Houston attractions

Perched over Galveston Bay, Kemah Boardwalk transformed what was once a small fishing community into a popular tourist destination. Today, it’s home to an amusement park with more than 15 rides, waterfront restaurants, and fountains where kids splash for relief under the scorching Texas sun. Complete with palm trees, a marina, and carnival games, it’s a classic small-town boardwalk just outside of busy Houston.

Wander around Downtown Houston in the summer, and you might find the streets strangely empty. That’s because everyone is escaping the heat by moving through a series of air-conditioned walkways running below the sidewalks. First constructed in the 1930s, the Downtown Tunnels have expanded to connect nearly 100 city blocks of office buildings, restaurants, and shops, and they’re open for a weekday stroll when the Houston humidity gets to you.

Housed in an imposing concrete building at the heart of Houston’s Museum District, the Holocaust Museum Houston is dedicated to the six million victims of the Holocaust. Reopened after extension renovations in 2019, its focus is to educate visitors about the Holocaust, honor the legacy of the victims and survivors, and offer hope for the future.

The Health Museum in Houston is an interactive learning center focused on health, medical science, and the human body. Visitors can tour a larger-than-life version of the human body, learn about the global food system, get an up close look at cellular biology, or see a film in the McGovern Theater.

Drowning out the noise of Uptown Houston, the 64-foot (20-meter) semicircular, double-sided fountain known as the Waterwall serves as one of the city’s best photo backdrops. Shaded by Williams Tower, the tallest skyscraper outside of downtown, and nearly 200 Texas live oak trees, Gerald D. Hines Waterwall Park is the ideal place to rest after shopping at the nearby Galleria—and to beat the Houston heat by standing beside the fountain’s cascading water.

With multiple design awards to its name, Wells Fargo Plaza is one of Houston’s most notable architectural landmarks. As the tallest all-glass tower in the western hemisphere, the 20th tallest building in the US, and the second-tallest building in Houston, it’s also a popular viewpoint.

The Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens is a 14-acre (5.6 hectares) public estate comprising part of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, holding collections of American decorative art, paintings, and furniture in a historic home. Minutes from central Houston in the historic River Oaks area, the estate is surrounded by manicured gardens.

Dubbed the “Heart of Houston,” Montrose is home to a quirky arts scene, rich LGTBQ+ culture, and eccentric shopping. Take a walk through the 4-square-mile (10-square-km) area—one of the most pedestrian-friendly in the city—to see its 1920s bungalows, local cafes, thrift shops, and trendy restaurants.

Who knew that hiking trails and natural beauty were a stone’s throw from downtown Houston? This winding public park follows the banks of the Buffalo Bayou for about 2 miles (3 kilometers) from the Sabine Street Bridge to Shepherd Drive, and offers delightful outdoor spaces with sweeping views of the downtown skyline.

The world’s largest livestock and live entertainment show combines Wild West culture with music and agriculture for nearly three weeks of rodeo performances, livestock shows, barbecue contests, parades, and live concerts by some of the biggest names in music.

Designer shopping enthusiasts won’t want to miss a visit to this Houston location of the Tanger Outlets, just south of the city. One of 36 branches located all around the US and Canada, the outlet shopping mall features hundreds of brands at deeply discounted prices, affording plenty of opportunities to bag a bargain.

If there’s serious shopping to be done on your trip to Houston, it will likely happen in this skylit mall in the heart of the Uptown District. Though it’s among the largest shopping centers in the US, there’s more to the mall—actually a “mixed-use urban development”—than a Texas-sized shopping experience, as visitors will find hotels, an array of restaurants, and an ice-skating rink.

Experience life on a 19th-century Texan ranch at the George Ranch Historical Park, a living history museum set around a 20,000-acre (8,094-hectare) family ranch. The interactive visits are great fun for all ages, as you explore historic buildings, watch the ranchers at work, and see the livestock.

The American suburb meets the expansive art collections of French-American patrons at the Menil Collection, a museum and leafy art neighborhood a short drive from downtown Houston. The modernist museum building, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, holds art from prehistory to the present day and anchors satellite galleries, installations, and a 30-acre (12-hectare) neighborhood campus.

The anchor to Houston’s Downtown Graffiti Park, where rotating displays of cutting-edge street art drape industrial structures, the Houston Graffiti Building is a living canvas for local and international graffiti and mural artists. The building brings vibrant color to the concrete of an otherwise gray area of East Downtown, drawing travelers interested in street art and culture—and social-media-ready photo ops.

Hearses, caskets, and coffins are scattered throughout this museum dedicated to the funeral—one of humankind’s oldest and least examined cultural rituals. An outlier in Houston’s cultural scene, NMFH is where you go to see rare coffins (“Fantasy Coffins from Ghana,” anyone?) and learn about embalming, Japanese burial practices, the history of cremation, and other funeral traditions.