2 days in Houston

Day by day

1. Day 1: Space Center Houston and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

   Space Center Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston Museum of Natural Science and Menil Collection, then Buffalo Bayou Park in the evening.

   1. Morning

      Space Center Houston

      Tram tours enter the NASA site to see the restored Apollo-era Mission Control and Rocket Park, where a complete Saturn V lies in its hangar.

   2. Late morning

      Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

      James Turrell's light tunnel connects two buildings underground, and the Isamu Noguchi-designed Cullen Sculpture Garden across the street is free.

   3. Lunch

      Lunch: Viet-Cajun crawfish

      Restaurants along Bellaire Boulevard in Chinatown and across the city during crawfish season, roughly January to June.

   4. Afternoon

      Houston Museum of Natural Science

      The museum also has a planetarium, a giant-screen theatre and the Cockrell Butterfly Center, a three-storey glass rainforest.

   5. Late afternoon

      Menil Collection

      The campus includes the Cy Twombly Gallery and the Menil Drawing Institute.

   6. Evening

      Buffalo Bayou Park

      Watch the bat emergence from the viewing area by the Waugh Drive Bridge around sunset, then walk the trail back towards the skyline.

2. Day 2: Rothko Chapel and Hermann Park

   Rothko Chapel, Hermann Park, Houston Zoo and Children's Museum Houston, then Gerald D. Hines Waterwall Park in the evening.

   1. Morning

      Rothko Chapel

      Outside, Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk, dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr., stands in a reflecting pool.

   2. Late morning

      Hermann Park

      The zoo and several museums open onto it.

   3. Lunch

      Lunch: Fajitas

      Tex-Mex restaurants citywide, including the original Ninfa's on Navigation Boulevard in the East End.

   4. Afternoon

      Houston Zoo

      In winter it hosts the Zoo Lights evening light show.

   5. Late afternoon

      Children's Museum Houston

      A hands-on museum for children up to about 12, with a kid-sized city where children run shops and earn money, a water-play area, science labs and a big outdoor play space.

   6. Evening

      Gerald D. Hines Waterwall Park

      Visit after dark, when the wall is lit, and combine it with a Galleria shopping trip.

Before you go

• Space Center Houston: Buy tickets online in advance, especially on weekends and school holidays.
• Buffalo Bayou Park: Cistern tours are small-group and often sell out; book online.

If it rains

• Swap in The Galleria (Uptown): Watch the skaters from the upper levels, or skate yourself; rentals are available at the rink.

Where to stay for this itinerary

Pace and daylight

The sights in this plan add up to roughly 19–25 hours of visiting over 2 days, before meals and getting between them. Daylight runs from about 10.2 hours in December to 14 hours in June.

Getting between stops: Tram. METRORail's Red Line runs along Main Street from downtown through Midtown, the Museum District and the Texas Medical Center to NRG Park.

More or fewer days

• One day in Houston
• 3 days in Houston

Questions travellers ask