Business Hours
ClosedMonday
Closed
Tuesday
Closed
Wednesday
Closed
Thursday
10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Friday
10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Saturday
10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Sunday
10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
10621 Pioneer Farms Dr, Austin, TX 78754, USA Get directions
Pioneer Farms is a living-history museum northeast of downtown Austin, where costumed interpreters work a collection of relocated and reconstructed buildings to recreate Central Texas rural life across the 19th century, from a Tonkawa encampment to an 1880s village. Plan around its limited schedule—it's open only a few days a week, with Monday through Wednesday closed—and wear shoes you don't mind getting dusty, since the grounds are a working farm with animals and open fields.
Monday
Closed
Tuesday
Closed
Wednesday
Closed
Thursday
10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Friday
10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Saturday
10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Sunday
10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Austin
Barton Springs Pool is a three-acre spring-fed swimming hole in Zilker Park, where water bubbles up from the Edwards Aquifer to hold a steady 68–70°F year-round, cold enough to take your breath in summer and oddly tolerable in winter. Watch for the Barton Springs salamander, an endangered species found nowhere else, which is part of why the limestone-lined pool is managed as carefully as it is.
Austin
Zilker Metropolitan Park sprawls across more than 300 acres along the Colorado River just southwest of downtown Austin, and it's the gateway to Barton Springs Pool, a spring-fed swimming hole that hovers around 68 degrees year-round. You'll find people picnicking on the Great Lawn, paddling Lady Bird Lake, and walking the trails here, and it's also home to the Zilker Botanical Garden and the annual Austin City Limits festival.
Austin
Three floors of exhibits trace the "Story of Texas" from its Indigenous peoples through Spanish colonization, revolution, and statehood, with the museum's IMAX screen and the special-effects Texas Spirit Theater rounding out a visit. You'll spot it from down Congress Avenue by the giant bronze Lone Star out front, just a few blocks north of the Capitol.
Events, new openings, and seasonal guides — straight to your inbox, about once a month.