Going to the United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas

Where to stay near the Circuit of the Americas?

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  • #130337

    Where are the best places to stay if you’re going to the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas?

    #182274
    Les
    Member

    For those of you traveling to the Austin area for anything at the Circuit of The Americas(COTA), I am offering myself as a resource for local information. I have lived in Austin since 1972 and should be able to help you out with most topics.

    Where to stay? I would encourage you to book this right away, even if you are not positive that you will come to the race. Hotels are the obvious answer. COTA is near the Bergstrom airport which is Austin’s primary airport.

    Smaller towns near COTA could be an option as well. Bastrop, Kyle, Buda, San Marcos, Smithville, Lockhart.

    There is an RV park on site at COTA though I have not seen anything posted about its availability. If you are in a self contained RV, there might be neighbors to the venue who would allow you to pay to park on their farm/ranch land for the week. There is lots of this type of land near the venue. The “town” where COTA is located is names Elroy, Tx. Nothing in the way of accommodations at this time. Bubba’s Wild grille is the most known eatery.

    Other ideas for locations could be to rent vacation homes in the area through http://www.HomeAway.com or http://www.VRBO.com .

    Golf Resorts in the area that I am guessing may have heliport service could be an option. The heliports will make some locations that seem far away in road traffic very convenient by helicopter. Lakeway (west of Austin) Barton Creek (west of Austin), Hyatt Regency @ The Lost Pines (near COTA in Bastrop area).

    Don’t forget to look for Bed and Breakfasts or hunting/fishing camps as well.

    I will watch for traffic on this thread and update as requested by the audience.

    #182275
    Lilia
    Participant

    Thanks Les for sharing hotel info. Any recommendations on transportation? I’ve only been to the Canada race and I was spoiled with their public transit in and out of the track. Do you think I should rent a car?
    Thanks!

    #182276
    Roy Kartadinata
    Participant

    Local news in Austin announced that almost all hotel has increased their price for Austin GP weekend, even small hotel .. average price per night is anywhere from $300 – $500 according to them. Les was correct, try Bastrop, Kyle, Buda, San Marcos, Smithville, Lockhart or even San Antonio which is about 45 minutes away from circuit of the americas.

    #182277
    Alzarius
    Participant

    I started to look for hotels way back in January, and even then they were going for $300 at least for even the basic 2-star hotels.

    #182278
    codesurge
    Participant

    In case anyone is still looking for places to stay, check out airbnb.com for a list of more cost effective B&B locations in Austin. Hotel prices really are skyrocketing beyond what I’d consider reasonable for a GP weekend!

    #182279
    F1Yankee
    Participant

    re-posting in the right thread

    #182280
    Dianne Davies
    Participant

    Hi Les. I saw your post here and wondered if I could ask you for some local assistance.

    My boyfriend and I are looking into coming over from Scotland for this race and were thinking of hiring an RV or Truck & Trailer and staying for a week, mainly in Austin, but we’d be flying in and out of Houston. Can you help at all? I’ve emailed several companies over weekend so anticipate a reply tomorrow but with your local knowledge, would you know of campsites for RVs near the track (I did see a post saying there may be a site at the track but I can’t see anything on the COTA website). Ideally we’d arrive Houston Wed 14th lateafternoon and I know we won’t be able to pick up vehicle till the Thursday as most sites say not allowed immediately after transatlantic flight so we’d have night in Houston hotel then would want to travel to Austin for Thurs-Sun (possibly Monday) then travel back to Houston on the Monday but stay for another 2 nights en route where we would like to visit a rodeo then we fly home on Wed 21st. Any help you can offer would be hugely appreciated.
    Thanks,
    Dianne

    #182282
    doodie111
    Participant

    Travelling from Australia and have booked a place through airbnb.com. Process smooth so far with a very communicative and helpful host and cost-wise, heaps better than the high hotel rates. In the order of AU$160/night (US$170/night, €130/night, £105/night).

    Dealt with four potential ‘landlords’ and all were communicative and helpful.

    #182283
    BasCB
    Participant

    A link to an interesting discussion about current prices for staying in Austin. Thanks @tim-wood for the detailed update on current state, as well as tips for reasonably priced accommodation http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2013/02/26/an-unusual-economic-impact-study/#comment-142676

    #182284
    Alex green
    Participant

    San antonio is a good option

    #182285
    Steve Heyman
    Participant

    We live north of the track and the shuttle system was wonderful last year. I didn’t want to miss a moment of anything going on at COTA so we arrived at the shuttle lot (Travis County Expo Center) about 30 minutes before the first busses were to leave. We drove right in, parked, hopped right onto a bus and before we knew it we were in line at the track. Could not have been better!

    If you are looking outside of Austin (which is where the reasonably priced places are) then I will suggest looking north. Pflugerville, Round Rock, Georgetown are the closest towns to the north (all less than 45 minute drive to the shuttle buses).

    Keep going north to Killen, Temple, Waco and you are talking 90 minutes to 2 hours.

    Dallas is about 3 hours to the north, more if there is construction on Interestate 35.

    San Antonio is south, and is a wonderful city with lots to see and do, but I can’t speak to how the transportation worked from the south.

    Same for Houston which is about 3 hours to the east of Austin. The problem there is that there are really only two roads into town from Houston – Hwy 290 and Interstate 10. Since 290 pretty much comes right towards the Expo Center I would expect that to be jam packed, so if you are coming from Houston (or anywhere, really) then leave REALLY EARLY.

    #182286
    Jason
    Participant

    If you aren’t interested in paying the ridiculous prices for hotels and don’t want to drive from nearby towns with cheaper hotels, an additional alternative would be to find rooms for rent by local people.

    I’d use the Vacation Rentals section for Austin on Craigslist.org:
    http://austin.craigslist.org/vac/

    I’ve used Craigslist to find temporary rentals before and had a fair amount of success, though I encourage anyone who uses it to do a little extra diligence when exchanging with anyone as there are occasional weirdos on Craigslist offering crummy or awkward accommodations—though Austin is a small enough town I suspect there would be less of that.

    #182287
    socalf1fan
    Participant

    Last year I stayed in San Antonio. Transport (by rented car on the new toll road) was pretty painless (never encountered any substantial traffic), but it’s a pretty long drive. This year I am going to try to get a bit closer. Lockhart was mentioned earlier — I’d stay there just to be closer to some good barbecue ;)

    Also, if you’re driving, the prepaid parking with shuttle at the airport worked VERY well; the lines for those buses were far shorter than the other shuttles.

    #182288
    Frodo Baggins
    Participant

    I booked rooms at the Doubletree University Area last year and one of my buddies can’t make it this year. I have a room available on the reservation. The res is for Fri-Sun at $129 / night. If you interested, Let me know.

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