Next, we'll arrive at the Buffalo Bayou Park, where we'll get a chance to see the enormous cisterns the once quenched the thirst of the entire city! We'll also learn how the city transformed and found new uses for these cisterns once they weren't needed for drinking water any longer. NOTE: The tour is over 40 miles long, with more than 40+ audio stories, and takes about 2-3 hours to complete. New, Lifetime access, no expiry. Use it anytime, on any trip, as many times as you want.
Our drive takes us past Sam Houston Park next, where a row of preserved historic homes display how Houstonians from all walks of life lived, from freed slaves building new lives for themselves to affluent merchants.
We'll park at City Hall and hear about the challenges of building it during the Great Depression. We'll also get a good look at the statues of Houston's founders which stand before the hall, and learn about how those statues had to wait over 80 years to be built!
We'll keep driving until we see Pennzoil Place, a pair of huge black towers looming over Houston. Here, we'll pick up some facts about the imposing buildings and the innovative architect behind them.
Our route takes us next through Houston's Historic District, chock full of gorgeous old buildings. We'll also hear about the multiple fires which swept across the old City Hall, and the celebrities like Johnny Carson who have partied in this very district!
The next sight we'll see is the Chase Tower, the tallest building in all of Texas. Here, we'll uncover some secrets of its construction, like how the original design was hazardous to air traffic and it sports a helipad that's never been used!
Next, we'll park at the Christ Church Cathedral, Houston’s very first religious congregation which dates back to 1859. We'll also hear about the generous stranger who's responsible for a steer's head being part of the church seal.
Our route then passes Minute Maid Park, the famous baseball stadium designed to imitate the Golden Age of baseball.
Next, we'll see Emancipation Park, a lovely recreational space with a rich history. We'll hear about emancipation, Juneteenth in Texas, and how this park became an epicenter for the Black community in Houston. Then, we'll get the real facts on some of Houston's most notorious urban legends.
As we drive, we'll enter Houston's Museum District, home to fascinating museums covering everything from Black history to natural science to fine arts and beyond. If you want a really deep dive into the city of Houston, this is the place to be.
Next, we'll pass Hermann Park, home to plenty of attractions for the little ones, including an entire zoo featuring cheetahs, chimps, and more!
Our route brings us through the Rice University campus next, where we'll get some insight into the founder and hear about a baffling--and very ambitious--senior prank conducted by an alum known only as "The Mastermind."
Next, we'll see the subject of the prank itself: the William Marsh Rice Statue, and learn about how the pranksters banded together to protect one of their own from repercussions.
As we continue through the Rice campus, we'll see the strange, pyramid-shaped building known as Skyspace. Here, we'll get a quick rundown of what this odd building is for, and how you can experience its beautiful sky viewings for yourself.
We'll keep driving past MacGregor Park and listen to the story of how he revolutionized Houston's transit system by replacing the donkeys it relied on for far too long.
At the end of the boulevard, look to the right. You should be able to spot the bronze statue of Dr. King. For a full picture of his life and achievements, check out the African American Culture Museum in Midtown.
As we drive, we'll end up on the Old Spanish Trail. Once upon a time, it spanned the entirety of the country! This trail stretched over 2,750 miles from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. Next, we'll look down get the inside scoop on the importance of oil and gas in Texas's development, and look up at the stars to hear about NASA, the infamous Apollo 13 mission, and world-famous astronomer Carl Sagan.
The San Jacinto Monument is a 567.31-foot-high column located on the Houston Ship Channel in unincorporated Harris County, Texas, near the city of Houston. The monument is topped with a 220-ton star that commemorates the site of the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution.
Discovery Green is an 11.78-acre public urban park in Downtown Houston, Texas, bounded by La Branch Street to the west, McKinney Street to the north, Avenida de las Americas to the east, and Lamar Street to the south.
Grouping of industrial structures featuring rotating displays of colorful street art & murals.
The Holocaust Museum Houston is located in Houston's Museum District, in the U.S. state of Texas. The Holocaust memorial museum is the fourth largest in the U.S., and opened in 1996. A major commitment of the Holocaust Museum Houston is education.
The Houston Museum of Natural Science is a natural history museum located on the northern border of Hermann Park.
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, located in the Houston Museum District, Houston, is one of the largest museums in the United States. The permanent collection of the museum spans more than 6,000 years of history with approximately 70,000 works from six continents.
Bustling family museum with a wealth of hands-on activities such as a Bubble Lab & a Tot Spot.
Built in 2012, the pyramidal structure accommodates 120 people between two levels. Twilight Epiphany is acoustically engineered to host musical performances and to act as a laboratory for Shepherd School of Music students. Constructed of grass, concrete, stone and composite steel, the structure is equipped with an LED light sequence that projects onto the ceiling and through an aperture in the 72-foot square knife-edge roof during sunrise and at sunset. Turrell's composition of light complements the natural light present at twilight, and transforms the Skyspace into a locale for experiencing beauty and reflecting on the surrounding campus and the natural world.
The John P. McGovern Museum of Health and Medical Science, or The Health Museum in short, is a museum in the Museum District of Houston, Texas. The museum is a member institution of the Texas Medical Center.
After our guided tour guide no-showed to our tour we decided to get this car tour and it was great, unfortunately we only had time to do about half of it— but maybe some day we’ll be back to finish.
Difficult to use, not very interesting or relevant, route is not clear, lots of driving time with no info
It was hard to follow the directions and the map wouldn't load. Market square had construction so there was nothing set up there. We did this on Juneteenth and unfortunately there was nothing going on at Emancipation park either. A bunch of driving around unless you get out and walk the area and take pictures. There was also a detour on the rice university, so didn't see the statue. I would just put the places in your map and go see them for yourself. Save time from wrong turns, detours, etc.
Very easy to use. Clear driving instructions and interesting facts and stories. I will definitely use this app again in other cities I visit by car.
In theory this should be an incredible app. The last part took us at least an half an hour to get out to NASA. You pull up and the tour is over. Which means driving another half an hour back to the city. I thought it missed some important highlights of the city p
The map was very difficult to follow. The driving instructions were not clear. Need to be able to put map on the car screen. Locations were not that great but nit sure if that was your fault or houston's.
Car Play map does not work on this app. Very distracting having to watch iPhone in a city like Houston.
After reading reviews, I purposely downloaded the trip in the app but it seemed a little bit wonky at first/timing seemed to be off and I was concerned about missing another turn so I kept looking ahead to see what was coming up. Imagine it’s difficult when you’re in a city and have one point of interest after another. Otherwise the information shared was interesting and the price was right. I wanted to see what Houston has to offer without parking and walking so this seemed like the best fit.
We had a difficult time keeping track on this app, it kept dropping out and was very confusing to follow. The narration was not very informative and street signs were missing at various turns! Not what we were expecting!
My BF and I visited Houston for a wedding and decided to get in a tour. It took us two days because we had other scheduled events. We enjoyed having the opportunity to do the tour at our own pace. We used AppleMaps to get to the starting point and CarPlay to listen to it. It’s a bit of a drive to the NASA Space center. If you are going to go to visit get your tickets ahead of time; they are free. So schedule the tour and leave time to visit NASA. We were not able to but it would have been interesting to take the tram tour.
If you do not heed my advice to NOT buy this tour, you might try using a map app to get you to stop 16 or 17, and join the tour there. There is construction in the Houston area and this app knows nothing about it - you have to get off of the blue line, because the way it wants you to go is completely blocked. The automated guide does not have very much to say about any of the locations, and I noticed we drove right past what might have been Sam Houston’s house with not a peep from the guide. Also, you drive a very long way to the Space Museum (the end of the tour) with very little audio on the way there- maybe there’s not a lot to see in Houston or no stories to be told? Go ahead and spring for a guided tour— you will majorly regret purchasing this self-guided one.
Easy to use and follow with interesting commentary. Liked that it took is to the space center for the last stop!
This was an easily, navigated app. I’m looking forward to using it to sightsee my next trip. We thoroughly enjoyed the parks, history and visit
DON'T waste your time & money!! This Houston TX tour... AWFUL! NOT user-friendly AT ALL!! NO WAY anyone can honestly give this one 5 stars. It's just impossible. Roads we were supposed to turn on had closures 3 times & wasted us 5-10 mins each time detouring to figure out how to get back on the tour route. It was HORRIBLE & frustrating! At least twice it said to turn & the turns weren't allowed. Another 3-4 times stories were going on & on and we were supposed to turn but no instructions were given... and we were driving slow! It would be better if this app did like regular GPS & automatically re-route you to get back on tour when u miss turns. This tour is a good "idea" but needs A LOT of work & not ready to be sold!!! We were basically cheated... Save yourself the headache & just don't do this one!
when we came to the 10-14 trip notice, there was a cistern stop, which we tried to locate but could not....then could not get back on the right track, we kept getting looped around the parkway next to Sam Houston's....after three attempts we broke it off and moved to a different spot in the map. The information and narrative was very dull and the navigation map was a mess. We've used other programs which where much better in HI and Yellowstone ...GYPsy far superior.
We had a good experience. The audio is very clear and offers very interesting information. The only reason I don’t give it five stars is that the app stopped working a couple of times. Nothing long-lasting and we were able to get back on track before losing our way, but still a glitch that can cause you to veer in an unwanted direction. I would do it again at a different location.
Great tour! Pretty thorough view of the city! Covered lots of ground, ending up at the Johnson Space Center.
We are from Austin TX and this was first time visiting Houston. Was so interesting, we had no idea how much history was in Houston
The self guided tour was informative and entertaining but you better go when there isn’t any traffic at all and make sure you look at the directions before you go. You need to be somewhat familiar with your route. The prompts to turn are immediate. We did get off path due to construction and it took an hour to get back on path. The end destination was worth it. Go ahead and purchase tickets to the space center ahead of time.
I was extremely confusing to use. It force to use goggle maps, the app would not synchronized with the map. We keep driving around the same loop for ever. No other languages besides English were avilable
Very hard to fallow. We made a stop on tour and could figure out where to go next. Drove around blocks trying to get back on tour. Finally just gave up.
We liked seeing the Emancipation park, Rice University, battle against Santa Ana and NASA Space Center. Only issue was getting around construction.
The tour app does not synch with the navigation 🧭 system. We terminated our tour about 15 minutes into the experience. I don’t want a refund. But, I will probably never use your service again. Chris
Have someone drive the route and suggest better driving instructions like be in the right most lane and after turning you will be making an immediate right hand turn. We couldn't finish the tour because it no longer was enjoyable. We were just arguing about directions, and that is because we used to live in Houston. The narration was fine but driving instructions need a lot of help.
No detours included on routes. Followed steps to download, but still had connection issues. Did not enjoy
This was a very informative tour. I would do it again but only on Sunday. We did this tour on Sunday. I can't imagine doing this on a workday with normal downtown traffic. The narration was good but the driving direction were marginal. A more detailed warning about what lane to be in and when or where to exit the main road. We missed several turns and had to do a recovery.
The tour was difficult to follow. There were two of us in the car, and I was busy trying to follow the directions and the driver was busy following the directions, and neither one of us could enjoy looking at the sights. There was one street on the tour that we never did find… went around the park three times.
Sharing Houston with visiting family. Several of stops were blocked off because of events being held. Not notified adequately on how to correct. Several important sightseeing stops —athletic stops and historic areas not included Took longer than 2-3 hours to complete.
This is a good idea, but it needs work. If you think you will get Google Maps like navigation you'd be wrong. Navigation prompts come too late and sometimes just wrong directions. If you're lucky enough to now how to bring up the map(it's not intuitive) during your tour you will look to the map to see it's gone and have to bring it back up. This happens repeatedly. Apparently the developers think you can easily find parking and stop in a crowded downtown area. Well you can't. And that along with the horrible navigation issues caused me to give up and take this as a wasted $10.
Good info, but getting started in Houston was a bit rough. The directions to turn on Waugh St came after we had gone straight, under the road. Then several other instances of directions to turn came after we missed the turn or were wrong lane to turn safely. Another issue that is not their fault but equally frustrating was construction detours and pop-up street fairs preventing us from driving through at least 3 way points. We skipped the last several stops which would have taken us several miles away from downtown in Webster for NASA topics.
Live GPS and Off-Line Navigation. It took a little while to get accustomed to using it. But after a few trys found it easy navigate through stops.
Download did not work on my phone and on my husband's phone an hour later it had only reached 40%. We did not use the guide and were out of money
Great way to see Houston at your leisure! Price is good! Disappointed that the tour did not take us to the Big Water Wall! Did not have to go so far out of town towards the Space Center…. Just mentioning it would be fine! Would have enjoyed seeing a few of the cities famed murals! Would try in another city…preferred over the bus tours and the historic info shared was very interesting!
I actually ran out of time so I didn’t do most of the tour, but I listened to the entire thing and looked at the pictures which helped me to determine what to go back and see further.
Minute Maid Park, NASA, Museum District, Hermann Park, Emancipation Park, we’re all very interesting
We didn't have a lot of time. Therefore, this was excellent because we started on our time. It was very informative and easy to use. However would not suggest it for someone going solo because you really need someone to navigate for driver.
This was such a great tour. I even like how the app picks up where you left off and helps you navigate to each destination.
It's a good idea of a tour however I personally would have liked a bit more of sites to see within the city or downtown. Versus historical parts which some we could not find. The information for the sites and spits were very knowledgeable.
The tour was very hard to use once we started, we had to input each coordinate into our GPS per stop and got lost several times. We gave up as it was too frustrating to use.
This was better than I expected after reading the reviews. I didn’t have as much trouble following it as others did probably because we did it early on a Sunday morning when there was little traffic, so it was easier to go slow and stay in the middle to cut right or left quickly. Enjoyed learning some new tidbits about Houston. If it would sync with the car gps… then it would be great. Also, I listened to it prior to going so that helped me recognize street names prior to needing to turn there. Worth the $8. Especially since you can use it over and over with other company.
We enjoyed seeing some familiar and also new sites in Houston as well as hearing some background history. The directions did not sync every time with our traffic and it would be helpful to be able to print some kind of map ahead of time to be able to anticipate a left or right turn. The left turn back towards downtown on McKinney after the short drive on walker is not well marked and easy to miss. We had confusion again along south macgregor way where the road was closed.
It was great!! Maybe would be great if the route can be marked in google maps to follow it in carplay
We enjoyed the fun facts, but navigating between the tour app and Google maps was a bit frustrating. We were lost several times, and after 2 hours of looping around we gave up.
please fix the app the navigation does not work it is impossible to get back on the route if you get off please tie it in with a GPS system or something for the love of god this was excruciating we spent 2 hours and pretty much saw the buffalo bayou river because we looped around it so many gosh darn times xoxo
Firstly, we liked that we saw some parts of Houston that we were not aware of. We are new to this town, spending the winter here. So the app did what we were hoping. We found the app itself to be confusing at times. The intro gives the impression that it is tied to the GPS to help you navigate. It's not that. It recognizes when you have reached a specific location and gives you directions from there. If you miss a turn and get off the route, the app is not going to help you it does have a button to take you to google maps to get you back onto the route, thank goodness. It was a feature that we used a dozen times. The directions in the app were often confusing and sometimes wrong. From point 2 it tells you to go straight, but we later realized that it has no idea which street you are on or which direction you are going. It would have been more helpful at point 2 to tell us which street and which direction to go. The turn directions in general were right at the turn. It would be better if we had more warning. More than once we were in the wrong lane, and had to backtrack to get back on the route. The guide suggests a turn to see the Cistern, but then has no instructions for how to get back onto the planned route. We ended up backtracking about 4 of the stops to get back on the route. The planned route is simply wrong near McGregor park. It wanted to take us the wrong way down a one way street. We are happy that we purchased the app, and we learned of many things to follow up on for a later visit, but if you purchase this, plan that you will fall off the route, and will need to exercise patience to get back to the planned route.
Saw a lot of the city and places we might not have seen without the tour. Did have a few issues where the map wanted us to go down a wrong way or the road was closed so we missed a couple of spots. Otherwise it was a fun way to explore.
Great way to see the city! We went on a Saturday morning so traffic was light. There are a couple of turns that say the opposite direction, so watch the map too. Well worth it!
Very complete visit and wide vision of the city, recommendation to leave early and have a look before the tour, stop downtown to visit the tunnels on foot and strictly heed the app so as not to lose anything Highly recommended
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