Originally Posted by
FlyingHoustonian
Do you have to stay at the Hilton Americas DT? It is a fine hotel, and there is more to do downtown than most here are alluding too but someplace like the Hotel ZaZa in the heart of the museum district might be more convenient and you can walk/use rail into DT (they also have hotel shuttles-with big longhorns on the front
it is not cheap though). Just throwing that out there but maybe you are on points or prepaid at Hilton.
I picked the Hilton because it seemed like the nicest most convenient hotel where I could get a smoking room (luxury hotels like Hotel Zaza - Four Seasons - etc. - are all 100% non-smoking). Also - in terms of big chains - I'm Hilton Honors. So - unless there's a much better big chain hotel - I'd rather stay at a Hilton property as opposed to another chain.
You mentioned you are "older people" so I am not sure what demographic, if you will, you are in when it comes to "fun". Do you want to do any shopping or just see the sights and eat great food? Mainly art or historical things also? You can certainly fill two days in the Museum District with the MFAH, Natural Science museum, Holocaust museum, Contemporary arts, health museum and a few other galleries. The Univesity of St Thomas has the Rothko Chapel and Rice Univesity has a couple of galleries. I could suggest more with a bit of a timeline from you; I did a fair amount of tours for foreign visitors to the city during my undergrad days on a summer internship, albeit a long time ago...and I still enjoy helping visitors^
BTW, The Menil is slightly outside of the main core of the museum district and not really on the rail line (yet).
Houston does have a double decker bus tourist company (around DT and the musuem area), and the greyline tours which can go out to NASA and even Galveston depending on which they are running. These could be options also.
http://www.houstoncitytours.us/
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/life...4825477.php#/0
http://downtownhouston.org/
It doesn't seem like you will get down to the Space Center, and every big city has a Zoo but there is also the Houston city pass which gets you into several of the museums at one price:
http://www.citypass.com/houston?mv_s...n=none&mkwid=e
If you are not going to make at least three of those it will not be worth it, and depending on your age you might get discounts from the musuems themselves.
Have fun, and eat well!
We're mostly art/historic sightseeing/dining tourists. When it comes to my husband - he says that sightseeing is a way to kill time between meals
. If there's any great shopping near downtown - I'd be glad to spend an afternoon doing it. But a place like the Galleria seems a bit out of the way to go for the "usual suspect" luxury shopping. I was also looking to see if there's a walkable design district somewhere (I like contemporary furniture/lighting/etc.). But Houston seems to be like Atlanta - stores scattered here and there.
When it comes to being older - that pretty much affects our taste in things. Especially food. We're not big into burgers and pizzas and the like. Or extremely loud restaurants with heavy metal music. My husband has some mobility issues - but he can pretty much walk 3-4 miles a day without any problems (I can too). If we get too tired by day 3 or so - and/or it's 90+ degrees - we can get off our feet and take something like a bus tour. But we'll cross that bridge if and when we get to it. Note that since we're from Florida - we have more heat/humidity tolerance than average people.
We live pretty close to the Space Center here - and it's not of much interest to us. Except for watching a launch now and then from a good viewing location. We like zoos - but have seen so many that we're pretty picky about them today.
Anyway - thanks for the links - and any suggestions are much appreciated. Robyn