please let me know! Our ideal home price range is between $200,000 to $250,000. Which isn't a lot, I know, but we definitely aren't looking for a palace. Something in the 1500 to 2000 square feet range would be perfect. Really, any home is a safe neighborhood, with a nice school for our kids to attend, is all we're looking for. Oh, and we also have a boat! So for all you boaters out there, which lake do you recommend we check out? And where do you store your boat when you are not using it? Are you allowed to park your boat on your driveway, or do you rent a space? Thanks so much for all your sage advice, have a great day!
Family friend things - Town Square, San Gabriel park
Food - I always go to GTown for Monument Cafe
All around Georgetown is a nice, quaint place to live. I especially have an affinity for the older homes on the east side by town square. They aren't cheap, though. Overall Georgetown is pretty safe.
One question that needs to be answered...Why Georgetown? A G-town address can be anywhere from essentially Ronald Reagan(734) to the west and as far east as Pecan Branch Park...some areas virtually untouched except by critters, others as old as the Town Square(mid- 1800s).
From a traffic perspective, being in one area of "Georgetown" might be entirely different from another...and even in Georgetown, traffic is a main concern.
And you will get dizzy figuring out the ISDs in the area(kids go to schools, not ISDs; but you will have a hard time crossing ISD borders even though the house and school may be very close to each other).
San Gabriel Park and the playground near the Rec Center are good places to take children next week - it's supposed to be down in the 80's! Berry Springs Park is also nice. There's also Lake Georgetown (for boat AND kids) and the Good Water Trail. There's a pretty neat kid's store on the Square, All Things Kids. Inner Space Caverns is an option. Oh, Lake Granger is just down the road, too; if your use of your boat includes enjoying fishing, I've heard it's good.
For restaurants there's a bunch to choose from. I'm assuming you're talking about with kids. 600 Degrees is a good pizza place, though a bit loud for my personal taste - the pizza is amazing. Hat Creek Burger is another option that is kid friendly. Burger University on the Square is a possibility. Fullhouse BBQ is a food wagon and there are several other wagons in the same little area. For Mexican, my personal favorites are San Pedro Limon, Mariachis de Jalisco, and Rio Bravo.
I can't think of anywhere in Georgetown where I wouldn't feel safe (60's, 5'2", female).
From the real estate perspective, looking at the MLS, at $200,000 right now there's not much, but you have a decent selection between $200,000 and $250,000.
We live in Georgetown Village (west) and consider it very safe, family friendly with community feel. Our kid (in 5th) has gone to Village Elem throughout, awesome teachers, great parent involvement, it has been great. Most kids at school live in the neighborhood; no major streets to cross, so they walk or ride bikes, and play together after school. There may be a few properties around here that meet your budget/size.
We spend time at neighborhood parks/pool, the Goodwater Trail (hike/bike the trail around the lake, and/or bike the river trail between the dam and town), town square, rec center, golf course, events in town or church. There is also Berry Springs park and Berry Creek park, both are good to take kids too. Blue Hole Park is neat place to swim, but usually too crowded for us when hot outside.
We've been boaters too (swim/tube, not so much fishing); We'll go to lake G'town (easy to drop it in after work on weekdays, or late afternoon/evenings on weekends in summer to avoid crowds), or haul it to LBJ for a longer outing. Several storage facilities around; I always use a buddies ranch to keep ours. In our neighborhood, difficult to keep a boat (not allowed on driveway in front of house); only a few homes have large enough lot to keep it behind fence or behind house.
We used to camp some at surrounding state/lake parks (going to Inks Lake SP in Oct). No way in the summer (too hot), spring/fall usually too warm, and not all that scenic. We do get out to those places for day trips to hike/swim. Now we only camp in Colorado in the summer.
Downside-- G’town is growing rapidly, getting crowded.
I'll add that:
- the downtown square is great, active, with alot going on.
- the tennis (for a city it's size) to both play and watch is amazing. (Berry Creek, Gtown Tennis Center are first class & virtually all HS & MSs have courts).
- Southwestern is a nice D3 college (with lots of activities a good tennis program btw).
- I also get the "feel" that it's growing a little too fast. Pity.
OP, where's you husband's job going to be located. It might make a difference on where we recommend.
We like the square, lots of cafes and restaurants. My daughter and I like the Goldwater trail, blue hole and San Gabriel park. The Goldwater trail runs from San Gabriel park to Georgetown lake. Our favorite lake to take the boat on is lake Belton.
Wow! Thank you so much for all these amazing suggestions! Oooooo, I definitely want to see those caverns! My kids LOVE caves, we've visited several across the country already. So educational! I can't wait to try out all these suggestions! We're really excited to check out all the lakes too, there are so many! You're spoiled by big beautiful lakes! My husband actually travels for work, so he is going to be everywhere in Texas. He's an HR manager and just took a job with a food distribution company in Austin (actually his old company was merged with this new company, so it is basically the same job, just at a different location), and he'll be traveling anywhere from all over Texas, to Oklahoma, to Nebraska. But he mostly works from home. He would only have to go into Austin maybe once or twice a month. The reason we like Georgetown is due to its gorgeous downtown, its distance from Austin (we're not city folk) but not TOO distant, its many amenities/activities for families and its good schools. It just seems like a really great place to live and raise children! We're actually really excited about it! I've been to Austin only once before, but that was way way long ago. My husband and I camped in Big Hill Country (I can't even remember the name of the park we camped at) during spring break in college. We weren't far from Austin though, so we checked out the city and really liked it. This is a big adventure for our little family and we can't wait to get started! I do have one question though, why are there NO basements??? It's just so weird not to see any listings with basements! We're from Wisconsin, so there are basements everywhere. I have to admit I'm a little worried about tornadoes, I've personally experienced two firsthand in my lifetime and I couldn't imagine not having a basement to shelter in during one. Are there not a lot of tornadoes near Georgetown and Austin? We definitely get them up here! Maybe basements aren't needed down there? Anyway, thank you thank you thank you for all your wonderful advice!
Wow! Thank you so much for all these amazing suggestions! Oooooo, I definitely want to see those caverns! My kids LOVE caves, we've visited several across the country already. So educational! I can't wait to try out all these suggestions! We're really excited to check out all the lakes too, there are so many! You're spoiled by big beautiful lakes! My husband actually travels for work, so he is going to be everywhere in Texas. He's an HR manager and just took a job with a food distribution company in Austin (actually his old company was merged with this new company, so it is basically the same job, just at a different location), and he'll be traveling anywhere from all over Texas, to Oklahoma, to Nebraska. But he mostly works from home. He would only have to go into Austin maybe once or twice a month. The reason we like Georgetown is due to its gorgeous downtown, its distance from Austin (we're not city folk) but not TOO distant, its many amenities/activities for families and its good schools. It just seems like a really great place to live and raise children! We're actually really excited about it! I've been to Austin only once before, but that was way way long ago. My husband and I camped in Big Hill Country (I can't even remember the name of the park we camped at) during spring break in college. We weren't far from Austin though, so we checked out the city and really liked it. This is a big adventure for our little family and we can't wait to get started! I do have one question though, why are there NO basements??? It's just so weird not to see any listings with basements! We're from Wisconsin, so there are basements everywhere. I have to admit I'm a little worried about tornadoes, I've personally experienced two firsthand in my lifetime and I couldn't imagine not having a basement to shelter in during one. Are there not a lot of tornadoes near Georgetown and Austin? We definitely get them up here! Maybe basements aren't needed down there? Anyway, thank you thank you thank you for all your wonderful advice!
I live just outside of Jarrell, which had an F5 come through back in 1997. Yes, there are tornadoes rarely in this area (we're at the very bottom of tornado alley). Basements are not at all common in the Austin area (combination of the kind of soil we have and the fact that in Texas our ground does not freeze as deep as soil up north and so not much need for the foundation of the house to be so deep and to spend that much extra money). However, we do have a storm shelter that we put in about 3 years after the F5 came through and haven't used. You can always get a storm shelter if you want one. I know there are above ground "safe rooms" but having seen what a serious tornado can do I wouldn't want to depend on one.
OP - where in WI are you moving from? We moved here from Southern WI two years ago and would love to compare notes and show you what we have found. We are also an outdoor family and I have also traveled extensively for work so I think we can relate to your situation. Feel free to private message me if you have other questions or want to meet a friendly family from WI once you are here.
Georgetown is great. We looked there as well but settled in Hutto due to the need for a large house (big family) on a tight budget. Downtown Georgetown is beautiful, and we have enjoyed the Blue Hole a few times. Lots of good food and shops in the area as well.
School system boundaries and city/municipal boundaries do not match up here in many cases. The ISD (Independent School District) boundaries will give you an idea of what the school track is but you will need to research which local elementary school the kiddos will be assigned to based on final home choice. There are also a few charter school options you can look into. We are in a charter school due to some disappointments in the local elementary school, but seem to have found a satisfactory solution. Curricula here seems to be a little behind same ages in WI from our elementary, middle, and high school kids experience.
Most affordable homes in the range you are looking for will be in HOA subdivisions and will not allow boats or rv parking on driveways. Some are stricter than others, but the parking thing is pretty universal from what I have seen. There are storage locations readily available though. We have been to Lake Pflugerville, Granger Lake, and Lake Travis and since the rain arrived last year there is actually water in the lakes now.
If more questions arise, feel free to ask.
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