A cultural guide to Houston

Your essential guide to the best things to see and do in Houston. Find more travel inspiration for more amazing cities here.

To those who’ve never been, Houston has a reputation as a gargantuan city of “black gold” and cowboy boots, eternally fixed in pop-culture space lore through Apollo 13’s famed report that “… we have a problem.” But beneath the oil city’s 10-gallon hat and boot scootin’ clichés, you’ll find a spirited international metropolis that is officially the most diverse city in the U.S. Nearly one in four of H-Town’s 2.3 million inhabitants is foreign-born, with 145 different languages spoken, and an exhilarating global food scene to match.

Everything’s bigger in Texas, of course, but Houston takes that truism to an entirely new level, covering an area larger than the state of New Jersey. Within this bustling sprawl, you’ll find no fewer than seven cultural districts, as well as a vivacious nightlife scene to rival anywhere else in the country. Yes, Houston has often been overshadowed by its most famous resident, NASA. But take a closer look at “Space City” and you’ll find a vibrant Southern destination bursting with creative energy, artistic ingenuity, and gastronomic flair.

Art & architecture

Thanks to the city’s long-held culture of philanthropy—and wealth produced by the energy sector—Houston is packed with top-tier museums and galleries, anchored in its marvelous Museum District. Here, you’ll find no less than 20 heavy-hitters, including the Houston Museum of Natural Science with its epic planetarium and herd of dinosaur skeletons. Other campus highlights include the gleaming, stainless-steel Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and the magnificent Museum of Fine Arts, which recently unveiled its striking new Nancy and Rich Kinder Building, complete with blockbuster Picasso collection.

Meanwhile, in hipster-friendly Montrose, there’s the thought-provoking Menil Collection, an enormous assemblage of artworks and sculpture ranging from 5,000-year-old antiquities to one of the world’s most extensive hauls of Magritte paintings. You’ll find it on a tree-lined public campus that also houses the renowned Cy Twombly Gallery and serene Rothko Chapel. Lovers of the performing arts will be spoiled for choice in Houston too, with the heavyweight Theater District boasting nine entertainment venues, headlined by the world-class Houston Ballet and Houston Symphony.

Houston is also home to the largest Vietnamese American population outside of California, creating a feisty Viet-Cajun fusion scene, with standout stars including Crawfish & Noodles and Cajun Kitchen. And this is Texas, so it goes without saying that there’s a juicy list of barbecue options to sink your teeth into: Try the decadent dry-rubbed brisket at The Pit Room, and perfect peppery pork ribs at Truth. For Tex-Mex, the undisputed mothership is Ninfa’s on Navigation, a beloved 50-year-old tortilleria where the modern fajita was invented.

Hot ticket

Locals contend that the first word spoken on the moon was “Houston,” so it’s only fitting that the city is home to the best interstellar museum on earth. At Space Center Houston you can nerd out over original Apollo spacesuits, lunar buggies and the world’s largest collection of space rocks—as well as an entire fleet of rockets. The new Mission Mars exhibit zooms in on NASA’s renewed attempts to reach the Red Planet (and allows you to experience a virtual Martian sunset), while those who wish to take their visit one giant leap further can book a VIP tour of NASA’s working Johnson Space Center, and even have breakfast with an astronaut.