As a traveler looking for attractions, have you ever thought of taking a Segway tour of a city? Have you thought about doing it in Austin, Texas? The city is known as the "Live Music Capital of the World" because it has more live music venues per capita than any other city in the world. The city has a vibrant food scene, with a wide variety of restaurants and food trucks offering everything from barbecue and Tex-Mex to vegan and vegetarian cuisine. Do you like bats? The Congress Avenue Bridge in downtown Austin is home to the largest urban bat colony in North America. Every night from March to November, more than 1.5 million bats emerge from under the bridge to hunt for insects. Austin is definitely dog friendly. They have pet-friendly hotels, and restaurants that welcome four-legged friends. On a Segway tour, you will see dogs, bats, bars, the Texas capitol and more! Maybe y’all need to visit and see Austin? Have you made Texas a destination on your vacations list yet? Maybe it is time for y’all to come visit!
Austin is known for its history and music scene. A Segway tour allows you to take it all in without tiring yourself out. Here’s our review.
We really enjoyed our Segway tour of Austin we booked on Viator. Our home is in Texas, and I took Madeline to Austin for a birthday weekend.
We stayed at the Driskill Hotel in Austin. It is the oldest operating hotel in Austin and has an interesting past: Jesse Driskill was a successful cattle baron. He built the hotel in 1886. He closed the hotel about a year later when a harsh Texas winter eliminated most of his cattle. It changed hands lots of times after that. The Driskill was one if the first Texas hotels to have air conditioning. Today, it is affiliated with Hyatt as part of their Unbound Collection. On our tour, we went right by the Driskill and asked our tour guide for a photo.
The tours on Viator offer many options, but most operators include a tour of the state capitol.
We’ve done enough Segway tours that we are comfortable enough to lift our hands off the handlebars. Maybe that was the instructor making sure we didn’t run off in the wrong direction?
As usual, the tour operator wanted us to go through the training exercises so they could ensure our safety.
Madeline performed flawlessly, so the guide told her to wait for the others to practice.
Our tour included the bar and nightclub area on 6th Street and a ride by the Moody Theater, which is home to the music series Austin City Limits. We also stopped by the Austin Central Library, which offers great views of the city. We didn’t take our Segway’s into the library—we didn’t think the librarians would be amused.
There are other Austin Segway tours on Viator you might want to check out. A dusk tour focuses on Austin’s legendary bat population. It’s called the Bat Flight Night Tour. More than 1.5 million bats migrate to Austin each year. Many of them seem to stay all year. This tour stops at multiple places at dusk when the bats come out looking for mosquitos. They also stop by the Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge, the Austin Rocks boutique, the Willie Nelson Statue, and Congress Avenue Bridge.
Another bat-oriented tour gives you a little history into the supposedly haunted houses and hotels. They call it the Austin Famous Ghost and Bat Segway Tour. You’ll stop by our hotel, The Driskill, because presumably there is a friendly spirit and a few ghosts. I can assure you that we didn’t see any apparitions while we stayed at the hotel. The tour takes you to many supposedly ghostly locales. And the guide tells you the back story to each legend. Combine ghosts with bats and you have a nice Segway tour, particularly around Halloween.
Many people come to Austin because of the music scene. Austin is known as the Live Music Capital of the World because of so many bars and venues featuring nightly live music. Sometimes, more than 100 acts perform on a single night! Sixth Street is packed with live music venues. But you can find more all over town. Many credit Austin’s lively music scene to Willie Nelson, who moved from Nashville because he was dissatisfied with the way country music was being produced. He moved to Austin in 1972, and the rest is history. There is a great book on the topic of how music moved from Nashville to Austin. The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock keeps your interest from the first page to the last, especially if you are a fan of Willie and the Outlaws.
My recommendation is to enjoy a couple of Segway tours during the day and enjoy your live music at night. Y’all have fun!