South Congress

The best place to go for a stroll and window shop in Austin is South Congress. All of the shops are unique, funky and interesting. You can also take a break and pick up coffee, ice cream, a cupcake or a bite to eat at numerous restaurants & shops. Anytime the weather is nice you'll also find vendors selling jewelry, artwork or other handmade goods at outdoor stalls. Any day that you want to get out but don't know what to do, So Co is a foolproof plan. Don't forget to check out First Thursday (the first Thursday evening of every month) on South Congress, which we'll blog about soon.. the street comes alive with vendors & performers, and all the stores stay open late.

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Directory of Stores

First Thursday Blog

Toy Joy

For fun, quirky gifts or stocking stuffers, check out Toy Joy. It's an Austin landmark, and has just about the most unique gifts you're going to find. Get off your butt and do some last minute shopping! They're open until 11 on weekdays and midnight on the weekend.

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Lucy in Disguise with Diamonds

Need a Halloween costume? Stop what you're doing and get down to Lucy in Disguise with Diamonds, a huge costume store open year-round on South Congress.
South Congress has tons of interesting shops and restaurants, and they also host First Thursday every month, which we'll blog about soon. It's a great area to find unique gifts & clothes.

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The Domain

The Domain is a new outdoor shopping center north of Austin. It's one of those new mixed use developments, and it has apartments and offices in addition to restaurants and shops. Most of the stores are luxury stores, so you may not want to actually shop here if you're cheap like we are. However, there are a bunch of good places to eat at the Domain, and it's a pretty center to walk around in. It's also the location of the annual Austin Wine Festival, which is coming up again in May.

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Farmer's Market at the Triangle

Every Wednesday, all year round, there is a farmer's market at the Triangle from 4-8 PM. This is just one of several year round markets in Austin- so there's never any reason to not have fresh local produce!

Some of the shops:
Live music in the park area next to the market:
Some kids playing in the water spraying up from the fountain:

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The Triangle

The Triangle in central Austin has apartments, shopping, and restaurants. According to online reviews, the people living in the apartments here don't like them and think they're overpriced. That sucks, but the Triangle is still packed with some nice restaurants and shops.
The landscaping is nice, and it's fun to stroll around and check out the various shops. We've already reviewed Galaxy Cafe in the Triangle, and will review more of the restaurants soon.

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Restaurant List

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26 doors shopping center

Most of the stores in 26 doors shopping center were closed for labor day, but we figured we might as well take a stroll and see what the center was like since we were already there for gelato from Teo. It's a cute center, with a bunch of shops facing onto open squares.

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Shopping on Guadalupe

From around 21st to 27th on Guadalupe, there's a strip of stores and restaurants across from the UT campus. Some are chain stores like Urban Outfitters and Jamba Juice, others are unique. It's a great spot to go for lunch and shopping.
There are a couple of nice murals along the way. There's also a Scientology Center, so if you're easily brainwashed you might want to cross to the other side of the street when you see it.

San Marcos Outlets

The San Marcos outlet mall is huge. It's designed to make you feel like you're in Italy.. a sort of Vegas-y, Texas version of Italy. You can find the Gap, Neiman Marcus, and everything in between here. Most of the stores really do have cheap, extremely marked down outlet prices, which is fantastic. However, a few stores seem to not know the meaning of "outlet." If the discount is only 10%, or if you don't even tell us what the discount is on the tag so we can get psyched about the major deal we're getting, that's not outlet.

The mall is all outdoors, so it doesn't induce fits of anger and aggression the way indoor malls do.

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Round Rock Outlets

The Round Rock outlet mall is not nearly as huge as the San Marcos outlets, so if you like to get your cardio by shopping you will prefer San Marcos. However Round Rock still has a good variety of stores, and is also very pretty since it's outdoors. If I must shop, I prefer to shop in an outdoor mall. There's something about indoor malls that just makes you want to stab yourself. If you feel the same, you'll like Austin.

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