Best Shopping Experiences
- Browsing South Congress Avenue (Austin): You never know what you’re going to find when you stroll along the row of shops and galleries on South Congress Avenue, just beyond Oltdorf; it’s the most concentrated strip of independent retailers in town. Some have been around since SoCo became trendy in the late 1990s, but new boutiques keep cropping up too.
- Buying Folk Art at Tesoros (Austin): Tesoros means “treasure” and for anyone who loves colorful crafts from around the world, this shop definitely qualifies. Textiles, ceramics, tinwork, paper cut-outs from across the globe are among the many types of folk art featured. There’s plenty to capture the eye across a wide range of prices.
- Looking for Reading Matter at BookPeople (Austin): One of the largest independent bookstores in the country, BookPeople caters to all reading tastes, from graphic novels to historic tomes, from middlebrow to cutting-edge. Check the website for the many author events.
- Picking Up Tacky Souvenirs at Wild About Music (Austin). You’ll find Keep Austin Weird mugs, bumper stickers, and T-shirts all over town (even in the Capitol Complex bookstore), but the concentration of music-related schlock (think boom-box lunchboxes or light-up key chains shaped like turntables) is unsurpassed at the famed gift and art gallery on Congress Avenue.