Our son graduated from Texas Tech, so we made many trips to Lubbock. We love the sweet potato pancakes at the Pancake House on Avenue Q - also Gardski's on Broadway for a nice dinner - as far as thing to do - if you are into oldies, the Buddy Holly Center is great - also the National Ranching Heritage Museum, but my all-time favorite is the Prairie Dog Town. The Texas Tech campus is beautiful, as well as a visit to the Texas Tech museum is fun. As far as hotels - we usually stayed at the LaQuinta West Medical Center on the Marsha Sharp Freeway - nothing fancy, but it was convenient to our son's house & close to the campus.