Staying at the South Congress Hotel, Austin Texas

Sarah Gandy in Austin, Texas.

Sarah Gandy checks into the South Congress Hotel, Austin Texas.

Location: 15 minutes drive from the airport and five minutes from downtown Austin, South Congress is one of the hipper, livelier parts of the city. It's also one of the most walkable.

Check-in experience: Slick and welcoming. We arrived by car and the valet made things easy. We were greeted by a fantastic smell (coming from a candle with a custom scent made for the hotel). Within a few minutes we were in our room.

Room: 303 — a "Poolside Premier Room". This is a fairly new hotel, embracing the "industrial meets modern classic" vibe. Concrete walls, wooden panels, sexy furniture and interesting art. It's a large open plan space but a mid-century wooden divider creates a separate bedroom area. There's floor to ceiling windows and a balcony overlooking the pool. We had great sunset views directly from our balcony.

The bed: King size. A pillow top mattress, poofy pillows and nice linens made things pretty comfortable.

The bathroom: Twin sinks, separate shower and standalone bathtub. The toilet is separated by a sliding door. I had a bath with one of their Japanese Cedar "tea bag" bath scents and it was the a real treat.

Free Wi-Fi? Yes. You can also airplay to the TV.

Noise: This was the biggest let-down. Our room was by the pool, and on the main street (South Congress Ave) side of the hotel. Despite heavy duty windows we could still hear street noise each night. Be aware that if there's a pool party (on the first Thursday of every month) you are basically at the party whether you have a penchant for Pitbull's music or not.

Food: The hotel has a house bar and is also home to Cafe Nosé. Room service comes direct from the cafe. Dining options in walking distance include a few Austin institutions — Home Slice New York-styled pizza, Lucy's Fried Chicken and Torchy's Tacos are all worth a visit. If you're after the famous Texas slowed cooked barbecue, there's plenty of highly rated options within 15 minutes' drive. Franklin BBQ is rated the best in Texas but wait times can reach up to four hours. Try Le Barbecue (we waited in line for 45 mins) or Kerlin BBQ food truck (no wait and it was as good as the others, if not better).

Contact: 1603 S Congress Ave, Austin TX. southcongresshotel.com

Would I return? Absolutely. We loved the area — there's great shopping on South Congress, plenty of food options and live music spots. We checked out a few different areas and this was by far our favourite. In terms of the room, we may look at staying at the back of the hotel next time to avoid some of the noise.