Downtown Tours

Welcome to the 4th largest city in the United States of America with one of the largest downtowns/central business districts. Downtown is surrounded by I-45 on the south, southwest, and west side, I-10 on the north side, and US 59/I-69 on the east and southeast side. We have so much to see and do in downtown that we offer 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,7, and 8 hour tours of the area.

Houston is projected to surpass Chicago in population by the mid-2020s and will become the 3rd largest city in the United States behind #1 New York City and #2 Los Angeles. Houston is growing by 30,000 to 40,000 people per year and 300,000 and 400,000 per decade. As long as people continue to use fossil fuels, come to the Texas Medical Center (TMC) for treatment, and the Port of Houston serves international commerce, the city will continue to grow and prosper.

Starting Location:
This tour usually begins with a 15 to 20 minute introduction in the rotunda of City Hall at 901 Bagby Street, Houston, Texas 77002 on Monday through Saturday. On Sunday, it begins on the plaza that overlooks the reflecting pool on the east side of City Hall. A maximum of three-hour metered parking is available in the 500 blocks of Walker Street on the north side of City Hall and on McKinney Street on the south side of City Hall. Parking is free at meters on Sunday. We can also begin at any downtown hotel in which tourists may be staying at no additional cost.

The different themes can be mixed and matched and done in any order.

For Downtown Tour Rates and Information, click here. Note that you will require the free Adobe Reader in order to read these pricing documents. You can download the latest version of this software by clicking this link.

 

Two (2) Hour Tours

On Monday through Friday, we can include about a 3-block walk through the underground tunnel system that has over 500 businesses. The tunnels are closed on weekends and after 6:00 PM on Monday through Friday. On Sunday and Saturday, we substitute more of the sites from longer tours for the tunnels and or if clients do not want to walk.

This is followed by a driving tour to drive-by:

  • Buffalo Bayou and Allen’s Landing area where Houston was first settled in August 1836 and see the destruction caused by Hurricane Harvey from August 25th through the 29th, 2017.
  • 7 of the 8 houses of worship that are located in downtown (including 1 Catholic church, 1 Catholic cathedral, 1 Episcopal cathedral, 1 Black Baptist church, another Baptist church, 1 Methodist church, and 1 Islamic mosque). We miss 1 small Catholic chapel that faces a pedestrian only street.
  • 12 of the more than 20 parks and plazas in downtown Houston, including Hermann Square Park, Tranquility Park, Sesquicentennial Park, the Riverwalk, Fish Plaza at the Wortham Center, Jones Plaza, Market Square Park, Old City Hall Clock Plaza, Discovery Green Park, Root Memorial Square Park, the Sisters of Charity Park, Sam Houston Park, and Antioch Park.
  • The Theater District that has 5 separate buildings, including the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts (for the off-Broadway musicals and Theatre Under the Stars), the Wortham Center (for the Houston Grand Opera and the Houston Ballet), the Alley Theatre (for locally produced plays), Jones Hall (for the symphony) and the Houston Ballet Center for Dance. We will also see other venues for contemporary concerts.
  • 10 of the twelve 50-story or more skyscrapers including 5 skyscrapers driving along skyscraper row, Louisiana Street: the Reliant building, Enterprise Plaza, the Wells Fargo Plaza, One Shell Plaza, and the Bank of America building.
  • 2 athletic stadiums including Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros, and the Toyota Center, home of the Houston Rockets basketball team.
  • 2 combinations of shopping and restaurant areas such as The Shops at Houston Center (formerly The Park and the Shops at the Park) and Greenstreet (formerly the Houston Pavilions).
  • 2 additional restaurant and entertainment areas including Bayou Place (with multiple restaurants and the only operating downtown movie theater), and the Aquarium (with a seafood restaurant, minor aquarium and an amusement park.
  • Over one-dozen (12) public works of art such as statues of tow of Houston’s founders Augustus Chapman Allen and his brother John Kirby Allen, the Tony Cragg’s In Minds, Mel Chin’s Seven Wonders, Chas Fagan and Wei Li (Willy) Wang’s George Herbert Walker Bush Monument and James Baker Monument, David Adickes’s Virtuoso at the Lyric Center, Marcello Mascherini’s The Ballerina, Ketria Bastian Scott’s Tendrils, James Surls’s Points of View, Joan Miro’s Parsonage and Birds, Jean Dubuffet’s Monument Au Fantome, Margo Sawyer’s Synchronicity of Color, Doug Hollis’s Listening Vessels and Mist Tree, Carter Ernest and Paul Kittelson’s Heritage Lanterns, Claes Oldenburg’s Geometric Mouse: Scale X, and Peter Reginato’s High Plains Drifter.
  • Several fountains including those in Tranquility Park, the Robert (Bob) Smith Fountain, and the Cotswold Project.
  • The oldest continuously operating bar in Houston, the haunted La Carafe. We will also drive by the bar with the most beers in Houston, the Flying Saucer or at least it sometimes makes that claim.
  • Restaurants including steak, seafood, Mexican, Spanish, bar-be-cue, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Cajun, Italian, Greek, hamburger, deli, and more.
  • 2 Libraries: the Jesse Jones Library and the Julia B. Ideson Library.
  • 2 bus terminals: The Lee P. Brown Metro Center and the site of where the Megabus arrives and departs.
  • Over 16 hotels including the Lancaster Hotel, the Magnolia Hotel, the Westin Hotel, the Hotel Icon, the Sam Houston Hotel (formerly the Alden and The Sam), the Marriott Marquis, the Hilton Americas, the Four Seasons, the Athens Hotel, the Marriott Courtyard Hotel, the Residence Inn by Marriott, the Springhill by Marriott, the Embassy Suites Hotel, the Hyatt Regency, the Doubletree Hotel, the Alexandra, and the Whitehall (formerly the Crowne Plaza).
  • One law school: South Texas College of Law.
  • One hospital:  St. Joseph’s.  It covers 9 blocks.
  • The Courthouse District. It has over 20 courthouses, jails, and prisons serving the city, county, state, and federal government. Civil and criminal facilities are here. We will drive by the 1911 and 2005 Harris County Civil Courthouse buildings.
  • The former banking district through World War II.
  • The site of the former capital of the Republic of Texas from 1837 to 1839.

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Three (3) Hour Tours — Photography Theme

Everything above plus:

  • 20 minutes in the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart (provided that no service is occurring)
  • 20 minutes in Discovery Green Park.
  • 20 minutes of photographic stops at Minutemaid Ballpark, the Toyota Center, and or elsewhere.

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Four (4) Hour Tours — Statue and Historic Park Theme

Everything above plus:

  • 15 minutes to take photographs at the George Herbert Walker Bush Monument and or elsewhere.
  • 45 minutes to walk through the 1899 Sam Houston Park, the oldest public park in Houston, see the statue of John Connally, see from the outside 10 historic buildings from 1823 to 1905, see a World War monument and a Confederate monument, tour the Heritage Society Museum (a fee is charged by the park for the museum), that has a 1911 Ford Model T, the 1878 reconstructed Duncan General Store from Egypt, Texas, an old nickelodeon, a gift shop, and viewing a short movie about the history of Houston (Tuesday through Saturday).

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Five (5) Hour Tours — Eating Theme

Everything above plus:

  • Lunch in Downtown

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Six (6) Hour Tours — Shopping Theme

Everything above plus:

  • 30 minutes to shop in the Shops at Houston Center (Monday through Saturday).
  • 30 minutes to shop and stroll through Greenstreet.

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Seven (7) Hour Tours — History Theme from 1836 to 1914

Everything above plus:

  • 15 to 20 minutes to walk down to the confluence of White Oak Bayou and Buffalo Bayou to see Allen’s Landing and to read the lies that the Allen brothers used to market the city about our high elevation, sea breezes, and spring waters.
  • 10 minutes to walk to see the Buffalo Bayou Bubble. This is an exception as it is not historic, but fun.
  • 10 minutes to get out and see the Hanging Oak. This is a tree that is thought to be over 400 years old and where we used to lynch people. At least 11 people met their fate at the end of a rope here between 1836 and 1845, when Houston was a republic.
  • 5 minutes to get out and read the memorialized “Goo-goo Eyes Ordinance.” Passed in 1905, it prohibited “any male person in the City of Houston who shall stare at, or make what is commonly called ‘goo-goo eyes’ at, or in any other manner look at or make remarks to or concerning, or cough or whistle at, or do any other act to attract the attention of any woman or female person upon or traveling along any of the sidewalks, streets, or public ways of the City of Houston, with the intent or in a manner calculated to annoy, or to attempt to flirt with any such woman or female person, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof in the Corporation Court of the City of Houston, shall be fined in any sum not exceeding One Hundred Dollars. . . .”
  • 10 to 15 minutes to see sites of where Houston was raised over one-story in the 1890s and early 1900s.
  • 5 minutes to get out and see the historical marker of the site of the former White House of Texas, home of President Sam Houston, in the 1830s.

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Eight (8) Hour Tours — Adjacent Extended Downtown Areas

Everything above plus:

  • 30 minutes to go through the 5th Ward section of Downtown that is north of Buffalo Bayou, east of White Oak Bayou, and south of I-10. The area is sometimes known as the Warehouse District and includes a variety of art studios, lofts, restaurants, and bars. Some of the more notable sites are Mother Dog Studios since 1984 and the former bordello and now restaurant The Last Concert Cafe.
  • 30 minutes to go through the Eado (East Downtown) that includes the original Chinatown, the BBVA Compass Stadium (home to the Houston Dash (women’s soccer), the Houston Dynamo (men’s soccer) and Texas Southern University (TSU) football team), the 8th Wonder Brewery, lots of restaurants and bars, and dozens of colorful murals.