Vacation Nightlife

Hey guys!  Part two of my vacation round up here.  Today I’m talking about my favorite ways to spend evenings on vacation.  As someone who isn’t really about the nightlife scene and would rather find a killer restaurant than a hot new club, I feel the pain and pressure of finding things to do at night during vacation and that self-inflicted disappointment that maybe you’re going back to your hotel too early or you haven’t done enough yet.

As my best friend and number one travel companion, Jenn and I have a pretty good idea of what we want to spend our evenings doing.  When we’re in Boston, you can usually find us at a concert or sporting event, finding a place with deliciously close proximity to eat at beforehand (or find cheesecake at after, whatever).  So whatever corner of the country we’re zigzagging off to, we tend to follow similar patterns on vacation.

I think experiencing the sports culture of other areas in an underrated aspect of traveling.  In LA I was mesmerized by the Staples Center and how theatrical the whole experience was (how apropos, Hollywood) and equally shocked that it was still half empty at tipoff-something that would never happen in Boston!  In Texas, we ended up at the San Antonio Spurs game and had a blast exploring their new stadium and witnessing the way fans enjoy a game down south.

As the live music capital of the world, I knew I definitely wanted to see a concert while we were there.  Going back and forth between small venues and mainstream acts, it became clear to me that I definitely wanted to see something at the Moody Theater.  Seeing such a culturally significant theater such as the one ACL Live is filmed at seemed like a good way to spend an evening in Austin, but I couldn’t have imagined how much I would love it!  I have a tendency to geek out over the strangest and weirdest things, like being outside, but the Moody Theater really hit the nail on the head with me.  The sound quality is superb and from what I could tell every single seat in the house had fantastic sight lines to the stage.  The open air foyer was perfect for a beautiful Austin evening, and the outdoor stairs provided fantastic views down 2nd Street.  To call this “Music’s Best Address” is the best, most accurate statement of my concert attending days.

Since we live in the Information Age, there are a ton of online resources available that I’ve found helpful when planning trips, or even when I’m at home looking for something to do.  I frequently use the Boston.com events calendar at home, and I get the BosTen Newsletter delivered to my inbox every Thursday with ten things going on in the city that weekend.  When I was trying to find concerts in Austin I used Austin360, which is how I found out my Uncle Greg had a concert scheduled for one of the days I was in Austin (crazy).  It’s also how I found out about The Lantern Fest, which was an incredible real life Tangled moment.  If you have the opportunity to go to one next year I highly recommend it.

Our first day in Texas, we wanted to make sure we had something to do so we didn’t let jet lag tempt us into staying at the hotel all night.  The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema kept coming up while doing research, so we decided to give the Texas chain a try.  Luckily the Ritz location was having a Rocky Horror Picture Show party (the same night as the TV special), and as an avid Rocky Horror fan I knew that would be a good option.  This movie theatre absolutely blew me away.  I wish there was one closer than New York City to me, because I would be there all.the.time.  Serving everything from pizza and beer to big bowls of popcorn to warm chocolate chip cookies, this really takes movie going to a whole new level.  10/10 would recommend.   As an added bonus, this particular location is right on Sixth Street.  At midnight when the movie got out we walked out to a bustling street of nightlife.  In lieu of cars, it was filled with people walking down the middle street going in and out of the seemingly endless bars.  Walking back to the car we were offered free shots at least twice I believe from different venues (Thirsty Thursday is alive and well in Austin).  Knowing that we would never have gone in search of the traditional nightlife scene, it was fun to get to experience it as a happy accident post movie!

Make sure you stop by tomorrow for a recap of San Antonio!  See you then!

xo, C