SXSW Tips If You’re From Out Of Town

I just went to lunch with a visitor in town for SXSW (@lennysan from Localmind) and it reminded me of some of the ‘gotchas’ that someone not from Austin may not know.

• If your hotel doesn’t have a shuttle, and it is not immediately inside the downtown area, you will need a car. (Unless you are real close to the one light rail line, and I wouldn’t bet on it not being totally overloaded). Austin is big and not pedestrian friendly outside of IMMEDIATELY adjacent to the river.
• Here’s an awesome downtown parking guide from Community Impact. Shows where they are, what the rates are, whether they’re lot or structure.
• You can rent your gun at the airport when you land, to avoid spending time finding another place to do it.
• Just because a place has a big “BBQ” sign doesn’t mean you should go eat barbecue there.  We were eating real BBQ at Rudy’s and looking across the highway at the Bone Daddy’s that has a big ol’ sign on it saying BBQ.  I’m not saying Bone Daddy’s doesn’t have things to recommend it, but BBQ isn’t really its strength.  If you’re downtown, eat at the Iron Works, and if anyone is organizing a field trip out of town to the really golden places in Taylor or Llano, go along.
• Someone asked on Localmind about breakfast during SXSW – here, breakfast is breakfast tacos, except for hotel restaurants and Denny’s.

Any more tips for furriners?  Post them here!