A Girls Trip to Austin

Despite what season three of White Lotus—and myriad resulting think pieces—suggested about the toxicity of threesome female friendships, I take an annual vacation with two of my besties from college and it is the absolute best.

The three of us went to school together in California. So, we have repeatedly convened in dreamy Sonoma (to the point where I set my upcoming novel BACKSLIDE there), and have landed more than once at midcentury haven The Parker in Palm Springs.

But, every so often, we pick a less expected spot.

And this year, we hit Austin.

Which Travel Friend Are You?

Part of the reason we travel nicely together is that we each have our own lane and don’t care to veer into the others. As a travel writer, I am, not surprisingly, the hotel person, searching out where to stay in the given location. One of my friends is the restaurant researcher and cute neighborhood finder. The other is often the driver and the all-around easy one, happy to do whatever and go wherever.

Still, like some Xennial mom version of The Three Bears, our needs can be quite different. One of us is an early riser, inevitably up with the sun and off to wander in search of good iced coffee and solo time. The other (the most flexible one, of course) wakes next and goes off to join the first for breakfast. I’m generally the last to rise (even when we’re on their coast, oddly) and am off to yoga or on a run before meeting up with them to chat about the day. In short, after all this time, we have developed a deep understanding of and patience for each other’s habits, settled into a kind of breezy rhythm.

But that’s not even why we travel so well together. No, I am fond of telling anyone who will listen that the secret to our success is one commonality: We all want to spend our vacation doing the same thing.

Nothing.

As tired, overworked women who miss the shorthand of our long, enduring friendships for much of the year, we don’t want to take tours or hit tourist attractions. We don’t want to go on carnival rides, spelunk or throw ourselves off cliffs. We do not want to ski or paraglide or even surf. We definitely don’t want to camp.

We just want to be free. We want to figure out where the locals go and discover sweet shops and cafés. We want to wander aimlessly—usually looking at clothes, but sometimes looking at art. And we want to lie by a pool, eat our collective weight in French fries and chips and salsa, drink frozen cocktails and talk endless shit.

We want to shed the stress of the world for just a few days.

Doing Nothing in Austin – Off the Beaten Path

Fortunately, there was plenty of good nothing to do in Austin.

We began our trip at the Commodore Perry Estate, a 52-room/suite Auberge Resort that feels more boutique perhaps than some of the hotelier’s other properties. Our room was housed in the Inn building, where the décor feels almost missionary—lots of stone, antique-style four poster beds in dark woods and elaborate oriental rugs. An interior courtyard features palm trees, but also an arcade of archways.

Both the décor and the grounds here—manicured green lawns and trimmed hedges featuring details like lion gargoyles—feel more grand and less quirky than one might expect from a city whose slogan is “keep Austin weird.” But that’s partially why we chose this property, interested in splitting our time between a luxe oasis outside the fray before heading to a more hipster hotel in the mix.

In truth, our fantasy—which involved spending the first couple of days reclining like sloths—was derailed by a sudden wild hailstorm that put the adorable (ironically “Palm Springs-inspired”) pool out of commission for our stay. That said, it led us to discover some other lovely gems in the area. And by that I mean, eat our feelings:

First, the food at the hotel was stellar and we all became addicted to both the Mansion’s Green Garden Salad—that comes with the most delicious sesame dressing—and grilled olive and sumac Humus + Flatbread. (It should be noted that we quickly realized that most bread at upscale restaurants arrives grilled in olive oil in this city.) The design and farm-to-table menu at Lutie’s, the onsite restaurant named for one of the original owners of the grounds which is adorned with a living plant ceiling, were equally inventive and worth the visit.

But perhaps the amenity that proved most helpful was Commodore’s Mercedez Benz loaner program, which allowed us to borrow a swanky car every time we wanted to head out. And explore we did: We hit Mattie’s, a nearby restaurant with deep local history and set in a restored farmhouse, where wild peacocks wandered outside, Jo’s Coffee (a local staple) and even grabbed dessert at an adorable counter bakery called Tiny’s Milk & Cookies. (That was across the way from Valentine’s, a great boutique in a sweet little cluster of shops called Kerbey Lane Village.)

Doing Nothing in Austin – In the Wild

After our stay at Commodore Perry, we headed into the thick of Austin to Hotel San José on bustling main drag South Congress—an area that was dramatically less developed last time I visited the city. The San José is a Bunkhouse Hotel, and it delivers just what you’d expect from the beloved hotelier—an intimate 40-room urban escape just steps from the bedlam with hipster details like rotary phones (don’t get me started on the handwoven robes I’m coveting) and stripped down contemporary design with pops of pattern. It couldn’t have been a more convenient or comfortable place to stay.

Every store you could imagine lines South Congress from Krewe sunglasses and Sabah shoes to cowboy boot emporiums. And we spent countless hours just wandering there and also in the surrounding residential neighborhoods.

Of course, there was lots to eat. Amy’s Ice Creams is across the street, for example, a local favorite shop. But nothing during the entire trip topped one meal we had at Kemuri Tatsu-Ya, a dark, casual restaurant in East Austin described as Japanese izakaya meets Texas smokehouse.

Two words: Miso. Brisket.

Upon further consideration, this might be my new name.

It’s hard to imagine how anything could be better—and perhaps more Austin-appropriate—than this quirky combo, especially with a side of Blistered Shishito with bonito and furikake ranch dipping sauce. Cocktails here are also a must!

And afterward we headed back for a cocktail by the San José pool.

In short, we came, we saw, we kept it weird-ish. Another successful trip—with a whole lot of nothing and everything in between.