Things to eat, see and do in Houston

The wildflowers are in bloom and the weather’s warming up: spring is the perfect time for a Texas getaway. Here are some fresh ways to explore one of the Lone Star State's biggest cities.

What to do: Before it gets too humid, take a stroll through Discovery Green, or a canoe or kayak tour of Buffalo Bayou Park. Both parks host regular events, from al fresco yoga to live music performances, so you’re bound to stumble across more than just beautiful green space.

H-Town is a big arts town, so you’ll want to budget some time for museum and gallery-hopping. Start with the big kahuna, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, which is undergoing a giant redevelopment but is still open. This season’s big exhibitions include Vincent van Gogh: His Life in Art (through June 27) and Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings (through May 27), the first major retrospective of the photographer’s work.

From there, you’re in the Houston Museum Zone: access 18 other museums, including The Moody Center for the Arts, The Menil Collection and Asia Society Texas Center where you can catch Super Sarap, a fascinating exhibition in which artists use sculpture, photography and video to explore the world of Filipino cooking (through July 21).

Where to eat: Now that your appetite is stoked, it’s time to eat. Houston may be famous for chicken-fried steak and Tex-Mex dishes, but it’s also an excellent hub of Asian cuisine, from Filipino dishes to Vietnamese pho and Viet-Cajun crawfish—a mashup of a spicy take on a Gulf Coast seafood boil. You can tuck into the latter bit of food fusion at Cajun Kitchen in Chinatown.

Where to say: The Houstonian Hotel Club & Spa near Uptown Park; or, for 21 tennis courts an hour’s drive from the city, The Woodlands Resort.