Sam Houston Historical Park, Houston

The Sam Houston Historical Park near the city's visitor centre in Bagby Street provides visitors with a large as life look at Houston history. The 19-acre park features seven of the city's oldest buildings that have been restored and relocated here. The oldest building is a small 1826 cabin that originally stood at Clear Lake, while one of the more recent is the 17-room home built in 1905 for oil field pioneer Henry T. Staiti.

Opening Times:
Museum hours: Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 4pm, Sundays 1pm to 4pm. Historic House tours: Tuesday to Saturday 10am, 11.30am, 1pm and 2.30pm; Sundays 1pm and 2.30pm

Admission:
$10 (adults) for Historic House tours; Museum gallery free

The Orange Show, Houston

For a touch of the bizarre call at the Orange Show to see how obsession can become art. A former postman spent 26 years of his life assembling a collection of weird and wonderful objects and meshing them together into a labyrinth of passages and staircases, almost all of it orange. The result is a quirky curiosity, which is billed as 'folk art'.

Opening Times:
Open most weekends, from 12pm to 5pm.

Admission:
$1

Museum District, Houston

Set within a scenic part of central Houston is the city's Museum District, featuring 16 varied and interesting institutions and numerous restaurants set among some lovely green spaces like Hermann Park. One of the highlights in the area is the Byzantine Fresco Chapel on the corner of Branard and Yupon Streets containing 13th century frescoes from Cyprus. There is also a children's museum, contemporary arts museum and the Houston Holocaust Museum. One of the most interesting museums in the district is the Museum of Health and Medical Science, which features a walk-through re-creation of the human body. The Menil Museum has a collection of contemporary, surrealistic and 20th century art in an interesting building at Sul Ross. In Hermann Park is the comprehensive Museum of Natural Science and Planetarium, the Houston Zoo and a Japanese Garden.

Opening Times:
Varies between museums

Admission:
Most institutions have free admission, otherwise entry fees range from $2-9 for adults

Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston

The visitor's Space Center is attached to the headquarters of America's manned space programme, Nasa's 'Mission Control' that directs the space shuttle project and guided the pioneering astronauts. The Space Center, Houston's most popular tourist attraction, is located at Clear Lake, 20 miles (32km) southeast of downtown, off the Gulf freeway I-45. There are numerous wonders to behold at this facility, which both entertains and educates, from a mock-up of a space shuttle to an Imax theatre and hundreds of hands-on exhibits. Tram tours run every half hour taking in the highlights, including Rocket Park where retired spacecraft come to rest, Mission Control and even astronauts in training.

Opening Times:
Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm, weekends 10am to 6pm (extended hours in summer)

Admission:
$20.95 (adults), $19.95 (seniors), $16.95 (children 4-11). Online discounts available.

National Museum of Funeral History, Houston

At Barren Springs near Houston's International Airport is the unusual private museum run by a major funeral company in the United States, dedicated to funeral memorabilia. Customs, rituals and traditions associated with burial from ancient Egypt to the present day are covered in this interesting institution. Highlights of the collection are restored horse-drawn and vintage automobile hearses, and a unique 1916 Packard funeral bus. The museum also features a gallery devoted to the funerals of the famous, containing memorabilia from the funerals of Elvis Presley, John F. Kennedy and Rudolph Valentino.

Opening Times:
Monday to Friday 10am to 4pm; Saturday 10am to 5pm; Sunday 12pm to 5pm

Admission:
$10 (adults), $7 (children under 12). Other concessions also available.

Bayou Bend, Houston

The magnificent muted pink mansion in the marshy elbow of Buffalo Bayou in Houston's River Oaks area was the home of Miss Ima Hogg, a woman much loved in the community until her death in 1975, at the age of 93. Miss Hogg left her home and the gracious gardens that surround it as a legacy for the city. The house contains a remarkable collection of Americana and is regarded as a cultural treasure, with several thousand objects displayed in 28 period room settings in the mansion. Miss Hogg designed the gardens as outdoor living rooms, fed by bayou waters, and today they continue to provide a peaceful oasis in the heart of the metropolis planted with indigenous species as well as exotics like azaleas, camellias and magnolias.

Opening Times:
Saturday and Sunday 1pm to 5pm. Guided tours are available Tuesday to Thursday from 10am to 2.45pm, and Friday to Saturday from 10am to 11.15am, but advance reservations are necessary. No guided tours in August. The gardens are open Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm and Sunday 1pm to 5pm

Admission:
$10 (adults). Admission to the gardens is $3 (adults). Other concessions are available.