Best area to stay in in Austin?
 

Going to be in Austin for 3 days in Jan. !st timers doing standard tourist stuff. Will have a car. What are recommended areas to stay in? Seems like the city is pretty spread out and has lots of traffic in certain areas, as well as some to maybe avoid? Am assuming will pay for parking at most places...need the car so cant probably be avoided. If there is a good site for looking at this reference is fine too. THanks.

Anywhere near the Austin City Limits venue. W Hotel is right next door.

Stay anywhere downtown so you'll be walking distance to a bunch of stuff. There are some hotels along Lady Bird Lake on Congress that would be an ideal location. Near the Capitol Building is good too.

San Antonio ;-)

<<Anywhere near the Austin City Limits venue. W Hotel is right next door.>>

That statement is inherently ambiguous because there is no single Austin City Limits venue.

The Austin City Limits venue for the <b>festival</b> of that name is Zilker Park, which is not particularly central and is a big bloody park that will not have ACL going while you're in Austin.

Austin City Limits was originally a TV show filmed for PBS and which is currently shown on PBS outlets and on MTV Live (fka Palladium channel). The venue for the original Austin City Limits is the Moody Theatre, now known as 3TEN ACL Live, which is downtown. That seems to be what cdnyul is on about - the theatre is "nestled next to the W Austin Hotel & Residences, which are both located within Block 21, the first mixed-occupancy building of its type in the world to be LEED certified." There are also nearby hotels that likely cost less than the W - a Radisson and Marriott for starters.

We stayed in a VRBO (HomeAway now, actually) a few blocks from the South Congress Hotel and liked the neighborhood a lot. Wanted to stay at the hotel, but it was booked up for our weekend. It looks swell.

If you are a fan of craft beer, Jester King is a world-renowned brewery on the west side of town.

Thx for responses. Will research the hotels referenced. Love ACL and need to check into filming schedules. It probably is what got me started about visiting. Even tho I live in HI and we get lots of tourists, I am totally unfamiliar with dealing with any of the B&B services. In the past, when I used a B & B it was usually based off recommendations from friends, past experience, or literally driving by it. But those were formal places in New England, MidWest, North Atlantic or here at home. I dont mind a B & B in the classic sense vs just someones rented condo/vacation rental.

The ACL Live website has all the info on what's on at the theater. And there's plenty of venues in Austin for all types of music.