Downtown Austin’s lake is a no-motorboats zone, which makes it America’s most family-friendly urban paddling water. Rent kayaks, canoes or a swan pedal boat, and the skyline becomes your kids’ backdrop as turtles sun on logs and herons stalk the shallows of Lady Bird Lake.
On shore, the Ann and Roy Butler Boardwalk completes the 10-mile hike-and-bike loop with stroller-friendly planks over the water; Auditorium Shores’ off-leash dogs and skyline lawn host the picnics; and every warm evening the Congress Avenue Bridge bats — 1.5 million Mexican free-tails — pour out at dusk to family gasps from the bridge, the lawn and bat-watching boats below.
Paddle by day, bats by night, skyline always. Lady Bird Lake is the family day Austin gives away free.
