Top 8 Places to Go With Kids in Austin

We live outside the Houston area. While it is a very affordable place to live, summers are brutal as far as heat and humidity. We are always looking for ways to escape the heat in the summer. While we would love to travel North for a couple weeks, the cost always prohibits a big trip for us. We choose to take a few overnight trips near us that will still get us a break from the Houston heat, without breaking the budget! Our very favorite place to visit in the summer, with kids, is the Austin area. There are so many neat places to see, even some cold water springs to refresh our bodies. This article will give you insight to the eight best places we have found over the years to go with kids.

The first four places are water places-Barton Springs Pool, Krause Springs, Lost Creek, Mckinney Falls State Park, and Pedernales State Park. Then, two indoor places-The Thinkery and Austin Aquarium. We can’t visit Austin without eating some BBQ, so the last is our favorite BBQ in Austin.

Barton Springs Pool

Barton Springs Pool is probably our favorite place to take our kids. It basically is a HUGE spring fed pool. It doesn’t look like a traditional spring. It has concrete edges and stairs to get into it. There is even a rope swing and diving board! On the hills at the edges of the pool there are grassy areas to relax and eat a picnic lunch if you want. There are public restrooms as well. I would recommend wearing water shoes since the rocks are very slippery. The water here is very, very cold, but so refreshing in the middle of the hot summer weather!

Krause Springs

Each of the places we love to visit in the Austin area are beautiful in their own ways. But, I would have to say Krause Springs is the prettiest out of the ones we’ve been to. There is a good sized swimming hole with a waterfall that pours down into it from the spring fed, concrete formed pool above. You can swim behind the waterfall if you don’t mind getting a little wet. All around one side of the spring is a huge rock area. When you arrive you pick your spot, set your stuff down, and head right into the water if you’d like. The water here is pretty chilly as well since it is also a natural spring. We took breaks often and relaxed on the rock area where we set our stuff, so choose your spot with this in mind.

There are bathrooms here as well, but they are at the top of the hill where you come into the property. If you have little ones, I would recommend stopping before you head down to the springs. I would also recommend wearing water shoes here as well. The rocks are even more slippery than Barton Springs. And, there are lots of fish in the springs. You may not be as jumpy about fish as I am, but knowing they can nibble on my toes bothered me a little! I chose to protect my feet with water shoes. Anson, our second oldest, was too afraid to go in the water when we visited these springs. We had just gone to Galveston the weekend before and he had a situation with both crabs and jellyfish. He was a bit timid about anything that wasn’t man made!

Lost Creek

Lost Creek was one of our favorite adventures! It isn’t an official place with an entrance fee. We just had to follow instructions we found on the internet to find where we were going. It was such an adventure! I love adventures! You have to park on the side of the road, and hope there is parking! This link is how we learned about Lost Creek (http://do512family.com/swimming-in-austin/). Now, when you first walk to the creek, there is a small creek that you walk along until you cross it to get to the better spot. We didn’t stop to play in the creek here on the way in, but we did stop on the way out. I think all of my family agrees that we prefer this spot to the spot that you have to hike into. Next time though, we are going to buy big tubes for each of the boys to float on.

After you cross the creek, and hike about 25 minutes through some really pretty trails, you come to the spot that everyone talks about. There are actually two swimming holes, one above the falls and one below the falls. Since we went at the end of summer, there wasn’t water flowing over the rocks. We chose to play in the upper water hole since the lower one was full of college students having a lot of fun. It wasn’t near as family friendly on the lower side with some choice language, drinking, and smoking. The upper part, on the other hand, was empty! It was just us! This water isn’t a natural spring, so it was pretty warm water. We saw a lot of fish swimming and even a snake!

We loved the simplicity of Lost Creek. We are planning a trip back there next summer as well! You do have to pack in all your food. And, there are no restrooms her, so plan ahead on that.

Mckinney Falls State Park

When we went to Mckinney Falls State Park for the first time, we went with the cub scouts and we were not prepared at all! It was one of our very first camping trips as a family. I was 32 weeks pregnant with our 4th boy. We have a family camping trip scheduled for Mckinney Falls for spring break this year since we loved going with the scouts, even though we weren’t prepared!

The campsites and bathrooms are very clean. The river above the falls is very shallow. If you come prepared with water shoes, you could cross the river to the sandy beach area on the other side. Since we didn’t have water shoes or swimsuits, we couldn’t cross very far since the rocks both hurt and are very slippery. We didn’t explore below the falls much since it was more of a steep hike down and we had a little guy along with me being pregnant. But, we plan to explore that next time!

Pedernales Falls State Park

Pedernales Falls State Park is a bit different than other state parks. There are very specific instructions on swimming/not swimming. They have a designated swimming hole at one end of the park. The area with the incredible falls has a strict no swimming policy. Keep this in mind if you visit in the summer when it is blazing outside. It is also quite a drive outside of the Austin area, so you can’t just pop over for an afternoon. We spent one day hiking near the falls and another day on a hiking trail exploring the river area. There is so much to do here that we haven’t even touched the surface. This state park also has horseback riding trails if you happen to own horses.

The Thinkery

The greatest plans don’t always go so great, right? We planned on going to a swimming hole on this particular trip and guess what-yep, you guessed it! Severe thunderstorms that day passed through Austin. The Thinkery was something we thought we would check out during the terrible weather. We also had a membership to the Woodlands Children’s Museum and the Thinkery was part of the reciprocal museum membership group.

We have been to a few children’s museums over the years and we have to say that The Thinkery is one of our favorites! So many things for kids to play with and learn with! There is an indoor water play area and an outdoor water play area. There is a seperate area for toddlers as well. We’ve been three times and haven’t even explored the entire museum!

Austin Aquarium

Growing up, my favorite places to visit were Sea World and any aquarium or wildlife place. I was always fascinated by marine life and any animal. We first visited the San Antonio Aquarium and fell in love! We bought the membership that day and it included admission to the sister aquarium in Austin-The Austin Aquarium. While the San Antonio location is much larger with many more animals, the Austin location was just as impressive.

These aquariums are both very hands on, allowing you to touch nearly all the animals in the place from iguanas, to birds, to turtles, to sting rays! You can also feed most of the animals there as well. They have even added up close experiences with lemurs and kinkajous. We visit the aquarium each time we are in either San Antonio or Austin since we love it so much!

BBQ-Stiles Switch

A visit to Austin isn’t complete without a stop at a BBQ restaurant! We’ve tried a few of them. Franklin BBQ is probably our favorite. Since it is such a favorite place of everyone, you have to line up pretty early to get your food. Because of that, a close second favorite is Stiles Switch BBQ. They have a great outdoor eating area with the washer games to keep the boys entertained for a bit while we finish eating.

Each year we visit Austin at least once, so keep checking back to see if we find any other favorite spots to visit with kids! Comment below with your favorite place in Austin!