Jaunted

Travel:
Don’t buy your plane tickets last minute!

Packing:
Austin is casual and you might not even have time to change between day and night, so don’t do what we did- pack light! American Airlines charged us 15 dollars a bag. Plus, overweight fees (which we thankfully avoided by last minute repacking):

Accommodations:
We recommend getting a hotel as close to the convention center as possible. This is where all the daytime action goes down and it’s only a skip and a hop away from the bar packed 6th street. Because of the high demand during the fest, prices are higher than usual so expect to pay from 180-300 dollars/night.

Transportation:
Austin is a great city to walk, but do have a bit of cash ready for those random cabs at night or when it rains. However, there some crazy deals tweeters couldn’t stop raving about:

Restaurants:
Although we seemed to be able to fill up on free food at events, that’s not always the case. We found this great link to cafés and restaurants near the fest that tons of people were retweeting: Google Maps Link

Our friend, and Austin native, @brit brought us to her favorite local tex mex hangover brunch spot, Taco Cabana:

There are also the obvious late night pizza spots liked Rappolo's that we recommend all over 6th street, but here are some other great picks some twitter users were dishing about:

Gadgets:
Festivals are filled with non-stop events from morning to night. The worst is when you want to find out where that hot party is, but whoops your phone is out of battery. Solution? Be sure to keep chargers on hand!

Wardrobe:
Austin is all about walking and most of the events are pretty close to each other, so wear comfortable shoes or flats (that are stylish of course). We always bring a pair of cowboy boots too, because you know- when in Rome?

Partying:
It’s pretty impossible not to stumble on a party by simply roaming the streets of Austin. Besides the regular bar madness, you can find more official events easily by searching- party #sxsw- on search.twitter.com. Look out for some good happy hour events in tents across from the convention center too.

Lastly, pick the events you need to attend but also leave room for spontaneity. SXSW is all about meeting new people and being open to whatever comes your way. As we know, while traveling it’s those moments we least expect that go a long way- and of course make a great tweet update.