Places to visit in and around Houston

We love to travel as a family and consider ourselves travel enthusiasts! We generally travel twice in a year- one in summer and one in winter, sometimes we add a short trip in spring break or thanksgiving break also. We have taken numerous road trips in the US and you can check this post about our road trip experiences. Our most recent family trip was to Disney World in December 2019. You can read my post here about the trip. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic our spring break trip to Boston had to be cancelled. Now as we wait patiently for things to get back to normal, looks like 2020 will be a year of no travel for us. Our last out-of-country visit was to parts of Europe in summer 2019 and you can read all about it in this post.

In today’s travel post, I am writing about Houston travel-places to visit with family and kids in Houston, Texas. This memory is from our lovely trip last summer when my sister and her family visited us from Canada. Then we went for our India vacation and 9 days visit to Europe. What a memorable summer of travel we had in 2019! This is part one as the post was getting too long when I tried to add the cities of Austin, Corpus Christi and Padre Islands. So I made 2 posts. In this post, I write about places to visit in Houston and San Antonio only. The part two blog post will be a continuation of this post, so be ready for the next one too:)

I am a Houstonian! We moved from the East Coast (Virginia and Delaware before that) to Texas in 2006 due to a change in my husband’s job. My younger one was born here in Houston, I started my job here, we bought our first (and second house) here and my extended family from back home have visited us here only. So I consider Houston my home now.

In this post I am writing about the places to must-see in and around Houston. I say this from the point of view of visitors coming here for the first time. Living here as locals, sometimes we may take things for granted. I know I did! But whenever my extended family came to visit us from India, they really enjoyed visiting these places and some family members have had fun going to few of these places more than once! NASA, Galveston beach, Padre Islands, Riverwalk in San Antonio, Keema Boardwalk and Six Flags are few places that we enjoy going back again and again with our guests!

To begin, let me start with some facts about Houston. According to Houston gov page:

-Houston was founded on August 30, 1836

-Houston is the fourth most populous city in US

-Greater Houston is the most ethnically diverse metropolitan area in the United States. At least 145 languages are spoken by city residents, and 90 nations have consular representation in the city

-Houston rates first in total park acreage among U.S. cities with more than one million residents

-The Houston Museum District is one of the country’s most visited and diverse cultural centers with 19 museums within close proximity

-Houston is home to Johnson Space Center, the training base and home for our nation’s astronauts and the site of Mission Control

-Texas Medical Center has 21 renowned hospitals including M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, the No. 1 cancer hospital in the country

Free things to do in Houston

Let’s start with free things to do in Houston:

• Miller Outdoor Center Miller Outdoor Theatre
• Discover Green Discovery Green
• Houston Arboretum Houston Arboretum & Nature Center
• Water Wall Water Wall
• Buffalo Bayou Buffalo Bayou
• Tinsley Park Eleanor Tinsley Park

In addition whenever we have family visiting, we take them to the following places

1. NASA: As you may know the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Space Center is housed in Houston. It is a must-visit place to go! The $30 tickets includes 2 tram tours that you can chose from taking you to mission control center tour and the astronaut training facility tour. You can find more information here.

2. Moody Gardens: Although little expensive at $ 60 daily ticket, it is worth visiting for the first time. The Moody Garden houses Rainforest and Aquarium Pyramids, MG3D Theater and 4D Theaters, Discovery Museum, 20,000 Leagues Interactive Adventure, Colonel Paddlewheeler, and the new Dinos Alive exhibit. You can find more information here

3. Beaches: Galveston Beach is open year around. You can find more information here. In addition we love going to Sylvan beach and Surfside beach

4. Museums: There are 19 museums within walking distance in the Houston Museum District. You can find more information here. Our favorites are Houston Museum of Natural Science, The Health Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts, Holocaust museum, and the Children’s Museum.

5. Downtown Aquarium: It holds exhibits, rides and dining. We always eat lunch when visiting there in addition to taking the rides. You can find more information here.

6. Houston Zoo: If you have young kids traveling with you, you can not go wrong with visiting the Houston Zoo. It is home to 4 stunning Bengal white tigers. You can find more information here.

7. Keema Boardwalk: Keema is a theme park located about 30 miles from Houston. It is a 60 acre theme park built entirely along the shores of Galveston Bay and Clear Lake, and is considered among the premier boardwalks in the United States. You can find more information here.

Nearby places

If you have days in hand, you must visit nearby amazing places in Texas. My suggestions include- San Antonio, Austin, South and North Padre Island, Corpus Christi and Dallas. As mentioned above, in this post I am writing about must-see places in Houston and San Antonio. The next blog post will be about places to visit in Austin, Padre Islands, Corpus Christi and Dallas; so stay tuned.

San Antonio: The city is about 3 hours drive from Houston, about 180 miles away. San Antonio is famous for the Riverwalk , Alamo, Six Flag, Sea World, and Natural Bridge Caverns. We have visited each of these places multiple times.

San Antonio Riverwalk is considered the #1 attraction in Texas and gives you a great dining, shopping, and cultural experience. It is a public park open 365 days a year that welcomes over 14 million people annually. It is also home to countless special events. In December it beautifully lights up but I consider any time of the year visit is a must if coming to Texas.

The Alamo is in the heart of San Antonio and it is Texas’ most visited historic landmark. It is home of the famous 1836 battle and the beautiful 300-year-old former Spanish mission turned fortress is open year-round and is free for families, school groups and everyone to visit, experience the battlefield first hand, and “remember the Alamo.”

Six Flags offers thrill rides, family rides, kids rides, water park rides and entertainment all under one roof as an amusement park for all ages. We had yearly passes and used to visit couple times a year till recently.

Sea World  is a 250-acre marine mammal park, oceanarium and animal theme park. You can see live animal shows including the world famous Shamu show now called the orca encounter and the ocean discovery show. You can swim with dolphin and beluga whales, as well as do tours of penguins, sea lion, killer whale, beluga whale, dolphin, string ray, and sharks in addition to animal ambassador, family adventure, and animal adventure tours. There are also penguin interactions and dolphin encounters. We used to visit Sea World at least twice in a year when my kids were between 4 years- 13 years with the yearly passes. They enjoyed it every single time!!

Natural Bridge Caverns is an amazing natural attraction full of beauty, adventure and fun. We visited it last year when my sister and her family was visiting us from Canada. There are 4 tours you can chose from – discovery tour, hidden passage tour, twisted trails and adventure tour. We did the discovery tour last summer with 2 families and 4 kids aged between 4 years and 16 years, but you can also try other thrillers!

Summary

To summarize, there are many places in and around Houston worth a visit when traveling to Texas. In this post, I wrote about Houston travel by sharing must-see places in Houston and places in San Antonio which is less than 3 hours away from Houston. In the next post, I will continue the travel post and write about places we have visited in Austin, Padre Islands, Corpus Christi and Dallas. I will also give you glimpse about the water parks in Texas! So stay tuned!

Dear readers, if you are a Texan or have visited Texas, please share your list of places that you loved visiting here. Please comment below or send an email to nishtha@dawnandhope.com.