Austin
6th Street & East Austin
Austin Local / Unsplash
Austin's live music heartland — 6th Street bars, Rainey Street, and East Austin's taco-truck scene.
This is the Austin everyone comes for: 6th Street's famous strip of live music bars running seven nights a week, Rainey Street's converted bungalow bars with outdoor decks, and East 6th's emerging restaurant and music scene. During SXSW it is the epicentre of the world's most important music festival. The rest of the year it's simply the most concentrated live-music neighbourhood in America.
Scores
Walkability
Transit
Price
Local feel
Nightlife
Family-friendly
Centrality
What you gain
- ↑Live music every night at dozens of venues — world-class artists play small rooms for $10 cover
- ↑Rainey Street: the more neighbourhood-scaled alternative to 6th Street with excellent cocktail bars
- ↑East Austin food trucks: some of the best tacos and BBQ in Texas concentrated within walking distance
What you sacrifice
- ↓Extremely loud on weekends — accommodation on or near 6th Street means accepting the noise
- ↓Peak SXSW and ACL weekends make the area genuinely impassable; plan around it or embrace it
- ↓Gentrification has pushed some authentic East Austin character further east; the core strip is tourist-heavy
Best for
Avoid if
Other Austin neighbourhoods
Convention-district Austin — the Texas Capitol, Congress Avenue, and the western end of 6th Street.
Hipster Austin at its most complete — vintage boutiques, food trucks, Barton Springs Pool, and SoCo charm.
Austin's tech hub — Apple, Amazon, and Samsung campuses alongside the Domain's outdoor mall.
Know where to stay — now find when to go.
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