I haven't been down to Houston before so what is the layout? If we stayed around Reliant, is there bars around there, or are all of the bars downtown, which I've heard is around 15 mins from Reliant? Any input would be great!
Houston area
- Thread starter OC Cyclone
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Houston is enormous. And in my experience there's nothing like a centralized "entertainment district" like the P&L in KC near Reliant or in Houston period. I would encourage you to stay someplace that is appealing, then limit your time in and around the stadium to the game.
They have a superb Natural History Museum there, and Galveston is really cool particularly in the time of year for a potential bowl game.
They have a superb Natural History Museum there, and Galveston is really cool particularly in the time of year for a potential bowl game.
We stumbled over to the Riceville? (Rice's campustown) last bowl game. We met some locals at a bar close to our hotel called the Volcano and they brought us along for a fun night out.
Last time we stayed close to Reliant stadium, within walking distance, and I would not recommend that. Kind of a rougher area. We went downtown and that seemed better as far as restaurants and bars go.
Check out a map of Houston. Reliant is on the south side, just west of the intersection of 288/610, next to the Astrodome. As far as staying...there are some good places near the Galleria area (610 and 59 "south" (on the west side), and it's right up the road from Reliant (literally) - the ISU AA set up there in 2005. Downtown is good, lots of museums, bars/nightclubs (the saucer comes to mind). There's also Midtown (just southwest of downtown) and Rice Village, which has a TON of bars and is closest to Reliant of the 3 I mentioned
The last trip to Houston was prior to "Ike". Galveston is still trying to recover, which may mean that you could get reasonable hotel rates there. It will probably take another 5-10 years for Galveston to recover.
"Fully" recover, maybe...it looked pretty good as of last weekend, other than a few notable exceptions, you wouldn't know the worst storm in 100 years hit just 15 months ago...at least the Strand and tourist areas They (and we) dodged a bullet when Ike veered east at the last minute...Crystal Beach/Bolivar Peninsula...not so much. They got the dirty side and were wiped pretty hard...
But, if you want to be walking distance from a beach, you probably need to stay in Galveston, keeping in mind it's about an hour from Reliant. There is a nice Hilton in Clear Lake that splits the difference between Reliant/Galveston and is about 10 minutes from Kemah Boardwalk
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I haven't been to the Houston area since 2002 but from what I remember Reliant Stadium isn't really surrounded by anything and in a bad part of town. Like some others have said, the Galleria area is pretty nice and really anywhere on the western part of Westheimer Rd is pretty nice. If I recall correctly we stayed at the Hilton along Westheimer and we were there during the Houston Bowl. I remember talking football with a bunch of Okie St fans in the hotel bar that were down there.
Since Houston is looking like the likely destination, what is the best golf course to play down there and where is a cool bar to be at on New Years Eve???
What about hte area around Rice? It looks like there were hotels and restaurants just south of Rice by the Hospital. Would that be a good area?
