Historic landmarks in Austin include the capitol building, the LBJ Presidential Library and Museum (one only 13 presidential libraries in the country!), the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue, the University of Texas, and the Driskill hotel, which is the oldest operating hotel in the city. There are historic music venues like the Continental Club, Armadillo World Headquarters, Threadgill’s, and Waterloo Records as well. The Congress Avenue Bridge is a local landmark over Lady Bird Lake that has earned the nickname “Bat City” because of the millions of bats that fly out on warm summer nights. And of course, there’s Franklin BBQ, the old smoky shack with the insanely long lines and brisket worthy of religious veneration.

Get in the water

Austinites know how to deal with Texas heat. They spend their summer days plunging into the ice-cold waters of Barton Springs. They hike up the greenbelt with their dogs, kids, guitars, and drums in search of hidden swimming holes. They paddle board on Town Lake (aka Lady Bird Lake), they wakeboard on Lake Austin, and they jump off the cliffs of Pale Face at Lake Travis. When temperatures soar over 90 degrees, there’s no better place to be so don’t forget to pack your swimsuit.

Follow the music

It’s not unusual to hear musicians warming up at any of the aforementioned swimming holes. But when the sun goes down, it’s time to follow that sound to South Congress, Sixth Street, Red River, the East Side, and low-key dives on the city’s outskirts. You can find jazz and blues at iconic watering holes like the Continental Club, the Saxon Pub, the speakeasy-style Eastside Showroom, or the underground Elephant Room. Put your cowboy boots on for Chicken Bingo and live bands at Ginny’s Little Longhorn Saloon, or see some red dirt country at Nutty Brown. Rock, punk, thrash-folk and loud guitars scream at the Mohawk and the Hole in the Wall. There are New Orleans style marching bands, cabaret shows, carny acts and vaudeville squeezed into live sets at many local dives. There is an awesome hip hop and electronic dance scene, along with reggae, rockabilly, folk, bluegrass, celtic, tejano, zydeco, russian-psycho-gypsy rock, and just about any other sound you can imagine. Some of Austin’s best music events include Austin City Limits, Blues on the Green and Shady Grove Unplugged. SXSW is of course an international music mecca, but you can also catch some amazing local bands before and after the mayhem. Be sure to check out HonkTX, which brings marching street brass to the Eastside just as the tourists begin flocking out of the city.

Discover foodie heaven

This town may run on barbecue, fried chicken, pork belly and Lonestar, but it’s also a hotbed of gourmet food trucks and upscale eateries, vegan treats and creative carnivore plates. In fact, during one SXSW, Austin’s own Barley Swine had the pleasure of serving Anthony Bourdain a plate of chicken testicles (really!). You can find beef tongue at Pitchfork Pretty, octopus at El Chipiron, and craft beer, gourmet brats, and wild game at Easy Tiger. There are also cool crossovers like the modern-mexican plates at Cocina ATX, the Franklin BBQ-inspired japanese soul food at Ramen Tatsu-ya, and the french-bistro-meets-American-diner menu at Bonhomie.

Get cultured

Austin is wildly diverse, and as such you can find plenty of places to bask in international culture. You can party with polka-punks and Tejanos at a Conjunto Los Pinkys show. You can jam to international music at the Sahara Lounge. Casa de Luz has monthly music showcases, and the scene at Ninos Rock Pachanga is not-to-be-missed. Resistencia Bookstore has artistic events, bilingual literature and a great selection on indigenous culture. Ballet Afrique is amazing. Next to Rainey Street there is the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center, which often features art and live performances. There’s the annual Carnaval celebration, as well as Cine Las Americas International Film Festival, where film fanatics can catch indie movies from South America.

Traffic is serious business in Austin. During rush hour, there’s no guaranteed way to get around it. However, you would do much better traveling routes that avoid the Mopac Expressway and I-35 if possible. The new toll road east of I-35 is a good way to get around traffic if you live on the east side, and a series of neighborhood backroads can help you avoid Mopac (although it can be easy to get lost for a newcomer, so make sure to set your Waze in advance!). Your best bet is to figure out where you will work and try to pick your apartment accordingly. Look for rentals that are either within walking/biking distance, or are located where you can use thoroughfares to avoid these traffic-laden routes.

For those who prefer to stay away from motor vehicles, Austin is one of the most walkable and bike-friendly cities in Texas. There are plenty of wide sidewalks, bicycle lanes, greenways, parks, and lakeside trails to travel. For cyclists, the only drawback to getting around on pedal power is all of the hills. This is “hill country” after all, and we can only assume it pays off in the form of excellent fitness.

Public transportation is also pretty efficient in Austin. Capital Metro provides commuter bus routes throughout the city, and the relatively new Metrorail is a smart way for north-south commuters to skip the Mopac Expressway traffic. Taxis and ride-sharing services are also available, along with rental companies like Car2Go and Zipcar.

Austin’s biggest sports fanatics revolve around the University of Texas Longhorns. The university’s football team are NCAA champions and the baseball team has won the College World Series. While Austin is the biggest city without a pro sports team, there is plenty of creative athleticism to enjoy, with everything from rock climbing to aerial shows, rowing races, frisbee golf tournaments, unicycle football and pseudo-pro-punk wrestling.

This is Texas, and in case you haven’t heard, Texas becomes an inferno in the summer. July temperatures can easily reach the upper 90’s, with the mercury rising over 100 degrees for weeks at a time. The only thing to do then, of course, is to jump into the spring-fed waters at Barton Springs Pool. Luckily, winters are usually very mild here, with plenty of warm, sunny weather and just a few days dipping below freezing. However, every once in awhile a light snow will hit Austin, and the entire city will look like Armageddon as cars go drifting onto sidewalks and police vehicles spin in circles, utterly helpless in the face of a ¼ inch of powder.

While Austin continues to live up to its reputation as the Live Music Capital of the World, the city also boasts booming business, finance, advertising, tourism and tech industries, which happen to also employ some of those aforementioned musicians In fact, one of Austin’s best banjo players was behind a 2012 Skittles commercial.

Big business and innovative startups alike thrive in Austin. Fortune 500 companies with offices in Austin include Amazon, Apple, Cisco, eBay, Google, IBM, Intel, Oracle, and Paypal. The worldwide headquarters for Dell is also located nearby in Round Rock, a northern Austin suburb.