Austin's free live music and parks make it look like a cheap trip. Hotel taxes of 17%, downtown parking, rideshares, bar tabs and festival weekend prices are what most visitors forget.
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Compare hotels in downtown Austin →For 3 nights with flights, a hotel and food, plan on about $1,900. Once you add the costs most visitors forget, like hotel taxes, rideshares, cover charges, drinks and tips, it's closer to $2,900. Use the calculator above to change any number to match your trip.
Summer is usually cheapest. KAYAK's hotel data shows July as the cheapest month for Austin hotels and March, when SXSW takes place, as one of the most expensive. Rooms also cost much more during the ACL Fest and Formula 1 weekends in October. Source
Not if you stay downtown or near South Congress and stick to the city. Rideshares and the CapMetro bus cover most trips, and a local bus ride is $1.25. A car is worth it for Hill Country day trips, but downtown hotels often charge about $50 to $60 a night to park. Source
Austin hotel taxes add 17% to the room rate. That is the city's 11% plus the state's 6%. On a $230 room, that's about $39 more each night. Source
Tours of the Texas State Capitol are free. From late March to early fall, you can watch the bats fly out from under the Congress Avenue Bridge around sunset. Zilker Park is free, and several bars have live music with no cover. Source