Things to See Between Dallas and Austin: A Stop-by-Stop Road Trip Guide

The Route at a Glance

The fastest way from Dallas to Austin runs through four towns worth a pause, each with its own drive-time from the last:

• Dallas to Waxahachie: about 49 km (31 mi), roughly 30 minutes
• Waxahachie to Waco: about 108 km (67 mi), roughly 1 hour
• Waco to Temple: about 56 km (35 mi), roughly 35 minutes
• Temple to Georgetown: about 65 km (40 mi), roughly 35 minutes
• Georgetown to Austin: about 44 km (28 mi), roughly 30 minutes

There’s also a route that avoids most highways, but at 356 km (221 mi) and about 5 hours 10 minutes, it’s roughly 62% longer with little upside for a trip this length, so it’s more of a curiosity than a real alternative.

Leaving Dallas

Before you point the car south, Dallas itself is worth a day or two. It’s a sprawling Texas metropolis of about 1,288,457 people (2021), where barbecue joints and James Beard-recognized restaurants sit near the Sixth Floor Museum and the Arts District. Deep Ellum’s live-music scene and the Bishop Arts neighborhood add grittier, more authentic pockets of culture away from the downtown skyline. It’s a foodie and history destination in its own right, the kind of place people plan for a weekend getaway or stretch into a longer stay of two to four days before hitting the road.

Waxahachie: A Postcard Courthouse Town

About 30 minutes south of Dallas, Waxahachie is known for its ornate Ellis County Courthouse and blocks of Victorian-era homes, which have made the town a favorite filming location for movies and TV over the years. It’s a compact, walkable stop, the kind of place where you can stretch your legs, grab coffee, and admire century-old architecture before getting back on the highway.

Waco: Bridges, Baylor, and the Brazos

An hour past Waxahachie, Waco sits on the Brazos River and is home to Baylor University, the historic Waco Suspension Bridge, and a downtown that’s grown into a popular stop for home-and-garden fans thanks to a well-known market and shopping district. History buffs can also detour to the Waco Mammoth National Monument. With around an hour’s worth of things to do, Waco is a natural lunch stop or even an overnight if you want to slow the pace.

Temple: Railroad Roots

Thirty-five minutes south of Waco, Temple grew up around the railroad, and that heritage is still visible downtown, including at a restored depot that now houses a railroad museum. It’s a quieter stop than Waco, better suited to a short walk and a meal than a full afternoon, but it’s a genuine slice of small-town Texas history.

Georgetown: The Red Poppy Capital

Another 35 minutes brings you to Georgetown, known for its restored Williamson County Courthouse square, ringed with shops and restaurants in century-old buildings. In spring, the town’s red poppies give it its nickname, and Blue Hole Park along the San Gabriel River is a popular spot to cool off. Georgetown is close enough to Austin that many travelers treat it as the last stop before the city, or even as a quieter home base for exploring the capital.

Rolling Into Austin

From Georgetown, it’s about 30 more minutes into Austin, Texas’s capital and a city built around live music, food trucks, and the outdoors along Lady Bird Lake. After a day of courthouse squares and river towns, Austin’s energy is the payoff, and it’s worth budgeting real time here rather than treating it as just the trip’s endpoint.

Planning the Drive Without the Guesswork

A route like Dallas to Austin is short enough to wing, but the towns along it each deserve a real decision: stop or skip, lunch or dinner, an hour or an overnight. Journey Builder is one option built for exactly that kind of trip. It plans road trips anywhere in the US and Canada, from a single day up to 90, and it builds the route automatically, showing the distance and drive time for every leg along with alternative roads, so you can see at a glance that the fewer-highways option here just isn’t worth it.

It also ranks the towns along your route and suggests stops, showing whether a place like Waxahachie or Temple sits right on your path or requires a detour, and how long that detour would add. You can search for stops within a set distance of the route, add several places at once, or just ask its AI chat what’s worth seeing near Waco. Once you’ve picked your stops, its auto-scheduler turns them into a day-by-day plan built around your wake-up and bedtime, drive times, meals, and any fixed plans you’ve already booked, usually in one to three minutes, and it won’t schedule a stop at a place that’s known to be closed at that hour.

Other trip planners and mapping apps can get you from Dallas to Austin too, but if you want the in-between towns handled with real detour distances and a schedule that holds up once you’re actually driving, that’s where a tool built for road trips earns its keep.

Keep Exploring

If Dallas to Austin has you thinking about a longer Texas loop, Austin makes a good jumping-off point for more driving. See our guide on Austin to Orlando driving if you’re considering stretching the trip further east, or browse other stop-by-stop guides like Austin to New Orleans for inspiration.

Ready to Plan Your Own Route

Dallas to Austin is short enough to drive in an afternoon, but the towns in between are what make it a real road trip. Pre-registrations are open for Journey Builder, so you can be ready to turn this route, or your next one, into a day-by-day plan as soon as it’s available. Pre-register here.

In this series

• Road Trip from Dallas to Austin: Route, Stops, and How to Plan It
• How Far Is Dallas to Austin? Distance, Drive Time & Best Stops
• Best Time to Drive from Dallas to Austin: A Season-by-Season Guide
• Things to See Between Dallas and Austin: A Stop-by-Stop Road Trip Guide