Top 5 things to do in Downtown Houston on the Cheap

With all the family that I had coming in the few weeks before for our wedding, I thought it’d be a great idea to make a top five list for things to do in Houston.  But first, a few side-notes:  I’ve tried to keep this list on the cheap, but that doesn’t mean free.  I know that not everyone visiting will have all the money in the world.  That said, I am including lots of food places on here because that’s what you do with family the most: eat.

Without further ado, and in no particular order, here is my list of five must do in downtown Houston.

1.  Buffalo Bayou Park:  This is one of my favorite spots in Houston. This video was taken on one of our bike rides through the park before Harvey a couple of years ago.  The park is around 5 miles in circumference and it has trails that run the entire length of it.  It makes it easy for a bike day.  There are some big hills to go down and climb up, so expect a pretty tough workout.  

There are tons of other things to do here.  One night, we took our out-of-country family to the bridge by the cisterns to take some photos with downtown in the background.  We headed over to the playground near the skatepark and my younger cousin played here.  

Now, the park was hit pretty hard after Hurricane Harvey, but they do have the above mentioned things to do, plus volleyball, a dog park (which is being rebuilt), a bat bridge (at sunset bats fly out for what seems like forever, it was pretty cool), kayaking, a skatepark, a concert venue, the cisterns to tour, and plenty of space for a picnic.

 

There’s also a restaurant, walking trails, art, and the list goes on.  It seems like there is always something going on, or something being added to try out.

2.  Truck Yard: This is a new spot in Houston close to downtown.  It’s already become a pretty popular spot as well.  It’s an outside venue so it can get pretty warm during the Houston summer, but they do have shade and umbrellas to help.

The area is pretty nice, there are  contairs dividing the areas, and providing cover.  There’s an upstairs, and a ferris wheel (I think it’s just for looks since I haven’t seen it going ever).  They have a plethora of tables to sit at and it seems like there is plenty to do there as well.  The first time we went they had a concert going on in a hollowed out trailer (the video above).  I’ve seen ping-pong tables too.

This place has two bars, one inside and one out.  They do sell food there too, but I think it’s mostly Cheese Steaks.  If that doesn’t sound good to you, they also bring in 2-3 food trucks every day with different menus.  There’s plenty of choice, lots of seating, and things to keep you busy.

It’s a nice place to wind down, or to pre-game before you go to an Astros, Dynamo, Dash, or Rocket game, or to just relax and grab a drink.

3. El Tiempo on Navigation – This is probably the most expensive stop on my list, but it’s the one I spend the most time at.  

There is a feud over who has the best mexican food on Navigation El Tiempo or Ninfa’s.  While Ninfa’s isn’t bad, in fact they probably have a better selection of drinks, El Tiempo gets the vote in our household.  The beef fajitas at El Tiempo are the best I’ve ever tasted.  

We liked them so much, we had our rehearsal dinner at El Tiempo (thanks Mom and Dad!).

The salsa is amazing, the fajitas are terrific, and the margarita’s are strong.  So beware.

If you are craving some Mexican food, try El Tiempo.  They aren’t paying me to be on the list, so you know it’s good.

Sometimes there is a little market in the median of the road that goes in front of Ninfa’s and El Tiempo, usually on the weekends I think.  We will usually go through and look at the wares  that are being sold.  There is usually some pretty artistic things going on there, so if you see it happening, go check it out.  It helps work our full bellies out a little.

Being on the median isn’t dangerous either if you’re worried about that.  It’s a larger than normal median with plenty of room to accommodate it all.

4.  Discovery Green – This is a park that’s right in the heart of downtown, surrounded by the skyscrappers in downtown.  In fact, the Marriott Marquis that sits on one side of the park has a Texas Shaped lazy river that has views that look down onto the park.

I live close enough to walk down to it fairly often.  There always seems to be something going on at this little not-so-hidden park.  There are shows, events, food trucks, kayaking, yoga, concerts.  Every month they also do a market with people selling stuff.  When the Super Bowl was in Houston, this park was transformed into Super Bowl Center.  There were things all over the park.  It was incredible how fast the park sprung back to normal afterwards as well.

There are some water features, and festivals here all the time, just check the schedule on their page.

I like to walk our dog down to the park and play some Pokemon Go.  It’s a hot spot for it with tons of pokemon to catch, spinners to spin, and a gym or two to battle at.  /nerdrant

5.  Houston Zoo – The last one is a bit of a personal thing.  I really like the zoo.  It reminds me of being a kid.

The Houston Zoo is one of the better zoos that I’ve ever been to.  They have great set ups and the animals are all on display usually.  We recently took some family to the Zoo, and while parking at the zoo can be madness, they have a shuttle system in place on the weekends.  They have also made it so that there is plenty of shade.  While it was definitely hot the entire time, I was able to stay out of the sun for the most part.

They crew at the zoo (hey that rhymes) is constantly trying to improve things in the exhibits, the trainers are usually knowledgable, and they also do sell private animal meetings.  I know once I was gifted a chance to meet the orangotangs off exhibit before, which was pretty neat.

Plan to spend a bit of time here, since there’s a lot to do.  There’s also a splash pad for the kids to help cool down.

That’s my list.  This is by no means exhaustive of what’s in Houston.  In fact, this is mostly just focused on things that I like to do that are near my house.  If you are visiting Houston, there’s so many areas and places to explore.  I’ll try to add to my list here and there and add things in different section of Houston as well.  For now, this is focused on Downtown.

What are you favorite things?  What did I miss?  Let me know in the comments!

 

Cipher

We were handcuffed and thrown into the jail cell of a madman. Our wits were all we had to help us.   We knew that we only had an hour to escape the room or we would die, a fact heightened by the fact that there was a digital clock counting down the seconds until our impending deaths.  

Luckily, our capture wasn’t the smartest, because we were able to free ourselves from the handcuffs fairly quickly, and we would have been much better off at picking the locks if one of us hadn’t dropped the mirror on the other side of the bars just beyond reach. 

As we tried to rescue our fallen comrade and tool, the old telephone rang with a shrill ring. The voice on the other end seemed to be taking joy in our misery instead of coming to our aid. 

Sadly, although we were able to escape the small cell in which we started, we were not able to escape the mad man’s room. Luckily however, we didn’t really die. It was all just for fun. 

For my birthday this year, Nova surprised me by taking me to an escape room called Cipher, and then surprised me even more by inviting a group of friends to try to help us escape.  We all failed. 

we died

Upon arriving at Cipher, the place was very unassuming. In fact, I had been blindfolded on our way there and when it was revealed, I still wasn’t really sure where I was. There was a sign out front that read: Cipher, but there wasn’t much else. We headed down a really cute little alley way, that was lit with lights strung across it and adorned with outdoor patio furniture, and entered through a door on the side of the building.

Inside the building there was a waiting room with some comforable chairs, a couple of chalkboards with team names and times written on them (these were leaderboads), and a counter. The workers were very friendly and excited, and offerd us bottles of water. We started trying to think of team name, but they warned us not to come up with a name because they said its bad luck, which turned out to be true. 

Everyone had to sign a waiver which I’m pretty sure had more to do with us getting hurt than anything, but as they tell you before you start the game, nothing should hurt you, you shouldn’t have to pick up anything heavy or move anything. We waited for everyone in the group to arrive, then they brought us back to lock up our phones because they don’t want anyone using their phones to solve puzzles nor take pictures to let out spoilers. 

Our room guide also told us the back story to our room. The room we did was called Captive.  We were told that we were kidnapped by a serial killer and he had locked us up and would be back in an hour. He even starts a count down clock to mentally torture us. Our room leader was very animated and liked to joke around, but also tried to keep the mood tense. He did a good job I feel like. As he finished setting the scene and telling us the rules, he had one last little surprise in store for us: handcuffs. 

These were real, honest to God, metal and heavy handcuffs. Once we were all locked in he sent us into the room. The room was just as creepy as it could be. I can’t go into detail, again because of spoilers but it kept the mood intacted the entire time. The stress started before we even got to the puzzles. 

I don’t want to say too much about the puzzles because if you go, I don’t want you to be spoiled, but the puzzles were very tough. There wasn’t a whole lot of direction here, which I think was a good way to start. You should really have a blank canvas, however as you moved through the puzzles, it would have been nice to have some type of direction. Some of the puzzles connected, but if you didn’t see the one before it, or if you didn’t solve it, it would make things tougher. I also think that we had too many people.  I would like to try it with less people because I think it would be easier to form groups for tasks. We also could have been more organized as a group, which would have helped.  I think we had some people try a puzzle that would have helped us out if we had figured it out, but they got stuck with it and refused to give up. 

The puzzles really made you think and search though, and I really liked that aspect of it. It was defintely a mental challenge  and as we found out later there was a variety of puzzles, but mostly it was find the combination to a lock.  They could have found a way to change that up a bit.  Maybe if they had like fake panels in the walls, or clues that would only appear under black light, etc.

If we did ever get stumped for a while, or if we weren’t making progress, the room leader would call on an old corded telephone, whose ring was loud and shrill. It scared us a couple of times. Sometimes the calls would waste  time as caller chit chatted with whomever answered the call, but ultimately he would try to lead you in the right direction. 

Once the time was up and we failed, our room leader came in and showed us where we went wrong and how we should have proceeded further. At the time I rather liked it because it was eye opening, but now I can’t go back and try again unless they change things up. And I would like to go back and try another room. It was fun, but with less people and more of an idea of what to do, I think I could do much better. 

After the puzzles were uncovered and we were allowed to wallow in our pity, we were taken back to our phones, and they had us  take a group picture. There were signs we could hold, some for escaping and some for not escaping, and they posted the picture to Facebook. 

All in all, I had a great time doing an escape room. I would definitely like to try another one, maybe even at Cipher since they have 2 other rooms to try.  But Houston is a big place, and escape rooms are blowing up these days it seems. It’s a fun time in a group, and a great way to challenge your mind. 

Have you tried an escape room? Was it a good one? Would you like more freedom to solve at your own pace or would you like direction? Leave a comment below, and let me know.