Longhorn Leisure

Book lovers unite and enjoy the Texas Book Festival, where they connect authors and readers through experiences that celebrate the culture of literacy, ideas, and imagination. The annual festival weekend features a variety of author presentations and panels, book signings, cooking demonstrations, programs, and activities for kids of all ages, food trucks, and exhibiting vendors from across the state and country.

Paddle your way around some of Austin's most popular attractions with the folks at Live Love Paddle, who coordinate Kayak Tours year round. Choose from Guadalupe River tours, Congress Bridge Bat tours and more water recreation fun.

Step back to the past and discover dinosaurs in a way that you've never discovered them before at The Dinosaur Park, where they offer a unique setting featuring realistic life-size dinosaur exhibits that show skin and color variations to give a better understanding of how they looked when they were alive. These static statues range in size from the 2-foot-long Compsognathus to the 123-foot Diplodocus, the longest dinosaur that ever lived. The Dinosaur Park is an educational and life-like destination, where everyone can learn about the majestic animals that ruled the earth for over 150 million years.

One spark of inspiration is all you need for your next big idea at the Thinkery, where each exhibit is hands-on, play-based learning, with activities and content appropriate for visitors of all ages. Create colorful works of art, take apart toys or build and launch gliders at the Spark Shop. See, feel and hear the connections between water and sound at the Currents exhibit. Find out how color, light, and shadows impact the environment at the Light Lab. Participate in sensory exploration, chemical reactions, and edible minerals in the Kitchen Lab. Imagine buying and selling delicious fruits and vegetables or collecting eggs from a pretend chicken coop in Fresh! Farmers’ Market. Step outside to the Backyard and scale the heights of a universally-accessible, custom-designed climber, or rest under the branches of a native elm tree.