One of my best friends is getting married in less than TWO weeks! I’m getting so excited for her big day. The bachelorette party was in Austin, Texas, and as matron of honor I took the lead on planning much of the three-day-weekend getaway.
While planning I received a ton of personal recommendations from friends who are Austin locals and friends of the bride who had recently planned or attended an Austin bachelorette party, but I also found quite a few blogs that were super informative. I loved seeing other Austin bachelorette party itineraries to get ideas, so I thought that sharing the itinerary for Alyssa’s bachelorette might be helpful — even for those of you who aren’t currently planning an Austin bachelorette.
Some of the tips will be applicable for any bachelorette getaway, and you never know when you might end up in Austin and need some restaurant recommendations.
For Alyssa’s bachelorette party, I knew she had a few priorities:
With these priorities in mind, she and I threw around the idea of doing Las Vegas, Nashville or Austin. I did a little research and came up with three sample itineraries and a rough estimate of costs, and we came to the decision that Austin would be the best option based on her priorities and the cost. Just as an FYI, we started this process about a year before the bachelorette weekend took place. This gave all the girls attending plenty of time to mark their calendars and save up for the trip.
Once we confirmed Austin as the destination, we emailed the group and picked a weekend that worked for all the girls (10 total) and started researching hotels and searching on Airbnb and HomeAway. We found some amazing HUGE houses out by Lake Travis, but I knew from suggestions that we wanted to stay closer to the city so we could quickly get downtown. Last August we found the perfect house in a cute area of Austin called Clarksville. It’s really close to downtown and walking distance to a couple cute restaurants, a local coffee shop and a small grocery store — all of which came in handy!
After the house was nailed down we had quite a while to figure out logistics and make reservations for activities. That said, the weekend trip coincided with Cinco de Mayo so I had to plan ahead a little bit and make reservations kind of early.
Cinco de Mayo was SUCH a fun weekend for a bachelorette party because we were able to use that as the theme, so instead of all things penis we did sombreros, tequila and margaritas. Definitely more our speed, but to each their own.
For the house decor, each lady attending the bach signed up to bring one to two items, so we ended up with an awesome mix of bachelorette banners, photo booth props and things for the bride to wear out — a sash, a sombrero (which we attached a veil to), a flower crown, a tiara and more.
Here’s our Austin itinerary. Some things changed a little because we had bad weather on Friday (lots of rain and flash floods), but other than that most of the itinerary was the same as what I have listed.
Because of the rain on Friday our plans changed a little: we ended up walking around South Congress for a bit, grabbing lunch at Hopdoddy burger bar (the fries were worth the wait) and then hitting up Whole Foods (the headquarters!!!) to buy our boat lunches for the next day. No one was really hungry for dinner so we skipped tacos and just hung out at the house and got ready for karaoke and dancing that night.
Notes:
The boat rental for a day on Lake Travis was definitely the splurge of the trip, which is why we kept things casual and less expensive for the other activities. Food-wise, Austin has some AMAZING restaurants. I gave the group options for different restaurants at different price levels and the general consensus was to keep things on the casual/cheaper side so that’s what we did. I know many bachelor and bachelorette parties prioritize fancy dinners, but this wasn’t a priority for our bride or the group. I’ll share the places we ate along with some suggestions below.
We also saved a bit of money by hitting up the grocery and liquor store the first day we were there to grab a bunch of stuff for breakfast, snacks and drinks at home. Before the trip I sent out an email to the ladies asking for three to five of their must-have food items and added them all to a grocery list so we knew exactly what to buy. On Thursday after we checked in and grabbed lunch, some girls went to the liquor store, some went to the grocery store (with the bride) and the rest of the girls went back to decorate the house and surprise the bride when we got home from shopping. It worked out perfectly.
Flower Child — Probably my favorite meal of the weekend! This spot served us a healthy, well-curated menu and had such cute decor. Highly recommend for group lunches! Also, get the cold brew with coconut cream — so good!
True Food Kitchen — Healthy, chef-driven, seasonal-food restaurant. It’s not too pricey and the menu has a lot of different options so it’s great for groups. I had originally made reservations here for Friday night but the group voted for tacos instead.
Odd Duck — A highly recommended upscale eatery with locally sourced food and drink. I emailed with them about making a group reservation and they said it’s best for larger groups to do the prix fixe menu, which is $45 per person (not including drinks) for a shared small-plate seven-course tasting menu along with two dessert courses.
Moonshine — Near the Rainey Street bars. Reservations are accepted for large groups.
Franklin BBQ — Franklin’s is world famous, but they sell out around 2:00PM.
Perla’s — Right on South Congress with a large selection of seafood. The outdoor patio would be perfect on a nice day.
Josephine’s House — A cute little spot right near our Airbnb. We wanted to go for happy hour drinks on Friday but the weather didn’t cooperate.
I hope sharing this Austin bachelorette party itinerary is helpful! If you’ve been to Austin or have any other helpful bachelorette planning tips, feel free to leave them in the comments for everyone!
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I’m wanting help with putting together itinerary for a bachelorette party in mid August
Hey!!! Thank you sooooo much for this post. I am planning a Bach party for my little sister and I think you’ve sold me on Austin. We are about a year out from hers and I would love to chat with you; I have a few questions. Please let me know if you’d be willing to answer them! Thanks so much!
Hey Kylie! Austin is a great place, I’m sure you guys would love it! Feel free to send over any questions you have and I’ll do the best I can with answering them. 🙂
Thank you! So how many girls went on your trip and do you know an approximate cost per person? We are wanting to make sure that something like this would be affordable for our girls. Thank you!
Hi! I am planning my bachelorette party for Spring next year. Is the weather better (less rain) in April or May? I really want to plan a boat outing on Lake Travis.
I’m not sure, but I would assume May!
Hi!! We are headed to Austin in a month and are staying on Lake Travis! How much did you all pay for the boat outing?? Could you BYOB and food??
The boat outing was pricey — around $1400 total for the boat and tipping the captain. You bring all your own alcohol, food and ice. The boat/captain provided the coolers. There are cheaper options, but our boat was really nice and we spilt the cost between 10 girls so it wasn’t that bad. And this was definitely the highlight of our trip. It was such a blast!
HI! I’m currently looking for stuff to do in Austin that would be fun for the girls that unfortunately are not 21 and over for my bach weekend. Any recommendations?
I just got back from my best friend’s bachelorette weekend in Austin and I just want to say THANK YOU for this post!! It was such a helpful guide. We went to Container Bar, did the Pubcrawler, took a pontoon out on Lake Austin, and had an absolutely BLAST! Can’t wait to go back to visit 🙂
Can’t make a bachelorette party but want to send something, or do something for the bride while she is in Austin. Any ideas?
Love this! If you don’t mind me asking — what was everyone’s budget for the house? We are running into some issues finding an Airbnb that fit everyone’s budget. We have 9 girls going.
We each paid around $270 for the house!
Planning an Austin bachelorette party but I’ve never been there before – this was super helpful! Thank you!!!
Yay! So glad it was helpful. I hope you all have a blast in Austin.
I recommend visiting the Hill Country, Fredericksburg in particular. My now sister-in-law chose to have us spend one of our days exploring it and we had a lot of fun! A great place to stay is the Lakeway Resort and Spa. It has a really nice pool with a swim-up bar and great views of Lake Travis. For sure rent a boat on Lake Austin. The Party Cove is a must and I recommend Wake Riderz to rent a captained pontoon boat from.
I see you guys played games at the house. That would have been a perfect time for a LOVEWINX consultant to come do a demo on all the wonderful spa, skin care, bedroom toys, skin enhancements and bedroom games. If any other bachelorette group reads this and this kind of party sounds fun, you can book a party at my website at mesmith1218.lovewinx.com
I’ll make sure the bride to be gets a shopping spree and games are played!!
Glad you ladies had fun in Austin!! ❤️
It was the BEST bach ever! I’m so thankful for you and all the hard work you did to make it so special! <3 love you, bird of honor!
SUCH A fun weekend celebrating the more gorgeous bride. PS – Can we go on a girl’s trip like this every year?
Hi there! This was very helpful as I have never been to Austin and am planning a bachelorette party for this August. I do have one question…I have 19 people going and we are staying at an AirBnB close to town. I don’t see a point in renting a car and not that just one would fit us all anyways. But we are going to Lake Travis for the party barge which is about 40 minutes away I am told. Is Uber/Lyft the best option for a group this size you think? Any advice/recommendations would be helpful! : )
I am planning one for about 16 girls and I’m curious what house you ended up renting for 19- can you share the link??
Hi there, Vanessa. Yes — we used Uber/Lyfts for our ride there and back. I was worried about it being too expensive but it was totally reasonable once we all split the costs. That said, just be sure you request to load and unload from the VIP marina not the Northshore marina. It’s way easier to get Lyfts from VIP!
So crazy! I was looking for ideas for my bachelorette in a few weeks, and I already made reservations at that same AirBNB.. can’t wait! Thank you for the great tips 🙂
Ahhh!! You are going to love the AirBnb in Clarksville. It was perfect for a large group! When is your bach?
As an Austinite, I’m glad you had fun in my city!! Next time you come, skip Torchy’s and grab tacos from a truck…I recommend El Primo on the East Side! And speaking of East Austin, you MUST explore that side of the highway next time you’re here!
It’s so funny you say this because we ended up being too full from hopdoddy to get Torchy’s and some of the girls grabbed tacos from a food truck late night instead! 🙂 Thanks for the tips!