Visit Austin - The DON'Ts of Visiting Austin, Texas

Jocelyn is a brave woman eating barbecue in a flowy white blouse.

Look, this video has aged incredibly well and is seriously great advice today in 2023. And on the taco point YEEEESSSSSS breakfast tacos...do it...and the best tacos Ive ever had in my life were like $2 a piece out of a food truck beside the old Budget Lodge on 35. Maaaaan. Real friggin tacos.

> uber into downtown esp during rush hour
> breakfast tacos from trucks

Back in the day when 99% of Austin was actually Austinites and it was weird. There was Armadillo Headquarters, The Stallion (THE best chicken fried steak), but it's gone now to make room for "progress". Lucy in Disguise was a costume shop with the best costumes and accessories. It's gone. In fact most of the great shops are no longer on SoCo. There has been so, so many icons ruined, destroyed, demolished to make room for "progress". Most of us don't like "progress". It's ruined Austin. So many immigrants have destroyed Austin's personality. It's no longer Austin. It's a poor replica. Yes traffic is horrible!! Too many immigrants. Traffic is bad 24/7.

Now I need the Do in Austin!

Do not go to a mass produced Torchy taco, geez!

Sam's BarBQ is the best. Òpen all night and Most of the Day. ❤ Go to Antones. Hang out at Stevie Ray's Statue. ❤ My Sweet Brother❤❤ We like to stay Wierd❤

Wanna find a "unicorn"? Ask them to spell Pflugerville. You'll find a native Austinite.

I love your energy!
Great content, thank you for your amazing channel! 😃😃

Do NOT go downtown and expect to be safe. It’s the worst downtown in terms of safety I’ve ever seen. Homeless criminals, thugs, wannabe gangbangers, lots of shootings and fights that don’t end well. It’s gross.

As a Texas Mexican I refuse to eat torchys

Oooh I saw a dead bat in January lieing on the ground :O The little guy missed his dudes while they left to Mexico?

We also had the problem with the car. We wanted to enjoy the park and the way along the river but we needed to park somewhere in the city and we had like the time always in our head.

The #1 "Don't of Visiting Austin" is don't go there. It is sadly a California-ized city, full of garbage, low income and drug use. Almost anything outside of Austin is 10x more Texas genuine.

My DON'T contributions:
DO NOT GO TO A HONKY TONK IN AUSTIN AND TRY TO LINE DANCE. You can do that in Dallas and Houston. In Austin, at the live music venues, they partner dance (two-step, swing, waltz, etc.) and the dancers do not appreciate you taking up dance floor space with that silly business, which is why you will find that no native/local will join in. If you don't know how to partner dance but cannot resist the music, shake your groove thang in the middle of the dance floor so you don't impede the two-steppers from circling around the floor. If standing, don't stand on the dance floor or in front of the stage--stand to the back or side.
DO NOT TAKE YOUR DRINK ONTO THE DANCE FLOOR!
Do enjoy watching all the wonderful Austin dancers do their thing!

As a Canadian... This is making me want to visit Austin, Texas.

l found public transport pretty efficient in Austin.

I love your energy! My husband and I will be traveling to Austin at the end of the month. Super excited!!!

The girl insinuating the homeless in the dirty 6 are quirky & like “cool man I’ll ask somebody else” is giving dangerously false information.

The "beggars." That was a nice touch.

I feel like everything he talked about is new Austin, I would go there for the parks, dive bars… skip food trucks , festivals and six street all together

Franklin. No s

You forgot another big don't: DON'T WEAR OU SOONERS GEAR IN AUSTIN!

The part about cops pulling people over for speeding is no longer true, unfortunately. Traffic enforcement is incredibly lacking in Austin.

Who expects never to wait in line? Totally normal!
:)

Don’t eat brisket with a knife and fork! Otherwise, nice video.

KUTX--Awesome!

I must add to the young lady's comment...Austin's live AWESOME musicians (Black Pumas as example) was ALL OVER AUSTIN not just downtown. There are still amazing musicians all over Austin but they ,too have had a hard time keeping up with the growing expense of Austin. We miss them dearly, they were a huge component of the "Weird Austin Experience". Love u all, but mostly , Love you that Keep Austin Weird!!!!--Even our new transplant families

OMG...sooo cool and we LOVE our visitors but KEEP AUSTIN WEIRD is REAL!!! I was born here but i love when those that are not from here take the "weirdness" lightly. We love our visitors but please do not mistake neighborly kindness for fools. This was once a "hippie-town" that myself ( as a black woman) has always loved but please do not disrespect those that feel upset that we feel we are being pushed out of our neighborhoods and our Austin culture . Our black culture is almost obsolete. Many blacks have moved to Houston or Dallas that were born here. Mostly because of our new residents have caused the cost of living beyond what we can afford. Although, I must say that many of those that are black from Austin are some of the highest educated Blacks in Texas. I was born at Seton on 38th St, my grandfather was one of the most popular pastors of baptist churches here. I have been raised some time as a military kid so i am aware of many other cultures- but this is my home. Coming from a large black family that has been here before the Civil War we are fighting to salvage what we have fought and died for. We just ask to respect this.

Avoiding places without lines isn't the best advice.; Several places without lines that are more than decent.

Here is a note for Austin drivers.
Please get out of your insignificant self-entitled bubbles while you are driving.
Use your turn signals. IT IS THE LAW!!! It is also courteous and may save you from killing someone.
DONT TEXT AND DRIVE. AGAIN, IT IS AGAINST THE LAW. Also, it is being a responsible driver who cares about others.
DO THE DAMN POSTED SPEED LIMIT. AGAIN, IT IS THE LAW. The roads ARE NOT your personal dragstrip. Also, it is being kind and courteous towards others.
See, you, yourself, are not nearly as special and as important as you think you are or wish you were. That is the truth. You are not above the law, and when you are blatantly breaking them, accidents happen. An accident you, in your insignificant self-entitled bubble, could have prevented. A life you could have saved.
So, pull your heads out of your asses and act like a human being!!

Great video! While pointing out all of the don'ts you managed to highlight many of the do's

This guy helped destroy austin. Thanks alot. Keep austin weird, should mean support the local buisness, not, ITS A MARKETING PLOY....

Torchys tacos is so Gentrified, it's pronounced Tahhhh-Co.

Go to Lockhart

As someone who grew up in the Austin TX area and has family that live there, there was a lot wrong about this video. Also the BEST donuts in the world are found just outside of Austin in a city called Round Rock. Lone Star Bakery makes the hands down BEST donuts in the world. They are orange due to the natural ingredients in them. When they are 4 days old they are better than any other donut shops are fresh. I get a dozen "Round Rock Donuts" at a time and they melt in your mouth. They are easily worth the 1 hr line to get them.

watch out for football game weekends, and summer, it's very hot, and be prepared for heavy traffic and tolls

Training Chickens to Cook Steak is Difficult. Appreciate their effort !!! 🐔

I’m a local grew up there and My parents still live there. Austin’s changed.. But I agree with everything you all said.

Honestly Austin was once a great place to live but now absolutely sucks...

Really great video. Thanks!

Austin is definitely an "in the know" city, otherwise it is going to come off pretty similar to Dallas or Ft Worth. The best stuff you are going to find in out-of-the-way places that will change with time. For instance, when I was there back in summer 2019, East Chavez was a big deal, now many of those places are gone. More recently, I found a seemingly normal street in the North (Rundberg) that happened to be near my hotel turns into a Latin food truck haven on the weekends.

Why does nobody mention the Ironworks Barbecue at 2nd and Red River Sts? I used to love that place... and I remember Charlotte!

I love Austin as a city and can't wait to be back. Being from NM/TX it's close to home but definitely carries its own vibe. As a Tech alum, though I've got to say horns down and guns up!

A few pro tips from a 3rd generation Austinite, having had lived here for all of my 39 years of life.

1. Get used to the traffic. Monday through Sunday traffic is bad. Starting at about 7 during weekdays and 9 on weekends until around 1am everyday the highways are a mess. Avoid IH 35 if at all possible and Mopac isn’t much better but sometimes at least the traffic flows unless it’s rush hour in the am or pm. The. You’re screwed. It’ll take you an hour+ to go north to south when if there’s no traffic is a 25 min ride. Theses 2 major highways were built in either the late 50s/early 60s (35) or in the 70s (mopac). They didn’t anticipate this city getting that big back then and have done minimal improvements since then to make it better (screw the toll roads)

2. Generally speaking there aren’t too many bad parts of town. While the crime has increased over the past few years due to the wackos in charge allowing the city to fall apart (homeless issue, prosecutors not going forward with cases/slap on the wrist sentences etc…) generally it’s a pretty safe place to live.

There are 2 parts of town I’d highly suggest avoiding. East 6th street (aka dirty 6th, from IH 35 to Congress Ave) is full of nothing but knucklehead thugs, frat boys and mostly just a bunch of kids that go out to get drunk and can’t handle their alcohol. It’s not guaranteed but if you’re looking for trouble it’s there on dirty 6th if you want it.

The other is the Northeast side of town. It’s hard to give an exact area perimeter description of where but generally anything east of IH 35 above 51st street to rundberg lane is nothing but trouble. You wanna get car jacked or robbed at gun point it’s statistically going to happen in that part of town. If you find yourself off Cameron rd, manor rd, near Regan High School, Rundberg ln, Georgian ave, St. John’s ave realize the chances for drama are much higher. No it’s not guaranteed and there are far worse places in the world but if some bad stuff is going to happen to you in Austin chances are it’s in that part of town.

Other than that enjoy the city, try not to get an STD/STI, don’t rely on the public transportation, don’t expect the cops to care if your a victim of a crime, and be prepared to have swamp ass from March to November and you’ll have a great time in this beautiful city!

I live in Austin and it’s such a cool city. I love it. But it’s getting expensive. If you’re here to visit, I recommend going to Austin East Ciders to get a flight of beers. They’re my favorite Austin made beer. And if you like movies, go to The Alamo where you can order restaurant style food in the theatre. We also have a Voodoo’s Donuts on 6th that looks really cool inside. If you need sunscreen or other things you forgot to pack, check out any HEB, the local grocery store. These stores are HUGE and are like the COSTCO of grocery stores. They have anything you could want, including specialty stuff like vegan foods and really good sushi. Their sunscreens are so nice because they have specialty scents like Banana and Mango! I’ve lived here for years and never run out of cool stuff to go and do! Hope you have fun!!

As A Texan well you could drive and fear it’s metropolitan bad traffic or fly but you still have to do get into a car or an Uber

Uber drivers have to deal with traffic too, though...

You really want good tacos? Amaya’s Taco Village 100%

Driving in austin is FINE. Do it everyday!