Sixth Street in Austin, Texas
If you’ve ever heard of Austin, you’ve heard of 6th Street. It is the “Live Music Capitol of the World,” which is just a good excuse to have lots of bars in one place. Ironically, the only live music I heard on this trip was at Harry’s Piano Bar. No jam sessions for me. 6th Street is a lot of fun regardless. My suggestion would be to go downtown see the bats, then walk the 3 blocks over to 6th. The bulk of the bars are between Congress Street and I-35. If you’re going to Austin, you have to at LEAST have a walk down the street to see what it’s all about.
I’m sure people have their favorites, but I would just wander in to anyplace that looks good at the time. Most venues are free unless there is some sort of event happening, so you can pop in and out of as many places as you like. Once you’ve imbibed a few, the street vendor hot dogs are superb. There are plenty of cabs around (remember, Yellow Cab takes credit cards) so you don’t have to worry about driving back to your hotel.
I’m really disappointed I didn’t run in to Willie Nelson.