Traveling to Austin, Texas with Toddlers

We recently did a quick weekend in Austin, Texas with our toddlers- Here is what we enjoyed and would recommend! 

Texas State Capitol 

This is free to the public and has free parking for the first two hours. You can join a guided tour or you can explore yourself. We chose just walk around ourselves and still had a  great time. 

LBJ Museum and Presidential Library 

If you can go on Tuesdays I would recommend this- it's half price. This was a very neat museum. I don't usually take my toddler to museums but they had fun looking at everything and it wasn't so large that we felt obligated to stay a long time. 

Mayfield Park and Nature Preserve & Mount Bonnell 

This is a fun area to explore. I would recommend doing Mount Bonnell first because it's entirely uphill. The view is very pretty! But then you can hike back down and go to Mayfield Park and hike around there. We did the opposite and were pretty tired by the time we got to Mount Bonnell. There are peacocks that live at the Mayfield park and they were quite a hit. 

The Oasis on Lake Travis 

This is a bit of a funky restaurant that has a really pretty view. I thought they did a great job of keeping everyone cool and shaded while still being outside. It was fairly kid friendly because it has a bunch of cool statues and fun things to look at. My toddlers had fun walking around and looking at everything while we were waiting for our food 

Eating at Franklin BBQ

My husband is a big foodie and has talked about eating at Franklin BBQ for a long time. If you've never heard of it its considered one of the best BBQs in the nation. However the line is quite long. People start lining up at 8-9am and it doesn't even open until 11. My husband ended up going a little later by himself and waited for about 90 minutes.  I do have to say it was delicious and really good. It might be worth doing but be prepared and it's not kid friendly at all so plan accordingly.