Day Trippin' › Texas › From Austin › Within 3 hours
84 places are worth the drive within 3 hours of Austin, counted by road time from ZIP 78701: 13 under 1 hour, 33 1 to 2 hours and 38 2 to 3 hours.
The mix leans toward history, hikes and wildlife, mostly to the southwest and north. Three hours each way makes a long day trip, or an easy overnight if you would rather not drive back the same day.
The headline places are Hamilton Pool Preserve, Gruene Historic District and Schlitterbahn New Braunfels, and the closest real day trip is Inner Space Cavern (25 min).
Under 1 hour 1 to 2 hours 2 to 3 hours
Photo: Eric in SF, CC BY-SA 3.0
Swimming · 41 min west
A swimming hole under a roughly 50-foot waterfall in a box canyon west of Austin. A short, steep, rocky trail leads down to it.
Photo: Renelibrary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Town · 44 min southwest
A 15-acre historic district on the Guadalupe River in New Braunfels, with old township buildings, local shops, food and free live music daily.
Photo: ljpelletier, CC BY-SA 2.0
Theme park · 48 min southwest
A big riverside waterpark in New Braunfels with about 45 rivers, rides and slides in four sections, each with a lazy river and kids' area.
Photo: Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0
State park · 38 min east
A park in the Lost Pines forest with 1930s Civilian Conservation Corps cabins and buildings. You can see the forest regrowing after recent fires.
Photo: Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0
Family fun · 30 min southwest
Glass-bottom boat tours on Spring Lake in San Marcos, a tradition since 1947, run by Texas State University's Meadows Center.
Photo: Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0
Bike trail · 43 min southeast
A hilly 12-mile park road through the Lost Pines between Bastrop and Buescher state parks, good for road biking or a slow drive.
Photo: Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0
Cave · 1 hr 3 min southwest
Big show cave near New Braunfels named for the natural limestone bridge at its entrance. Two guided cavern tours plus zip lines, a maze and gem mining above ground.
Photo: Kkmd (talk · contribs), CC BY-SA 3.0
Town · 1 hr 13 min southwest
A walkway below street level along the San Antonio River, lined with restaurants, shops and hotels downtown. It runs about 15 miles in all.
Photo: Liveon001 ©Travis Witt, CC BY-SA 3.0
Historic site · 1 hr 18 min southwest
Four Spanish colonial missions on the south side of San Antonio, Concepcion, San Jose, San Juan and Espada. The Espada Aqueduct and Rancho de las Cabras are part of the park too.
Photo: Jpp858, CC BY-SA 3.0
Theme park · 1 hr 21 min southwest
A big theme park in San Antonio with roller coasters, family rides and shows.
Photo: Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0
Family fun · 1 hr 29 min north
Busy shopping and food complex in Waco with shops, places to eat and a big turf lawn.
Photo: jdeeringdavis from San Francisco, CA, USA, CC BY 2.0
Zoo · 1 hr 2 min southwest
A drive-through safari park where you drive your own car through 500 acres and feed animals from about 40 species. It sits next to Natural Bridge Caverns.
Photo: Renelibrary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Historic site · 2 hr 45 min north
Fort Worth's Old West district, where the Fort Worth Herd runs the world's only daily cattle drive and rodeos fill the historic Cowtown Coliseum.
State park · 2 hr 46 min north
Walk in real dinosaur tracks in the Paluxy River bed near Glen Rose, with about 20 miles of trails for hiking and mountain biking.
Photo: Another Believer, CC BY-SA 3.0
Family fun · 2 hr 31 min east
Houston's big central park with pedal boats on McGovern Lake, a park railroad, carousel, splash pads, the Japanese Garden and McGovern Centennial Gardens.
Photo: Rasar90, CC BY-SA 4.0
Zoo · 2 hr 31 min east
Big zoo in Houston's Hermann Park.
Photo: Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0
Lake · 2 hr 44 min south
A brush-country lake near Mathis for swimming, boating, fishing and birding, with a 1930s CCC refectory.
Photo: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0
Town · 2 hr 52 min north
Lake town with a historic square and Lake Granbury, voted USA Today's Best Historic Small Town several times, with festivals all year.
Our picks, by drive time, include Hamilton Pool Preserve (41 min), Gruene Historic District (44 min), Schlitterbahn New Braunfels (48 min), Bastrop State Park (38 min) and Spring Lake Glass-Bottom Boat Tours (30 min). The full list on this page has 84 places, each with its drive time and direction from Austin.
46 places within 2 hours, 84 within 3 hours and 133 within 4 hours of Austin, by road from ZIP 78701.
21 of the 84 places need no pass or fee, such as Fort Worth Stockyards, Granbury and Katy Trail. Fees and passes change, so check each place before you go.
79 places are marked good for kids, including Lake Corpus Christi State Park, Rockport Beach and Cameron Park Zoo.
They are by real roads on a typical day, from the middle of ZIP 78701 to each place (OpenStreetMap data with the OSRM route planner). Traffic, weather and closures can change them. Places under 25 minutes from the city center count as in town, not a day trip, so they are left out.
Yes. Type your ZIP code into Day Trippin' and it shows everything by drive time. Your ZIP is used for that one search and is not saved.
Drive times are by road on a typical day from ZIP <class 'zip'> (OpenStreetMap data with the OSRM route planner). Facts checked against official sites; passes and hours change, so check before you go.