Visiting Houston Museum of Natural Science #TravelTips

Continuing our coverage of the marvelous city of Houston in our Texas trip, we are going to talk about another one of the main attractions included in the Houston CityPass: The Houston Museum of Natural Science.

Let´s recall that the Houston Museum of Natural Science is located in the heart of the city´s Museum District, a massive area that includes twenty museums from all kinds of things, ranging from the big ones like the Children´s Museum or the Health Museum to the John C Freeman Weather Museum; but also in the area you can find non District niche museums like the Bike Museum among others. You can easily spend a few days just checking out what´s in that District. Also, it is probably a good idea for the smaller museums to be close as they can benefit from people having a few extra hours while also being interested in museum touring.

So to start our experience in the Houston Museum of Natural Science I have to say that we are in particular darawn to this kind of museums and we are fans. Whenever we go to a city we try to add the Natural Science museum to our schedule. In the case of Houston Natural Sciences Museum, it was a great decision. Unfortunately we couldn´t spend the whole day in there as it would´ve need in order to properly see all the exhibits.

So let´s see what was there in the museum that we could visit.

Gemstone Carvinds: The Masterwirks of Harold Van Pelt.

This artist is specialized in carving his art on quartz, agate, rock crystal and many things more. The quartz skull is one of the most well known, and it is indeed amazing.

The Herzstein Foucault Pendulum

The Foucault Pendulum is one of the main features in many museums. This one by Albert & Ethel Herzstein is located in one of the hallways and it is mesemrizing.

The Wiess Energy Hall

Being located in Texas, it sure needed to be an exhibit about petroleum extraction, which is very relevant to Texas´history. Of course we also took hundreds of pics and info for our sister site “Locos por la geologia” for future articles.

 

Morian Hall of Paleontology

Perhaps the main focus of the whole museum. Especially if you go with kids. Kids love dinosaurs! You will be able to go through the ages in there, starting with precambric organisms, all through the Dinosaurs time, and well into megafauna from the quaternary.

 

Lester & Sue Smith Gem Vault

It was a surprising exhibit dedicated to gemstones and jewelery. It is completely dark in there, except for a dim light that shows you where to move from and to; with light only towards each piece. Certainly would´ve loved to stay longer there but we had little time for the whole museum. You should allot a couple of hours if you are into jewelery just for this exhibit. A full day for the whole museum.

The Gift Shop

A very big one and filled with options. Perhaps among the best in these kind of museums, both in variety as in prices, with options for everyone´s wallet size.

As I said, all in all, probably one of the must do activities in Houston, Texas. So let´s check out some Travel Tips if you are going to visit the Houston Museum Of Natural Science.

– Time Alloted: If you are science buffs, or are very interested in this area of knowledge. I would strongly recommend giving this museum a full day, and that way you´ll have enough time to pace yourself as your interest tells you to. Especially if you want to take tons of pics.

– Food: There is only a McDonald´s in the museum. So you will either have to settle for it, or think about dining options in the area.

– Parking: There was no space in the museum parking when we were there, so we needed to leave the car a few blocks back in a church parking. So get ready for a little walk.

– What´s closeby: Since it is a whole district of museums I would recommend somewhere from 2 to 4 days to go around this district. 1 day for the Houston Museum of Natural Science, 1 day for both Children´s Museum and Health Museum, and a couple more for any other that are interesting to you. If you are not travelling with kids, you can skip Children´s Museum and give that half a day to The Museum of Fine Arts for instance.

I really hop this article is helpful if you are planning your vacation in Houston, Texas. Let me know in the comments section if you have any question. You can also follow me on Social Media or subscribe for more Travel Tips.

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