We arrived into Austin in the late afternoon and were immediately struck by how vibrant and colourful the city is! We stayed at the Austin Motel which has been renovated from the old motel built there in 1938, in fact our room used to be one of the original garages. The hotel uses a lot of funky wallpaper and neon lighting which perfectly matches the personality of the surrounding South Congress area, and there is even a resident cat named Steve.

Walking down South Congress Ave there are so many shops to pop into including vintage and records stores. It seemed like everyone we walked by was having a great time and enjoying the warm summers day. After getting some dinner we headed back to the motel where we could buy some drinks from the hotel reception/bodega and swam in the retro pool as it was still 35 degrees at sunset! By this point of the trip we were well and truly into stifling August heat.