Hotel San Jose

A half-mile south of downtown, in Austin’s authentically funky South Congress neighborhood, the San Jose perfectly fits its location: it’s unpretentiously stylish, relaxed and comfortable, and surprisingly easy on the budget, cheaper even than the big chains downtown.

Once a Thirties motor inn, it’s been renovated in a sort of Texas-Zen style, with bare concrete exterior walls under red tile roofs and crushed granite walkways traversing a courtyard garden planted with native vegetation. The former motel rooms and bungalows have been redesigned in a stripped-down modern style, with queen beds, sparkling white bathrooms stocked with Dr. Bronner’s peppermint soap, writing desks with Eames side chairs, and not much else.

Five-star amenities, of course, are not what this place is about. Here you have a shot at seeing some honest-to-goodness local color, whether socializing in the lobby lounge or sipping iced coffee with the locals at Jo’s, the coffee stand/sandwich shop across the parking lot, with outdoor seating and a front-row view of South Congress. The essentials are all covered: high-speed internet access, room service breakfast, even a modestly sized swimming pool in the courtyard.

There’s a ten percent discount for traveling musicians, which may not apply to most guests, but at least makes for interesting lobby-bar conversation, and the San Jose is just far enough from downtown to avoid most of the conference business.

Best of all is the price: it’s possible to spend close to three hundred dollars a night for one of the suites, but standard rooms are well south of that figure, and the three “European-style” rooms above the lobby lounge can be booked individually (with shared bathrooms) for under a hundred dollars.