BETWEEN-MEAL ATTRACTIONS IN HOUSTON

Travellers taking in several of the attractions below can enjoy significant savings by using a Houston CityPASS (citypass. com).

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

mfah.org

One of the gems of Houston’s walkable museum district (a cluster of 19 museums, galleries and cultural centres), the MFAH contains more than 62,000 works of art. Its strengths are Italian Renaissance painting, French Impressionism, photography, American and European decorative arts, African and pre-Columbian gold, American art, and post-1945 European and American painting and sculpture. Other facets of the collection include African-American art and Texas painting.

Houston Museum of Natural Science

hmns.org

The four-storey museum is filled with impressive and even eye-popping exhibits, including permanent showcases dedicated to dinosaurs and other prehistoric denizens, fantastic gems and minerals, ancient Egypt, Texas wildlife and the state’s energy sector. If you’re able to book a tour with museum staffer (Jurassic) James Washington III, he will make the place come alive with his lore and enthusiasm.

Space Center Houston

spacecenter.org

This massive educational complex a half-hour drive south of downtown draws a million visitors annually to view its exhibits, films and more than 400 space artifacts that tell the story of America’s human space-flight program. Visitors can also tour the NASA Johnson Space Center, view NASA Mission Control and watch astronauts in training, walk through a replica and an original shuttle carrier aircraft, and touch a moon rock.

Houston Zoo

houstonzoo.org

Home to 6,000 animals on a park within Hermann Park beside the Museum District, the 96-year-old Houston Zoo is the second most visited zoo in the United States. Highlights include the African forest that houses zebras, gazelles, chimpanzees and giraffes, the habitat for Asian elephants, the Kipp Aquarium that contains 200 species of fish, a bird garden with more than 800 birds from more than 200 species and a sea lion pool.

Downtown Aquarium

aquariumrestaurants.com/downtownaquariumhouston

Opened in 2003, Houston’s downtown aquarium houses 200 species of aquatic animals in almost 2 million litres of aquariums. The complex’s main restaurant even includes a sprawling aquarium of almost 600,000 litres. Indoor highlights include exhibits featuring Gulf Coast marine life, white tigers and stingrays that can be fed and touched. Outside is a small amusement park.