The best museums in Houston in March 2023

These are the top 20 best museums in Houston, United States, ranked by their rating and popularity in 2023. Click a museum for more information about the museum, including visitor information, exhibitions and reviews.

For a complete overview of museums in Houston, their exhibitions and discount cards & passes, see our overview page with all museums in Houston.

These are the best museums in Houston:

  1. Space Center Houston1

    Space Center Houston

    Houston, TX
    Space Center Houston is a science museum that serves as the official visitor center of NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. It has earned a place as a Smithsonian Affiliate museum in 2014. The organization is owned by NASA and operated under a contract by the nonprofit Manned Spaceflight Education
  2. Online discount!Houston Museum of Natural Science2

    Houston Museum of Natural Science

    Houston, TX
    The Houston Museum of Natural Science (abbreviated as HMNS ) is a natural history museum located on the northern border of Hermann Park in Houston , Texas , United States. The museum was established in 1909 by the Houston Museum and Scientific Society, an organization whose goals were to provide a f
  3. Downtown Aquarium3

    Downtown Aquarium

    Houston, TX
    Downtown Aquarium is a public aquarium and restaurant located in Houston, Texas , United States that was developed from two Houston landmarks: Fire Station No. 1 and the Central Waterworks Building. The aquarium is located on a 6-acre (2.4 ha) site at 410 Bagby Street in downtown Houston. It houses
  4. Houston Zoo4

    Houston Zoo

    Houston, TX
    The Houston Zoo is a 55-acre (22 ha) zoological park located within Hermann Park in Houston , Texas, United States. The zoo houses over 6,000 animals from 900 species. It receives 2.1 million visitors each year and is the second most visited zoo in the United States. It is accredited by the Associat
  5. 1940 Air Terminal Museum5

    1940 Air Terminal Museum

    Houston, TX
    The 1940 Air Terminal Museum is a museum located in Houston , Texas , United States , at William P. Hobby Airport . Collections are housed in the original art deco building which served as the first purpose-built terminal for passenger flight in Houston. The museum currently exhibits several collect
  6. USS Texas (BB-35)6

    USS Texas (BB-35)

    Houston, TX
    USS Texas (BB-35) is a museum ship and former United States Navy New York -class battleship . She was launched on 18 May 1912 and commissioned on 12 March 1914. Texas saw action in Mexican waters following the " Tampico Incident " and made numerous sorties into the North Sea during World War I .
  7. Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens - Museum of Fine Arts7

    Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens - Museum of Fine Arts

    Houston, TX
  8. Rothko Chapel8

    Rothko Chapel

    Houston, TX
    The Rothko Chapel is a non-denominational chapel in Houston, Texas , founded by John and Dominique de Menil . The interior serves not only as a chapel, but also as a major work of modern art. On its walls are fourteen black but color-hued paintings by Mark Rothko . The shape of the building, an oc
  9. Children's Museum of Houston9

    Children's Museum of Houston

    Houston, TX
    The Children's Museum of Houston ( CMH ) is a children's museum in the Museum District in Houston, Texas . Founded in 1980 and housed in a building designed by Robert Venturi, it offers a multitude of innovative exhibits and bilingual learning programs for kids ages birth to 12 years. It serves more
  10. Menil Collection10

    Menil Collection

    Houston, TX
    The Menil Collection , located in Houston, Texas, refers either to a museum that houses the art collection of founders John de Menil and Dominique de Menil , or to the collection itself of approximately 17,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, photographs and rare books. While the bulk of th
  11. San Jacinto Museum of History11

    San Jacinto Museum of History

    Houston, TX
    The San Jacinto Monument is a 567.31-foot-high (172.92-meter) column located on the Houston Ship Channel in unincorporated Harris County, Texas , about 16 miles due east of downtown Houston . The monument is topped with a 220-ton star that commemorates the site of the Battle of San Jacinto , the d
  12. Saint Arnold Brewing Company12

    Saint Arnold Brewing Company

    Houston, TX
    The Saint Arnold Brewing Company is a brewery in Houston, Texas , USA, named after a patron saint of brewing, Saint Arnulf of Metz . It was founded in 1994 by Brock Wagner and Kevin Bartol, graduates of Rice University . The brewery offers tours every weekday & Saturday afternoons, which have attrac
  13. 13

    Art Car Museum

    Houston, TX
    The ArtCar Museum is a private museum of contemporary art located in Houston, Texas , United States. The museum, nicknamed the "Garage Mahal," opened in February, 1998. Its emphasis is on art cars , fine arts , and artists that are rarely seen in other cultural institutions. The museum's mission is
  14. Contemporary Arts Museum Houston14

    Contemporary Arts Museum Houston

    Houston, TX
    Contemporary Arts Museum Houston is a not-for-profit institution in the Museum District , Houston , Texas , founded in 1948, dedicated to presenting contemporary art to the public. As a non-collecting museum , it strives to provide a forum for visual arts of the present and recent past and document
  15. Museum of Health & Medical Science15

    Museum of Health & Medical Science

    Houston, TX
    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 . As of 2012 the museum gets over 180,000 annual visitors, including 22,000 schoolchildren
  16. Byzantine Chapel Fresco Museum - Menil Collection16

    Byzantine Chapel Fresco Museum - Menil Collection

    Houston, TX
    The Byzantine Fresco Chapel is a part of the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas , near the University of St. Thomas . From February 1997 to February 2012, it displayed the only intact Byzantine frescoes of this size and importance in the entire western hemisphere. The Byzantine frescoes had been ta
  17. Moody Center for the Arts - Rice University17

    Moody Center for the Arts - Rice University

    Houston, TX
    This gallery is somewhat extraordinary - it offers large-scale environments a visitor can just walk through.
  18. 18

    The Jung Center

    Houston, TX
  19. Blaffer Art Museum19

    Blaffer Art Museum

    Houston, TX
    Blaffer Art Museum is a non-collecting contemporary art museum located in the Arts District of the University of Houston campus. Housed in the university’s Fine Arts Building, it is part of the Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts. It was founded in 1973 and has won several awards, including the
  20. Buffalo Soldiers National Museum20

    Buffalo Soldiers National Museum

    Houston, TX
    Museum dedicated to African-American soldiers and their valor in foreign and domestic wars. The only one of its kind in the whole U.S.

All museums in Houston