Visiting Houston, United States: Top Sights on Foot

The best things to do in Houston include exploring the Museum District, discovering important places in African American and military history, and following Buffalo Bayou across historic bridges. Houston combines major art institutions with distinctive architecture, memorial spaces, churches, and sporting venues. Neywo has a free audio guide for Houston with 61 narrated places, available in 11 languages.

What to See in Houston

McKee Street Bridge

The McKee Street Bridge crosses Buffalo Bayou and connects two Houston neighborhoods. Built in 1932, it is a three-span reinforced concrete girder bridge and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since September 3, 2002.

Hill Street Bridge over Buffalo Bayou

The Hill Street Bridge is another significant crossing over Buffalo Bayou, within Harris County. It forms part of the network of bridges that links Houston’s neighborhoods and historic areas.

San Jacinto Street Bridge over Buffalo Bayou

The San Jacinto Street Bridge connects downtown with Houston’s historic Fifth Ward. The present structure dates from 1914 and replaced an earlier iron pivot bridge dating to 1883. It was rehabilitated in 1997.

These bridges are especially easy to include in an active exploration of the city. Neywo’s bike route follows the Buffalo Bayou Trail from Sam Houston Park to the bayou bridges, with the stories playing as you reach each stop.

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is one of the central institutions of the Houston Museum District and the oldest art museum in Texas. Its origins go back to 1917, when the site was dedicated by the Houston Public School Art League, later known as the Houston Art League. The first museum building opened in 1924.

The original building, designed by Houston architect William Ward Watkin in the Greek Neoclassical style, was the first art museum built in Texas. Today, the museum includes the Caroline Wiess Law, Audrey Jones Beck, and Nancy and Rich Kinder buildings, as well as decorative arts house museums, the Glassell studio art school, a sculpture garden, conservation facilities, archives, and schools. The Nancy and Rich Kinder Building opened in 2020 after an eight-year redevelopment project.

Houston Museum of Natural Science

On the northern edge of Hermann Park, the Houston Museum of Natural Science offers a broad introduction to natural history and science. The museum was established in 1909 by the Houston Museum and Scientific Society, which was created to provide a free educational and scientific institution for Houston.

Its complex includes four floors of natural science halls, the Burke Baker Planetarium, the Cockrell Butterfly Center, and the Wortham Giant Screen Theatre. Permanent displays cover subjects including dinosaurs, gems, ancient Egypt, and the cultures of the Americas. A paleontology wing was added in 2012, giving the museum a particularly strong focus on prehistoric life.

Contemporary Arts Museum Houston

The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, often called CAMH, presents contemporary art through exhibitions, education, and public programmes. Founded in 1948 by seven Houston citizens, the museum opened in its current building in 1972.

The stainless steel structure was designed by architect Gunnar Birkerts and has become one of the recognizable landmarks of the Museum District. Inside are two floors of gallery space, including the Brown Foundation Gallery and the Nina and Michael Zilkha Gallery. CAMH presents six to eight exhibitions each year, featuring internationally recognized artists as well as emerging and early-career artists.

Holocaust Museum Houston

Holocaust Museum Houston is dedicated to remembrance and education about the dangers of prejudice and hatred. Its collections include artifacts, photographs, films, informational panels, and a research library.

The permanent exhibition “Bearing Witness: A Community Remembers” follows the Holocaust through historical and personal stories, including accounts from survivors living in the Houston area. Outside the main galleries, an actual World War II railcar is displayed alongside the Danish Rescue Boat. Together, these exhibits connect the history of the Holocaust with the story of the 1943 Danish rescue effort, when Danes helped save more than 7,200 Jews from almost certain execution.

Buffalo Soldiers National Museum

The Buffalo Soldiers National Museum focuses on the history and achievements of African American soldiers from every branch of the United States Military. Founded in 2000, it preserves the stories of soldiers who served through major American wars and periods of extreme adversity.

Its military memorabilia dates from 1770 to 2000. Among the important historical subjects is the 1866 act of Congress that created six all-African American Army units, including the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 38th, 39th, 40th, and 41st Infantry regiments.

Children’s Museum of Houston

The Children’s Museum of Houston is designed around interactive learning for children aged 0 to 12. Founded in 1980 and opened in 1992, it occupies a whimsical building designed by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown.

The museum has more than 90,000 square feet of interactive exhibits, with experiences ranging from physical obstacle courses to science activities. Kidtropolis creates a miniature city with skyscrapers, government, a supermarket, and different professions. Younger children have their own area, Tot Spot, designed for infants and toddlers. The building was remodelled in 2009, adding seven exhibition galleries.

Menil Collection

The Menil Collection presents the private art collection assembled by John and Dominique de Menil. The museum’s holdings include paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, photographs, rare books, antiquities, and medieval-style works, with a particular emphasis on 20th-century art as well as pop and contemporary art.

The de Menils developed their collection with guidance from Father Marie-Alaine Couturier, a Dominican priest who introduced them to modern art and encouraged them to share it publicly. By the time of John de Menil’s death in 1973, the couple had collected 10,000 art objects. The museum opened to the public in 1987.

Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens

Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens is a 14-acre estate belonging to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. It was the home of Houston philanthropist Ima Hogg, whose gardens were created while she lived there.

The main house was built in 1927 and is presented with decorative arts, paintings, and furniture arranged in a period setting. The property received a Texas Historical Commission marker in 1973 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Cy Twombly Gallery

The Cy Twombly Gallery is dedicated to the work of a single artist and presents major works and complete suites from Twombly’s career between 1953 and 2004. Twombly was involved in the building and in the selection and placement of the artworks.

The gallery includes large canvases, sculptures, and suites of paintings and drawings. Highlights include five paintings from 1959, the vividly coloured Bay of Naples and Triumph of Galatea from 1961, three “Blackboard” paintings from the late 1960s, and five works dedicated to the German Romantic poet Rainer Maria Rilke from 1985.

Rothko Chapel

The Rothko Chapel is a non-denominational place of worship and a major work of modern art. Its interior contains fourteen paintings by Mark Rothko, arranged in varying shades of black.

The building’s shape is an octagon inscribed in a Greek cross, and its design was strongly influenced by Rothko. The chapel also functions as a setting for cultural, religious, and philosophical exchanges, including colloquia and performances, alongside private prayer. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 16, 2000.

Trinity Episcopal Church

Trinity Episcopal Church is the second-oldest Episcopal parish in Houston. Founded in 1893 as an offshoot of Christ Church, it served the Fairground Addition, an area now known as Midtown.

The present neo-Gothic building dates from 1919 and was designed by Cram and Ferguson. Morrow Chapel contains stained glass, artwork, and liturgical furnishings by artists including Kim Clark Renteria, Kermit Oliver, Troy Woods, Shazia Sikander, and Selven O’Keef Jarmon. The church also has a restored 1918 Pilcher pipe organ.

NRG Stadium

NRG Stadium is a multipurpose venue and the home of the Houston Texans of the National Football League. It opened in 2002 with a retractable roof, becoming the first NFL facility with this feature.

The stadium has hosted the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the Texas Bowl, Super Bowls XXXVIII and LI, WrestleMania 25, the 2024 College Football Playoff National Championship, and concerts by performers including Metallica, The Rolling Stones, and U2.

Explore Houston with Neywo

Neywo offers four walking tours, one bus route, and one bike route in Houston. Together, they cover routes from 1.76 to 5.5 km and take between 9 and 127 minutes, with five to fifteen narrated stops per route.

The walks include the Museum District, Sam Houston Park and the theatre district, Downtown around Market Square and the 1910 courthouse, and a longer route from the theatre district to the bayou bridges. The bus route covers downtown skyscrapers, theatres, and the cathedral, while the bike route follows Buffalo Bayou from Sam Houston Park to the bridges.

Download Neywo and explore Houston at your own pace. The app tells the story of each place as you reach it, with no group and no schedule. After Houston, continue discovering Texas and the wider United States, or compare the city with nearby Galveston, San Antonio, and Texas City.