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Travel guide
Houston
5 days · 8 things to do
Best time to go: March to April and October to November
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Welcome
Houston, in a few days
The fourth-largest city in the United States, sprawling with no zoning plan across the Texas coastal plain, from where NASA's mission control guided astronauts to the Moon. People come for one of the country's richest museum districts, a chapel of dark Rothko canvases, bayous turned into parks and one of the most mixed food scenes in America, from Texas barbecue to Viet-Cajun crawfish.
- Day by day
- D1 Day 1 1 thing
- D2 Day 2 2 things
- D3 Day 3 1 thing
- D4 Day 4 2 things
- D5 Day 5 2 things
- Worth sorting before you go
- Words that help
- The practical page
- Packing checklist
The trip
Day by day
Map of the sights (numbers follow the suggested order). It prints with the base map.
D1
Day 1
1 thing to do · at your own pace
- All day · Space Center Houston · 4 to 5 hThe official visitor centre of NASA's Johnson Space Center, with capsules, moon rocks, a shuttle replica on its Boeing 747, and tram tours to a Saturn V and the astronaut training building.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Hilton Americas-Houston ↗ · All places to stay by budget →€170 a night
D2
Day 2
2 things to do · at your own pace
- Morning · San Jacinto Battleground · 2 hThe battlefield where Sam Houston's army won Texas independence in 18 minutes in 1836, crowned by a star-topped obelisk taller than the Washington Monument, with an observation deck and museum.
- Afternoon · Buffalo Bayou Park free · half a dayA 65-hectare park along the bayou west of downtown, with walking and cycling paths, skyline views, the vast underground Cistern of 1926 and 300,000 bats leaving the Waugh Drive bridge at dusk.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Hilton Americas-Houston ↗€170 a night
D3
Day 3
1 thing to do · at your own pace
- Morning · Menil Collection and Rothko Chapel free · half a dayA free collection from Magritte and Max Ernst to African and Oceanic art in a Renzo Piano building, and nearby the Rothko Chapel, an octagon of fourteen dark Rothko canvases.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Hilton Americas-Houston ↗€170 a night
D4
Day 4
2 things to do · at your own pace
- Morning · Museum of Fine Arts, Houston · half a dayOne of America's largest art museums, with nearly 70,000 works across three buildings including Mies van der Rohe's glass wing, from antiquities to Impressionism and outstanding Latin American art.
- Late afternoon · Houston Museum of Natural Science · 3 hOne of America's most visited museums, with complete T. rex and triceratops skeletons in hunting scenes, a hall of giant gems and minerals, an energy hall, a planetarium and a butterfly centre.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Hilton Americas-Houston ↗€170 a night
D5
Day 5
2 things to do · at your own pace
- Morning · Hermann Park free · 2 to 3 hThe Museum District's great 1914 park, with a Japanese garden, a rose garden, pedal boats on McGovern Lake, a miniature train, the free Miller Outdoor Theatre and the Houston Zoo.
- Afternoon · Bellaire Boulevard Chinatown free · 2 to 3 hSeveral kilometres of Vietnamese, Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean shopping centres, tea houses, bakeries and hundreds of restaurants, where Houston popularised Viet-Cajun crawfish tossed in butter, garlic and lemongrass.
Before you go
Worth sorting before you go
📶 eSIM data
Online the moment you land, no roaming bill.
Get one · Holafly
Online the moment you land, no roaming bill.
Get one · Holafly
🛡️ Travel insurance
Health, luggage, cancellation.
Cover it · Ekta
Health, luggage, cancellation.
Cover it · Ekta
💳 Fee-free card
Pay at the real rate, with no exchange markup.
Open one · Revolut
Pay at the real rate, with no exchange markup.
Open one · Revolut
🚐 Airport transfer
A private car at a fixed price from the moment you land.
Book it · GetTransfer
A private car at a fixed price from the moment you land.
Book it · GetTransfer
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Good to know
Flavours & local habits
🍽️ Worth tasting
- Burgers and barbecue: brisket and ribs cooked low and slow, done differently in every state.
- Clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl: the classic lunch on the San Francisco waterfront.
- Mexican food: tacos from a truck in Los Angeles, a Mission burrito in San Francisco.
- Pancakes and weekend brunch: a national habit, generous to the point of excess.
- Craft beer, and California wine from Napa and Sonoma.
⚠️ Best avoided
- Tipping is not optional: add 15 to 20% in restaurants and bars.
- Prices on menus and in shops exclude sales tax, which is added at the till.
- Do not plan more than four or five hours of driving a day: the distances are larger than they look on the map.
- Never travel without health insurance. A night in hospital can cost thousands of dollars.
- In summer, do not hike down into the Grand Canyon in the heat of the day: the climb back out is where people get into trouble.
Getting by
Words that help
🗣️ English is the main language here, so there is nothing to learn by heart.
The essentials
The practical page
CurrencyUS dollar (USD, $)
BudgetAbout €160 a day, mid-range
Best seasonMarch to April and October to November
PlugA/B · 120V
Tap waterSafe to drink
Tipping15 to 20%, expected
Emergency911
EntryUK, Australian and most EU passports need an ESTA, applied for online before departure, for stays of up to 90 days; a few EU countries sit outside the Visa Waiver Program and need a full visa. Canadians need neither, only a passport. Anyone who has been to Cuba since January 2021 cannot use an ESTA and must apply for a visa.
HealthNo vaccination required. Keep tetanus, diphtheria and polio up to date; hepatitis A is worth considering if you eat well off the tourist trail. In the desert parks, the heat is the real risk.
Scan to open this guide online, always up to date.
https://offwegooo.com/en/guides/houston
Don't forget
Packing checklist
Have a good trip.
Guide made on offwegooo.com · Photos via Pexels · Details are indicative, check before you leave.