Fitness and Adventure Family Vacation
The Capital of Texas Provides Outdoor Challenges for all Ages
Everybody knows that Austin, Texas, the Live Music Capital of the World, offers a fabulous range of nightlife activities for adults. Nevertheless, it offers an equally wide assortment of learning and fun opportunities for children of all ages. Additionally, if you choose to stay Downtown, your vacation can become an adventure fitness escape for the whole family.
Lady Bird Lake is the Key to Nature Adventure Expeditions
Austin’s Downtown clusters immediately on the banks of Lady Bird Lake. Just steps away from the bustle of a major urban center, you slip right back into Nature. Turtles bask in the water and herons wait for their prey while canoes whisper by. The whole lake is surrounded by a wide, well maintained, and safe trail that leads to more attractions than a busy family can enjoy in a week.
Kid Fun within Easy Reach by Bike or Stroller
Bring your bike, your tandem extension bike, your jog stroller, or your children’s bikes to enjoy Austin the way the locals do: on foot or on two wheels. The Lady Bird Lake Hike & Bike Trail is just four miles around from Downtown, but within that distance you can visit the Austin Nature and Science Center, Zilker Park Playscape, Zilker Botanical Gardens, and Liz Carpenter Fountain. If you don’t want to bring your own equipment, everything you might need is available for rent at Bicycle Sport Shop, just one block south of the Lady Bird Lake.
Austin Nature and Science Center
For those unfamiliar with the attractions mentioned above, a brief overview: Austin Nature and Science Center, combines a miniature zoo of local fauna with explorations zones focused on Hill Country Ecology. Most children’s favorite part is the Dinosaur Pit, where kids can dig for life-sized replicas of dinosaur, pterodactyl, and mammoth bones.
Zilker Park Playscape
A bit further along the trail, on the Barton Creek spur, you find the famous Zilker Park Playscape, which offers an amazing and complex play environment that might have been invented by Dr. Seuss. In the unlikely event that the kids still have any energy left, there is also the Zilker Zephyr, a tiny train that takes passengers on a 20-minute loop through the whole park.
Zilker Botanical Gardens
Across the street from the Playscape, look for the Zilker Botanical Gardens. A peaceful change of pace, its rose garden, herb garden, and Japanese gardens are connected by a series of streams, ponds, and waterfalls. Don’t miss the Prehistoric Garden, which replicates the environment that local dinosaurs would have enjoyed here millions of years ago.
Liz Carpenter Fountain
Also easily reached along the Lady Bird Lake Hike and Bike Trail is Liz Carpenter Fountain. Located within Butler Park, it is just south of the trail across Riverside Drive. Bring your swimsuits and snacks because you are going to be there a long, long time. A circular series of jets coming straight out of the decorated pavement, the fountain varies its sequence and pattern while children play, and play, and play. There are also tiny pools around the periphery where the littlest ones can splash and explore safely.
Boating
A canoe or kayak provides one of the most inspiring ways to get close to nature. You can glide right up to turtles sunning themselves and water birds nesting or feeding. If it weren’t for the modern skyline sparkling in the middle distance, you would think you were in the wilderness. Canoes and kayaks, together with child-sized personal floatation devices, can be rented by the hour or the day. Look for the boathouse right along the Hike & Bike Trail.
Bats
Children who are allowed to stay up that late will get a special thrill out of the Congress Avenue Bats. Every evening between mid-March and November, 1.5 million bats rise into the air in giant, undulating columns. There are several spots along the Lake’s shore from which to watch. It is also possible to join one of the nightly boat tours in order to watch from the water. When people back home ask yours kids what they did on their vacation, this is the main thing they will mention.
Town Lake YMCA
Members of the YMCA may also use the facilities at the Town Lake Branch, also accessible from the Hike & Bike Trail. It offers childcare while parents are onsite working out, as well as classes such as yoga and gymnastics for preschoolers and youth. It also boasts a shallow children’s pool that is kept at 94º F year-round. This can be a real treat, especially for winter visitors. Call ahead for exact member privileges and hours.
Just for Parents
In addition to all the family fun, there is the nightlife for which Austin is so justifiably famous. Some hotels offer child-care while the grown-ups are out. There are also nanny placement agencies that can provide pre-screened and local mama approved babysitters. Best of all, the wildest night on the town will probably not take you more than 10 blocks from your hotel, so if the kids need you, if only for a moment, you are never far away, even if it feels that way.
Related articles:
Rower on Lady Bird Lake as Seen from the Trail
|
Swan on Town Lake (aka Ladybird Lake)
|
What do you think about this article?
More in Outdoor & Recreation
Latest Articles