Texas Capitol Visitors Center — Local services in Austin

In all my years of living in Austin and visiting Austin, not once did I realize the visitor center inside the Capitoll is just a satellite branch.. The real visitor center is just a few steps away from the Capitol. It’s two stories of goodness. Well done. You can do a self-guided tour with QR codes on your phone, or just walk around and look at everything (it’ll take a minute). There’s a couple of short films to watch and so much interesting information to read. As a fourth generation Texan, I’m a little embarrassed of how much I learned. And a whole lot embarrassed how much I spent in the gift shop. Do not pass it up. It’s not cheesy items - but high quality jewelry, gifts, maps, food, drink and everything in between. Friendly staff and it was free! Closest parking is the garage on 12th Street and...

My 8 year old daughter and I had a very enjoyable time visiting the Texas Capitol Visitors Center. The lady at the help desk was very informative, friendly and had excellent tips and advice for our time in the visitors center and the Capitol itself. We learned so much information about the Capitol. There is a kids page they can fill information out as they go along at the help desk with crayons. Upstairs there is a 2 sided, more detailed fill out sheet that my daughter and I used. We spent an hour and 1 half here easily. Right now in one of the rooms there is a Lego replica of the Capitol building....

To be clear : my review is for the VISITOR'S CENTER ONLY. Many of these reviews are including the Capitol building itself. I am not. That tour and building is different. I had high hopes for the visitors center but it felt very lacking to me. The building is enormous and they could have done a lot more with it IMO. It feels ...lackluster and disjointed. None of the staff was friendly at all, especially not in the gift shop. It was okay but we are history buffs and weren't super impressed although we expected to be. I guess at least...