My first piece of business travel in 2025 (well abroad) was an exciting one for me. I had never been to Texas, let alone Houston. Plus it’s a big new client so all the adrenaline was flowing for me. Because of the time difference and longer journey than most work trips, I knew I needed a full day to aclimatise before going into meetings on a Monday. Thankfully this meant I could get a little taste of Houston as well.

I was in Houston for six days in total, but had less than 48 hours to explore the city. As a result, this post is food heavy. My fantastic hosts showed us some brilliant eateries, but there was not much time to explore.

Contents

My logistics

I flew British Airways into George Bush International Airport. I stayed at the Houston Marriott CityPlace in Springwood Village.* This is not in the centre of Houston – it’s about 20 miles North of the city (for Brits, it is like being in Watford and going in to London). If you are looking to explore Houston, in honesty, I wouldn’t recommend Spring as a location. You would be best staying downtown.*

Where is Houston?

Houston is Deep South in Texas. It is just north of the Gulf of Mexico, which means it has been in the same storm line as New Orleans and Miami. It’s one of the affluent hubs in Texas, driven by oil and tech companies. If you’re looking to conjure a picture of Houston think Cowboy boots meets New York. There were shops that only sold cowboy hats and boots in the same mall as a Louis Vuitton Store. There were signs telling you not to bring your gun to the Mall, mega churches and large gun stores by the side of the road. This also means in June Houston is HOT and stormy. I was woken up by thunder storms on the first night.

History of Houston

Houston was founded in 1836 by two property developers, and was originally the capital of Texas. It was settled in due to the river, which meant it could be a good trade port. As a part of the confederate, it was subject to the Jim Crow laws and many areas of life were segregated.

Early settlers to Houston saw many floods – there were 16 between 1836 and 1936. This made it difficult to build and grow a city. In recent times, the most notable were Storm Allison (2001) and Hurricane Harvey (2017).

Houston is the home of America’s energy industry which means it is phenomenally wealthy. It houses the corporate headquarters of many global companies including Chevron, Halliburton and HP.

Getting around Houston

I learned the expensive way that there is no public transport to note in Houston. In the very town centre there is a small metro line, else you need to drive. As a visitor who didn’t have a hire car, this means you need to Uber. The best way to save a little money is using Uber share. It takes longer to get around, but was super common in Houston, and it saves about 20% per trip.

Where to eat in Houston

On the theme that everything is bigger in Texas, so are the food portions. Even a salad was difficult to finish. The joy of it being the deep south was the wonderful mix of TexMex food and proper Southern. Think grits for breakfast (gross, but that’s the vibe).

Goode Co Kitchen & Cantina

We need to talk about Goode Co. This is definitely the best place I ate in all week. We had a set menu of mixed tex mex and it was just phenomenal. The grilled chicken was juicy, tender and well spiced. The cheese dip (yup, apparently that is a thing) had perfectly fried tortillas. Even the wraps were next level. Then there was the chocolate bourbon pecan pie. NO. WORDS.

Flowers Spanish Cantina

There are a few branches of Spanish Flowers in Downtown Houston and the suburbs. Flowers gave a warm welcome and some delicious tex mex (not the best I had all week, but still pretty good). As with all American restaurants you get far more food than you need and can never work out what you will actually be charged for your meal.

Day 6 Coffee

Day 6 was one of those gems you just stumble across and fall in lust with. It’s a black-owned business with two branches in Houston and possibly the best coffee I had all week. I had a Texas special which was probably terrible for me, but was absolutely delicious.

Shipley’s Do-nuts & Kolaches

Shipley’s Do-nuts are as famous in Houston as Krispy Kreme are in most other places. Apparently they are also in Florida and Colorado, but I have never heard of them. On the theme that everything is bigger in Texas, Shipley’s has the largest donuts I have ever seen. They are also some of the tastiest.

I was however drawn to Shipley’s not for their fame but because I needed to know what Kolaches were. I’d never heard of these pastries before researching this trip and I’m not sure I’m a fan. Kolaches are a slightly sweet dough, with a bread-like texture. They seem to have savoury fillings (I had ham and cheese)

Sixty Vines

I’ve never had Brussels Sprouts that taste like the ones at Sixty Vines. These were not your boiled Christmas sprouts. Yes there was probably too much oil and salt on them, but oh my. For this alone, I would recommend a trip to Sixty Vines.

Common Bond coffee

Common Bond, another Houston-based small chain, also happened to be my cold brew spot in the morning during my stay. Common Bond does coffee well, but it excels in cakes and pastries. If I didn’t value maintaining some semblance of a waistline I would have eaten EVERYTHING in Common Bond. I had to settle for a savoury scone and a brown butter cookie.

What to do in Houston

Obviously there is loads more to do in Houston than I was able to manage. This meant I needed to prioritise how to spend the limited time I had. I decided focus on things which there was no comparisson to in the UK. This is how I ended up learning about the space program, seeing some bats and learning about the history of funerals.

The National Space Centre (aka NASA)

I really debated if I should go to NASA. It was a long way from my hotel in an Uber (per my point earlier about public transport, it would have been a four hour trip EACH way by bus). It’s not about the culture of Houston. True, but it is about a huge discovery in the history of mankind. So I put the expense on my credit card for next month (not usually my style) . Within about 30 seconds of walking in the front door, I was glad I did. To add in a cliche, Houston certainly did not have a problem there.

The space centre is a whole day out. To maximise it, you need to plan a little better than I did.

There is so much to see and write about, I will only mention the ACTUAL PIECE OF MOON ROCK YOU CAN TOUCH. The huge rockets you can walk around, and the actual lecturn which JFK gave a press conference from. There are also films, tours of out buildings, opportunities to have breakfast with an astronaut (that one costs extra) and a wonderful merch shop.

The National Space Centre in Houston costs from £22 *and tickets can be bought in advance or on the door.* One tip. If you don’t buy via a site like GetYourGuide, don’t use the QR code on site for the “advanced price”. It’s a faff, but also the booking fee makes it the same price as the on-the-day ticket. There are a couple of cafes on site, but you can also walk to the eateries in Nassau Bay (I went to Shipley’s for lunch) and then go back into the museum later.

Buffalo Bayou Cistern Tour

The Buffalo Bayou Partnership is a wonderful conservation group based in the Buffalo Bayou Park, which is fairly central in downtown Houston. The Cistern, which is located underneath the park was re-discovered in 2010. It is now used for concerts, art exhibitions and for geeks like me, you can take a history tour of the Cistern.*

The history tour is about more than just the Cistern. It is a short 30 minutes and also includes a good chunk of social history of the city.

Walk Buffalo Bayou trail

One of the best ways to see Houston is to walk along the Buffalo Bayou trail. This will take you from the park (which is lush and green), along the river and through to the theatre district and historic town in Houston.

Visit the National Museum of Funeral History

The Museum of Funeral History was truly an unexpected gem. Not only because it went beyond the history of funerals, and had a picture of Abraham Lincoln made from pennies of different shades of copper.

It also had a history of the pope mobile, a reconstruction of the tomb of Pope John Paul II, novelty coffins and the machine used to embalm a former US president. To top it off, there was the interactive game ‘Guess the Celebrity Epitaph’ where you matched the tomb slogan to the celebrity. All this and it was just $15 to get in. WHAT. A. BARGAIN. Oh, and you could buy this in the gift shop.

See the Bats

So this is something which my algorithms recommended to me on Viator.* I have to say, it was possibly one of the best things I have done this year. There is a huge bat colony in Houston under Waugh Drive Bridge. They fly out for the night just before sunset, so the timing changes each day. You can just go and sit on the bridge to watch, or you can do what I did and take a Kayak down the Bayou to the bridge. This was truly a special experience. I have never seen mullet fish jumping for their supper or turtles climbing rocks and going for a dip. We even saw a hawk go in and eat a bat mid-flight.

Take a walking tour to learn about Houston’s history

With a spare 90 minutes, I decided to learn about the history of Houston with a self-guided tour from AllTours.* I was kindly gifted the tour download, but I would say it is well worth the £2.50 which it costs – and it will give you 80 minutes of history into the bargain.

Go to the Mall

I went to two Malls in Houston. The larger of the two was the Woodlands Mall and had all the classics like Barnes & Noble, Pottery Barn and of course, you cannot bring your gun to the mall. The second Mall I went to was Willowbrook Mall. It had a Macy’s, Nordstrom Rack, Dicks Sporting Goods and my beloved Old Navy.

On my list for next time

I was very kindly gifted a Ghost Tour of Houston, but sadly the heat meant I felt too tired and sick to attend. The organisers were absolutely lovely so I really want to do this if I return to Houston.

I was recommended by a local to visit the Museum of Fine Arts and to go shopping in Houston Heights.

*This post contains affiliate links, this means if you make a purchase I get a small commission at no cost to you.

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