4 Best Sights in Houston and Galveston, Texas

This 12-acre greenspace across from the George R. Brown Convention Center features Wi-Fi access, a lake, a model-boat pond, an amphitheater, and The Grove, serving steaks, seafood, and acclaimed burgers.

There's plenty to see and do on this 545-acre oak-shaded urban oasis. Kids love riding the miniature train (just $2.25 a pop) that winds through the trees and taking a pedal boat out on eight-acre McGovern Lake. Duffers can tackle a challenging 18-hole course, and horticulturalists may swoon over the Japanese Garden and the Houston Garden Center, surrounded by 2,500 rose bushes. The park also contains the Houston Zoo, The Museum of Natural Science, and the Miller Outdoor Theater (with a hill that's fun to run—or roll—down).

Houston's first and oldest municipal park contains nine historic structures and a museum gallery. The Kellum-Noble House is Houston's oldest standing brick structure still on its original foundation. If you're visiting around the holidays, try to catch the annual Candlelight Tour in the Park, when costumed actors give tours of the park's homes.

This cool oasis of fountains and walkways was built to commemorate the first landing on the moon by the Apollo 11 mission. The terrain of mounds and depressions throughout the two-block park evokes the cratered surface of the moon, and the fountain's stainless steel cylinders are designed to resemble rocket boosters.