Austin to Baton Rouge road trip: Distance, drive time & best stops
The best road trip stops on the Austin to Baton Rouge drive are Houston, Beaumont TX and Lafayette LA. By car, the distance from Austin to Baton Rouge is 432 miles, with a 6h31m driving time.
Planning an Austin to Baton Rouge road trip itinerary
An Austin to Baton Rouge road trip connects the capitals of Texas and Louisiana.
Austin is renowned for its live music scene, although it has plenty of more conventional attractions too. These include Austin Zoo, the Museum of Ice Cream and the Bullock Texas State History Museum.
Top Austin experiences include ebike tours taking in the city highlights, haunted pub crawl walks and segway tours.
You can also try highly-rated downtown food tours, half day wine shuttles in the Hill Country, brewery-hopping beer tours and sightseeing on a boat cruise.
For Austin hotel recommendations, try band crashpad chic meets rainbow bathrobes at the Hotel San Jose and the unashamed rock star swagger of the W.
The obvious attraction in Baton Rouge is the Louisiana Capitol Building, but the castle-like Old Capitol Building is more attractive. It’s also now a museum, with interactive exhibits on democracy and the colourful characters who have walked the corridors over the decades. The colourful stained glass dome is spectacular, too.
As a museum, the Capitol Park Museum is better, telling multiple strands of Louisiana’s story. Other Baton Rouge attractions include the Magnolia Mound Plantation, built in 1791, and the environmentally educational Bluebonnet Swamp Nature Center.
Great places to stay in Baton Rouge include the affordable Hampton Inn & Suites Baton Rouge Downtown and the historic Watermark.
Austin to Baton Rouge distance and driving time
By car, the distance from Austin to Baton Rouge is 432 miles. That makes for a driving time of around six hours and 31 minutes. The quickest route is along the TX-71 and I-10.
The best stops to add to an Austin to Baton Rouge road trip itinerary are Houston, Beaumont TX and Lafayette LA.
For more suggestions, check out the guides to the Austin to Houston drive and Houston to Baton Rouge drive.
Austin to Baton Rouge drive: Houston
The top Houston attraction is unquestionably the NASA Space Center, which takes you behind the scenes of the Johnson Space Center. This includes the Mission Briefing Center, and a vast array of high tech exhibitions.
Other attractions include the Houston Museum of Natural Science and the Children’s Museum,
For more Houston experiences, try hip hop party bike tours, foodie walks in the Montrose neighbourhood and quirky tours of Houston’s tunnel system.
Top Houston accommodation options include the superb value Club Quarters Houston Downtown and the upscale but boutique Magnolia.
Austin to Baton Rouge road trip attractions: Beaumont TX
Beaumont TX is just west of the Louisiana border. The top attraction is the Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum, located on the site of a 1901 oil strike that changed West Texas forever. It’s a recreated town, with rebuilt historic buildings, and plenty of Texas oil history.
Also worth looking at is the McFaddin-Ward House Museum, a heritage home with original art and furnishings. It gives a good idea of how much money was sloshing around in the early 20th century.
Best stops between Austin and Baton Rouge: Lafayette LA
Lafayette’s top attractions include Acadian Village, a recreated 19th-century Cajun village, which plays host to artisans and craftspeople among the historic homes.
Vermilionville is similar, but the living history museum here looks at the cultures of Native American and Creole people as well as the Acadians.
Elsewhere, the Cathedral of St John the Evangelist is famed for its stained glass windows.
Top Lafayette experiences include Cajun food tours.
For Lafayette accommodation, the SpringHill Suites and Home2 Suites tend to get the best reviews.
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