Downtown Austin Walking Tour

April 2025 Monthly Adventure

If you have been following my blog, then you know that the Monthly Adventures Series is all about me exploring the city of Austin, TX through the eyes of a tourist. Finding something fun and unique to Austin each month is what helps be gain a deeper appreciation for living here. One of the best ways to see a city is by walking because you get a completely different perspective as you move more slowly and can take in the details that would likely be missed if traveling by bus, car, or even a bike.

I had the option to create my own walking tour or follow along curated tours using the GPSmyCity app on my phone. This was my first time using the app and I was excited to incorporate some newer tech into one of my adventures! Austin was a great city for me to start using the app because it gave me an opportunity to do a self-paced walking tour, and I had never taken any walking tour around the city prior to this. I could also go to pretty much any city globally that I can think of and utilize this app for taking a walking tour.

For this particular Monthly Adventure, I opted to create my own Downtown Austin walking tour. I wanted to focus on Instagrammable locations for this tour and chose to design a simple route that would offer opportunities to briefly be indoors along the way if desired and not require walking super long distances between stops because it can be uncomfortable walking in the Texas heat.

Tau Ceti

Inspiration for my Downtown Austin Walking Tour

My tour was inspired by the curated Austin tours on the GPSmyCity app and my desire to take photos in the locations I have seen many friends take fun pictures in Downtown Austin. I don't spend a ton of time downtown, so this walking tour was my opportunity truly feel like a tourist as I took photos for Kimi's Travel Thoughts website and the corresponding Instagram account.

Building the Downtown Austin Walking Tour

While a few stops on the tour were ones that I added from some of the curated walking tours on the GPSmyCity app, most of the stops were ones that I thought to add on my own. There are a couple of websites that list murals in Austin, but they are not broken up by region and there were no dedicated maps to help point out where these locations are. I went through those lists and added in stops that I felt would be a good fit for Instagram posts and Reels. Once that was done, I had a walking tour of Downtown Austin with a focus on stops that make for good Instagram photos!

The official order of my Downtown Austin Walking Tour is as follows:

1. Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge

2. Willie Nelson Statue

3. Peace Love Austin (mural)

4. Women Vote (mural)

5. Congress Avenue Bridge

6. Tau Ceti (mural)

7. Paramount Theater

8. Texas State Capitol

Note: This tour is approximately 2.1 miles and is estimated at 2 hours to complete when following in this order.

Taking my Downtown Austin Instagram-worthy Walking Tour

For the first time ever, I rode the Cap Metro Rail line because I did not have the interest to drive, find parking, and pay for parking in Downtown Austin. This meant I was dropped off at the rail station on Fourth Street which is closer to the end of the tour rather than the beginning. So, I ended up following my tour in a completely different order. I took this altered route instead:

Peace Love Austin

1. Tau Ceti

2. Peace Love Austin

3. Willie Nelson Statue

4. Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge

5. Congress Avenue Bridge

6. Women Vote

I had some evening plans to return home for and skipped the Paramount Theater (which I visited last summer for a Monthly Adventure) and the Texas State Capitol so I could catch the Metro Rail on time.

The weather was nice for an afternoon following a walking tour around Downtown Austin for some Instagram photos! However, I recommend going early in the day and taking the tour when it's 90 degrees Fahrenheit or below. While the skyscrapers and trees help provide shade, it's a concrete jungle and downtown always registers temperatures about 2-3 degrees higher than other parts of the city. As I walked, I was excited to see all of the stops because (believe it or not), I had never actually been to any of the locations on this tour that I could get to the day I followed my tour!

Want to see more photos from my Downtown Austin walking tour? Follow @KimisTravelThoughts on Instagram!

A pleasant surprise while following my tour was discovering some of the other spots along the route that also make for excellent Instagram photos. Additionally, I got to see more than anticipated because I had to switch up the order of the stops. I walked along the Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail to get from the Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge to Congress Avenue Bridge and that was a great opportunity to observe nature right in the heart of Downtown Austin, take even more photos for Instagram, and experience a classic pastime of people-watching along Lady Bird Lake (a.k.a Town Lake to the OG Austinites).

View of Lady Bird Lake facing east towards South Congress from the Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge

All that walking left me feeling hungry, so I made pit stop at Fareground Food Hall where I ordered arepas and passion fruit juice from Four Brothers Venezuelan Kitchen. Had I not stopped there, I would've had enough time to get to Paramount Theater and the Texas State Capitol for photos. However, I've been to those places before and the trade off was worth it because I really needed the food.

Wrap-Up

Creating my own walking tour focused on stops that make for fun Instagram photos and then following that tour was easily one of my highlights of April 2025! This was one of those Monthly Adventures where I seriously felt like a tourist in my own city. I had to use a map to get around and nearly every stop along the way was new to me. Now that I have come to familiarize myself with the GPSmyCity app, I feel like this will be a very useful tool for any of my future Day Trips and can't wait to create another tour or follow a curated tour. If you ever end up using the app to follow walking tours or if you would like to see my map, let me know. For those of you planning to visit Austin and wanted some ideas for places that are great for photos, I hope this post was helpful!

On to the next adventure!

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