I am planning to short trip to these two cities in August and was wondering about a couple of things.

1. Is there an inexpensive and safe place to park in Austin downtown? What time do the parking meters go until on a Friday night? I'm staying 15 min north of downtown and would like to walk around between 7pm-10pm.

2. In San Antonio downtown, what times do the parking meters run on Saturday night? How much is parking for a few hours?

3. Is it convenient to take public transit from downtown San Antonio (Marriott Riverwalk) to the Missions visitor center on a Sunday?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

This is a link to Austin parking information
http://www.downtownaustin.com/transportation/parking/

You can easily find this type of information on Google.

Hope you enjoy your visit to Austin.

Id try to park in a lot or around congress ave. however, depends where u are going downtown. I would not reccommend 6th street alone and walking to a car after 1 AM

What is your downtown destination?

Thanks for the information and for the link.

I haven't decided yet what I will be doing in Austin. I think I'll arrive around 6-7pm, so will probably find a place to eat and maybe walk around until 11pm and then drive to the hotel along the highway.

I'm sorry I didn't see this earlier; hope I'm not too late!

2) San Antonio downtown parking is mostly paid lots or garages, not many meters. On weekends it's typically a flat fee for the whole evening, anywhere from $5-10.

3) Public transit in San Antonio? Does that exist? Yes, there are some bus lines, but I don't know anyone who uses them. A quick glance at http://www.viainfo.net shows 2 transfers just to get from downtown to just a few miles south of downtown where the missions are (that's the reason most people don't use the buses here - too inconvenient). Besides getting to the area in the first place, the missions are rather spread out - you need a car or at least a bike to move from one to another. There is a bike rental place at Hemisfair park; you could map the route from there to the missions, maybe it's do-able to bike the whole way? But remember it will be VERY HOT - it's August. I'm used to it and I wouldn't do it! Maybe just stick to the Alamo downtown.