Heya guys, I’ve been wanting to visit Houston for a very long time and it’s finally happening! I’ll be visiting in September and I just wanted to see what things are worth doing while I am there. We’re checking out Astros Yankees and also going to MNF to catch the Texans game. Which areas would you suggest we should stay? Good places to eat? Shopping? Is public transport good in Houston or is a car necessary? We are so excited at being able to make the trip up so any suggestions are welcome.
Everywhere is good to eat. Check out yelp. Houston is huge and public transit is a joke. You can uber but no clue where you’re staying and where you want to go. If it’s a small radius an uber might make more sense. Zoo is good, museums are great, if that’s your bag. Need more details on your trip to recommend more.
Metro rail is alright in the downtown/museum district areas. I use it sometimes for Texans games but otherwise yeah you need a car. Good places to eat is too generic. Too many options, need to at least know the type of cuisine preferred. But if you like a good steak, my personal favorite is B&B Butchers and it’s not even close imo.
We're coming from Australia and will be staying Houston for a few days before visiting family elsewhere. The only thing we've booked at the moment are the Astros tickets and from my experience of what people say, that traffic heading into the city is pretty bad, so we are possibly going to stay close to Daikin park, but I'm not sure if there is stuff to do around there. We come back a week later for the Texans game, so all up we'll be in Houston for 6 days. To be honest, the games are the primary reason for going, but my partner loves museums, food and wine but we know Houston is a big city and lots to do.
Yeah, ideally this trip would've been ideal during the NBA season, but considering I've been meaning to check out Astros and Texans games as well, we couldn't pass up the opportunity.
Yeah my bad. Coming from Melbourne Australia we are accustomed to a pretty diverse range of food, but definitely want to check out some steak places, some tex mex and I've heard that there is some pretty good Vietnamese spots as well. A good burger would go down well as well but yeah, I suppose it depends if Downtown is worth staying in or if we'll have to venture further out for good spots.
Plenty of places for you to stay here, just don't stay at the airports, both areas are shitty, especially Hobby. I would stay in the downtown area, plenty of nice hotels there. Since you are going to the Astros game and also to Texans game, staying in downtown will be your best chance to just walk to the Astros game and take the metro rail to the Texans game. There are a ton of great places to eat in Houston. Some of my recommendations: If you want Tex-Mex (this isn't real Mexican food no matter how much the gringos are convinced it is) Ninfas on Navigation (very close to downtown, Uber there) El Tiempo on Navigation (next to Ninfas) Teotihuacan (this in the heights, Uber there) Mexican There are higher end brunch buffets offered only on Sundays that are delicious Xochi (downtown) Caracol (Uptown, further from downtown) Hugos (Montrose, not far from downtown) Urbe (Uptown). Yes, all the named restaurants above are from Hugo Ortega, but well worth the brunch buffet price Tacos Taqueria Laredo (on Calvacade, don't get shot) Villa Arcos (on Navigation close to Ninfas, not as good as they use to be a few years ago) Tacos Los Gorditos (venturing to the hood, well worth it though) Tacos Tec (also venturing to the hood) Cielito Cafe (on Montrose or the Heights, very good Mexico City food, very cool owners) Aguascalientes (in the hood), some of the best Mexican gorditas in town, small small space and gets super packed on the weekends. I'm sure more can be recommended just off the top of my head.. BBQ Corkscrew (this one is really far north, like a 40 minute drive, but well worth it) Tejas BBQ (I know people are mixed on this one, personally I love it) There are others in town like Truth, Pinkerton, etc but I haven't tried them Killeens (a drive down south to Pearland) Some other food places I enjoy: Moon Tower Inn - great hotdogs with game meats like rabbit, deer, elk, etc, they have good burgers and great beer selection, go at night though since it's open doors and the temperature is still hot that time of year. Axelrad - great beer selection and good mixed drinks. Great atmosphere and large space. It is an outdoor place so I also recommend going at night. If you are here during a Friday you may catch a Cumbia Night, great time to go and dance. Street to Kitchen Thai - My favorite Thai in town, chef recently one the James Beard award. Stanton City Bites - Some of my favorite burgers in town. Pampas Grill - Very good Argentinian Empanadas The Post - This is in downtown and it has several options for restaurants to eat. Personally my favorite in there is Andes Cafe for some Peruvian ceviche, kicks ass. Great spot to go to the rooftop and go see our beautiful downtown and our beautiful freeway rolleyes. Parks Buffalo Bayou Park is a must. Go to the Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern, they sometimes have unique art exhibits going on in there. Rent a bike and ride the trail. Go back and forth through downtown. You technically can make it all the way to Memorial Park or to EaDO. Memorial Park Go check out our land bridge. Only one in town and we are proud of it since it's something innovative for Houston. Hike the arboretum trails. If you can get you a mountain bike, there are some cool mountain bike trails to ride here. Hermann Park Very cool park, you can catch an outdoor program on a weekday or weekends evening at the Miller Outdoor Theater. Check out in advance. Outside of the City (40 - 70 minutes away) you can go to a state park (Brazos Bend down south and see alligators just chilling, or Sam Houston State Park up north). A national forest is also located adjacent to Sam Houston State Park Breweries St Arnold's (near downtown, great beer selection and overall chill place to go) Platypus (near downtown, I'm not a fan but it's Australian beer, let us know what you think) Brash Brewing (they have my favorite stouts and IPAs and cool spot to go hang out) Equal Parts Brewing (solid beer, another good spot to go relax, it's in East Downtown neighborhood, close to downtown) B52 (this is an hour north from town, but if you happen to go to the parks up north, you can stop by here on your way back) Museums Science Museum in the medical center area. Great IMAX, great planetarium and awesome exhibits. Several art museums. Holocaust museum is great here, I highly recommended. There is so much more to do in this city. There is a lot of great food, a lot of great bars, decent tourist stuff to do. The only issue is that everything is spread out.
You should have someone who knows where you are when you arrive. There's been tons of stories about Aussies being detained at the airport and being rejected entrance. You should definitely have someone on standby by in case stuff gets ugly.
Re: Getting a car. The city is huge and people ain't got time for bullshit on the road so they drive fast and aggressively. If you stay in the slow lane (right) you should be OK. If you're poking along in the fast lane (left) you're going to get some aggressive drivers letting you know to gtfo the way. Re: Aussie detainment: Be aware that @astros123 lives in the D&D so his information may be magnified and siloed by his algorithms. I'm not saying he's wrong, but he may be inadvertently exaggerating. But it's certainly worth being careful and having a backup plan because the US government is in turmoil right now and one hand doesn't know what the other is doing (more than usual).
Call it a passing lane, because fast lane doesn't really justify it. Most of our freeways have a 60 to 65 miles per hour speed limit. Even if you are going 70 to 75 miles per hour in the passing lane, you are not passing therefore, you are going to piss off people. I don't care if you are going 90 miles per hour, if someone riding behind you is going 95 miles per hour, then just move the **** out of the way.
