Keeping with gifting a trip for Christmas tradition, we chose a long weekend in Austin for this year. Our main goal was a stay and play at Kalahari Resort in Round Rock and then the rest of the time was pretty easy to fill with other area attractions. We booked only a Thursday night at Kalahari and then 2 more nights at Best Western on the Southeast side of Austin. The policy at the resort is on the day of check-in you can access the waterpark at noon if your room isn’t ready as check-in time is 4pm. The following day, while you have to clear out of the room by 11, you can stay in the waterpark until it closes. So, that was our plan, maximize waterpark time Thursday and for as long at we could stand it on Friday before heading down to Austin. The kids did great patiently waiting for February to roll around and having 2 days to play indoors in heated water while it was winter outside was so worth it.

I venture to say that this particular Kalahari is twice the size of the Great Wolf Lodge we visited a few times in the Dallas area and definitely appeals to older kids and adults more. The water park has more thrill slides and more strictly monitored adult only areas. The arcade area has a massive ropes course and indoor rollercoaster! We spent hours running amuck in the waterpark without any wait lines for slides and little crowd anywhere else until dinner time. Then we went up to the room and had a simple microwave meal. We decided to spend extra on arcade time for the kids instead of one of the numerous restaurants onsite. The kids spread out all over the arcade with their own swipe cards while Nathan and I held down a checkpoint location at a bar overlooking the room. We called it a night once the kids burned through all the their credit and acquired their treasures haha.

The next morning we were packed out of our room and heading back into the park by 10:30. However, the crowd had significantly increased over night and Weston and I were done after an hour. We found it difficult to even move around the park much less enjoy activities. We opted to instead to stroll around the grounds outside checking out the statues and landscaping while Nathan, Ashlyn and Archer played hard for another 2 hours! lol! We all agreed the resort is a phenomenal time and Nathan said he would take 2 weekdays off next time to come back and enjoy it the way we had on Thursday.

Once everyone was in dry clothes, we headed down to Austin, stopping along the way to hike Mt Bonnell. It was a fun little excursion and was surprising to see the views you achieve between the drive up there and elevation gain on the short hike itself!

We had worked up a good appetite by then and had dinner at El Arroyo “famously” known for their viral billboard one-liners. The food and margaritas were delicious and all at a very reasonable price! Always nice to find a place maintaining authenticity!

Saturday morning we headed to the Austin Zoo located out by Lake Travis regardless of the bitter cold front that had blown in over night. Thankfully, its a small zoo and we briskly made our way through and were able to see all the exhibits in an hour and a half haha! But, what they’re doing at this facility is really remarkable. Every animal had been rescued by or relinquished to the zoo to live out their days with proper care. Each exhibit had information on the animal and where they came from.

After the zoo, we visited 2 breweries near the lake including Oasis Brewing located in The Oasis just in time for the sun to come out.

We had a lovely dinner at Sundancer Grill enjoying the unique views of the marina and lake at such a low level.

The next day, before heading home, we visited The Capitol Building. During the Austin Marathon apparently haha. But, Nathan did great navigating all the road closures and it was the perfect wrap on our long weekend in Austin.

-Lindsay