Binthair,

I know why people live in Houston. I stated it before, and those are good reasons.

I also realize that for <bold>living</bold>, Houston offers a lot more than my favorite city New Orleans. But New Orleans has far more tourist attractions than Houston. Yes, that is partly due to the New Orleans' economy being based on tourism, but it's also due to the fact that New Orleans has 300 years of history whereas Houston does not. Neither does Los Angeles for that matter.

However, this is a <bold>travel</bold> forum, and people want to know about traveling to various cities. When people ask about Houston, I think it is fair to tell them that, while it is a great city to live, there may not be that many tourist attractions for visitors. Otherwise, it would be popular like Orlando, which it is not for a tourist destination. Do you agree?

For instance, I don't think there's a Fodor's Houston book. There is a Fodor's New Orleans book.

The OP was interested in <bold>visiting</bold> TX cities, not in <bold>living</bold> in TX cities.

bk, no, you're a man? I really thought you were a woman too! Sorry about that. I know you're a fan of New Orleans, but my husband was just there for the national championship and spent hours just trying to get a cab to take him back to his hotel. He thought their tourist infrastructure was terrible. Also, the last time I was there, so many people were trying to hustle me that I got really tired of it. "I bet I can tell you where you got them shoes - if I can, give me 5 dollars" - that kind of bit. My husband travels there frequently on business and said it's really sad, that lots of neighborhoods still have garbage piled up from the hurricane two years ago - it does have nice architecture and good food, but it's far from perfect as well. Hey, do we at least get points for adopting 100,000 folks from New Orleans after the hurricane hit? Houston definitely has enough to fill 3 days.

ade, I've traveled a bit in your part of the world - London and Aberdeen - we thought it was great. If you do go to NASA and Kemah, we go sailing on Clear Lake down there with Captain Kidd - just search online, and it will come up - it's really fun, and they'll let you bring a picnic and wine on board. Hope you have a wonderful trip!

ade . . your question about Baseball tickets . . we just got our season ticket renewal form, so I would guess that the sale to public will be fairly quick. Keep looking at the website. Depending on who they are playing, tickets can also be bought the day of the game usually.

ROFLMAO because when I moved out of Houston (for many of the reasons described - climate, poor infrastructure, thin veneer of pretense layered over a trailer park culture) I said that the only place worse to live would be New Orleans, the world's largest urinal! I sure do miss some of the great restaurants, though.

I finally stopped laughing long enough to reply . . .

Reasons not to like Houston:

. . " porn shops can sit next to child care centers" (which is blatently untrue . .)

but likes New Orleans ( as do I ) which is the self-proclaimed and universally accepted capital of decadence in the US.

"I am so strong on these points, because I want to incite Houstonians to demand more from their inept city leaders"

A Houston, by the way, that accepted tens of thousands of people that the New Orleans adminsitration was completely unable to cope with and ignored and left to fend on thier own . . .

. . now, back to laughing

well to add petrol to the fire i went to new orleans about 10 years ago with the kids and we arrived the week after mardi gras and having been to many US cities i must say it was occupied by loads of weird people. I have never felt unsafe in the US but with my kids intow i did feel unsafe in New Orleans..........ill let you know what Houston is like

Cheers

Ade
Wales UK

volcanogirl,

Panhandlers are common in downtown Houston too. In fact, I think bums outnumber other people 4 to 1 down there. In New Orleans, you probably have 1000 tourists to 1 bum. I do understand that most businessmen are in the underground climate controlled tunnels, but it makes for a pretty uncomfortable situation walking around downtown Houston (I did it when out of town visitors wanted to see the downtown of the nation's 4th largest city. They all did like the architecture of the oil skyscrapers, though.

As far as neighborhoods still being in ruin... Well, do you think if a Category 5 hurricane hit all of Houston, would they have everything repaired in 2.5 years? Remember what Tropical Storm Allison did?

Seamus,

If you visit New Orleans again, you'll notice that the French Quarter streets are cleaner than they've ever been. No smell of urine for sure.

After Katrina, the city hired a cleaning company to "disinfect" the streets of the French Quarter, and they do this daily. Each day, all of the streets of the French Quarter are cleaned by hand (all trash cans empty, garbage removed, and any debris swept up) and a truck following sprays high pressurized boiling chlorinated water on the streets and sidewalks, effectively cleansing the street, hiding the sins of the night before.

The French Quarter is cleaner than its ever been, and the restaurants are just as good as they've ever been, so come on back and visit! I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

ade, that's funny - by the way, Austin's motto is "Keep Austin Weird" but we really love Austin. I'm anxious to hear your impressions. You'll certainly get a good taste of Texas visiting all these cities. I'm glad we've amused you. Did you know that Texas was its own country at one time and Dallas and Houston have a bit of a rivalry, although I think it's good-natured for the most part. As far as tourism goes I think San Antonio has the best setup for that. Let us know how all your plans settle out, and start practicing saying "y'all."

At one time, The Rebublic of Texas had an Embassy in London . close to Trafalgar Square . . last time I was there, it was a Mexican food restruant . . still called "Texas Embassy"

Rich

hahaha, i'm with Rich. I'm finding it hard to stop laughing - from what Ade said, most definitely, but mostly from bk's response. I live in midtown and yes, there are panhandlers but not as many as bk would like you to think. There are definitley more in NOLA. I think the number of panhandlers increased in Houston after Hurricane Katrina. I was one of the millions of Houstonian that volunteered our weekends (cancelled my vacation too!) to help at the astrodome when the New Orleans refugees came. There's alot to say about a city who can open up their arms to their neighbors the way we did during the Katrina disaster.

Ade, I know how limited your time is in Texas. 10 days isn't enough for this big state of ours but I really have to urge you to look into the hill country at least for 1 overnight stay. I would strongly suggest you do an extension from Austin to Fredericksburg than go to Galveston from Houston because these little towns are the "real" texas feel. Places like Bandera and Fredericksburg will really get you to feel like in rural texas. Many cowboys and the like and at such a beautiful time of year for us. Please do a trip report when you get back. We'd love to hear what you thought of our great state.

Well i went to Amarillo two years ago and really enjoyed the experience...even though we only went because the song show me the way to Amarillo was no.1 in the UK charts....i was really impressed with the attitude of the Texans that we met and even though your a part of the US you seem to be your own people...a bit like us Welsh in the UK.

With regards to New Orleans perhaps weird wasnt the correct word ....scary was probably more accurate ....and sorry didnt think much of the French quarter....perhaps i would have enjoyed it more if i hadnt had young kids with me...

So far have been lucky enough to have visited 38 of your states so as you can see we love the US...some of our friends want to know when were going to emigrate lol

oh, and i also want to mention that they had to turn volunteers away at the astrodome because there were simply too many volunteers and you can hear the conversation of people as they walked away "we have to get here earlier tomorrow so we can help". how do you think those people would feel if they heard someone bash the city they live in? do you think that's a nice way to repay their kindness? if you don't have anything to say about a city, then don't say anything. if you see my initial reply to this post, i said nothing about Dallas because I didn't have anything to recommend.

ade, that's funny. most of our friends say the same thing. "I want to visit Amarillo because of the song, Dallas because of the show, etc."

When I first went to California by the coast, we sang "Do you know the way to San jose..." until it got to be just funny everytime we tried to start singing it.

Pardon me while I catch my breath and pick myself up off the floor!

"After Katrina, the city hired a cleaning company to "disinfect" the streets of the French Quarter, and they do this daily. Each day, all of the streets of the French Quarter are cleaned by hand...and a truck following sprays high pressurized boiling chlorinated water on the streets and sidewalks, effectively cleansing the street, hiding the sins of the night before."

I am just thinking to myself that I never remember the streets of New Orleans, certainly not Bourbon Street, ever being empty. I can just imagine the "high pressurized boiling chlorinated water" poaching the homeless street urchins into the latest cajun delicacy! Now I understand why the beautiful Angela King Gallery displayed a prominently smashed plate glass window when I emerged from the Monteleone one morning not too many months ago..it was shrapnel from those scalded street people exploding! Silly me, I thought it must be common thuggery by some wayward street scum!

Oh, bk, just give it up already - the crowd that frequents the FQ likes it scummy, or likes the things that make it scummy more than they care about it being scummy, or they wouldn't be there! And I have been back, and it is only marginally (if that) better than in the past, with all indications that it will revert to its prior scuzziness. Just MHO, and obviously YMMV.

Seamus,

If you hated it so much in the first place, why did you go back? (got ya!)

maria_so,

While Houston welcomed the Katrina evacuees initially (thanks), many Katrina evacuees are being treated poorly, like being evicted from apartments, with landlords not accepting evacuees, etc... Houston also tried to blame its escalating crime rate on Katrina evacuees, but the fact was that it was increasing before Katrina.

Rich,

You state "likes New Orleans ( as do I ) which is the self-proclaimed and universally accepted capital of decadence in the US."

The "decadence" of New Orleans is generally contained to Bourbon Street, via, guess what? --- zoning. That's right. Every city is going to have places like that, but they should be limited to a specific area. My point was that the lack of zoning has had a serious detrimental, "Wild West" effect on Houston, and politicians there won't even approach the topic for fear of losing their position.

Binthair,

I presume that if there is a homeless person sleeping, they would wake him up to have him move to an area where the street has already been cleaned (but cooled down and dried) before "poaching" him...

Seamus,

You write "the crowd that frequents the FQ likes it scummy, or likes the things that make it scummy more than they care about it being scummy, or they wouldn't be there!"

So you presume to know what people visiting New Orleans are thinking or why they are there? I also don't know what you mean by scummy, but if you mean decadent, sure there's many people that like that.

For me, I like seeing 300 years of history, sampling the only authentic regionalized American cuisine, hearing the only music styles invented in America and not elsewhere (Jazz, Blues, Zydeco/Cajun) from some of the most interesting music establishments, all by walking around without having to use a car.

Do I like it scummy, no, but gritty yes. I don't want a "Truman Show" perfected city, but a "real" city and all that it involves.

bk, you're hopeless. you seem to live in a dreamworld, oblivious to the sins of your city but well aware of the sins of other cities. Go ahead, live in it, I don't really care. The original thing I pointed out is that you don't have to be so negative about a city you don't even live in. that was the point but as always, you take it a step too far....

houston was there to help the katrina refugees temporarily. what's new orleans doing to help those victims come back to their city? nothing. they are left to become permanent problems for other cities. you expect houston businesses to keep the folks who do not pay? is new orleans helping those vicitims pay for their housing? i think not. there's a reason alot of people refuse to go back to new orleans and understanding most tourists view of the city which is "it's fun to visit but i wouldn't want to live here." but then again, if you're in a dream world, you couldn't possibly see that...