Austin Sightseeing

One of the benefits of visiting Austin, the capital city of Texas, is touring the impressive capitol building at 1800 Congress Avenue. It may look familiar – the architect, Elijah E. Meyers, modeled it after the capitol building in Washington D.C., However, because it’s located in Texas, it is 14 feet taller than the Federal…

Laguna Gloria, a sculpture park belonging to The Contemporary Austin, sits along the shoreline of Lake Austin. It consists of an old Italianate villa on several acres of wooded trails and lawns, providing a respite from the city with a view. Laguna Gloria, which loosely translates as “glorious lake” in both Spanish and Italian, is…

AO Tours has presented our signature tour “Austin + Hill Country in 90 Minutes” since 2003. For the last decade the tour has been providing a quick and entertaining way to experience Austin and the neighboring Texas Hill Country. One of the hallmarks of the Tour is the amazing mix of veteran guides who personally…

And these days its pretty easy to invade – British Airways  began offering direct 10 hour flights in March of this year (2014)  – definitely the fastest way to get to ATX from London. The new interest in Austin from the UK has resulted in a number of travel writers checking out Austin, and many of these Londoners sing the praise  of  AO Tours (Austin Overtures Sightseeing Tours). A good example was recently published by Kaye Holland of Just About Travel : “Most visitors to Texas rush to the bright lights and big hotels of Dallas but look through recent travel ‘It lists,’ ‘hot spots’ and ‘must visit destinations’ and one Lone State city emerges triumphant. And it’s not the Big D. Rather it’s the state capital, Austin, that is lauded as the most original, fascinating and increasingly fashionable place…

Austin’s Circuit Of The Americas The United States’ First Purpose-Built Grand Prix Facility The Circuit Of The Americas which has been built in Austin is a multipurpose facility that will host the most prestigious racing events in the world, including the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix™. It is the first purpose-built Grand Prix facility in the U.S. and we got it! Built around a state-of-the-art 3.4-mile circuit track with capacity for 120,000 fans and an elevation change of 133 feet, the facility is designed for any and all classes of racing – from motor power, to human power. Austin’s unique environment has given the developers the opportunity to design a truly unique circuit, one that has been brought to life by famous track architect Hermann Tilke.  The track features many of the elements of previous “classic” circuits, with fast…

Austin Overtures Story Since 2003 Austin Overtures has been providing visitors with sightseeing tours of Austin and the surrounding area. In 2009, we extended our business to offer full destination management services. Whether guests are looking to “wind down” or “rev-up, Austin Overtures will guide them through a memorable stay in the Capital City of Texas. Our Team Mary Davidson – President Austin Overtures Corporation Mary was born in the Republic of India and lived in Hawaii for many years so it is no wonder she enjoys meeting people from all over the world. She has extensive cross-cultural experience having worked with internationals in business and volunteer settings for many years. From 2002 to 2007 she served as the volunteer coordinator for the University of Texas at Austin International Office. Dow Davidson – Chief of Operations Austin Overtures Corporation Dow…

In the past 10 years of presenting guided tours for I have many times explained to our guests  that I was born in Fort Worth but moved to Austin in 1960.  One of the most interesting comparisons between then and now has to be the growth in  population.  Back then there were about 185,000  Austinites – by today that has exploded to 820,000.  If you look at the entire Metro Area (MSA) it includes a whopping 1.7 million folks. When my Mom brought us to the capital all those years ago it was so she could take some continuing education classes at the University of Texas at Austin during the summer semester.  My little brother and I were very jazzed to move to Austin – it was so cool compared to Fort Worth.  We moved into a dinky apartment across…

Mary and Dow Davidson had long been involved making visitors to Austin feel welcomed as well as informed – they started Austin Overtures Sightseeing in February 2003 with a novel new idea for touring Austin.   The concept was to “super concentrate” the sites of a normal old fashioned 4 hour get-on, get-off sightseeing tour into…

Austin. (20 January) – Back in 1962, a young French Canadian hitchhiker enjoyed some good old Texas hospitality from an Austin family. In fact black and white photographs of this generous family are always with Jules Nadeau – and he is back in town and is determined to hook up with the family so he…