Houston is served by two international airports, into which the majority of flights to the city will arrive. Hobby Airport, 12 miles southeast of Downtown, is often reckoned to be the more conveniently located of the two, although this will of course depend on where in the city you are headed to. The other option, the much larger George Bush Intercontinental Airport, is located 19 miles north of Downtown.
Hobby Airport receives flights to and from several dozen domestic airports, with international flights to a handful of Caribbean and Central American cities. A hub airport for Southwest, it also offers flights with Allegiant, American Airlines, Delta and Frontier Airlines.
George Bush Intercontinental Airport offers flights with dozens of domestic, international and budget carriers to and from cities across the United States plus major cities in the rest of the Americas, Europe and Asia.
Houston receives passenger train services from Amtrak, on the Sunset Limited route, which offers travel across the southwest from New Orleans to Los Angeles. Connections are also available (via San Antonio) to the Texas Eagle service which runs from Chicago to Los Angeles.
The Amtrak station, which has a waiting room and ticket sales office, is located just outside of Downtown Houston at 902 Washington Avenue.
Several bus/coach travel companies offer services to Houston, including Greyhound, Megabus and RedCoach.
Greyhound offers a wide range of services to destinations nation-wide, including many direct services from other cities in Texas, Louisiana and beyond. The main Greyhound bus station, open 24 hours and offering ticket sales services, is located just outside of Downtown Houston at 2121 Main Street. Additional stops are also available in more outlying parts of the city.
Megabus also offers buses to Houston, with direct services including routes from other major Texas cities plus New Orleans. Megabus offers several stops in Houston, including one in Downtown Houston at 815 Pierce Street.
RedCoach offers bus travel between Houston and a few other Texas cities, including Austin, Dallas and San Antonio. It has a stop in Downtown Houston, at 904 Dallas Street.
Houston has a vast array of accommodation options of every type and at every price point.
For visiting tourists, Downtown and the Museum District are both ideal places to stay, due to their proximity to many attractions, restaurants and nightlife spots and to the large concentration of hotels from which to choose.
If you are looking for a bargain, you can often get the lowest price on a place to stay by choosing hotels or other accommodation in Houston’s more outlying districts or around its airports.
Be aware, though, that travel times across the city can be long — try to choose somewhere that is reasonably close to the attractions you most want to see. Be mindful also of proximity to bus routes and METRORail stations if you will be reliant on public transport during your visit!
There are several visitor information centers in Houston, the two main ones being centrally-located in the Downtown area: the Houston Welcome Center (1001 Avenida de las Americas, Houston, TX 77010) and the City of Houston Visitor Center (701 Avenida de las Americas, Houston, TX 77010), where you can obtain information on attractions, restaurants, shopping and local history and buy Houston-themed merchandise.
Several of the smaller cities that make up metro area Houston also have their own visitor information centers, where you can pick up brochures about local attractions and get advice on where to eat and what to do, including Sugar Land, Galveston, Katy, The Woodlands and Pearland.