re: Need Austin area advice

Here's the thing about Austin.

It used to be a few hundred thousand people and the infrastructure reflects that. With about 1,000,000 in Austin proper now, it's a clusterfrick any time, regardless of what's going on.

In other words, F1 and a big game will simply make what already sucks suck even worse.

I-35 goes right up the gut and 1 on the west side is the other main North/South road.

For East/West, you'll have to be on the south side 71/290 or 183 on the north side (when it turns NW). Everything in between, for the most part is surface streets and it's a bitch to get to any of the major roads.

Pick a place outside of town that will allow you a straight shot into Austin proper on a major road.

Leander/Cedar Park, Round Rock (Domain is not in Round Rock, BTW) on the North/NW sides.

Personally, I'd go West and find an AirBnb/Hotel out in the Hill Country, tool around out there until you move into Austin for the game. An alternative would be Buda, Kyle, or San Marcos (on I-35 between Austin and San Antonio). From there, you can drive to both the Hill Country AND Austin pretty easily. Also shoot up 35 and then out to the airport (or hell, fly out of San Antonio).

Distance from Austin/UT isn't really the issue since you're going to be in the car for a bit regardless. The only difference is moving vs. sitting in traffic (which is why I'd wouldn't hesitate to stay an hour outside of town).

The largest traffic days for AUS airport are usually the day after F1 every year. Add in the UT game and the place is going to be a madhouse. Especially with how well UGA fans travel.

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The largest traffic days for AUS airport are usually the day after F1 every year

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great lol

It looks like the entire event lasts 17 - 20 (Thursday - Sunday), so you think that Monday the 21st will be the bigger madhouse than Sunday? Myself and I'm sure thousands of other UGA and Texas fans will be planning to fly out of AUS on Sunday so hopefully a lot of the F1 folks are still hanging around that day.

The more I think about this, the more I am truly perplexed how the decission makers in charge let this happen. I know this is off topic for the travel board but I mean do the league commissioners (and the school ADs) not look at stuff liek this when scheduling? Surely you 'd think they could've given texas an away game for that weekend instead of this.

Adding 5 hours of travel on a three day weekend sounds terrible.

Let's not oversell it. Austin is a tech city so lots of people still work remotely. Friday isn't going to be terrible getting around. Saturday isn't a work day. Everyone going to F1 is going to be leaving the city to go to BFE.

I-35 is always awful. Stay away from that road. A shite road with shitty drivers.

If you want to be super practical, look at the Hyatt Place or Residence Inn off 2222/Four Points/FM 620/River place. Or check AirBnB if something is available around there.

Sure it isn't a hip area, but you're 20-25 minutes from downtown, 15 from Domain, 30 minutes from Treaty Oak, Fitzhugh, Jester King etc, 15 minutes from launching a boat at the lake, and avoid I35, or having to cross into downtown from the south, or use 183 etc. Can totally avoid Cesar Chavez (clusterfrick) when heading into downtown, and so on.

ETA: Can even check Arboretum. Little further north, so adjust timings a bit.

Don't go to Pflugerville/Round Rock/Georgetown unless you absolutely can't find a place closer. That's entirely too far to enjoy the city/game AND it's just sprawl. Hill Country offers nice views (and so does Austin anywhere west of Mopac to the river/lake) but distance will of course be a factor out there. Only you can decide that.

Ya Vonn Lanes is nice and you can booze on it, but it's also going to drop him off downtown, which adds some logistical hurdles for picking up a ride to the Hill Country if that's where he's staying.

Airport straight to downtown? I'd absolutely consider it, but again, nothing will erase the extra 3 hours each way on a short weekend. That's why the airlines can charge so much more because they know you're generally time constrained.

The biggest thing anyone can do is join a rental car loyalty program. It's free and you skip the check-in line. No status required.It's unbelievable how many people don't do it

To illustrate, some years ago to my horror I forgot to do exactly that. Get to the line in Phoenix and it's easy an hour long line to get the car. I joined while in the line, got out, and had my car within 5 minutes.

As I said before, I avoid I35 like the plague.

Waze will obviously help, but an alternative may be to take Lamar down and then turn east into downtown.

Texas fans show up late from my experience. When LSU played here in 2019, we parked on a perimeter campus road (Dean Keaton) basically next to the Gameday area at 9am. Texas fans didn't start showing until 3pm or so for tailgating (night game that day).

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It looks like the entire event lasts 17 - 20 (Thursday - Sunday), so you think that Monday the 21st will be the bigger madhouse than Sunday? Myself and I'm sure thousands of other UGA and Texas fans will be planning to fly out of AUS on Sunday so hopefully a lot of the F1 folks are still hanging around that day.

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F1 race is Sunday afternoon, if you're leaving on Sunday AM you should only have the standard game weekend additional traffic which won't be too bad.

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Texas fans show up late from my experience. When LSU played here in 2019, we parked on a perimeter campus road (Dean Keaton) basically next to the Gameday area at 9am. Texas fans didn't start showing until 3pm or so for tailgating (night game that day).

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We went for Texas/K-State which was an 11:00a kick and parked 4 blocks from the stadium at 8:45a

Thanks everyone for all the input. I'm sure I'll check back in next fall on restaurants and other touristy stuff to do.

I booked one-way flights this morning into San Antonio for that Thursday so that's another box checked. Still have to get rental car, 1-night lodging in SA, and flight home. That last one will be the major headache as I'm ideally going to fly out of Austin but I already know it's going to be outrageous. I used some credit card points for the San Antonio flight so hopefully that'll help offset some of the pain to come from the Austin flight.