How is driving in Austin? I probably can't stay at one of the nicely close hotels due to the kinda high prices and am tossing around the idea of renting a car to go between the convention and the hotel I'm most likely going to stay at as it's not really in walking distance.
I have to say, from personal experience, holiday travel within Austin really sucks. I'm not going to sugarcoat it for you. Driving around on any holiday weekend can be a HUGE pain in the butt, if you do not plan out your commute(s). If you've never driven around/commuted in a large city, this can be really stressful for you. If you do have experience, and as long as you map everything, and time your trips accordingly, then it will not be so bad.
I recommend to a lot of my friends who come in to visit me to stay at the hotels off of of Highway 290/71, or near the airport. It's still a good 15 minute average commute to get to downtown, but if you plan really well, then you could actually end up saving some money.
Once again, it's all about planning, planning, planning. Last year I had to deal with driving from South Austin (about a 15-30 minute drive depending on traffic), but with lots of planning and knowing exactly where I needed to park, then it went a lot more smoothly. There are so many great secret parking lots that tourists don't know about. ;) I may... may ... make a post about that later.
