Austin Hidden Gems

Real, locals-only spots across Austin, TX — beyond the tourist trail.

Quests on this wheel

• Call Ahead to Visit the Cathedral of Junk — A South Austin backyard sculpture built from decades of scavenged junk, climbable by appointment only — one of Austin's strangest, most personal landmarks.
• Free-Paint a Wall at HOPE Outdoor Gallery — Austin's legal graffiti park relocated to Carson Creek near the airport — a working, ever-changing outdoor gallery where the public can paint the exterior walls.
• Swim Texas's Oldest Pool at Deep Eddy — A spring-fed, art deco pool built in 1936 that predates Barton Springs — the oldest swimming pool in Texas, and a quieter alternative to the city's more famous one.
• Two-Step at The Broken Spoke Dance Hall — A real Texas honky-tonk open since 1964, with live country music and a wood dance floor that's now a designated state historic landmark.
• Chase the Waterfalls at McKinney Falls State Park — A limestone-terraced waterfall and swimming hole inside Austin's city limits, with hiking trails and a historic 1850s gristmill ruin most visitors never find.
• Walk the Sculpture Trail at Laguna Gloria — A 14-acre lakefront art park with a rotating outdoor sculpture trail and a 1916 Mediterranean-style villa — Austin's contemporary art museum hiding in plain sight.
• Float in the Spring-Fed Waters of Barton Springs Pool — A three-acre, spring-fed pool that stays around 68°F year-round right in Zilker Park — an Austin summer ritual for generations.
• Catch a Set at the Elephant Room — A basement jazz club on Congress Avenue that's run live jazz nightly since the late 1980s — no cover most nights, just good music underground.
• Dig Through the Crates at Waterloo Records — One of the last great independent record stores left in Texas, with in-store performances and staff who actually know the catalog.
• Watch the Sunset from Mount Bonnell — Climb the stone steps to Austin's highest point for a panoramic view over Lake Austin and the hill country — one of the city's oldest lookout spots.
• Snap the "I Love You So Much" Mural at Jo's Coffee — A hand-painted love note on the side wall of Jo's Coffee on South Congress that's become one of the most photographed walls in the city.
• Tour the Elisabet Ney Museum — A 19th-century sculptor's working studio, tucked in a quiet residential neighborhood and still full of her original marble and plaster figures.
• Walk the Lady Bird Lake Trail at Golden Hour — A 10-mile loop circling the lake right downtown, packed with runners and paddleboarders — best right as the sun drops behind the skyline.
• Cool Off in the Grotto at Hamilton Pool Preserve — A collapsed grotto with a waterfall pouring into a turquoise pool, about 30 minutes west of downtown. Reservations required — it sometimes closes for water quality.
• Find the Frog Mural on South Congress — Snap a photo with Jeremiah the Innocent, the giant grinning frog mural that's watched over South Congress Avenue since the 1990s.
• Spot One of Austin's Historic Moonlight Towers — Austin still runs 17 of its original 1895 cast-iron moonlight towers, tall enough to light whole neighborhoods before streetlights existed. Zilker Park's is the most famous.
• Watch the Bats Fly Out from Congress Avenue Bridge — From spring through fall, over a million Mexican free-tailed bats stream out from under the bridge at dusk — free to watch from the bridge or riverbank.
• Step Inside the Blanton's "Austin" by Ellsworth Kelly — A stand-alone building on the UT campus filled with colored glass windows and no religious affiliation — the artist's only building, finished after his death.

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