The coolest of cool events, Austin’s annual SXSW festival (the acronym translates to “South By Southwest” for you squares) will kick off in the spring (in March, to be precise). And for about nine days, the music festival/film festival/interactive media conference will take over one of the hippest cities and elevate its coolness to stratospheric heights with breaking bands, big-name celebrities, and cutting edge tech leaders. But before all that, we decided to take a look at some pretty awesome and unique things to do during any trip to Austin that’ll leave the hippest of hipsters envious of your cool.

Oh, and feel free to take in live music and nosh on food truck offerings between these jaunts. Because, you know, it’s still Austin.

See the Congress Bridge Bat Colony

Considered the largest urban bat colony in the world, this massive population of Mexican free-tailed bats has become the center of a distinctively Austin adventure over the years. Each spring, as many as 1.5 million bats migrate over and make the area under the Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge their home. The Austin American-Statesman’s Bat Observation Center is a must-see. Located near Lady Bird Lake, this is a wonderful destination for summer evenings when visitors can watch the bats fly at dusk.

Skinny Dip At Hippie Hollow

Austin is a city riddled with swimming holes. Spend any time there over the summer, when many days reach over 100 degrees and most are over 90, and you’ll understand why. But Hippie Hollow, located along Lake Travis in the northwest part of the city, is probably the most famous of them all. That’s because it’s the only legal clothing-optional public park in the Lone Star  State. So bring your bathing suit…or don’t!    

You may also like: Eat Your Way Through Austin Just in Time for SXSW

Explore the Cathedral of Junk

Located in South Austin, the Cathedral of Junk stands in the backyard of a private residence. That means you’ll need to call ahead to make an appointment and you’ll need to write down the address to find it, but this bizarre stop is pretty amazing. Built by the home’s owner, Vince Hannemann, the Cathedral of Junk is exactly what its name implies: an ornate building with trusses, stairways, passages, multiply levels, vaulted ceilings, and more, constructed from thrown-out machinery, metal, old appliances, and other—well, junk.  

Take in Some Rare Books at the Harry Ransom Center

Although visiting a library might not be something that comes to mind when booking flights to Austin, you should definitely check this one out. An amalgamation of an archive, a museum, and a library, the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas has something for everybody. They have a copy of the uber-rare Gutenberg Bible, a first edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and even the personal papers, libraries, and/or manuscripts from such literary heavyweights as Ezra Pound, James Joyce, David Foster Wallace, and a whole lot more. There’s a rare comic book collection and artifacts from the golden era of Hollywood, including the sunglasses worn by Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard.