I live here in Austin and happened to see your thread. Out of the hotels you are mentioning, would stay at the Aloft. My favorite downturn hotel is the JW, the Aloft is nice and a great location, and there's a brand new Marriott that's also nice. I've stayed at all 3.
We're a covid hot spot right now and it's going to get worse next week. Saw earlier our test positive rate is up to 38% and 1 in 5 Texans have covid at the moment. Not sure if that factors into your plans but just an FYI.
The best BBQ in Texas is in Austin. Lockhart used to be the place back when I first moved here in 2003, but the Austin scene is so much better now. BBQ is kind of weird, need to get there early, especially on a weekday, unless it's specific places that make enough to stay open all day. And depending on the place, there may be lines.
Probably the best easy BBQ place near downtown is Terry Black's. Usually not a huge line and very, very good. Just over the river from downtown on Baton Springs.
Some other top BBQ spots are Franklin's (known as the king of brisket, but need to get there early and stand in line for hours), La Barbecue, and Micklethwait.
There are some cool bars in downtown Austin in that area. Some of my favorites are more upscale lounges, including the Roosevelt Room, Peche, and the lounge on the 5th floor at Hotel Zaza (forget the name). 4th Street, West 6th near Parker and Yard, and Rainey Street are all generally better than dirty 6th to hang out on.
Austin weather in January is really all over the place and random, can be warm or even get snow. Just never know, although right now it looks good for the next 10 days.
If you're planning San Antonio (and I would, San Antonio is pretty cool and easy to get to from Austin), I would definitely plan on eating breakfast tacos and Tex Mex food there. Different from Austin's and I think in a lot of ways better.
Getting to Houston or Dallas and back in a day can be done, but it would be a real pain. With good traffic the drive is 3 hours each way, not to mention Houston can take an hour or more just to get from one side to another depending on where you're going. Dallas is pretty business focused and shuts down at night, so unless you're going for sports or a specific reason (like one of the museums), I might skip it.
Houston is HUGE and has a little bit of everything, so it would be fun to visit.
If I had five days, I would probably think about spending a day in Austin, a day in downtown San Antonio with a hotel on the riverwalk (The Westin Riverwalk is a great property for this and part of Bonvoy), then two in Houston and drive back to Austin to catch the flight if possible.Austin is a relatively young city with most of the growth being really recent (and since I moved here). A lot of the activities are outdoors, sports, and live music, and the restaurant / bar scene. There's also the infamous bats under the Congress bridge, but sadly they aren't around in January.
If the weather holds up, there are some cool outdoor areas in Austin to go hiking / bike riding, like McKinney falls state park, Barton Springs, and the lady bird lake trails. There also is usually always some live music going on you can get into.
Some of my other favorite downtown restaurants for dinner include:
- ATX Cocina. Upscale Tex Mex.
- Moonshine. Mid scale southern food.
- Fixe. Upscale Southern.
- Red Ash. Upscale Italian.
- Casino El Camino. True dirty dive bar burger.
- Bangers. Craft beer and sausage joint- OneTaco. They have a truck at Star Bar, cheap, and excellent. Not a huge menu but doesn't need it.
- Gloria's. Nothing super special, but really solid example of Texas Mexican food. Used to eat there for lunch when I worked in the building.
- Torchy's Tacos - Solid "gringo" tacos, meaning you can get non-traditional taco combos like fried chicken queso tacos. A little far near campus but not too bad, or can get it delivered.
Hope that helped!