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Sightseeing Overview
Houston’s skyline is testament to the oil boom era and a period of extensive development that stopped abruptly in the 1980s.

Several buildings, such as the Chase Tower, have observation floors from where it is possible to see the vast flat area over which the city sprawls. An extensive system of underground pedestrian tunnels and sky walks add an extra dimension to the street grid and are particularly welcome as an escape from the summer heat.

The Sam Houston Historical Park illustrates the early history of Houston. Across the street is the recently renovated art deco-style City Hall. Lovers of open spaces will be drawn to the lovely Hermann Park, which is not only home to the Houston Zoo but also contains two gardens that are totally different in style - the Japanese Gardens, with a traditional teahouse and wooden footbridges, and the Houston Garden Center. In addition to this, there is also a golf course and the Miller Outdoor Theater, which offers free outdoor performances during the summer months.

Close by is the Museum District (a beautiful area of tree-lined paths, landscaped gardens and fountains) which is packed with many of Houston’s finest museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts, the Menil Collection and the Holocaust Museum Houston.

Also worth a visit is the Williams Tower Water Wall, where water cascades down a 19.5m (64ft) curved black wall in the shape of a horseshoe. The latest popular attraction Downtown is the Downtown Aquarium with its stunning displays of underwater life.

The Astrodome was the world’s first air-conditioned domed stadium for baseball and football. The Astrodome (so large that an 18-story building would fit inside it) prompted the invention of plastic Astroturf, after the grass died during the first season of play.

Tourist Information
Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau
901 Bagby Street
Tel: (713) 437 5200.
Website: www.visithoustontexas.com
Opening hours: Mon-Sat 0900-1600, Sun 1100-1600.

Bay Area Convention and Visitors Bureau
20710 Gulf Freeway (I-45), Webster
Tel: (281) 338 0333.
Website: www.visitbayareahouston.com
Opening hours: Mon-Sat 0900-1600, Sun 1100-1600.

Passes
There are no tourist passes currently available in Houston.

Key Attractions:

Space Center Houston
The Space Center Houston is a privately operated attraction that acts as the official visitor center of NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Exhibits include the Gemini and Apollo capsules, other space flight hardware, including a full-size mock-up of a space shuttle and astronaut memorabilia. You can enjoy a behind-the-scenes tour of the Johnson Space Center, hands-on space simulators, IMAX films and even watch astronauts train for upcoming shuttle missions. One of the highlights is the virtual tour of the International Space Station and experiencing the sensation of weightlessness.

1601 NASA Road 1
Tel: (281) 244 2100.
Website: www.spacecenter.org
Opening hours: Mon-Fri 1000-1700, Sat and Sun 1000-1800 (Sep-May); daily 1000-1900 (Jun); daily 0900-1900 (Jul); Mon-Fri 1000-1700, Sat and Sun 1000-1900 (Aug).
Admission charge.

Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, established in 1948, is housed in an award-winning contemporary all-metal structure. It displays new and recent works from the last 40 years, by regional, national and international contemporary artists. Recent exhibitions have included the works of the avant-garde artist Yoko Ono, black conceptual art, the influence of comics in contemporary art and the art of punk high-priestess Patti Smith.

5216 Montrose Boulevard, Museum District
Tel: (713) 284 8250.
Website: www.camh.org
Opening hours: Tues, Wed, Fri and Sat 1000-1700, Thurs 1000-2100, Sun 1200-1700.
Free admission.

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston has an impressive collection of over 45,000 pieces of art, including antiquities and Renaissance art through to Impressionism and early modernism. It also has fine African sculptures, textiles and costumes. The striking Beck Building has a roof that is studded with skylights, which gives ideal lighting conditions in which to view the paintings. Highlights include the Straus Collection of Renaissance and 18th-century paintings and the Beck Collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art, including Van Gogh, Monet, Matisse and Gauguin.

1001 Bissonnet Street, Museum District
Tel: (713) 639 7300.
Website: www.mfah.org
Opening hours: Tues and Wed 1000-1700, Thurs 1000-2100, Fri and Sat 1000-1900, Sun 1215-1900.
Admission charge; free on Thurs.

Menil Collection
The Menil Collection is the home of works of art collected by John and Dominique de Menil (a prominent, wealthy Houston couple) while on their travels. The private collection includes antiquities, Byzantine art, tribal art and 20th-century works from the Cubist, Minimalist, Surrealist and Pop Art schools. There is also a permanent collection of astronomical instruments and ceremonial masks which fascinated the Surrealists.

1515 Sul Ross Street, Museum District
Tel: (713) 525 9400.
Website: www.menil.org
Opening hours: Wed-Sun 1100-1900.
Free admission.

Holocaust Museum Houston
The Holocaust Museum Houston serves as a memorial to the millions who were imprisoned and died in Nazi death camps in WWII. The museum contains a permanent exhibition hall, regularly changing temporary exhibitions and a memorial area and sculpture garden. A permanent exhibition reveals the atrocities of the Holocaust through the words and memorabilia of local survivors. The museum features a 30-minute film, Voices, which is a montage of oral stories by Holocaust survivors from the Houston area. Guided tours available at weekends at 1230, 1330, 1430 and 1530.

5401 Caroline Street, Museum District
Tel: (713) 942 8000.
Website: www.hmh.org
Opening hours: Mon-Fri 0900-1700, Sat and Sun 1200-1700.
Free admission.

Houston Museum of Natural Science
This museum contains an impressive collection of natural exhibits. Highlights include the Cockrell Butterfly Center - filled with butterflies and tropical plants and featuring a 21m (40ft) waterfall, a rainforest environment, a planetarium and permanent exhibitions of dinosaur skeletons. There is also an IMAX theater, a stunning collection of gems and minerals, a four-screen video wall about the wildlife of Texas, the interactive Discovery Place where children can investigate science in action and the Foucault pendulum which demonstrates the Earth’s rotation.

1 Hermann Circle Drive, Museum District
Tel: (713) 639 4629.
Website: www.hmns.org
Opening hours: Mon and Wed-Sat 0900-1700, Tues 0900-2000, Sun 1100-1700. Times vary for the planetarium and IMAX.
Admission charge.

Houston Zoo
A very popular visitor attraction, the Houston Zoo covers 22 hectares (55 acres) and is home to over 800 species of animals, reptiles and amphibians. The zoo was established in Hermann Park in 1922 and is now an important center for conservation and research. Most days, there are opportunities to view the feeding of certain animals (such as meerkats and elephants) and also to see demonstrations by sea lions. The Wortham World of Primates is a lush replica of the natural rainforest habitat for the 13 species of monkeys and apes on show there. Other popular attractions are the big cats - including Indochinese tigers, leopards and jaguars.

1513 North MacGregor Street, Hermann Park, Museum District
Tel: (713) 533 6500.
Website: www.houstonzoo.org
Opening hours: Daily 0900-1900 (Mar-Oct); 0900-1800 (Nov-Feb).
Admission charge.

Children’s Museum of Houston
A wonderful experience for those aged from four months to 14 years, the Children’s Museum of Houston has a variety of hands-on exhibits in the fields of science, history, culture and arts. Activities concerning the environment feature tree rubbing and insect collecting and there is an open-air art studio to allow children to be creative. Permanent exhibits include the ’Think Tank’ which is a problem-solving exhibit using mirror magic and optical illusions.

1500 Binz Street, Museum District
Tel: (713) 522 1138.
Website: www.cmhouston.org
Opening hours: Tues-Sat 0900-1700, Sun 1200-1700 and Mon 0900-1700 between Memorial Day and Labor Day only.
Admission charge; free for families Thurs 1700-2000.

Sam Houston Historical Park
The Sam Houston Historical Park contains a collection of restored historic buildings - including houses, a church and a reconstructed row of shops. The buildings have been collected together on this site, to go with the 1847 Kellum-Noble House, the oldest house in Houston. A recent addition to the collection is the 1870 two-story house belonging to Jack Yates, the first to be built by a freed slave. These historic buildings set against the sleek city skyscrapers make for a great photo opportunity. The only way to see the houses is on one of the regular guided tours.

1100 Bagby Street
Tel: (713) 655 1912.
Website: www.heritagesociety.org
Opening hours: Guided tours Tues-Sat 1000, 1130, 1300 and 1430, Sun 1300 and 1430; museum Tue-Sat 1000-1600, Sun 1300-1600.
Free admission to the museum; charge for historical house tours.

The Health Museum
A fascinating museum, the Health Museum (at the world-renowned Texas Medical Center) gives an exciting tour of the human body in the Jim Hickox Amazing Body Pavilion, with huge sculptures of human organs including a 3m- (10ft-) tall walk-through brain and a 7m- (22ft-) long backbone with ribs descending from the ceiling to the floor. There is also a large walk-in eyeball that demonstrates how the eye receives and perceives images, as well as plenty of hands-on and interactive exhibits that explore how the body works and how to stay healthy.

1515 Hermann Drive, Museum District
Tel: (713) 942 7054.
Website: www.mhms.org
Opening hours: Tues, Wed, Fri and Sat 0900-1700 (also open Mondays from Memorial Day to Labor Day), Thurs 0900-1900, Sun 1200-1700.
Admission charge; free for families Thurs 1600-1900.

Downtown Aquarium
An opportunity to experience an underwater world brimming with hundreds of exotic species in naturalistic ecosystems, all from the safety of the Shark Voyage train which travels through the middle of the tank. Sea life is recreated around various exhibits of different sea life habitats, including a sunken galleon, a coral reef, the Amazon rainforest and the swamplands of Louisiana. There’s also is a wonderful white tiger exhibit and a number of funfair rides, all with a marine theme.

410 Bagby Street at Memorial
Tel: (713) 223 3474.
Website: www.downtownaquarium.com
Opening hours: Sun-Thurs 1000-2200, Fri and Sat 1000-2300.
Admission charge.

Further Distractions:

National Museum of Funeral History
The National Museum of Funeral History houses memorabilia from the funerals of celebrity figures, such as John F Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Judy Garland, John Wayne and Elvis Presley. A recent addition is the original equipment for the John F Kennedy Eternal Flame, which was used between 1967 and 1998. The collection also includes a funeral sleigh and a Packard mourning bus.

415 Barren Springs Drive
Tel: (281) 876 3063.
Website: www.nmfh.org
Opening hours: Mon-Fri 1000-1600, Sat and Sun 1200-1600.
Admission charge.

Houston Arboretum and Nature Center
Visitors who wish to escape the hustle and bustle of the city can enjoy the native plants and wildlife at the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center. The center has 8km (5 miles) of nature trails covering various habitats (such as forest and prairie) which cater for the different requirements of the animals living there.

4501 Woodway Drive
Tel: (713) 681 8433.
Website: www.houstonarboretum.org
Opening hours: Daily, dawn to dusk.
Free admission.

1940 Air Terminal Museum
A rare example of classic art deco airport architecture that served Houston travelers during the golden age of air travel. Exhibitions feature uniforms, memorabilia and documents from the period together with weather charts, radios and navigational maps.

8325 Travelair Road
Tel: (713) 454 1940.
Website: www.1940airterminal.com
Opening hours: Tues-Sat 1000-1700, Sun 1300-1700.
Admission charge.

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