According to simplyyellowpages, Houston has so many distinctive attractions to offer that you can only see a handful in one day. But that doesn’t matter and shouldn’t put you off. Because the destination offers something for everyone, regardless of whether they are culture lovers, nature lovers or families with children. The main attraction is clearly the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. Together with the Mission Control Center (nickname: “Houston”) it has been coordinating the US manned space program since 1961 as a NASA facility and control center.

The Space Center Houston

It’s THE understatement of space and film history. The dramatic battle for the spaceship begins with the sentence “Houston, we have a problem” Apollo 13 “And its crew.
The official visitor center of the NASA Johnson Space Center is Houston’s biggest tourist magnet, a guarantee for great, impressive travel photos and, as a branch of the Smithsonian Museum, offers various exhibitions on NASA, space shuttles, astronauts and space suits. There are also changing exhibitions and the Destiny Cinema, a facility with one of the largest screens in Texas. Documentaries are shown there regularly.

Opening Hours

• Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Entrance fees

• Adult (12 years and older): $ 29.95
• Seniors (65+): $ 27.95
• Child (4-11 years old): $ 24.95

Admission is free for children up to three years of age. Reduced admission is possible for groups of 20 people or more.

Must see museums in Houston

Eighteen museums are located in the Museum District of Houston.

Including:

• Contemporary Arts Museum Houston: The art museum is one of the oldest museums in the USA and attracts with changing exhibitions of modern art. You can visit the museum for free.
• Holocaust Museum Houston: The museum commemorates the victims of the Holocaust in the permanent exhibition “Bearing Witness: A Community Remembers”. There are also various temporary exhibitions. Among other things, an original train wagon is exhibited in the Holocaust Museum, as it was used for deportations during the Second World War.
• Museum of Fine Arts: The Museum of Fine Arts exhibits over 65,000 works of art from all areas of the fine arts. Including many sculptures, photographs and paintings.
• National Museum of Funeral History: The National Museum of Funeral History in Houston may seem macabre to one or the other. The main focus here is on artifacts from burial cultures around the world. In addition to coffins, dead clothes and other interesting exhibits, the original funeral schedule of President Harry S. Truman and the death mask of General Robert E. Lee can be found there.
• 1940 Air Terminal Museum: The museum is part of the William P. Hobby Airport and deals with the history of aviation in Houston. This year a 1974 Beech Sundowner will be raffled there. One of the 2,500 lots is available for $ 50.

Tip: With the City pass entry to various museums in the metropolis is possible at a reduced price.

Other cultural institutions and attractions in Houston

If you intend to immerse yourself in the life in Texas at the beginning of the 19th century, you should definitely take a detour George Ranch Companies. In this open-air museum there are regular demonstrations from bygone times.

The tunnels under the city can be explored on a tour with a guide. As a cultural center, the Texan metropolis also has an opera in the Wortham Center (home of the Houston Grand Opera), several theaters such as the Alley Theater and the Jones Hall concert hall where symphonic concerts take place. The Miller Outdoor Theater in Hermann Park offers open-air theater performances. If you want, you can also visit high-class ballet performances and various guest performances in Houston. In addition, the metropolis on the south coast has an impressive art scene.

Houston for nature lovers

The Texan city also has a lot to offer for animal and nature lovers. Among other things, there are almost 130 bike paths there.

Including:

• Houston Zoo: The city’s zoological garden is home to over 6,000 animals from 900 species on 22 hectares. Every year 2.1 million people visit the zoo to see the animals, making it the second most visited zoo in the United States. A camp is offered especially for children and young people between the ages of four and sixteen, which aims to give the youngsters a connection to nature. Houston Zoo is also committed to environmental protection and provides regular information on relevant topics.
• Downtown Aquarium: The aquarium is more of an amusement park than a zoo and, in addition to the underwater world, also has land animals such as tigers and lions to offer. A special attraction is the restaurant, which is completely underwater.
• Houston Arboretum and Nature Center: Plant lovers and lovers of botanical gardens should definitely take a trip to the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center. There, within the Memorial Park, native plant and animal species can be experienced on an area of ​​around one hectare.

Houston’s most beautiful parks

If you want to relax after an extensive sightseeing tour, Houston has over 30 beautiful parks and seven no less attractive gardens with a lot to offer.

The Smither Park with its attractive mosaics, the rose garden in the McGovern Centennial Gardens and the beautiful Georg D. Hines Waterwall Park, which is located opposite the Williams Tower in the Uptown area, are worthwhile. The attraction of the park mentioned is the fountain, which is operated daily from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

And if you not only want to relax carefully, but also want to be a little active, Hermann Park with its Japanese garden is worth a visit. You can also go pedal boating there. Buffalo Bayou Park is perfect for jogging or cycling. The green area also has a playground, where you can picnic and paddle-boating, which makes the park a worthwhile destination for families with children.

Dog owners appreciate the opportunity for dogs to run free in Market Square Park. But even those who just want to relax with art and a fountain or have a leisurely breakfast, drink coffee or have a picnic are in the right place in the “dog park”. The Niko Niko’s restaurant there is also highly recommended.

NEW BRAUNFELS – THE CITY OF GERMAN IMMIGRANTS

Like Fredericksburg, New Braunfels is German-speaking. It is 50 km northeast of San Antonio . The town on the Comal and Goudeloupe Rivers was founded by German immigrants.

The German Prince Karl von Solms-Braunfels led around 150 families to Texas in 1845 and founded the settlement named after his hometown. The prince soon returned to Germany, but New Braunfels grew into a thriving community. Even today, the city with half-timbered houses and the southern German way of life has retained much of its ethnic origins. Official website: nbcham.org.

Landmarks

• The Sophienburg Memorial Museum (official website), 401 W. Coll St., on a hill, was once the seat of the prince.
• There are still numerous half-timbered houses in the Gruene district. One of the most interesting is the Lindheimer Museum, 491 Comal St., the former home of the botanist Ferdinand Jakob Lindheimer.
• The Gruene Hall (official website), the oldest continuously operating dance hall in Texas, features an auditorium for stars and local performers.
• From the end of October to the beginning of November, New Braunfels celebrates the ten-day sausage festival (official website), a reminder of the Munich Oktoberfest.
• 27 km west of the village are the stalactite caves of the Natural Bridge Caverns (official website) worth seeing.