Top places to visit

The Children’s Museum of Houston The Children’s Museum of Houston offers 20 interactive exhibits including robots, anchoring the news, being elected mayor of Kidtropolis, exploring nanotechnology, mathematics in Cyberchase, water in FlowWorks and a three story tower in PowerTower, along with many more.

r: The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center is NASA’s center for human spaceflight activity. Housed on 1,620 acres and consisting of 100 buildings, it is home to Mission Control Center that coordinates all manned spaceflights for the United States. The center includes astronaut training facilities and a large visitor’s complex.

Opened on November 14, 1997 the Verizon Theatre is an indoor theatre that hosts various music artists including Velvet Revolver and Elton John and the Houston Symphony. Events are hosted on a regular basis, from the biggest music stars to the newest comedy sensations.

The Houston Zoo is a 55 acre zoo located within Herrmann Park. It houses 4,500 animals of over 900 species and is the seventh most visited zoo in the nation. The zoo includes a reptile and amphibian building, a Texas wetlands exhibit, natural encounters exhibit, 23 species of birds, a tropical bird house, an open-air pheasant run and over a thousand fish and marine animals from around the world.

The Houston Museum of Natural Science is located in Hermann Park and hosts over 2 million visitors a year. It has four floors of natural science halls and exhibits, a planetarium, butterfly center and IMAX theatre. Throughout the year, the museum hosts numerous special events and exhibits.

This is a private art collection of John and Dominique de Menil. The collection includes astronomical instruments, antiquities, ceremonial masks, Byzantine art and tribal art amongst others. The pieces were amassed by the prominent couple through years of travel.

This museum showcases huge sculptures of human organs at the Jim Hickox Amazing Body Pavilion. Exciting exhibits include a seven metre long backbone and a three metre tall brain. Another interesting feature is the 'walk-in eyeball' where visitors can learn how the eye functions as an organ. These are just some of the many exhibits that are present, each of which demonstrates how that particular organ functions, and how the body works as a whole. Demonstrations on how to stay fit and healthy are also included in this fascinating museum.

This museum has an extensive collection of many works of art, including the Straus Collection of Renaissance and 18th-century paintings, as well as Post-Impressionist works from Gauguin, Van Gogh and Monet. Boasting over 45,000 pieces of art, this museum also showcases antiquities, African sculptures, costumes and textiles. The Beck Building has skylights in its roof, allowing sunlight to stream through giving visitors an ideal condition to view the paintings. The Museum of Fine Arts is truly an art lover's paradise!

The Houston Arboretum and Nature Center consists of 155 acres and is located in Memorial Park. It boasts a children’s botanical hall, over 5 miles of nature trails, forests, ponds, wetlands, and meadows. It also has numerous specialty gardens including Hummingbird and Butterfly Island, Sensory Garden and Wildlife Garden.

Reliant Astrodome, known simply as the Astrodome, is fondly called 'the eighth wonder of the world', and has been home to The Astros, a Major League baseball team. Designed by engineer Jack Boyd Buckley, it is a multi-purpose stadium designed for both baseball and football. It is most known for the artificial grass used called Astroturf.

This underwater world is thriving with different marine species all centered around various habitats - there's a sunken galleon, a rainforest, a coral reef and the swamplands of Louisiana. A shark Voyage train takes visitors through a shark tank for an up-close view of the different species of sharks. There are also numerous other amusement rides available for kids.