Will be in Houston TX for 1-2 days-need suggestions

ladyvetphd

Hi I will be halting at Houston TX for a day and a 1/2 - during my return flight home. Can someone who has visited Houston or are from Houston give me an idea as to what are the best things that I could check out during this short halt. Is Moody gardens worth spending an entire day. Also need to know if there is a Walmart/Target close to Houston Airport.

Paagla Dashu

Check if there is a ball game scheduled for that day at the Enron ballpark (Home of the Astros) - or is that called by a different name now?

Brownlikejames

The ballpark is called Reliant Stadium. An interesting place to go to in Houston is Hillcroft Street, where there are blocks like Little India/Pakistan and Little Persia. Bellaire is good for Chinese food and such. The nicest mall in Houston is the Galleria which is supposed to be one of the best in the nation. Lol sorry, I was only there for a little while as a hurricane evacuee and all we did was eat and shop so I don't know much about the more intellectual touristy places.

pikeman

Well, as a Texan, I want to ask you not to judge Texas by Houston. At the risk of offending lovers of all things Houston, I really don't care for the place. The REAL Texas is not found in cities - but in the country.

As far as Walmart/Target goes, they are all over the place. Galleria is a very nice shopping place. And yes, Enron Stadium is now Reliant Stadium. And I've heard some good things about Moody Gardens. In fact, I was in Galveston last weekend and had a nice time. We had some great fresh gulf seafood, and had a very nice long stroll along the sea wall.

You might consider visiting Johnson Space Center. It is quite a place.

Too bad you don't have a few more days to get out to Washington County, or the hill country. That's the Texas I'm proud of.

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smida02

defiantly go to NASA and check out the space program. they have tours and have many Apollo and Gemini craft on the premises. You can do a flight simulator, etc. It is on the way to Moody Gardens which are actually in Galveston (you can go to the beach while you are there). There is a nice museum district near Rice University that is a fun way to spend the day, Modern Art Museum, butterfly museum, science museum, etc.

vinayverma

Okay not to hijack the thread but I couldn't muster strength to voice this that I'll be in Las Vegas from next week and for alomost a week.
What to do?
I don't gamble and I drink my own wine (to save cost for my company and I do not earn so much to indulge in bar thingy).
what to do? Please help( with a really help requesting head wobble)

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redhead stepchild

There are Walmarts near International Airport of Houston(assuming you're landing there and not the other airport), just google the terms walmart near houston airport, and Google will give you a list and directions.

IAH is about a 30 minute drive from downtown Houston, and Galveston is at least another 45 minutes from there, if I remember correctly, so if you go to Moody Gardens you should plan to stay the whole day just so all that driving is worth it. I went to Moody Gardens as a child, so I can't really help you there, but you could probably spend a day in Galveston, it's nicer and quieter and less humid than Houston, for sure.

As for Houston, there's a museum/art district which has shops, park, sculpture park, etc. An alternative to the Galleria would be the Rice village shopping district (google that for directions too), which is a bit more 'urban' and has a greater variety of stores/restaurants.


The only thing I can say to this is: try and find something outside of Las Vegas. I had to go there for a friend's wedding and spent most of my time looking out the windows at the beautiful-looking mountains in the distance, while my friends got drunk and gambled away money. Not fun! (the wedding was nice, though). I probably could have found more interesting stuff to do had I not been with them, so maybe you'll have better luck.

I know there's got to be plenty of outdoors-related activites once you get outside of Vegas city. A friend who lived there recommended these names: Red Rocks, Mount Charleston and Bonnie Springs(although, when I asked him to recommend something for a friend that was going to Vegas that didn't drink or gamble, his response was, don't go there).

Also, there's tons of music venues and casino-sponsored shows of all kinds going on all the time, if you're into that. Pretty much any musician/entertainer you like probably plays there at least annually. Lots of shops of course and lots of cheap food, but barely vegetarian-friendly, let alone vegan.

DanielM

Im not going to try and convince you that houston is the most exciting place in the world, but there are some things to do depending on your transportation and your pocket book. If you could specify if you want to rent a car that would help. Basically, public transportation is non-existant in houston. Its there, but its inefficient and not very vast. You have to have a car.

Assuming you are arriving at IAH and will get a car....the airport is in the far northside of town, and there are plenty of walmarts around, but again, you gotta have a car to get there. Things that you can do include:

NASA/Space Center
Galveston (highly reccomended, there is tons to do)
downtown - theatre district
Kemah Boardwalk (if you want some seafood in a carnival setting)
If you like ethnic neighborhoods and food, then the aforementioned places are great. Driving down bellaire will get you some damn tasty and authentic dim sum, and there's plenty of chinese everything, with lots of vietnamese, indian and paki stuff too. Hillcroft has some great indian, persian and afghani restaurants. If you ahvent had it you should be sure to try some tex-mex food, and also some taqueria style mexican food....not the kind you get at Casa Olé, the kind you get from a truck. mmmmm, fresh tacos al pastor and some agua de horchata...dio mio.
And gosh I cant think of anything else. Houston isnt the greatest place in the world to be a tourist.

DanielM

I second that. the strip wont be any fun. Go see the damns, go see the grand canyon, do something adventurous, but in vegas, I dont think there is that much, unless you want to drop a ton of money on shows and buffets. Hmmm, actually, I could do a week of vegas buffets. Go around 2-3, when you can pay the lunch price, then just sit and eat slowly till the dinner food gets brought out.

onajourney

Just a small correction. The baseball stadium where the Astros play (formally Enron, formerly Tropicana) is now called Minute Maid Park. Reliant Stadium is the football stadium where the Houston Texans play. www.mlb.com will have a schedule for the Astros.

ladyvetphd

Thanks to everyone that has that spared the time to provide suggestions. After reading your comments, I can certainly say I am getting a hang of the distances etc, nice to know important info. like Public service is non-existent and that I will have to rent a car. And yes to the Texan lover, I wish I had the time to check out more of the real texas.
cheers