The Austin food press, culture calendars, outdoors resources, and city-living news we actually read — grouped and annotated. These are external, independent sites; we link them because they’re good.
Vox Media’s restaurant desk for Austin — openings, closings, reviews, maps, and guides. The fastest restaurant news in town: if a notable spot opens or closes, Eater has it first, and the heat maps and essential lists are reliable.
The national magazine of Texas, with the most authoritative BBQ coverage anywhere — the Top 50 BBQ list reshapes pilgrimage routes every time it drops. Their taco and small-town-eats reporting regularly puts Austin kitchens on the statewide map.
The city’s glossy lifestyle magazine — dining features, neighborhood profiles, home and design. Longer-lead, magazine-style storytelling that complements the dailies; good best-restaurants packages.
Austin lifestyle coverage: restaurants, real estate, sports, arts, fashion, from an upscale perspective. The polished take — its restaurant reporting overlaps with Eater but for a different audience, and the real-estate coverage is solid.
Free alt-weekly since 1981; the best dining, music, arts, and events coverage in the city, plus the annual Best of Austin awards. The most Austin publication in Austin — free print copies everywhere, restaurant reviews worth reading religiously.
Austin’s events calendar and discovery engine — concerts, food events, free things to do, with a daily email. The best “what to do tonight” resource in town; the free-events focus makes it universally useful.
Austin’s arts, style, and culture magazine — interiors, fashion, galleries, profiles of local makers. Where the design-minded side of Austin lives; the annual style issues are a time capsule of the city’s look.
The Austin American-Statesman’s entertainment arm — music, dining, festivals, and things to do. Daily-newspaper muscle applied to the fun parts of the city; strong ACL and SXSW coverage.
The Austin music experience — public radio dedicated to the city’s defining industry, with live sessions and local-artist discovery. The soundtrack of the Live Music Capital; Studio 1A sessions are a running archive of Austin talent.
The state authority on parks, trails, swimming holes, and wildlife — reservations for McKinney Falls, Pedernales Falls, and every Hill Country state park within day-trip range. Book state-park passes here before summer weekends; popular parks sell out.
The nonprofit partner behind Austin’s parks — volunteer days, park grants, and the ACL Fest parks partnership that has returned tens of millions to the system. The best single place to understand (and help) the city’s green spaces.
Land conservation for the watersheds and open spaces west of the city, including work on the Violet Crown Trail — Central Texas’s 30-mile regional trail. The long game on why Barton Springs stays swimmable.
Stewards of the Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail around Lady Bird Lake — the 10-mile loop at the heart of Austin’s outdoor life. Trail maps, closures, and the boardwalk projects that keep the loop growing.
Newspaper of record for Austin — investigative reporting, state politics, city hall, sports. Paywalled but essential. When something important happens in Austin — politically, legally, financially — the Statesman has the deepest reporting.
Austin’s NPR station — city news, transportation, housing, and the indispensable “ATXplained” series. The most trusted broadcast voice in town; its housing and Project Connect reporting is essential for anyone moving here.
Nonprofit civic-affairs newsroom covering city council, zoning, and boards-and-commissions minutiae nobody else sits through. If you want to know why your neighborhood is changing, the answer is usually in the Monitor first.
Hyperlocal editions for Austin’s neighborhoods and suburbs — openings, road projects, school districts, development filings. The best radar for what’s being built at the end of your street, from Cedar Park to Buda.
The city itself: utilities, parks and pools schedules, water restrictions, permits, and council agendas. Bookmark the pool schedule and the watering-restrictions page; both run Austin summers.
270K+ members of real-time Austin discussion — neighborhood advice, restaurant recs, city drama, moving questions. The unfiltered voice of the city: raw, opinionated, occasionally cranky, but the most honest read on local sentiment. Search before asking.
Know a source we missed? Suggest it. We review and add quality sources regularly.