Omni Austin Hotel Downtown

The Congress Avenue Bridge spans Lady Bird Lake in downtown Austin and is home to the largest urban bat colony in North America. The colony is estimated at 1.5 million Mexican free-tail bats. Each night from mid-March to November, the bats emerge from under the bridge at dusk to blanket the sky as they head out to forage for food. This event has become one of the most spectacular and unusual tourist attractions in Texas.

Likely Texas' best known street, the seven block's of 6th Street between Congress and IH 35 are certainly Austin's entertainment center. With a little help from it's many like-minded sister streets, 6th Street is the heart of Austin's live entertainment scene and the capital of third coast music. Sixth Street (formerly known as Pecan Street) is lined with many historical houses and commercial buildings dating from the late 1800's and early 1900's. The storied old buildings now house numerous bars, a host of live entertainment venues, tattoo parlors, art galleries, casual cafes & upscale restaurants. Live music of every genre abounds. From jazz, blues, and country to rock, hip-hop, beat, progressive, metal, punk and derivations of these, there's something to whet everyone's musical pallete.

For over 90 years, The Paramount Theatre has been home to vaudeville, silent movies and "talkies," music, dance, and Broadway shows. Through the years, a cast of superstars has graced its stage; from Houdini, the Marx Brothers, Helen Hayes, Orson Welles, Sarah Bernhardt, the Ziegfeld Follies, the Metropolitan Opera, Lillian Russell, John Philip Sousa, the Barrymores, Lillian Gish, and George M. Cohan to such modern-day favorites as Billy Joel, Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Sarah Vaughan, Lyle Lovett, Gregory Hines, and Mandy Patinkin.

Texas State Capitol building with extensively renovated grounds featuring native Texas plants and flowers. Built in 1888 of native pink granite and other Texas materials, the Texas Capitol stands 311 feet high, 14 feet higher than the nation's Capitol. Free guided tours of rotunda and its other attractions.

New mixed-use development including chic retail stores, coffee shops, restaurants, wine bars and living spaces in a vibrant urban setting.

The Lady Bird Lake Hike and Bike Trail, formally the Town Lake Hike and Bike Trail, is the longest trail designed for non-motorized traffic maintained by the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department and watched after by a local non-profit named Town Lake Trail Foundation. It is 10.1 miles long and one of the oldest urban Texas hike and bike paths stretching the entire length of Lady Bird Lake itself. The trail is mostly flat, 97.5% has less than an 8% grade, and makes an easy loop along both shores of Lady Bird Lake being marked on one end by Tom Miller Dam and the other by Longhorn Dam. Barton Creek feeds into Lady Bird Lake from the south and a pedestrian bridge incorporated into the trail bridges Barton Creek. The Roberta Crenshaw Pedestrian Walkway bridges Lake Austin beneath MoPac Boulevard and provides the trail's westmost crossing of Lady Bird Lake.

The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum in downtown Austin, Texas, tells the “Story of Texas” with three floors of interactive exhibits, the special effects show, The Star of Destiny, in the Texas Spirit Theater, and Austin's only IMAX Theatre, featuring the signature large-format film, Texas: The Big Picture. A 35-foot-tall bronze Lone Star sculpture greets visitors in front of the Museum, and a colorful terrazzo floor in the Museum’s rotunda features a campfire scene with enduring themes from Texas’ past. The Museum also has a Cafe with indoor and outdoor seating and a Museum Store with something for the Texan in everyone.

The University of Texas at Austin (informally University of Texas, or simply UT) is a state research university and the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, the institution has the fifth-largest single-campus enrollment in the nation, with over 50,000 undergraduate and graduate students and over 24,000 faculty and staff. UT Austin is consistently ranked as one of the top public universities in the country, with highly prestigious programs in a variety of fields. Nationally, UT Austin ranked 45th amongst all universities according to U.S. News and World Report, and tied for 13th place among public universities in 2011.

The Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin is one of the foremost university art museums in the country, and has the largest and most comprehensive collection of art in Central Texas. The Blanton's permanent collection of more than 17,000 works is recognized for its European paintings, an encyclopedic collection of prints and drawings, and modern and contemporary American and Latin American art.

South Congress Avenue exudes the hip vibe and laid-back attitude that has made Austin, Texas, a popular destination. Located south of Lady Bird Lake, South Congress Avenue (nicknamed SoCo) boasts impressive views of the Texas State Capitol. While strolling down South Congress Avenue shops, it's likely that visitors spot all kinds of rare goodies like 1950s-era furniture or doughnut-scented air fresheners. It's easy to see why SoCo is a must-see Texas destination.

351 acre metropolitan park west of the Hotel, is home to the world famous Austin City Limits Fall Music Festival. Visit the botanical gardens, a hillside theater, a disc golf course, an imaginative play scale, the Zilker Zephyr (a train for all ages) and the Umlauf Sculpture Garden.

Lady Bird Johnson, our former first lady, and actress Helen Hayes founded an organization in 1982 to protect and preserve North America's native plants and natural landscapes. First as the National Wildflower Research Center and later as the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, this special place exists to introduce people to the beauty and diversity of wildflowers and other native plants. Every day, the Wildflower Center brings life to Mrs. Johnson's vision in its public gardens, its woodlands and sweeping meadows as well as in internationally influential research