My college besties (minus one) visited Austin a couple weekends ago for our first annual reunion trip. Austin happens to be my hometown, so I ‘hosted’ this year and planned our visit. And I want to share everything we did with you! Plus some more recommendations that we didn’t get to. It’s a packed weekend with my favorite Austin spots and it didn’t disappoint – my friends had a great time.
A little background: my friends and I realized last year that we didn’t have an event to bring us together in the near future so we decided to designate a weekend every year and plan an annual trip to get together. This is our fourteenth year of friendship (how?!) and I think we all realize how precious our group of five is to each other.
Each year a different person chooses the location and plans the trip. We drew names at one of our dinners for the order in which we’ll plan trips. That’s it! Super low maintenance and I am excited that I know I’ll see my oldest friends/best buds at least once a year.
I hope that this inspires you to a. Visit Austin and b. Designate a weekend for your besties to get together every year.
Recommendations + links:
Breakfast/Brunch/Lunch
ATX
The Carpenter Hotel restaurant
FBG
Easy/quick/inexpensive-ish
ATX
FBG
Dinner
ATX
FBG
Wineries
FBG
Surrounding areas
To do
ATX
Walk around South Congress
Walk around Town Lake
My college besties and me (minus one) – we’re celebrating 14 years of friendship this year!
Our day-to-day itinerary:
Thursday
- Lunch at Joann’s Fine Foods
- Walked around South Congress, checked out the Austin Motel bodega + Garrett Leight
- Dinner reservations at Lin’s Asian Bar and Dim Sum – one of my top five favorite restaurants in Austin! You feel and taste the integrity and care this family owned spot puts into their food.
- After-dinner drinks: Nickel City (a must see between Halloween + Christmas – they decorate the inside like Moe’s (The Simpson’s) for Halloween and very tacky decorations for Christmas).
Friday
- (very) early AM pilates at The Peachhouse
- Brekkie at a legit diner (the only one I’ve found) in Austin: Phoebe’s (get the blood orange juice!)
- Grabbed a latte (+ matcha) from Meteor
- Quick stop at Book People to browse
- Lunch at Kinda Tropical (another one of my fave spots)
- Ran by my studio to show my college besties my work home, The Commune
- Dinner at Fonda San Miguel – an Austin institution + definitely recommend
Saturday
- Picked up ‘New York’ style bagels + coffee at Wholy Bagel / Epoch. Ran into a friend and we chatted about working out + being highly sensitive (look up if you feel extra sensitive + easily drained).
Noon: all three of my college besties arrived in Austin (they trickled in over 48 hours) and we started our road trip out to Fredericksburg. Fredericksburg is just 90 minutes east of Austin, a quaint winery town in the Texas Hill Country. It is growing, like the whole Austin area, and continues to get better and better. I highly recommend two nights if you can swing it!
- We stopped at The Salt Lick for lunch. Purists will argue that there is much better bbq in Austin, and they’re not wrong, but The Salt Lick is good bbq and a beautiful place to visit, especially in the afternoon/early evening. I love taking guests here – it’s a great experience and very accessible bbq – everyone always leaves happy!
- We finished our drive to FBG – we stayed at the Doppelhaus and I highly, highly recommend. My friend Celine owns it and renovated both units in the Bavarian style in honor of Fredericksburg’s German heritage. It’s just two blocks from the main strip and was very comfortable – a wonderful home base for our girls weekend.
- We tried to grab a table at Vaudeville and then Crossroads Steakhouse for dinner but were not successful. Fredericksburg was especially busy the weekend we went, and I’d recommend making reservations at least a few weeks in advance. We ate at Navajo Grill, which was good. If I could have a do-over I’d have made a reservation at Vaudeville.
- Back at Doppelhaus, we video chatted with our friend who couldn’t make our reunion weekend, enjoyed local wine, and caught up around the fire pit. Sitting around the fire pit was the highlight (the food was delicious, the wineries were beautiful, but I loved the late night catch-ups most of all).
Sunday
- Breakfast at Nury’s (we tried Emma + Ollie’s but they were closed for maintenance). Nury’s was really good but E+O would be my first choice.
- Our first winery stop – Southold Farm + Cellar. 10/10 would recommend. It’s a boutique winery — thoughtful touches like how they name the wine, the father/son duo that runs Southold, the adorable Wally (puppy), the small tastings (max 8 people – you need to make a reservation!), the beautiful view from the porch. I especially appreciate that they approach winemaking using close-to ancient methods. No additives, no filtering. They are trying to honor the natural process as much as possible. It was a very unique winery experience and I’d visit again in a heartbeat.
- We headed to Signor Vineyards after Southold. The grounds were beautiful, the wine was very tasty, and the charcuterie board hit the spot.
- Dinner at Otto’s, had a glass of wine at La Bergerie while we waited for our table
- More chatting + wine around the firepit 💗
Monday
- Coffee (matcha for me) and quick brekkie at Caliche & Ranch Road Roasters. Delicious! Then it was time to head to the airport.
Girls weekends are always a good idea! Can’t wait to try some of your recsmy next visit to Austin.
They are so soul giving! And yes!! So many fun recs for your next trip 🙂