Why Choose Austin
Welcome to Austin - an oasis of culture and beauty nestled deep in the heart of Texas. Bounded by desert mountains to the west, piney woods to the east, prairies to the north and coastal plains to the south, our vibrant city is the capital of the Lone Star State and home to over 657,000. Blessed with a mild climate, Central Texas enjoys over 300 days of sunshine a year. Uniting cosmopolitan flair with a small town feel, Austin is a city like no other.
Austin sits atop the Edwards Aquifer just east of the lush and rolling Texas Hill Country, one of the state's most treasured regions. Juniper and live oak trees dot the scenery while rugged valleys of limestone carve majestic vistas into the landscape. Springtime in the Hill Country is an enchanting time when native bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush blanket the hills in blinding violets and reds. Austin is perhaps best known as the "Live Music Capital of the World" - a title well deserved. Every night, music pours out of the clubs scattered through downtown.
Austin's hot spots include Sixth Street (a Texas version of Bourbon street) and the venerable warehouse district nearby. World-renowned musicians and fabulous local acts play everything from blues to country, reggae to jazz. Music festivals and weekend events leave little time for boredom. Whether it’s the Clarksville Jazz Festival, Blues on the Green, or Old Pecan Street, Austinites find any reason to come together. Heck, we even celebrate Eeyore's birthday each Spring in Pease Park. Every March, Austin hosts the South-by-Southwest Music, Film, and Multimedia Festival, a 10-day event that attracts thousands to the Capital City. The festival includes film screenings, panel discussions, workshops, and hundreds of bands from all over the globe. Austin's film industry is blossoming. With celebrities, movie premieres, and film shoots becoming increasingly common sights, Austin is known as the "third coast" by film industry types.
A resident ballet, lyric opera company, and local symphony feature regular year-round performances. Live theater is found throughout the city in many venues, with free outdoor performances like Shakespeare in the Park, in the summer months. Austin's cultural milieu includes a number of local museums and galleries throughout the city. The LBJ Presidential Library and Museum and the Texas Memorial Museum are located on the University campus, as is the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center. This prestigious library is home to a Gutenburg Bible, the personal libraries of James Joyce and Ezra Pound, and an impressive collection of rare manuscripts and books. The Blanton Art Museum, soon to be located in a new state-of-the-art facility, houses a permanent collection spanning the history of Western civilization with over 17,000 works of art from Europe, the United States, and Latin American. Austin has over 35 art galleries, including the Austin Museum of Art and the Umlauf Sculpture Gardens.
Food lovers beware: Austin has one of the nation's highest number of restaurants per capita, with everything from Vietnamese to Jamaican. Tex-Mex and authentic Mexican interior cuisine easily found. Barbecue is never in short supply; however, true connoisseurs think nothing of the thirty-mile drive to the Salt Lick in Driftwood or Kreuz's in Lockhart. There are several health food and specialty stores throughout town, like Wheatsville and Central Market. Austin is headquarters of Whole Foods Market, a major national health food chain.
In the last decade, Austin rapidly became a leader in the high-tech industry. Pegged "Silicon Hills", our city is home to Dell Computers, National Instruments, and Advanced Micro Devices. Many large corporations, like Samsung, IBM, Motorola, and SEMATECH have established operations in Austin. Indeed, over 1000 advanced technology companies reside in Central Texas. It's no wonder Fortune magazine rated Austin as one of the "best cities to launch a business or career" for the last couple of years.
The greater Austin area is a virtual playground for the outdoor enthusiast. The hike and bike paths of Town Lake and the Barton Creek Greenbelt provide countless miles of trails. Texas summers would be unthinkable without Barton Springs, a springfed swimming hole with waters registering 68° year-round. Zilker Park and Botanical Gardens are adjacent to the springs and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildlife Center displays a beautiful array of native Texas plants. Catch spectacular sunsets from the heights of Mt. Bonnell in West Austin or better yet, join spectators on Congress Bridge for a tradition unique to Austin. Each day at sundown, one of the nation's largest urban colonies of Mexican free-tailed bats emerges from beneath the bridge for a nightly feeding. It's quite a sight to behold. Skiers, sailors, boaters, and swimmers play in the waters of Lake Travis, one of five area lakes created by the Colorado River in the Highland Lakes chain. Texans passionate love of sports is evidenced by 26 golf courses, an ice hockey team (Austin Ice Bats), and locally supported UT Longhorns.
The New York Times said Austin was "at once the least Texan and the most Texan of citys. . ." Sophisticated and laid-back, metropolitan and down-home. . . Come visit our city of paradoxes in the heart of the Texas Hill Country.
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