- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Austin Babies
Possibly relocating to Austin/Need help
Hi all - This is a XP from the Nest; link is here. My H and I are considering relocating and Texas is a strong contender given his profession (ChemE). I posted on my regular board, P&CE, asking for Texas recommendations and Austin seemed to be the clear favorite. Here's the link if you are interested.
I have a couple basic questions and need some guidance. First, does Austin have a good children's hospital, or a good health care industry in general? My 3yo son has some medical issues, so proximity to a really good hospital is important.
Second, is there any area of Austin that is particularly family-friendly, i.e., any area that has lots of parks, good schools, etc.? Yes, I realize this is a hugely broad inquiry and open to interpretation. 
The second question dovetails with my third, which is, where do you recommend we look when we visit? We'll be making a scouting trip this summer and I have no idea where to begin. What part of town should we stay in? Any restaurant/activity recommendations? Anything we should definitely see? Both of our kids (ages 4 and 3) will be with us on the trip so kid-friendly ideas would be great.
Also, any general thoughts are appreciated. I've only been to Texas once and that was a layover in the Dallas airport, 
, so I'm open to suggestions.
Thank you!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Possibly relocating to Austin/Need help
We love Austin! I've lived here for about 15 years now and really can't see myself ever moving.
#1 - Yes, Austin has a great children's hospital. Dell Children's Medical Center: https://www.dellchildrens.net/. We personally haven't had to visit it, but I know a ton of other ladies on this board that have and can give you more info on it.
#2 - Where you'd want to live really depends on where you're working. If you're going to work south, I know Circle C is a popular area wit good schools. We're in Round Rock, a suburb of Austin (about 20 minutes from downtown), but I would hate the traffic/commute every morning if one of us worked downtown! Great schools up here though - same with Cedar Park ISD and Georgetown ISD.
#3 - I'd probably recommend staying downtown to really get the feel for Austin. Like I said in #2, I'd really recommend living on the same side of town as you work due to traffic. There's tons of great neighborhoods all throughout Austin - it just depends on where you want to be!
Pretty much this. Although I've lived here my entire life and never want to leave. Ditto verbatim, #1 and #2
For #3 I would also recommend staying in the downtown area. For kid friendly activities around that area you have Town/Lady Bird Lake (Kayaking and ducks!), Congress Avenue, Zilker Park, Barton Springs Pool, the Capitol, Austin Children's museum. Or you could see a show at the Paramount Theater and there's also an Alamo Drafthouse theater. The bats on the Congress Bridge. If you want to go farther south there is the Wildflower center. Austin is THE BEST!
<a href="http://www.thenest.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Home D
all the more reason to increase return visits.
I responded in your other post. Great to see you over here!
In terms of the medical stuff, can you ask your child's current doctors to look into Dell Children's and give you their professional opinion? That might make you feel better than just hearing from us. I personally haven't used Dell, but I've heard good things about it.
Where to live in Austin really depends a lot on where you and your husband will be working. Or just your husband if you SAH. Traffic isn't horrible when compared to places like LA, but it can suck. There are some wonderful places south of the river, but if you have to work north of the river, bear in mind that there are only so many places to get across it - traffic is always going to bottleneck there. That was my husband's main argument against living south, and now that his employer has moved further north, I'm glad we didn't move south.
We live in Cedar Park, just outside of the Austin limits - Austin literally runs into CP. The schools here are part of the Leander ISD, and they are very good. Our daughter starts kindergarten in the public school in the fall. Housing prices are going to be a little lower in the suburbs. For us, it wasn't worth the extra $$ to have an Austin address. We have neighborhood parks, a city park in our neighborhood, easy access to local hike and bike trails which lead to other nice parks, and our neighborhood provide easy access to major roads, which makes DH's commute quicker.
In terms of housing, the closer in you get to downtown, the more expensive it will be. There are some amazing neighborhoods in Austin, but for us, spending $400K or more for a tiny house just wasn't realistic.
To get a flavor of Austin during your visit, you could take the kids to the Austin Children's Museum, visit Zilker Park or the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, take a boat ride around Lady Bird Lake at sunset, spend some time wandering around South Congress and checking out some of the funky shops. Have dinner at Central Market's cafe at 45th and Lamar and let the kids play on the playground there while you listen to live music (check their website to see which days they have musicians performing). I'd also plan on spending a day driving around to different areas. Take 183 north to see northwest Austin and Cedar Park. Take 35 north to see Round Rock or Pflugerville. Consider driving out to Lake Travis - take 620 west, and you can loop all the way around and pop out in Bee Caves. Drive south on MoPac and check out that area. You'll get a decent feel for what's out there and how long it takes to get there.
Let us know when you're coming, and perhaps we can set up a group playdate at a park to meet you and your family!
Meredith, 6-1-06 and Alex, 11-5-09