Bastrop

The only Hill County town to make the list east of Austin, Bastrop is now almost a burn of Austin. I know I handful of people that now call it home and commute into downtown Austin for work.  The star attraction of Bastrop is the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa. This world call resort has an amazing pool, holiday feasts, and a wide range of outdoor activates that are quintessential Texas Hill Country including horseback riding, trap shooting, fishing, and Tomahawk throwing, and Archery.  They also have all the standard resort stuff like tennis, spa, and golf. Lost Pines is a popular happy hour destination for the locals, and I make a one night trip out there every so often on a Wednesday to grab an great rate on the room.

Besides the fancy resort Bastrop also has a quaint history downtown, a state park, and one of the best bass fishing lakes in the region. The lake has 2 parks with boat ramps and cabins on the south park, and tent camping. The lake is a power plant lake with warm water and stocked Florida largemouth bass. It’s a small lake that I can be fished with a kayak or canon, but big enough it’s best fished with a bass boat. The south park has canoes and other small craft available for rent.  The state park’s lake is no longer from the floods a few years ago, and the fires have destroyed much of the forest. The hike and bike trails are nice, and you can see the forest starting to recover.  As one of the last stops on the Colorado river in the Texas Hill Country, Bastrop is a great place to visit for a day or two.