Gay Travel Buddy

Gay Austin

So are you planning another weekend getaway or possibly visiting Austin for business?  I have been all over the US on business trips and other than my home town of San Francisco, Austin is my favorite destination.  The boys here are extremely attractive and very friendly.  Austin is very different from any part of Texas, they are very proud of their “keep Austin weird” mentality.  Unlike Dallas, there isn’t a specific gay part of town, but both Oilcan Harry’s and Rain are located right next to each other, so you have several options in walking distance from each other, street parking near these gay bars is rather bad so its best to take a cab if you can.  I am very much against drinking and driving in any case.  My new favorite bar in Austin is Charlies, this is also a must visit when you are in town, it’s a hair off the beat and path, but worth the cab ride!

Hotels

Austin does not have any specific gay hotels, however there are a few chains that are very gay friendly.  My personal favorite is the Starwood brand of hotels, recently Austin has had several new hotels built.  The only Starwood location downtown is the Sheraton, which is an older building, however its rather large and the staff is very friendly.  Both the Westin and aLoft hotels are new, however are a bit out of town at the Domain a new high end outdoor shopping center.  They have stores such as Louis Vuitton, Needless Markup and an Apple store to name a few.  Below are several links for these hotels with pre-arranged discounts, this site gets a small kick back for reservations booked with these links.  It helps pay for the hosting.

W Downtown - Brand new W, rooms are incredible!

Restaurants

There are tons of great selections of restaurants, below are links to restaurants that we have wrote up.

Santa Rita - Tex Mex

Kerbey Lane Café – Great place for gay drunk food.

South Congress Cafe – A great brunch option

Halcyon Coffee, Bar and Lounge - Hipster hangout spot.

El Sol y La Luna - Lesbian owned cafe

Gay Bars

Oil Can Harry’s - A very large bar, special events, see their calendar to see whats going on.  I know they do an underwear night, I was nearly stripped by their staff.

Rain - Rain is a large often crowded bar, with lots of College students and for the Twink lovers, usually a good selection.

Charlies Austin - A little off the beat and path but one of my personal favorites.

Bout Time - The sister dive bar to Charlies

Kiss and Fly - A giant multi level dance club