ヒューストンのツアー・観光情報

Ranked by traveller reviews: 1) Space Center Houston and the NASA tram tour, 2) the downtown tunnel and hidden-gems walking tour, 3) the Houston Museum of Natural Science, 4) the official city and mural tour, 5) the Museum of Fine Arts and Menil Collection, 6) a Houston food tour, 7) Buffalo Bayou Park and the Waugh Bridge bats, 8) the Kemah Boardwalk, 9) the Houston Zoo in Hermann Park and 10) a Galveston day trip for the beach, Moody Gardens and Pleasure Pier.

Plan two days, three with Galveston. Day one: Space Center Houston in the morning (allow four hours), then the Kemah Boardwalk on the way back. Day two: the Museum District — Natural Science, Fine Arts, the Menil — a downtown tunnel or mural tour and dinner in Montrose or the Heights. Day three: Galveston’s Strand, Moody Gardens and the seawall beaches.

The Menil Collection, Rothko Chapel and Cy Twombly Gallery, Buffalo Bayou Park with the bat emergence at Waugh Bridge, Hermann Park’s gardens and McGovern Centennial Gardens, Discovery Green downtown, the Waterwall in Uptown, the Houston Arboretum, the Beer Can House exterior, Rice University and the Sky Lawn on the roof of POST Houston. The MFAH is free on Thursdays; several museums have free hours each week.

Galveston (50 minutes) for the beach, the Strand’s Victorian district, Moody Gardens and Pleasure Pier; the Kemah Boardwalk (35 minutes); the San Jacinto Monument (30 minutes); Brazos Bend State Park for alligators (one hour); the Blue Bell Creamery in Brenham and the bluebonnet fields in spring (90 minutes). Austin and San Antonio are about three hours each. Space Center Houston itself is 25 miles from downtown.

Watch 250,000 bats leave Waugh Bridge at sunset, take a ghost tour of downtown, see the Theater District (the Alley Theatre, Houston Ballet and Grand Opera), catch an Astros game at Daikin Park, bar-hop along Washington Avenue, Midtown or White Oak in the Heights, or ride the party bike. The Downtown Aquarium and Kemah Boardwalk stay open late with the rides lit up.

Winter is Houston’s most pleasant season, with highs in the 60s°F. Space Center, the Museum District and the Zoo are crowd-free, Zoo Lights runs from mid-November, the Galleria ice rink and Discovery Green rink are open, and ICE LAND at Moody Gardens in Galveston runs through early January. The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the world’s largest, takes over late February and March.

Space Center Houston (touch a moon rock, see the Saturn V), the Children’s Museum Houston, the Houston Museum of Natural Science and its dinosaur hall, the Houston Zoo and Hermann Park train, the Downtown Aquarium’s rides, the Kemah Boardwalk and, in Galveston, Moody Gardens’ aquarium and rainforest pyramids and Schlitterbahn water park. Buffalo Bayou Park has splash pads and paddleboat hire.

October to April — dry, mild and comfortable. March brings the Rodeo and the bluebonnets; November and February are the sweet spot for weather and prices. Summer is very hot and humid with daily highs in the 90s°F, and August–September is peak hurricane season.

Yes — it is the most-reviewed attraction in the city and the only place to see a Saturn V rocket, the Independence shuttle replica and, on the tram tour, the historic Apollo Mission Control. Allow four to five hours; buy timed tickets ahead or take the combined NASA and city tour with hotel pickup.