Houston has no zoning and no entry fee for most of its best sights: art car garages, volunteer-built mosaic parks, bayou trails and a bat bridge. Add Vietnamese and Mexican food priced for refinery workers and three days cost under $120.
Five miles of trails across 155 acres of restored prairie, pond and pine forest on the west edge of Memorial Park. Grounds open daily 7am to dusk, nature center 9am–4pm, and both entry and parking are free.
A small metal-clad gallery on Heights Boulevard devoted to Houston's art car subculture: vehicles welded into insects, tiled in mirror shards or buried under toys. Open Wednesday–Sunday 11am–6pm, admission free.
An entire park skinned in mosaic — broken tile, bottle caps, marbles and mirror set by hundreds of volunteers over a decade, next to postman Jeff McKissack's 1956 Orange Show folk monument in the East End.
Around 250,000 Mexican free-tailed bats roost in the expansion joints of the Waugh Drive bridge year-round and pour out in a ribbon at dusk. A dedicated observation deck sits on the bayou path below.
A 1958 open-air produce hall on Airline Drive plus the ramshackle farmers market sheds behind it, stacked with Mexican chiles, cactus paddles, mangoes and $1 avocados. Open daily from around 7am.
Midtown's old Little Saigon survives in a handful of storefronts on Travis Street. Cali Sandwich sells banh mi thit nuong for roughly $5 and bun bowls near $10, with an iced Vietnamese coffee around $4.
Houston's real Chinatown runs six miles along Bellaire Boulevard. This mall holds a supermarket, a food court and bakeries where pork buns run about $1.50 and a full bowl of pho lands under $12.
A permanently parked taco truck outside the West Alabama Ice House on Westheimer, serving al pastor, barbacoa and carnitas tacos for roughly $2.50 each since the late 1990s.
Eight acres of formal gardens opened in 2014 around a 30-foot spiral mount you climb for a clear view over Hermann Park to the Texas Medical Center towers. Open daily 6am–11pm, entry free.
The block that held Houston's city hall from 1841 to 1939, now a small park with public art, a dog run and Niko Niko's Greek counter. Free wifi, shaded benches and free lunchtime events on many weekdays.
The Red Line runs 13 miles from Downtown through Midtown, the Museum District, Hermann Park and the Medical Center to NRG Stadium. A single fare is $1.25 and a day pass $3, with free transfers to buses.
The pedestrian-friendly Sabine Bridge over Buffalo Bayou frames the downtown skyline head-on, with the Tolerance sculptures and Eleanor Tinsley Park's grass slopes below for a free sunset picnic.