What to do in Houston
Houston Skyline and Buffalo Bayou HDR by Katie Haugland Bower
Museum District
Within walking distance of Rice there are 19 museums, a zoo and a great urban park.
Houston Museum of Natural Sciences
Hermann Park: go paddle boating on the lake, visit the McGovern Centennial Gardens, go for a run on the trail...
Getting Around
Don't want to walk? Houston's BCycle program has bikes on campus that you can return throughout the city.
Metrorail has a light rail train stop next to campus, and there are Zipcars on campus.
Buffalo Bayou Trails and Parks
Buffalo Bayou is where it's at in Houston for outdoor recreation. With 5 public parks connected by almost 20 miles of trails featuring great public art, the bayou is the place to be. It's also been nationally recognized as a model for how to redevelop a city's green space while including the needs of all citizens (see here, here, and here, among many awards).
Eating your way through the world in Houston
How diverse is the Houston restaurant scene? Here are some of our lab group's favorites:
Want good tacos? Lots of us like Tacodeli. We're also pretty fond of La Guadalupana, which has an awesome bakery along with great breakfast tacos. Torchy's is close to campus.
Want to eat your way through the Spice Trail without leaving Houston? Start here with some Sichuan cuisine at Pepper Twins. Then, some Korean cuisine here at Jang Guem Tofu and BBQ house. Then, to Uyghur cuisine from northwestern China at Uyghur Bistro. Oops - we forgot Vietnam! There are a whole lot of great Vietnamese places in Houston. We like Simply Pho, where you're likely to see some of Houston's police going for hot soup on cold days.
India is next. There are too many good Southeast Asian restaurants in Houston to pick one, but we will put some out there: in the Hillcroft area there's Udipi and many more. If you want to stick close to campus with restaurants that the NY Times likes there's Pondicheri, whose upstairs BakeLab is pretty amazing.