Texas Attractions

Austin
The exhibits at The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum tell "The Story of Texas" using more than 700 artifacts, 17 media and interactive experiences and three floors of diverse exhibit space covering 34,000 square feet. The Museum's dramatic, three-story central exhibit atrium features a circa 1940 AT-6 "Texan" airplane, a full-scale windmill, the Capitol's original Goddess of Liberty and a vintage "Texas" theater sign. Featuring the best objects from around the state, the museum highlights enduring themes in Texas history on each floor. www.thestoryoftexas.com

Fair Park
The Women’s Museum: An Institute for the Future is the nation’s first comprehensive women’s history museum. Located in historic Fair Park, the museum chronicles the lives of American women using state-of-the-art interactive exhibits to explore the women’s contributions to American history, examines the similarities and differences among women’s lives across time, and inspires pride and hope for generations to come. Exhibits include Unforgettable Women, Mothers of Invention, Funny Women , Pathways to Health , Sports and Adventure, In the Spirit, Words That Changed Our Lives and Leaders & Innovators in Business and Technology. www.thewomensmuseum.org. [Read our article]

Galveston Island
The Aquarium at Moody Gardens is one of the biggest aquariums in the Southwest, holding 1.5-million gallons of water. It showcases the waters of the North Pacific, Edge of the Antarctic, Tropical Pacifics Great Barrier Reef & Coral Sea and the colorful Caribbean. www.moodygardens.com

The Grand 1894 Opera House, a year-round performing arts theatre, has been magnificently restored and is ranked among the nation's finest historical restorations. No seat in the theatre is further than 70 feet from the stage, offering a spectacular view. www.thegrand.com

The Lone Star Flight Museum is home to many world-class, award-winning aircraft. The collection is composed of many aircrafts from the era just before, during, and after WWII. www.lsfm.org

Houston
The Contemporary Arts Museum is a non-collecting institution dedicated to presenting the finest regional, national and international art of the last 40 years in a dynamic exhibition schedule which is accompanied by publications and educational programming for local, regional, national and international audiences. www.camh.org

The Houston Museum of Natural Science is the 4th most heavily attended museum in the United States. The Museum is a five part complex housing the Burke Baker Planetarium, Wortham IMAX Theatre, Cockrell Butterfly Center and three floors of natural science halls and exhibits. Over a dozen permanent exhibit areas cover subjects on astronomy, space science, Native Americans, paleontology, energy, chemistry, gems and minerals, seashells, and Texas wildlife. hmns.org

The Houston Center for Photography fosters a wide diversity of work, ranging from art and documentary photography to photographic installations, film and video. www.hcponline.org

At the Houston Space Center, guests get truly interactive with space exploration. Guests get the chance to land the shuttle or retrieve a satellite through computer simulation, to tour Johnson Space Center and to see a number of pieces used in space exploration. spacecenter.org

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston more than doubled its galleries for the display of its permanent collection and special exhibitions, and catapults the MFAH from thirtieth to sixth largest art museum in the nation in terms of exhibition space. Highlights of the museum include the Straus Collection of Renaissance and 18th-century art and the Beck Collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art, including the creations of Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Henri Matisse and Paul Gaugin. mfah.org

Plano
If you're looking for something a little unusual then it doesn't get more unusual than this. The Cockroach Hall of Fame Museum fills the "dead bugs dressed as celebrities and historical figures" void in your life. Located in Plano, Texas in The Pest Shop (a pest control business, the museum exhibit consists of several dioramas featuring dead roaches dressed as famous people doing famous things. www.savvycenter.com