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More than 20 restaurants dot the Avenida Houston entertainment district around the George R. Brown Convention Center, while the city boasts more than 12,000 restaurants offering diverse flavors.
Some of the biggest perks of meeting in Houston, the nation’s fourth-most populous city, are the robust experiences on offer for those in-between moments — lunches with colleagues or a free hour or two in the afternoon. And as the fourth-most diverse city in the U.S. (according to WalletHub), Houston’s rich tapestry of languages, backgrounds, and cultures provides a comfortable setting, no matter who you are or where you’re from. We’ve rounded up five things to know before you go.
One Big Foodie City
Houston’s more than 12,000 restaurants represent the full spectrum of the city’s diversity — one in four residents is foreign born, and more than 180 languages are spoken here. So you can expect to see plenty of cultural collaboration on menus. Newcomers to the scene include James Beard Award finalist Late August, offering Southern cuisine in Midtown, Som Boon Thai Kitchen in the Heights neighborhood, and swanky Drake’s Hollywood in Montrose, whose decadent treats include a 24-layer strawberry cake.
Discovery Green is also known as the George R. Brown Convention Center’s front yard.
Get Outside
Green space is abundant in Houston, making it easy for attendees to pencil in an active adventure. The city’s largest urban green space, Memorial Park, has wooded trails that make for scenic runs, while the Buffalo Bayou waterway is a popular spot for kayak and paddleboarding tours. And don’t miss what’s right outside the George R. Brown (GRB) Convention Center’s front door — Discovery Green, a 12-acre green space that also is home to restaurants like The Grove and The Lake House as well as seasonal programming, from art installations to markets to concerts.
Along the 52-mile Buffalo Bayou, visitors will find a thriving public art program. The stainless-steel human figures of “Tolerance,” by Jaume Plensa, represent the seven continents.
Museums Aplenty
Did you know Houston has one of the top cultural districts in the country, the Houston Museum District? You’ll find 19 world-class museums here as well as Hermann Park and the recently expanded Houston Zoo. Not sure where to start? You can’t go wrong with The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, with its more than 300,000 square feet of exhibition space spread across three buildings. Currently, the museum is the only in the U.S. to host “Gauguin in the World,” a special exhibit of Post-Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin’s works, currently on display through February 2025.
Neighborhoods to Note
The massive size of Houston — the city spans about 665 square miles — means there are dozens of neighborhoods just waiting to be explored. Here are two: EaDo (or East Downtown) is within walking distance of the GRB and offers a lively mix of sports and concert venues, funky art installations and galleries, breweries and nightclubs. Meanwhile, the Montrose neighborhood just west of downtown is another go-to for culture and creativity, including a thriving LGBTQIA+ scene.
Shop to It
Retail therapy is a famously Houstonian pastime, made evident by the legions of malls, boutiques, and shopping centers spread across the city. Perhaps the most well-known is The Galleria, an international retail destination with more than 400 stores and restaurants and even an indoor ice rink. For more upscale shopping experiences, visit the River Oaks District or Highland Village, which offer a mixture of both locally owned and national brand outlets.
Jennifer N. Dienst is senior editor at Convene.