Location: Houston
Top Things to do in Houston
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Things to do in Houston, Texas (TX): The Best Museums
Houston hums with an energy and independent spirit all its own. A leading cultural and culinary destination in the South, the city is home to over 11,000 restaurants featuring cuisine from more than 70 countries. The thriving arts scene includes resident opera, ballet, symphony and theater companies. The Museum District houses 19 museums, all within walking distance. Be sure to visit Space Center Houston, where you can visit NASA’s Historic Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center.
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1. Lone Star Flight Museum
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 89 reviews
Housed in a large aircraft hangar, this world-class aviation museum features restored aircraft and historic photographs.
Reviewed By Chrisinkingwood2 - Houston, United States
We took advantage of the Smithsonial Free Museum Day tickets where you can get free admission for 2 to many museums around the country. I took my 14 year old grandson, I figured he might have an interest and wanted him to know that air battles just don't happen in all those video games he plays! We got there about 10:30 and stayed for 3 hours. The displays are fantastic, so many old planes and jets restored as they were when they were brand new. The panels with photographs and stories were very interesting and they also have several interactive displays that kids can do to learn about the effects of wind and the physics of flight while having fun. At one point we watched them wheel out the big bomber and it took off with guests who had purchased tickets for a flight around the Ellington Field area. My grandson got to try flying in the flight simulators which was really fun, sadly he found out it isn't as easy as a video game and crash landed!
2. The Houston Museum of Natural Science
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 5,002 reviews
This outstanding science museum has a spectacular collection of mineral specimens, a dinosaur skeleton, space-station models, a planetarium, IMAX theater and a six-story butterfly center in which these beautiful creatures land delicately on outstretched arms.
Reviewed By Agarrino
Another mandatory visit while in Houston, is the Natural History Museum. You will need a complete day (or even more) to really check everything on display, since there are 4 floors full of interesting items: Full body dinosaurs skeletons, phosils of all sort, trilobites, scientist working in labs opened to visitors, an impressive collection of cristal minerals and jewels, sculptures and a great collection of ancient Egypt items, including three real mummys. Also great the butterfly interior garden.
3. National Museum of Funeral History
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 526 reviews
This museum, owned by a funeral company, houses the largest collection of funereal artifacts in the U.S., traces the history of funeral services, displays historic hearses and provides memorabilia from funerals of the famous, such as Dwight Eisenhower, Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy and Elvis Presley.
Reviewed By lauramooki - Bogota, Colombia
This is an absolute must-do in Houston. Fascinating and well put together displays with lots of excellent information. They also have a wonderful haunted house in October and lovely gift shop. The staff are so nice and the day we went (Halloween) there was a volunteer who was so knowledgeable and really genuinely enriched our visit.
4. Houston Museum of African American Culture
5. The Menil Collection
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 936 reviews
A legacy of the philanthropists John and Dominique de Menil, the Menil Collection opened in 1987. The museum presents regular rotations of artworks from its growing permanent collection, organizes special exhibitions and programs throughout the year, publishes scholarly books, and conducts research. The Menil Collection’s main museum building anchors a parklike 30-acre campus, which also includes the Cy Twombly Gallery, a site-specific Dan Flavin installation, the Byzantine Fresco Chapel—now a venue for long-term installations by contemporary artists—and outdoor sculpture.
Reviewed By FoodieinNOHO - California, United States
The eclectic collection of art is AMAZING!! Including early to mid-twentieth century works of Yves Tanguy, René Magritte, Max Ernst, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, among others. I DIDN'T make it to the other side of the museum. My main interest was the Aboriginal Art exhibit Also included in the museum's permanent collection are antiquities and works of Byzantine, Medieval and tribal art. I really enjoyed the space of the tribal collection. It is a must to see the art aspect of Houston....I took my adult daughter here for the first time and it did not disappoint. The art, paintings, and sculptures were very interesting. There is also a nice little park across from the gallery. Parking is FREE!!!! French expat Dominique de Menil, heiress to the Schlumberger fortune, came to Houston after World War II and began amassing an impressive mid-century art collection. Dominique befriended and collected many of the biggies: Ernst, Magrite, Johns, Rauschenberg, Warhol, and others. This intimate museum within a quaint residential section of Montrose/Museum District showcases. A museum in the middle of a residential neighborhood is a surprising delight. The René Magritte, "The Meaning of Night" is so thought provoking. His unique surrealist work moved me in such an surprising way!!
6. Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 447 reviews
Bayou Bend is the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston's house museum for American decorative arts and paintings. Displayed in the former home of Houston civic leader and philanthropist Ima Hogg (1882-1975), the collection is one of the finest showcases of American furnishings, silver, ceramics, and paintings in the world. The house is situated on 14 acres of organically maintained gardens in Houston's historic River Oaks neighborhood.
Reviewed By larryd1941
Comparing the Bayou Bend American furniture rooms to DuPont's Winterthur Museum is unfair, as they both have excellent collections of American furnihings but Bayou Bend has a less comprehensive view of 18th and 19th century furnishings than Winterthur. It is still high on my list of National "must see" Museums. Its grounds are enchanting and the Museum feels more like a visit to a wealthy friend's home (a la Marjorie Merriweather Post's Hillwood in Washington, DC) than to a major Museum of American furniture (Winterthur in Delaware)
7. Houston Museum District
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 698 reviews
Reviewed By ViewChaser - Houston, United States
The Houston Museum of Fine Arts and Museum of Natural Science are very close to one another. The Children's Museum, Holocaust Museum and Medical Museum are also located nearby so everything is quite convenient without traveling from one side of the city to the next.
8. Holocaust Museum Houston
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 787 reviews
Holocaust Museum Houston is temporarily closed through March 31, 2020 in response to COVID-19. We will announce any other changes to Museum programs or operations through all of our regular channels, including social media and on our website.
Reviewed By FindMeHiking
The Houston Holocaust Museum is a beautiful, artful tribute to this significant part of our world history. This new Houston facility is spacious and very artfully designed--connecting guests, clearly and more intimately to the history, to the people lost. We were afriad it would be terribly sad and depressing, and somehow it wasn't. It was impactful, respectful, and, frankly inspiring--proof of such strength and depth of character of those persecuted. My family and I were able to hear one of the Holocaust Survivors speak in the auditorium--wow, just wow. Please visit this place, see and learn about the history, and remember.
9. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 2,700 reviews
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is the largest cultural institution in the southwest region of the United States. The Museum’s encyclopedic collections of nearly 70,000 objects cover world cultures dating from antiquity to the present and include in-depth holdings of American art, European paintings, Pre-Columbian and African gold, decorative arts and design, photography, prints and drawings, 20th- and 21st-century painting and sculpture, and Latin American art.
Reviewed By bornthatway_traveler - Bloomington, United States
I extremely recommend the MOFAH to all visitors to Houston; you won’t be disappointed! The diversity and educational value of the hundreds and hundreds of works here is admirable and among the best in the US. Portraits and paintings fill dozens of gallery rooms on the second floor, many of them huge and immersive, like the art swallows you and invites you into their scene. Being a personal fan of Impressionism, I enjoyed the vast collection of this genre in the museum. Works of all types represent nearly all world regions and timelines in history (e.g. Egyptian carvings and tombs and Asian sculptures). Everyone of all interests is bound to discover something fascinating here. When you visit, be sure to pass through the underground light tunnel to access the museum’s second facility across the street, in which you’ll find intricate Italian glass carvings, Spanish and colonial-era art artifacts, and a substantial exhibition celebrating Black culture. I particularly enjoyed the Black culture exhibition, curated magnificently with several eye-opening portraits and culturally-rich lifestyle scenes. In the Spanish/colonial-era space, I loved viewing the ancient maps explorers used to navigate the oceans in the early history of “modern” America. I could go on and on praising the Museum of Fine Arts—I really loved my time here. I’ll devote the conclusion of my review to important informational pointers: - Admission is a reasonable $19 per adult, available on-site. I’m forgetting children’s admission prices and others. - In order to safely remain open in light of COVID-19, all visitors will have their temperature checked prior to entering the museum. Face masks and social distancing are required. The temperature screening process is very straightforward and quick, and I found myself within the gallery areas in no time. - Wheelchair accessibility is clearly up to ADA regulations, with elevators giving access to every part of the facility. - The on-site cafe remains closed due to COVID-19, as of June 2020. Just take note of this and make sure you satisfy your appetite before your visit! - I applaud the museum for providing many Spanish-language translations/subtitles alongside English captions of artworks. Very cool. I’ll be returning next visit to Houston! Thanks for the world-class experience!
10. Children's Museum of Houston
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 1,627 reviews
Hands-on interactive exhibits in the areas of science and technology, history and culture, health and human development, and the arts.
Reviewed By newbietraveler
This is a world class kids museum with something for every age between 1-100. We spent the entire day there and could have easily spent another full day. If you are a local, a membership is a must. My only complaint is that there needs to be more museum employee supervision to help those kids who don't understand the instructions for some activities or to keep in check those kids who outright just don't follow the rules. Some areas of the museum are just pure chaos when the museum is busy.
