Spicewood Party Bus, Limo & Shuttle Rental

Spicewood's two anchor water attractions sit eight miles apart on opposite sides of TX-71, and they offer quite different experiences. The choice between them shapes the entire day. Krause Springs is the Krause family's 115-acre private property, opened to the public for swimming and camping since the early 1950s and now in its third generation of family operation. The grounds include thirty-two natural springs, two main swimming areas (an upper man-made pool and a lower natural swimming hole fed directly by the springs), a grotto with a waterfall and rope swing, and a butterfly garden with hundreds of wind chimes that make the property look more like a living art installation than a swim spot. Entry is at the gate -- cash only, current pricing posted on signs (recent reports put it around $9 for adults and $4 for children, but verify before the trip). Day-use is the main activity; the property also has primitive tent camping ($15 per site, recent pricing) which a group can book for a Hill Country overnight. The water is consistently cold (the spring temperature is in the upper 60s year-round) which is the point in August and the question mark in March. Pace Bend Park is the public alternative -- a 1,300-acre Travis County park on a peninsula that pushes nearly four miles into Lake Travis, with nine miles of shoreline that includes everything from gentle gravel beaches to dramatic limestone cliffs. The park is famous in Austin for cliff jumping; the highest cliffs are well over twenty feet and the rocks below are real, so this is not a casual swim spot for inexperienced jumpers. The park also has fifteen miles of mountain biking and equestrian trails through the cedar-and-oak interior, primitive shoreline camping (drive-up, no reservations, first-come), and three boat ramps. The combination of cliff jumping and shoreline camping makes Pace Bend the most-booked Lake Travis bachelor party destination outside of the south-shore marinas. The operational challenge at Pace Bend is access. The park has a single entrance off Pace Bend Road (FM 2322), and on summer Saturdays the gate frequently closes by 11 AM when the park hits capacity. Re-entry is only allowed as cars leave -- which means a group arriving at noon may sit for an hour at the gate. The bus solves this differently: drop passengers at the gate, then stage off-site and return for pickup. Park staff are familiar with the bus drop pattern and generally cooperative. Pairing the two: a typical Spicewood swim day starts at Krause Springs at 10 AM (the morning is the best swim window before the upper pool gets crowded), spends two to three hours, drives the eight miles east to Opie's for a 1 PM lunch, then continues to Pace Bend for an afternoon shoreline session. The bus drops at Pace Bend, the group hikes down to a chosen cove, swims and cliff-jumps for two hours, and the bus picks up at 5 PM for the return run. Total bus time is around eight hours including the round trip from Austin. Other water options worth knowing: the LCRA-managed shoreline parks west of Spicewood (Sandy Creek, Wirtz Dam) offer quieter access. The Pedernales River, which meets Lake Travis east of Spicewood, has its own swim spots upstream toward Pedernales Falls State Park, though those are a thirty-minute additional drive west.