TIMES HAVE CHANGED.

Most longtime Austin residents can remember when going to the airport meant arriving only 15 minutes before your flight because the terminal was so diminutive. They’ll also recall whizzing through a compact city devoid of traffic, being unable to shop on Sundays because of blue laws, and seeing a host of folks clad in 10-gallon hats. Back then, rising musicians like Janis Joplin crooned their tunes at hole-in-the-wall gas stations turned bars, and haute cuisine meant meals from one of two genres: Tex-Mex or barbecue. Only a decade ago as I traveled around the globe, I’d tell people I lived in Austin and they’d look blankly and ask, “Where’s that?” They had no idea it reigned as the Lone Star State’s thriving capital, served as a favorite haunt of musicians such as Willie Nelson and housed the highly regarded University of Texas.

Today Austin shows up on everybody’s “best of ” list. From hippest town to fittest city, from best place for families to best rooftop bars, the accolades just keep coming. Its unofficial slogan, “Keep Austin Weird,” reflects both the burg’s historic, pioneer spirit and its current tendency to set trends, embrace curiosity and think with an open mind. A universally renowned music mecca; a techie haven; the birthplace of Whole Foods and colossal boutique brands from Tito’s Handmade Vodka to Sweet Leaf Tea; and home to Circuit of the Americas, the highly touted Formula 1 racetrack, Austin achieved a kind of cult status. It’s a city version of the most popular kid in high school. With 2 million inhabitants and employers like Dell, IBM and HomeAway making their mark, sassy Austin also harbors the biggest urban bat colony in the world — and you’ll find that right downtown beneath the Congress Avenue Bridge.

Set in the heart of Texas on a dammed-up river locals call a lake, surrounded by hills and a respectable wine country, just three hours from the coast, Austin has become so attractive city sources estimate more than 100 people move here each day.

JW Marriott Austin’s foyer meeting space © JW MARRIOTT AUSTIN

The progressive city attracts thousands of business and leisure travelers annually. To cater to them, a bevy of hotels opened in the last year, including the second-largest JW Marriott in the world (with a stylish, curative spa and rooftop pool), a Texas-themed Westin and a music-centric Kimpton called the Van Zandt. In 2017 more swish hotels now under construction — such as a Fairmont and a ZaZa — are slated to welcome guests. Around town, 24/7, visitors join locals in audiences at more than 250 music venues. Throngs run myriad trails; standup paddle boarding is all the rage on the lake; bikers pedal en masse; and shoppers peruse a bevy of Austin-owned shops such as Kendra Scott, a jewelry store now gone national. With newly enlarged and reconfigured Bergstrom International Airport and airlines such as British Airways, Aeromexico, Condor and Air Canada, Austin is even more accessible to travelers.

Meeting goers rave about Austin. The buzz here makes connecting with colleagues so entertaining, they nearly forget they’re here for work. Besides the Austin Convention Center, the city not only boasts a plethora of meeting spaces — the capacious JW Marriott, for example, offers sleek, multi-sized meeting rooms — it also provides meeting planners with a multitude of opportunities for immersing their attendees in a vibrant, can-do culture sure to inspire their next moves. Breweries and distilleries abound. Dividing North Austin from South Austin, the Colorado River’s banks hold the undulating Lake Lady Bird Hike and Bike Trail, ideal for pedaling and group fitness walks. And there’s Barton Springs, an immense, natural, spring-fed pool smack in the middle of downtown. Choose to come for one of the best-known music festivals. Austin City Limits, an October event, brings an array of global bands and falls over two weekends, while the edgier South by Southwest places multitudinous bands in venues all over town and hosts both known and rising stars in a sensorial overload of tunes.

A jaunt to the various entertainment districts can’t be beat. Play downtown, where you can gaze at the capital, festooned by lights at night. Here the ambience of commerce and politics melds with galleries, music stages, restaurants, bars and shops. Try the hip Townsend, a bar set in a historic building on Congress Avenue that draws the area’s most sought-after bands. Listen while you sip craft cocktails and nibble soul-satisfying bar bites. Or canoodle at sleek Italic, where Austin eaters pursue la dolce vita. Adjacent to downtown, Rainey Street, composed of refurbished, wooden cottages reborn as bars and eateries, beckons visitors. Don’t miss El Naranjo for mind-boggling interior Mexican cuisine. And if you need a haircut before that meeting, get thee to Roar Salon, where a makeover awaits. Across the river, even life on the sidewalk feels like a party in SoCo. Here, amid trendy shops and eateries, the iconic Continental Club presents concerts aplenty. Over on the Eastside, James Beard Award-winning restaurants such as chic Launderette satisfy.

SCENIC DRIVES

Take U.S. Route 290 West to plunge into the region’s illustrious Hill Country. In springtime you’ll find fields of wildflowers, particularly the cobalt-hued bluebonnet, and in summer prepare to pick peaches right off the trees. By far, most explore this hilly region, rife with hamlets that hold antique stores and barbecue cafés, for the wine. In an area that recalls France’s Rhone Valley, the Fredericksburg Wine Road 290 leads you to 15 award-winning wineries specializing in a range of grapes from Viognier to Cabernet Sauvignon. From Austin follow 290 West to Johnson City (childhood home of President Lyndon Baines Johnson) and continue to the German-intoned town of Fredericksburg, where wineries lie an easy drive from one another.

For a completely different Texas experience, follow Route I10 south to San Antonio. Delve into this city, best known for the Alamo and its Mexican roots. Once a provincial city and home to a trio of military bases, old-school cattlemen and a vibrant Hispanic population, San Antonio recently experienced a renaissance. Gambol along the river walk, then head to the refurbished and re-imagined Pearl Brewery, a historic beer business turned outpost, chock-full of restaurants, bakeries, shops, a spa and the newly opened Hotel Emma.