Austin Travel Deals and Cheap Tickets

Austin City Limits Festival Travel Deals

acl2 The city of Austin has an incredibly good reputation when it comes to places to see live music. Not only is the city home to the famous SXSW festival, there’s fantastic live music (much of it local) in venues around town all year long. Then of course there’s the long-running concert series, Austin City Limits, which is where the newer – but equally as spectacular – Austin City Limits Festival gets its name.

Yes, Austin is the place to be if you love live music – but if you can’t be there year-round, then making a trip to see the annual Austin City Limits Festival is a great alternative. Although the festival only started in 2002, it has quickly gained a deserved reputation among the other great music festivals on the calendar.

In the series of articles linked below, we offer tips on how to make the Austin City Limits Festival a part of your music intake this year (or any year, for that matter) without breaking the bank.

>> When is Austin City Limits Festival in 2010? It runs from October 8-10.

How to Get to Austin City Limits Festival

acl3 For anyone who loves music, living in or near Austin isn’t a bad idea – and not just for the fabulous annual Austin City Limits Festival. But if you don’t live within a short drive of Austin and you’ve got tickets to ACL Festival, that means you’ll need to figure out how to get there.

If you’re far enough away and you don’t have loads of time on your hands, then something like a long road trip to Austin probably isn’t going to work – and you’ll probably need to start with a flight to the area. But your options for getting to the Austin City Limits Festival aren’t limited to driving or flying, as you’ll see below.

>> The Austin City Limits Festival is from October 8-10 in 2010

Airports to Use for Austin City Limits Festival

acl4 Austin is the capital of Texas, so although it’s not the state’s biggest city it’s still a safe bet to assume that Austin has its own airport. (You’re right, it does.) But that doesn’t mean you only have one option when you’re making travel plans for the Austin City Limits Festival. In fact, if you’re hunting for the cheapest airfare out there, it’s a good idea to look at all airports within a reasonable drive of Austin.

Of course, what constitutes a “reasonable” drive will be different for each traveler, but when you consider that there are three major cities within a 3-hour drive of Austin and those cities may offer a significant savings on your airline ticket, then the drive might start to look like a really good option. Bring (or pick up) some friends and make a road trip out of it.

When considering flying into a different airport than Austin’s airport, the main thing you want to take into account is whether you’ll cancel out all the savings from your airfare by renting a car and paying for gas (which is another reason bringing friends helps). And if it turns out that flying anywhere but Austin is just too much of a hassle, be sure to read about how to find cheap airfare to Austin City Limits Festival to avoid paying full price on your ticket.

>> Austin City Limits Festival is from October 8-10, 2010

How to Find Cheap Airfare to Austin City Limits Festival

acl1 It seems that every summer music festival has its challenges when it comes to finding cheap airfare. Sometimes it’s a remote location that’s a challenge to reach, and other times it’s a popular summer travel destination so airfare is more expensive as a result.

The Austin City Limits Festival would ordinarily fall into the latter category, they’ve cleverly scheduled the festival to take place in early October so it’s not right smack in the midst of the high summer travel season. And while this can help in the hunt for cheap airfare, it’s still wise to do your homework before you buy a plane ticket just to make sure you’re getting the best deal you can.

You don’t have to be a travel expert to get a better deal on airfare, if you pay attention to the simple tips outlined below. Keep in mind that although these tips are especially useful for an event like the Austin City Limits Festival when more people than normal will be flocking to one particular destination, most of them will be handy to remember no matter when you’re booking a flight or where you’re traveling.

>> Austin City Limits Festival in 2010 is from October 8-10

Great travel deals to Austin, Texas

austin Jet Blue recently caused a big stir in the travel industry when they announced they would be offering an all-you-can-fly pass for $599 that would allow travelers to fly an unlimited number of times from September 8-October 8. The pass sold out before the promotion ended, leaving many industry insiders left wondering if other airlines would follow suit and offer a similar unlimited air travel pass. However, if you did not score a deal on one of Jet Blue’s all-you-can-fly passes, then you may still be on the lookout for cheap airfares to many of their destinations—including one of my very favorite cities, Austin, Texas. Best Flight Deals to Austin

You can practically smell those yellow roses of Texas right now

Texas is a big place. You can drive your car from one side to the other in about the same time as it would take to drive across a large swath of Europe. If you ever want to feel the rush of being alone, head on out to west Texas and drive at night. You’ll hardly see a soul and you’ll hardly hear anything other than the country music coming from your radio.

While it is big and it does have plenty of emptiness to it, Texas also does just fine in the big city department. Houston is a major city with a downtown hub and suburban sprawl to prove it. Dallas goes on forever. San Antonio has its Riverwalk and that Alamo place. Austin is the liberal enclave with the university and vibrant music scene. El Paso is a rough and tumble border town. You could travel to all of these cities and find it hard to believe that you are in the same country let alone the same state.

Priceline currently has an offer on discounted flights to Texas. Choose where you want to start and then experience the enormity of the state by renting a car of flying to another city. Or simply stay in one spot and enjoy all that makes the Lone Star state unique.