Airports

Houston has two airports, Bush (IAH) and Hobby (HOU), and one of them is really great.

Hobby is small and is serviced primarily by Southwest. We prefer to fly Southwest through Hobby. It's a small airport with just one terminal, and rarely crowded. On your way home, stop at the Pappasitos and have a few margaritas. Don't have so many that you miss your flight, which has never ever happened to Rich and Monica. Hobby is about 20 minutes from downtown by cab or Uber. 

Bush is a much bigger airport and handles all of your legacy carriers. Bush is about 30 minutes from downtown by cab or Uber.

Do I Need to Rent a Car?

Monica has lived in Houston for five years without a car (though this is a lifestyle decision most Houstonians don't accept or understand). We've endeavored to make all locations for the weekend as close together as possible, so a rental car is not a necessity. Assuming you are staying at the Hotel ICON (see above) or another hotel on the east side of downtown, you can take a cab or shuttle from the airport to your hotel in 20–40 minutes, depending on traffic. Hotel Icon is a 6 minute drive/Uber from Station 3.

Are you planning to see other sights? If you're thinking of visiting Houston's Montrose neighborhood (hipsters), the Heights (hipsters with houses), the Museum District (arty), Washington (fratty), Midtown (yuppie), River Oaks (fancy), get it done with Uber. You may want to rent a car if you plan to visit parts of Houston that are outside of the loop. You definitely want to rent a car if you plant to visit any of Houston's city-sized suburbs–The Woodlands, Katy, Pearland, Sugarland, etc. 

Note that, in Houston, cabs don't drive around looking for passengers, so Uber or HailaCab, the Yellow Cab app, are the way to go. Houston's train system is nice but tiny. The public buses are nice, air-conditioned, and fairly regular, but you may still have to walk a good 15–20 minutes. While that doesn't sound too bad, it might be 90 degrees and humid outside. You never know.

Also, don't forget that if you rent a car you'll have to find a place to park it. And while Houston is nothing if not the land of parking lots, downtown can get a little tight. The overnight valets at most downtown hotels cost between $25 and $30.

What to do in Houston on a Saturday morning or Sunday?

Well, since you're downtown, maybe you go enjoy a movie, lunch, and a great cocktail or two at Sundance Cinemas?

We have a great Museum of Natural Science. Don't miss the oil and gas exhibit, or its prequel, the dinosaur exhibit (both amazing). They have a GyroXtreme to ride for $5 (ask Henry, our ring-bearer, if he still remembers weeping while watching us take a ride on that thing).

The Menil Collection, pictured above, houses one of the largest private art collections in the United States. It's about a block away from the Rothko Chapel, a unique, one-room Rothko museum and interfaith space for meditation and 14 giant Rothko paintings. 

While we (well, mostly Monica) have had our gripes about Houston over the years, there's one thing we've never complained about: Houston is a great food town. Houston has a deep bench of diverse, authentic ethnic food (makes sense) along with top-notch fine dining at Texas-cost-of-living prices. And while we both really love to cook, our schedules don't allow it anywhere as much as we'd like.

The result is that eating out is one of our major hobbies. So we have a lot of opinions to share about where you should eat in the brief time you might not be eating with us!

Below, you'll find recommendations if you want to find the best eats around Hotel ICON, and recommendations if you want to find the best eats period, anywhere. 

Near the Hotel / Downtown

While the cocktail scene is flourishing, interesting food is only just arriving to downtown Houston. Within two blocks of Hotel ICON:

• Batanga: Batanga is a tapas bar across the street from Hotel Icon. It's also way better than its Yelp rating would indicate. It has a rotating menu and a lot of delicious options. The eggplant fries are always good, as are the albondigas. Its cocktail menu is creative, and the service is always good.
• Honeymoon Cafe: Honeymoon Cafe is a great coffee shop that serves some delicious food. and cocktails. They are the secondary location of Boomtown Coffee, which is some of the best coffee in the city. Their menu changes all the time, and the food delivery can be a little slow, but it's a nice spot. It's across the street from the Hotel Icon.
• Fusion Taco: Fusion Taco is a modern taco restaurant, and a frequent lunch spot for Rich. Originally a food truck, they moved into this brick-and-mortar location a couple of years ago. Rich recommends everything on the menu (seriously), from the chicken tikka masala  to the lamb keema to the BBQ Berkshire pork. The salads aren't bad either. Monica notes that Rich has said maybe three good things about vegetables in his entire life, so this is high praise indeed. 
• Christian's Tailgate: Christian's Tailgate is a burger joint that has a pretty good beer selection. Their onion rings are really good.
• Frank's Pizza: Frank's is Rich's favorite place to get a slice, and it's open until 3am on weekends. The cheese and the mushroom are both really good.

There's one other place near, but not in, downtown that deserves special mention:

• Ninfa's on Navigation is the best Tex-Mex in town. Rich thinks they have a pretty good claim to having invented fajitas (Monica thinks this is ridiculous). Their queso flameado is also really, really good, and the margaritas are delicious. Ninfa's is 5-10 minutes from the hotel, but well worth the trip. Ninfa's is a Houston institution. Note: Make sure you know the difference between Tex-Mex and Mexican! If Mexican is what you're after, run, do not walk, to Hugo's. 

Best of the Best

We sure eat a lot. Here's where we like to eat the most:

• Traditional Mexican meets fine dining: Hugo's. If you don't think there's more to Mexican food than one-dollar tacos, then this is a must. Hugo's Sunday brunches are famous, feature a Mariachi band, and may not be as slammed as normal on Superbowl Sunday. In 2014, we took Rich's father to Hugo's for dinner and even he approved. We'll let that speak for itself. 
• "The Story of Houston Food": Underbelly. Underbelly is fun, (and recent James Beard award-wining) fine dining that seeks to blend together Houston's diverse food influences: barbecue, Mexican, Vietnamese, the South, Chinese--you get the picture. Make sure to order the Korean braised goat dumplings, and grab a beer next door at Hay Merchant.
• Houston meets the South: Southern Goods. Southern Goods opened last summer and immediately became Rich's favorite restaurant in town. Get the Beef Belly Burnt Ends and thank us later. Head chef Lyle Bento used to be the sous chef at Underbelly, and, before that, the sous chef at Feast, where Monica and Rich spent many, many, many, many date nights eating organs and weird meats before it closed.
• Comfort food, Indian edition: Narin's Bombay Brasserie. Houston has a huge Indian and Pakistani population and there are a lot of contenders in this category that serve more interesting or more elevated or more authentic food. But our favorite chicken tikka masala in the city is at Narin's Bombay Brasserie. We eat it at least twice a month! Other recommendations in this category would include Kiran's, Himalaya, and Biryani Pot. 
• Modern fancy Japanese: Uchi, Monica's favorite restaurant in town. There's a lot more to eat here than raw fish (just ask Monica's mom), and if you manage to make it there before its 4pm opening time, you'll find a line out the door for its community table and bar. Skip the menu entirely, tell the staff what you like and don't like, and let them bring you what they recommend.
• I just want a good hamburger: Stanton's. Stanton's is one of the best hamburgers in the city. The Miss Piggy is Rich's favorite.
• I just want a good hot dog: Good Dog. Good Dog has fantastic, high-quality hot dogs. Monica always gets the Ol' Zapata.
• I just want Korean fried chicken: Dak & Bop. We had occasion to spend about a week in Seoul last summer. Rich spent that time scouring the city for Korean fried chicken. Nothing beat the Museum District's Dak & Bop. It's the closest we've found to Chicago's Crisp, fried chicken so good it makes you want to give up all other types of food.
• I just want Tex-Mex:
  • Monica would say you'll need to head to San Antonio. Rich (Monica reminds you his profession requires compromise) touts Ninfa's on Navigation. Both agree that this original Ninfa's location is the best Tex-Mex to be had in Houston.
  • "But Rich," you might say, "isn't real tex-mex cheap, delicious, and of questionable quality?" "Well," Rich would reply, "get to Spanish Village and enjoy the Enchiladas-a-la-Taylor. They are, after all, made with 'many spices.'"

We sure like cocktails.

Downtown

The downtown bar scene has really picked up in the past couple of years. There are several really solid bars right next to each other on Main street next to the Hotel ICON. Here are a couple of our favorites:

• Moving Sidewalk is one of our favorite bars downtown. It's run by a former Anvil bartender, and one of the best bartenders in the city. There's nothing bad on the menu.
• Pastry War is a tequila bar that specializes in tequilas and mezcals you've never heard of. Rich is a big fan of the overproof house margarita. They also have some of the best tamales we've ever eaten.
• Captain Foxheart's Bad News Bar is another solid cocktail bar. The door is unmarked and it's up a flight of stairs. Look for the balcony next to Pastry War.
• Nightingale Room is less than a block from the Hotel ICON and has a great record collection.

Montrose and Beyond

Westheimer, the main street in the Montrose area, is littered with bars, tattoo parlors, food trucks, and high end restaurants. We've both lived in Montrose for a few years now and we've been known to frequent the following bars:

• Anvil is the best bar in the city, and one of the best in the country. It's got a rotating set of cocktails as well as precise versions of favorites. As it's grown in popularity it's been harder to get a table, but it's worth just standing around and having one of their drinks. Just asking the bartender to make you something you'd like, and they'll ask you a series of questions and give you a recommendation. Rich likes to order anything with a dumb name without regard to taste (Dr. Cocktail, Old Pal), where Monica will recommend anything with an egg in it.
• Hay Merchant is a fantastic beer bar (no liquor or cocktails) that shares a kitchen with Underbelly. Their food is great, and the beer selection is pretty amazing. Their cask selections are always interesting.
• Catbird's is a dive bar where you can play trivia and they don't show sports on their two old televisions so we like it.
• Poison Girl is a dive bar across the street from the Rice Box, a great food truck. Buy some food at the Rice Box, and eat it at Poison Girl.
• Spare Key is a bar in Midtown, between Montrose and Downtown. We don't go to Midtown very often, but we've been known to go there to visit Spare Key, a bar run by one of our favorite bartenders in the city, Chris Frankel. Just tell him what sort of stuff you like and he'll make something you'll enjoy.
• Julep! Fantastic oysters and some amazing southern and gin-based drinks. They're open from 3pm to 2am every day, and this place is about a mile from the venue. If I were you, I might stop by before the wedding on Saturday and have a quick drink before making my way to Station 3.