This December, the 62nd Austin Trail of Lights and the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar share Barton Springs Road for ten days. The Trail runs Dec. 10 through 23 at Zilker Park. The Bazaar fills Palmer Events Center at 900 Barton Springs Road from Dec. 12 through 21. Side by side, their schedules split December into two kinds of nights, and each kind comes with its own ways to get there.
The free nights are the ones without a shuttle. The paid weekend nights line up with the Bazaar's latest hours. For a December evening near Zilker, choosing the night is choosing the transportation plan.
Ten nights, two rhythms
The Trail's free general admission nights moved this year. In 2025 they were Dec. 10 to 12 and Dec. 15 to 18. For 2026, the Austin Trail of Lights FAQ lists them as Dec. 10, 11 and 13 through 17. General admission is $8 for ages 12 and up on Dec. 12 and 18 through 23. Children 11 and under get in free with a ticketed adult. The Trail is open 7 to 10 p.m. every night.
The Bazaar has two closing times. It stays open until 9:30 p.m. on Dec. 12 and Dec. 18 through 20, and closes at 8 p.m. on every other day of its run. Lay that against the Trail calendar and the pattern holds up:
| Date | Trail of Lights | Armadillo Bazaar hours | Toney Burger shuttle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thu. Dec. 10 – Fri. Dec. 11 | Free | Not open yet | No |
| Sat. Dec. 12 | $8 | 11 a.m. – 9:30 p.m., VIP hour at 10 a.m. | Yes |
| Sun. Dec. 13 – Thu. Dec. 17 | Free | 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. | No |
| Fri. Dec. 18 – Sun. Dec. 20 | $8 | 11 a.m. – 9:30 p.m. | Yes |
| Mon. Dec. 21 | $8 | 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. | Yes |
| Tue. Dec. 22 – Wed. Dec. 23 | $8 | Closed for the season | Yes |
On four nights, both events run into the evening at the same time: Dec. 12, 18, 19 and 20. From Sunday the 13th through Thursday the 17th, the Bazaar closes an hour after the Trail opens and the Trail's gate is free. That makes for very different evenings.
Free nights have no shuttle
The Trail's shuttle leaves from Toney Burger Activity Center in South Austin. Parking there is free. A $10 shuttle pass covers the ride and general admission, which makes it the easiest budget option on a paid night. Shuttles head to Zilker between 5:30 and 8:30 p.m., and the last return leaves at 10:45 p.m. The FAQ lists exactly which nights it runs: Dec. 12 and 18 through 23. So every free night is a no-shuttle night.
On a free night, the options are the same ones that exist all month, just without the park-and-ride:
- Prepaid close-in parking. Passes cost $25 to $35, are sold online only and are never sold at the gate. The lots open at 5:30 p.m. The FAQ says, in all caps, to follow the route in your pass confirmation and not your GPS.
- CapMetro. The Trail points riders to buses #3, #30 and #803 and to MetroRail #550. Rail runs until midnight only on Friday and Saturday nights. During the free stretch, that means Friday, Dec. 11.
- Rideshare. The Trail's recommended drop-off and pickup spot is 2107 Veterans Drive. From there, take the footbridge to Stratford Drive and walk left toward the Zilker Tree at the Grand Entrance.
- Bike or scooter. Racks are set up across Barton Springs Road from the Grand Entrance. Bikes and scooters aren't allowed inside the Trail.
Parking on surrounding streets isn't an option on any night. The FAQ says parking is prohibited in the Zilker Park area and Rollingwood neighborhoods, and that public safety personnel will enforce it.
If you're paying anyway, a paid night with the shuttle can cost less than a free night with a parking pass. Two adults on the shuttle pay $20 total, admission included. On a free night, the same two adults pay nothing at the gate but $25 to $35 to park close in. The free nights are the better deal for people who walk, bike, ride transit or get dropped off.
Paid weekends stack both crowds on one road
The four overlap nights are where the two events start pulling on the same spaces.
Palmer Events Center's garage holds 1,200 spaces. According to Palmer's directions and parking page, it's first-come, first-served and meant mainly for people attending events at Palmer. It went cashless on June 1, 2026, so bring a card or phone. The Armadillo Bazaar's location and parking page lists the garage at $12 per vehicle, entered from Barton Springs Road or Riverside Drive.
The overflow plan is where the two events meet. Palmer says the One Texas Center lot at 505 Barton Springs Road takes overflow for select major events and sometimes when the garage fills. The Trail lists the same lot as its alternate parking and suggests grabbing an e-cab from there to the entrance. The Bazaar links to it too, as a surface lot open nights and weekends, along with the RiverSouth garage at 425 West Riverside. So on a Saturday like Dec. 12 or 19, both events send their extra cars to the same lot. Don't plan on One Texas Center as a quiet backup on those nights.
The two events also use different rideshare spots, and it's easy to type the wrong one. The Bazaar sends riders to its circle driveway at Palmer's front door, which is reserved for drop-offs and pickups. The Trail sends them to Veterans Drive and the footbridge. A shopping stop at Palmer followed by the lights at Zilker means two separate rideshare trips or a walk down Barton Springs Road.
Transit links the two spots well. CapMetro's current Route 30 map, effective Aug. 16, 2026 through Jan. 9, 2027, lists both the Long Center and Palmer Events Center as destinations. Route 30 is also one of the three buses the Trail recommends. The Bazaar itself just links to the CapMetro trip planner. It also has bike racks at its entrance, a B-Cycle station nearby, and drop-off spots for scooters and pedicabs at the door.
Dec. 12 is the busiest Saturday on the calendar
Everything above happens on the same Saturday. Dec. 12 is the Bazaar's opening day and the first night of its new VIP First Look. That's $25 plus tax for entry at 10 a.m., an hour before general admission, plus opening-day admission and VIP extras. The Bazaar's ticket page labels it "NEW THIS YEAR." It's also the Trail's first paid night, the first night of the shuttle, and one of the Bazaar's 9:30 p.m. closings.
There are cheaper ways into the Bazaar than opening day. A one-day ticket is $15 plus tax. The 10-day season ticket is $75 plus tax and includes VIP First Look, so a regular who plans several visits gets opening morning as part of the pass. Kids under 12 get in free. The Bazaar's application rules turn away importers, mass-produced goods and work generated primarily through AI. That helps explain why some people go back more than once during the ten days.
If you'd like to see both events but skip the stacking, the window is Sunday, Dec. 13 through Thursday, Dec. 17. Shop the Bazaar in the afternoon and leave by its 8 p.m. close. The Trail gate is free those nights, so the only real decision is how you get to Zilker.
What's still to come, and what's already open
The Trail's FAQ still says the 2026 street closure schedule is "coming soon," so closure times for Barton Springs Road and the streets around it haven't been posted yet. Earlier maps with closure times showed different event dates, so check the FAQ again in early December.
The park is getting ready now. The City of Austin's park closures page set Oct. 31 as the reopening date for the western section of Zilker's Great Lawn. The rest of the lawn is being handed over to Trail operations, and Lou Neff Road stays closed through the season. Volleyball court access is listed through Nov. 16.
The Trail has two early events. The Preview Party is Dec. 4, and the Fun Run, presented by Raising Cane's, is Dec. 5 with a newly announced rolling start, according to the Trail of Lights Foundation's 2026 announcement. For holiday shopping before Barton Springs Road gets busy, the Blue Genie Art Bazaar opens Friday, Nov. 13, at 6100 Airport Blvd. It's open daily 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. through Dec. 24, closing at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve.
Plotting your December around Zilker and the Barton Springs Road traffic? I'm happy to compare notes on South Austin shortcuts any time. Alli Heller answers fast, has strong opinions about parking, and has never once followed the GPS to the Trail. Let's Connect.
