Houston

Houston is not on the sea. The nearest beaches are on Galveston Island, about an hour's drive south-east, where a long seawall runs above stretches of sand and the quieter West End beaches go on for miles. The Gulf is warm, close to 29°C in high summer, and swimming is easy and shallow, but the water is usually brown-green and cloudy from river sediment, and seaweed piles up on the sand some summers.

Galveston works for a relaxed day out with children or a weekend by the water. Anyone who wants clear water and beach life as the main point of a trip will be disappointed, and inside the city swimming means hotel pools and public pools.

Houston is one of the most rewarding places in the country to eat, because it is so mixed. Tex-Mex here is a local cuisine in its own right, with fajitas, enchiladas in chilli gravy and breakfast tacos, and Texas barbecue, brisket and smoked sausage, is never far away. Vietnamese and Cajun cooking meet in the crawfish boils of spring, and Gulf oysters, shrimp and redfish come from just down the coast.

The real depth is out along the highways. Bellaire Boulevard's Asiatown has Vietnamese, Chinese and Korean food, and there are Nigerian, Pakistani, Indian and Salvadoran neighbourhoods across the south-west. Closer in, Montrose, the Heights and downtown have serious chef-led restaurants. You will need a car to eat well, and portions are big.

Houston's culture sits in its museums, not its streets. The Museum District, south of Midtown, packs in the Museum of Fine Arts, with collections from antiquity to the present, the Houston Museum of Natural Science and the Contemporary Arts Museum. In leafy Montrose, the Menil Collection's calm galleries hold surrealism and ancient art, and the Rothko Chapel, nearby, is one of the most quietly powerful rooms in American art.

Space Center Houston, the visitor centre of NASA's Johnson Space Center at Clear Lake, shows mission control and a Saturn V rocket. Historic fabric is thin, mostly a few blocks of old downtown and the San Jacinto Monument on the battlefield east of the city.

Going out in Houston is spread across several districts rather than one centre. Montrose has the city's long-established gay bars and relaxed neighbourhood drinking, Midtown and Washington Avenue have crowded lounges and bars for younger drinkers, and EaDo, east of downtown, has bars near the ballpark and the football stadium. Wide patios and icehouses, open-sided Texas beer bars, suit the warm evenings for much of the year.

Bars close at 2am, and a night out often means a ride between areas. It is a sociable, good-natured scene with plenty of choice, but few people travel to Houston for its nights.

The country around Houston is flat coastal prairie, cut by slow bayous and edged with marsh and pine forest. In the city, Buffalo Bayou Park has trails and paddling just west of downtown, and Memorial Park's woodland running and bike paths are among the largest urban green spaces in the state. Within an hour or so, Brazos Bend State Park has alligators along its lakes, and Sam Houston National Forest and the Big Thicket have woodland hiking.

The big draw is birds. In spring, migrants crossing the Gulf come ashore along the coast near Galveston, and birders gather for them. From late May to September, heat and humidity make anything strenuous after mid-morning hard going.

The main day out is Galveston, about an hour away. Besides the beach, it is a 19th-century port town: the iron-fronted buildings of the Strand district, grand Victorian houses in the East End, the Bishop's Palace and an old harbour where a tall ship is moored. On the way down, the bayfront at Kemah has seafood restaurants and a boardwalk.

Closer in, the San Jacinto battlefield east of the city marks the fight that won Texan independence. About an hour and a half to the north-west is rolling farm country with small towns: Brenham, Washington-on-the-Brazos, where Texas declared independence, and Round Top, known for its antiques fairs. In spring the back roads here are lined with wildflowers. Austin and San Antonio are more than two hours away and are better kept for an overnight stay.

Houston has plenty to fill a family trip. Space Center Houston, with real spacecraft and astronaut training displays, is the highlight for most children. Hermann Park in the Museum District has the Houston Zoo, a miniature train and pedal boats, and next door the Children's Museum and the Natural Science Museum, with its dinosaur hall and butterfly centre, could take up several days.

Galveston adds a big glass-pyramid attraction with an aquarium and rainforest, plus waterparks and beaches. Restaurants welcome children and hotels have room. The hard part is all the driving between attractions, and the summer heat, which pushes outdoor plans to the early morning.

Houston is built for the car. The city spreads across a vast area joined by multi-lane freeways, and the restaurants, shops and sights a visitor wants are scattered across districts many kilometres apart. METRORail's light rail is useful along one line, from downtown through Midtown and the Museum District to the medical centre, and the bus network is wide but slow.

Downtown and the Museum District can be walked, and the bayou trails are good by bike, but heat and missing pavements make walking much further unpleasant. Most visitors hire a car or use ride-hailing, and should allow for rush-hour traffic.

Shopping in Houston means malls and car parks, but at a high level. Uptown, west of the centre, has one of the largest shopping centres in the country, with a skating rink and the major luxury houses under one roof, and is a destination for shoppers from Mexico and Latin America. Nearby River Oaks has high-end boutiques in open-air streets.

For smaller shops, the Heights has vintage and independent stores along 19th Street, and Rice Village has a walkable grid of boutiques near the university. Western wear, boots and hats are the local speciality. Markets and crafts are not really part of the city.

For a big American city, Houston is easy on the wallet. Hotels are plentiful and reasonably priced, especially outside convention weeks, and some of the best eating, taquerias, barbecue joints and Asiatown noodle shops, costs little. Several major museums are free, and the bayou parks cost nothing.

The extra costs come from the city's shape. Car hire, fuel, parking and ride-hailing add up, sit-down restaurants and bars charge American prices with tipping, and Space Center Houston and the bigger family attractions are not cheap. It is a moderately priced trip rather than a budget one.

Houston's Theater District, a few blocks of downtown, is one of the most complete in the country. The Houston Grand Opera and the Houston Ballet, both well regarded, share the Wortham Center, the Houston Symphony plays at Jones Hall, and the Alley Theatre, one of the oldest resident theatre companies in the country, produces year-round. Touring Broadway musicals fill the larger stages, and the season runs from autumn to late spring.

In the summer, Hermann Park's open-air Miller Outdoor Theatre puts on free shows. Live music is spread across smaller rooms in Montrose, the Heights and EaDo, with country, blues, zydeco and Houston's own hip-hop tradition.

Houston is not a place to go to slow down. There is no bathing tradition. Wellness means hotel spas in Uptown and downtown, day spas in the wealthier western neighbourhoods and a few Korean-style bathhouses out in the suburbs. The pace is set by freeways and long drives.

The calmest moments are quiet ones in the city's best spaces: an hour in the Rothko Chapel or on the Menil Collection's lawns, or an early walk under the oaks in Hermann Park before the heat.