A Driving Tour of the University of Texas Area

From Emily Starbuck Gerson, former About.com Guide

The University of Texas is Austin’s lifeblood. Austin was once a sleepy college town, but students who fell in love with the city began sticking around after graduating, and eventually it became a hustling, bustling metropolis. The high-tech industry boom brought even more crowds to Austin and it is now the fourth largest city in Texas.

Because the campus area is so expansive, if it’s your first time to tour the area, a car ride is the best way to get a feel for the area. Certain parts of the UT campus are not accessible by car, so if you want to see it all, you may want to make some stops and walk around.

Let’s begin your car tour of the University of Texas campus area at Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard near I-35 or Red River. As you head west toward campus, you will see the behemoth Frank Erwin Center on your left, which belongs to the University of Texas and hosts everything from speeches by the Dalai Lama to Longhorn basketball games to concerts by the Nine Inch Nails.