Austin has many colorful neighborhoods and shopping venues, but most city dwellers will tell you that Austin is divided into two distinct areas: South Austin and North Austin. The Colorado River flows directly through the central part of the city, surrounding the downtown business district on its southern perimeter, and as it flows west, the river skirts the northern edge of Zilker Park and the Barton Springs area. The part of the river that flows through the metropolitan area was recently called Lady Bird Lake and was previously called Town Lake.

South Austin is considered by Austinites to be the quiet area of ​​the city; it is a very eclectic area, and most of the residents are considered casual, informal, and highly individualistic. South Austin has two main thoroughfares that attract restaurants, clubs, and shopping areas. South Congress Avenue is one of these streets, beginning at the state capitol building a few miles north of the river and ending a few miles south of downtown, eventually merging with Interstate 35, which is the major north-south highway in Austin. area. South Lamar is the other major thoroughfare, running the length of Austin, from its northern starting point where it begins a few miles north of Austin on Interstate 35, to its southernmost point a few miles south of Austin, where it eventually empties into the freeway interchange at Highway 290 West and Loop 360.

Austinites refer to the South Congress Avenue shopping and entertainment area as the SOCO area, and many world-class restaurants can be found in SOCO, as well as numerous clothing stores, antique and retro stores, and street vendors as well. , which sell a variety of reasonably inexpensive goods for pedestrians and other passers-by. Once a month, merchants in the SOCO district hold a kind of street fair along the sidewalks in front of restaurants and shops called First Thursday, the first Thursday of the month. There is often live music, and most shops display their wares on the sidewalk, along with street vendors, who put on a big show. Reasonably affordable new housing developments are also being built in this area, mostly condominiums that have an excellent view of the lake and the SOCO district. Many famous places are in the SOCO area, including the Hotel San José, with the adjacent Jo’s Cafe, both favorites with locals and tourists. Across the street from San Jose, in the heart of SOCO, is one of the best known blues and rock nightclubs in the Austin area called Continental Club. The city’s daily newspaper, the Austin American Statesman, also calls North SOCO home, and it’s just south of the Congress Avenue bridge. The bridge itself has a pedestrian walkway on each side, both of which provide pedestrians with a beautiful view of Lady Bird Lake. The Travis Heights neighborhood surrounds SoCo and is an eclectic collection of houses from the 1940s and 1950s.

One of the most unusual events in Austin is the nightly flight of the bats from under the bridge, where they nest, into the Austin skies just after sunset, a beautiful and very dramatic sight. The bats are most numerous in March and April, and are actually Mexican free-tailed bats on their annual journey to and from Mexico. Tourists and many others flock to the area to watch bats make their nightly pilgrimage to the stars and clouds above Lady Bird Lake. The bat colony is the largest urban bat colony in North America, boasting over a million bats during its peak season. The free Austin Orange Dillo bus runs every ten minutes on the first Thursday from the convenient free parking garage at One Texas Center in Barton Springs, so visitors don’t have to worry about parking on Capitol Hill itself.

South Lamar, sometimes referred to as the SOLA District, is an up-and-coming area of ​​well-known restaurants and shops. South Lamar is more residential in orientation than the SOCO area and has nice old houses in the Barton Hills neighborhood, with almost all of the cross streets having houses, apartments, duplexes, and various other dwellings, as well as schools and churches, which also can be found in the SOCO area. The western edge of the South Lamar neighborhood runs along the eastern perimeter of Zilker Park and Barton Springs, home to the Barton Springs Pool, which is the fourth largest spring-fed underground pool in Texas. The pool spans three acres and is 68 degrees year-round. Beginning at the pool area, the Barton Springs Greenbelt offers many miles of hiking, biking, and hiking along the well-known Barton Creek, which feeds the pool. There are many well-developed walking trails with informational kiosks describing the area and attractions at each location, such as the location of local swimming holes such as Campbell’s Hole, a very old and well-known swimming hole that is fed by the waters of Barton. creek too.

The South Lamar area is close enough to the SOCO area for pedestrians to walk the short distance or hop on the city bus, and between the two long streets is another slightly less developed area adjacent to South First Street, which runs parallel to Congress and Lamar, between the two. South First is also home to many restaurants and shops, and is a nice place to stop while traveling between South Congress and South Lamar. Things just don’t get much better in Austin than living in or visiting the South Austin area!