The best attractions in Houston, Texas

Space Center Houston is the museum and visitor center arm of the Johnson Space Center. Established in 1961 under its former name (the Manned Spacecraft Center), this 1,620-acre complex is why Houston bears the nickname “Space City.” It’s where lunar missions were controlled, astronauts trained, and future space flight technologies are still being developed. The JSC isn’t only where history happened; it’s also where it’s made.

While the static displays chronicling advances in spaceflight are remarkably impressive, the Space Center is full of hands-on experiences. You can eat lunch with an astronaut, climb into a simulated Orion capsule, and witness engineers and scientists working on new and developing tech for space exploration. It’s a bit of a hike to get to (about a 45-minute drive from downtown Houston), but it’s worth the trip.

Tucked away beneath the city streets, Buffalo Bayou Park is a lush oasis inside Houston’s Inner Loop. The park features miles of hike and bike trails, a dog run, and a skate park, but the real highlight is the bayou itself. Kayaking down the twists and turns of this waterway is an exhilarating way to experience Houston. Paddle through the city’s Memorial Park, past the affluent River Oaks neighborhood, and under bridges and bat colonies to see a breathtaking view of the downtown skyline you can’t see anywhere else.
The bayou took a beating during Hurricane Harvey when heavy rains and brimming reservoirs made the water overflow its banks. While much of the park is back to where it was before the storm, it’s still a good idea to check the website before visiting as it is prone to flooding any time of year.

POST-Houston is a multi-story extravaganza food hall, concert venue, hangout, shopping center, bars, art gallery…you get the idea. Come and spend the afternoon in AC, and as the sun dips below the horizon, we recommend stepping up to their five-acre rooftop park for swell skyline views (select nights bring DJs and pop-ups). The building itself is worth camera roll space from the outside: it was once the Barbara Jordan Post Office, a 1934 USPS headquarters that's a thing of architectural beauty. Head to 401 Franklin Street in downtown Houston, any day, 11am - 9pm, for your POST-fix.

With more than 65,000 pieces of art spread out over multiple campuses, the Museum of Fine Arts is one of the largest art museums in the country. The permanent collection features pieces from six continents spanning thousands of years and myriad genres, and temporary exhibitions always offer something new and interesting to see. Be sure to swing by on Thursdays for free admission all day and a happy hour that starts at 5 p.m. Visitors can grab a drink or exhibition-themed cocktail at the bar and a bite from a visiting food truck before taking in the museum’s collections. 

Located in the trendy Montrose neighborhood near downtown, this museum’s permanent collection includes works by world-renowned artists like René Magritte, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, and Andy Warhol, among others—most of which previously belonged to founders John and Dominique de Menil. The Menil Collection takes a minimalist approach to displaying its collection, forgoing the traditional explanatory placards to let the pieces speak for themselves. To make art as accessible as possible, admission is never charged, and the museum often hosts free public events and programs to foster conversation about art and its place in society. It is truly one of Houston’s most understated cultural gems.

When a city boasts the second-largest Indochinese population in the United States (behind Los Angeles), y’all know the Asian food is going to be amazing. Houston’s Chinatown spans six square miles of shopping, eating, and attractions, not just of Chinese heritage and culture but also of Vietnamese, Japanese, Thai, Korean, Taiwanese…and just about everything in between. Basically, you have to eat here and see what the local AAPI community can cook up because it is darn delicious. Our faves include MDK Noodles (hand-cut Korean noodles), Don’s Sandwiches (classic banh mi), Tian Tian Lu Chuaner (skewers and freshly made soybean milk), Tiger Den (ramen), and there are a bunch of awesome places serving Houston's delicacy, Viet-Cajun crawfish (try Cajun Kitchen). Fans of bubble tea can even do a boba-crawl…each street is lined with joints from Kung Fu Tea to Juice Box. Tapioca overload.

From March to October, Miller Outdoor Theatre offers a wide range of performances—from concerts to stage productions and movie screenings—and tickets are always free. Even if you don’t snag a stadium seat, you can always pull up a blanket and watch from the hill overlooking the stage. The theater has undergone multiple renovations since first launching almost a century ago, but the iconic peaked roof is a mainstay in Houston’s bustling Hermann Park. Every summer, the theater partners with the Houston Symphony to offer the Summer Symphony Nights series, an annual tradition at Miller for decades and a favorite among Houstonians.

How do Houstonians beat the heat? Why, they retreat to pools, of course. Go for crème de la crème of them up on the sixth floor of the Marriott Marquis Houston. Here lies the country’s biggest Texas-shaped lazy river—a unique (and very photogenic) wet oasis lined with cabanas and palm trees. Day passes are available Monday-Thursday on selected dates throughout the year, while Friday-Sunday is reserved for hotel guests. Cocktails are available from the sky bar, and there’s a live music program year-round. However, for an extra special treat, visit during winter, when the river is heated and magically lit alongside a trail of winter displays and selfie stations.

A quirky take on contemporary art, the Art Car Museum features a rotating selection of elaborately decorated cars, paintings, and sculptures by artists who might otherwise be snubbed by more traditional cultural institutions. The museum was founded in the late 1990s as a nod to Houston’s art car movement and to raise public awareness of the cultural and personal aspects of art. The museum isn’t afraid to take on political or even controversial issues and features an annual “open call” to anyone wanting to submit their artwork. The resulting uncurated exhibition, which runs every fall, is often a lively dialogue on a culturally relevant topic. Art lover or not, this site is a nice change of pace from the traditional art museum.

Founded over a century ago, the Houston Museum of Natural Science is one of the oldest cultural institutions in the Museum District. The museum is home to several interactive permanent displays, as well as a constant rotation of traveling exhibitions, a planetarium, and an indoor butterfly garden. But the most popular stop inside the HMNS is the Morian Hall of Paleontology. The massive exhibit spans 3.5 billion years of history and features dozens of mounted fossils accompanied by realistic renderings of the animals displayed. Visitors can marvel at a megalodon chasing an elephant, multiple tyrannosaurus rexes, and even a giant prehistoric sloth. It’s a dinosaur lover’s dream.

Houston’s Downtown Aquarium is a little like visiting three attractions at once. Located on the northern edge of downtown, this 500,000-gallon facility has a wide variety of aquatic animals, shows, and interactive exhibits — including four rare white tigers. A small amusement park outside boasts, among other things, a Ferris wheel overlooking Houston’s downtown skyline. And an upscale restaurant features a floor-to-ceiling aquarium, where diners can watch sawfish, rays, and huge schools of colorful fish swim past tables while they eat. With so many things to see and do in one location, it’s easy to spend all day visiting just this one attraction.  

The McGovern Centennial Gardens opened to commemorate Hermann Park’s centennial in 2014 and quickly became a favorite weekend spot for locals. The 8-acre, fenced-in gardens are filled with roughly 500 trees, 55,000 flowering plants, and an educational “edible” garden with fresh produce and herbs. At the center of the gardens sits a man-made hill with a spiraling footpath leading to the top. Visitors can make the trek to a small observational platform that overlooks the park and take in the gardens from above. The space is a gorgeous spot to bring a picnic, snap some photos, and enjoy some fresh air inside the city.

You won’t see this park on any official map, and there’s no sign announcing its presence — but you’ll know it when you see it. For a few blocks in Houston’s East End, nearly every square inch of the building is covered in colorful street art. Many of the works painted here were created as part of the Houston Urban Experience (HUE) Mural Festival, an annual gathering of artists launched in 2015. Affectionately dubbed “graffiti park” by locals, this sampling of murals is just the latest citywide effort to embrace the genre and add color and beauty to Houston’s downtown.

Located within Hermann Park, the Houston Zoo is one of the city’s busiest attractions, especially for families. But it wasn’t always. When it first opened in the 1920s, the zoo had only a small fence and a few species of animals. As the park grew, so did its popularity, and it draws in millions of visitors each year. In addition to the animal exhibits—some of which are interactive—the park has a splash pad, playground, and carousel. However, the best times to visit are in the winter and fall, when the weather is cool and the zoo puts on themed activities. Zoo Lights, for example, offers a chance for visitors to stroll through the park after dark to view the thousands of holiday lights strung up near the animal enclosures. Held from mid-November to mid-January, the event has become a holiday tradition for many locals.

Despite Houston’s reputation for being a sprawling mass of concrete and taillights, the city has a ton of green spaces, including one right in the heart of downtown. Discovery Green opened in the spring of 2008. Since then, this 12-acre park has become one of Houston’s most popular Inner-Loop attractions. In addition to a playground, interactive fountains and several gardens, the park also has events nearly every day of the week, including free exercise classes, concerts, movie nights and art installations. One of the best times to visit the park is in the winter, when part of Discovery Green turns into a winter wonderland, complete with an outdoor skating rink.

As the largest city in Texas, Houston has a habit of going big or going home and nowhere is that sentiment more true than in the Galleria. This sprawling mall in Uptown Houston is the largest in Texas and decidedly upscale. There are six valet stations located throughout the exterior, two high-rise hotels, and an indoor ice-skating rink—not to mention the roughly 400 stores and restaurants spread throughout 2.4 million square feet. And if you shop too much? There’s a complimentary coat and package check. In addition to luxury stores like Alexander McQueen and Louis Vuitton, the mall features some of the city’s best high-end restaurants like Nobu and Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse. More than 30 million visitors walk the floors of the Galleria each year, making it one of the most visited attractions in Houston. Even if you aren’t looking to purchase anything in particular, the opulence alone is worth the visit.

Once the home of the late former first lady of Texas, Ima Hogg, the Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens is now part of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and houses the institution’s paintings, furniture, and decorative art collections. While the pieces themselves are stunning, Bayou Bend’s gardens make this spot worth visiting. Spread out in a series throughout the grounds, the gardens were originally intended to be an extension of the house itself as living and entertaining spaces. Sculptures and hedge designs complement the ground’s year-round blooms, making for a peaceful and aesthetically stunning reprieve from Houston’s busy Inner Loop.

Buffalo Bayou Park is home to another great attraction: the park’s cistern. Once a water reservoir for the city of Houston, this underground cavern is now an architectural landmark. Hundreds of towering columns fill a space so large it takes 17 seconds for an echo to bounce off the far wall and make it back to you.

The reservoir was built in 1926 and served as part of the city’s water system for decades before an irreparable leak led to it being decommissioned and ultimately abandoned in 2007. A few years later, the cistern was “rediscovered” during the creation of Buffalo Bayou Park, and since then, the gritty, industrial beauty of the space has made it a favorite for local artists and photographers. You can book an official history tour for just $10 per person.

Levy Park isn’t your typical public playground. The mixed-use space boasts an interactive garden, climbing wall, and splash pad. The park’s promenade houses board games, crafts and a library, along with a scattering of giant foam blocks available for kids to use on the lawn. Special pains are taken to ensure activities are inclusive and fun for a wide variety of ages, including a full event calendar offering outdoor exercise and photography classes throughout the week. It’s one of the city’s newest public spaces, but it’s already one of the most popular. With so much variety, it’s easily one of the best free things to do with families in Houston.

This amusement park overlooking Galveston Bay is the thing of childhood dreams. Kemah Boardwalk features jaw-dropping thrill rides like roller coasters, spinning swings, and free falls. There are also tons of gentler rides for younger kids and mild-mannered parents. A 65-foot Ferris wheel offers a great view of the water, and an adrenaline-inducing boat ride races passengers around the bay at breakneck speeds. Along the boardwalk, visitors can fuel up at several restaurants and shops before heading back out to play carnival games or partake in hands-on exhibits. It’s pure, unadulterated fun and a great stop for families.