wakesetter93

I'll have a TR up within a week about our move to Austin if you visitors need some reading to pass the time until your trips!

thatmikereed

Aside from the cute pun, you're right. That's why my patients wait longer to get into an ER where, if they don't have COVID when they come, they will when they leave. It's also why Austin/Travis County EMS has 20% of their workforce sidelined (I don't work for ATCEMS, I work for a Houston-area 911 service).

You're welcome to come. Hope you don't have any kind of accident or medical emergency. It won't be pretty. It's bad here precisely because nobody cares about anything beyond the end of their own nose.

I wouldn't be visiting Austin to come party at this point - and in all seriousness, OP, what is your plan for staying an extra week or two when you DO catch COVID here and can't travel back home (or to Hawaii)? You should seriously have that plan made because the current variant has an onset shorter than the duration of your trip.

Note: I say this as someone who has to travel to California for my full-time job next week and I'm not thrilled about it.

wakesetter93

The OP already noted that he is in good health and is vaxxed and boosted.

thatmikereed

Which has clearly proven to not matter with Omicron in terms of breakthrough infections. No doubt his illness would be mild, but it may interrupt plans for travel home a few days later.

wakesetter93

For those interested

Silicon HIlls: Moving to Austin

teemuflyer

As a long resident of Austin, I do understand the broad range of opinions on this thread, Austin has changed in many ways since my family and I moved here in early 2000. Traffic wasn't an issue, parking was free downtown, and we had no skyscrapers. All of that has changed dramatically, but some things have not.

We still have an abundance of music, independent restaurants (but with much more variety of food for offer), and a generally positive vibe in most places. Added to new things that have popped up is a great selection of craft breweries with tap rooms (consume on premises while chatting with the brewers).

As others have mentioned, Dallas and Houston are quite a drive away, without any real views to enjoy on the way. San Antonio is definitely worth the visit if time allows, but beware that the traffic on I-35 can be horrendous. A better option going to SA might be driving through the Hill Country. It's a beautiful route and might not take much longer than the traffic jams on the interstate highway.

Some of the places that have not yet been mentioned that might be of interest (IMHO) are:

East Austin (east of I-35) from Cesar Chavez (1st St.) to 7th. Plenty of good restaurants and bars of all price points available
Lake Travis during sunset at either the Oasis (drinks only, wouldn't recommend the food), or the craft brewery next door, the Oasis Brewery. Both have fantastic elevated views over the lake
Golf courses are open year round, if that's a thing for anyone

A bit off topic, but I did fly from LHR to AUS with my wife for the inaugural BA flight back in the day . Upgrade from WT to WT+ was 200 pounds p/p IIRC.

wakesetter93

At the risk of going OT, what part of Austin do you live in? We're headed down this weekend to look at houses and trying to gather as many opinions as possible. Feel free to shoot me a PM or post in my TR any recs.

teemuflyer

PM'd you..

ChillyDawg

I've been here since 2003, I've lived in South Austin, Riverside, in Pflugerville right now, and am building a house in Georgetown. About to head to AUS for a flight, feel free to hit me up if you get this and I'll share some opinions too.

wakesetter93

Appreciate that. To try and keep this thread somewhat on track, I have a separate trip report for our house hunting. Today focused mainly in University Hills.

Silicon Hills: Moving to Austin

Doppy

Aside from ~10% of people voluntarily wearing masks indoors, it's hard to see what restrictions there are. I did see the mayor recently passed a law requiring businesses to post some signs meant to ward off COVID, but many of us are used to seeing such signs, and I gave up on reading them two years ago.

With "stage 5" restrictions being pretty much indistinguishable from what I always thought was precovid life, I'm curious what a lower stage looks like. At stage 3 are you required to open mouth kiss your bartender when you enter and leave a bar?

RB211

At the risk of being pedantic, are you actually building a house yourself, or are you having a house built?

rb211.

Spinstorm

TESTING QUESTION

I just wanted to check that the COVID test 1 day before means that if my flight is Wednesday that I can have a test ANYTIME on Tuesday?

And not that it has to be 24 hours before (so if my flight was at midday I'd have to have my test after midday on Tuesday) corporate-wage-slave Thanks!

RB211

Yes - any time during the day before departure!

rb211.

ringingup

Resurrecting this slightly old thread.

Very excited to be heading off to Austin for Easter.

We’ll have 4 nights. After reading this thread, I’m thinking of doing 3 in Austin and 1 in San Antonio. Would it make sense? San Antonio might be the last night, so Saturday night.