Hotel at a Glance: Barton Creek Resort and Spa

Barton Creek Resort and Spa is set on rolling wooded hills peppered with fine-dining restaurants, an indoor swimming pool, and a European spa. Of all its luxurious amenities, though, it is perhaps best known for its four golf courses, one of which was designed by golf legend Arnold Palmer. Red oaks and sycamores line the last hole at Fazio Canyons, a sinuous par 5 at the award-winning golf course leading to a ranch-style clubhouse. Its sibling course, Fazio Foothills, has cliff-lined fairways and limestone caves and was named No. 4 among America’s 100 best resort courses by Golfweek magazine.

• Optional breakfast credit: You can add on a daily breakfast for two (a $28 value). There are five dining options onsite, including a poolside cabana, a wine bar, and a fine-dining restaurant.
• Stylish rooms nod to Texan culture with plaid and floral linens, cowhide chairs, and ink prints from native artists.
• Things to do: Hit the half-mile nature trail, play tennis, go on a scavenger hunt (arranged through the resort), or relax by the pool.
• Sustainable architecture: Some electricity here is generated by wind-generated turbines, and the resort conserves water using a computerized irrigation system.
• Pick up gifts at the many onsite boutiques, where you can find tennis equipment, bath products, and apparel from designers like Michael Kors and Trina Turk.
• Awards: This resort has won numerous awards over the years; recently, it was ranked among the top five hotels in Austin by U.S. News, and in 2014, the onsite Hill Country Dining Room was awarded a AAA, four-diamond status for the 20th consecutive year.

Austin, Texas: Proudly Offbeat State Capital and Live-Music Capital of the World

Built in 1888, the pink-granite Texas Capitol building in Austin is the largest state capitol in the country and even taller than the US Capitol in Washington, DC—proof that everything is, indeed, bigger in Texas. Yet Austin stands apart from the rest of the state politically and culturally, a fact that locals seem to revel in. “Keep Austin Weird” is a popular motto here, appearing on bumper stickers and T-shirts. The weirdness manifests itself all over town, where you’ll find a death-metal-themed pizza place, a cathedral made of garbage, and the Museum of Natural & Artificial Ephemerata, which displays an 1893 World’s Fair stereograph and one of Marilyn Monroe’s cigarette butts. Even nature plays along: each night at dusk (from mid-March to November), an estimated 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats emerge from underneath the Congress Avenue Bridge to go hunting for food.

Austin has been dubbed the Live Music Capital of the World thanks to the city’s nearly 200 venues, where bands play everything from blues to punk rock. In fact, Travel + Leisure magazine named Austin one of America’s Best Music Cities, calling it the “mother ship for indie rock and alternative-country types.” Stubb’s Bar-B-Q books some of the bigger acts that come to town, including the White Stripes, Johnny Cash, and Snoop Dogg. In addition to the live entertainment taking place on a nightly basis, two massively popular music festivals—South by Southwest and Austin City Limits—draw in huge crowds each year.

The University of Texas brings its share of cultural attractions to the city as well. For starters, the sprawling campus is home to the Blanton Museum of Art, which boasts one of the country’s most impressive private collections of old-master paintings. UT-Austin is also where you’ll find the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library, dedicated to preserving and exhibiting artifacts related to the 36th president.

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