Hi Friends,

If you’ve followed my blog for long, you probably already know that I go on an annual trip to Waco, TX to visit Magnolia Market and enjoy all the Chip and Jo Jo makeovers that I can find!

Last week, I went again to check things out, but this time I met up with a group of friends on the trip. We started by staying at the Gathering Oaks Retreat which is a PERFECT spot if you’re going by yourself and you want to stay in a tiny house all the way up to renting the whole place out for your company retreat or wedding. Usually, I stay in the tiny house, but this time I stayed in the 2 bedroom cottage and brought my dear friend Nicolle from Bluebird Home Decor. Gathering Oaks invited me to stay with them and asked that I just share about the experience with all of you. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience! The rooms were stunning, the newly remodeled bathroom was jaw dropping, and the outdoor area was a blast! I invited a group of girlfriends over for drinks and cheese. We sat outside and had the option of playing outdoor games like corn hole, ping pong, golf, or enjoy the pool/hot tub. Check out all out in pictures:

Outside our 2 bedroom cottage!

My bedroom 💕

The newly remodeled bathroom. Swoon!

Nicolle’s Room!

An adorable kitchenette area.

One of my favorite parts of staying at Gathering Oaks is the fact that it’s across the street from where Chip and Joanna live, so you can take a quick walk past their house. This is us… being creepy stalkers. Taking a selfie with their house behind us. Don’t worry, we didn’t try to get close. Even if I wanted to! Haha!!

If you want to book a room for a group of girlfriends, I highly recommend the Two Bedroom Cottage.

Ok, now that we’ve got the stay taken care of, let’s talk about what to do and where to go.

If you like to shop and linger, I’d say plan to spend the whole day at Magnolia. Magnolia Press (their coffee shop), opens the earliest at 7am. So I’d say be there around 8am to enjoy a cup of coffee and maybe a chocolate croissant then get in line at the Silo Baking Company because it’s the place that always seems like it has a line when I visit.

Up next, head to the main Magnolia Market area which is beautiful!

Take selfies in the plethora of selfie worthy spots. Say cheese!!

Grab lunch at one of the food trucks!

Then head to the cute shops along the back side of the Magnolia Marketplace.

Remember, the market doesn’t stay open really late, so plan to go out to a nice dinner after a day of shopping, or do what we did – go back and have a ladies night at the Gathering Oaks. It was so much fun!

For the 2nd day of your trip, start the day with breakfast at Magnolia Table.

Do your own self driving tour of some of the Fixer Upper house flips next!

If you didn’t get time to on the first day, head to the Magnolia Home and check out all the furniture and rugs. I love this spot! And look at this mirror installation! It is amazing : )

Up next, head to the Little Shop on Bosque. It’s where everything started. Jo’s first storefront. Now, they sell discounted scratch and dent items there.

There are countless other things to do in Waco! I like to recommend 2 full days in town. That would probably feel like enough!

We also drove around to find Chip and Jo’s new purchase at that time. A Castle! Pop 3300 Austin Avenue, Waco, TX into your GPS to drive by and see it. You can also read my Magnolia Castle Tour post here, which is updated information from when this post was originally written.

You can now take a tour of the Castle which I recommend. You can also check out this article which features some pictures of the Castle before its renovation–pretty interesting, right?!

Hope this inspires you to take a trip with your friends! Make some memories. Be creatively inspired!

Thanks so much for checking out our post! If you’ve found it, please share with your friends. If you live on the east coast, please check out more of our work… they don’t call me the Joanna Gains of the Northeast for no reason! :)

Sarah Trop