My Houston CityPass Experience

Using CityPass is a chance to experience several attractions that select cities have to offer at a discounted price. I got to use it in Houston (my current residence) and this is my review which was fun to do.

You can purchase a Houston CityPass online which is currently going for $51 for adults (13yrs+) and $41 for children (3-12yrs) plus tax and lets you see 5 different attractions. Once you purchase the voucher which is emailed to you, you have 6 months to use it. When you want to redeem, you take the voucher to any one of the listed attractions to exchange it for a booklet. This is very important: Don’t remove any of the tickets in the booklet. They must be removed by the establishment or they become invalid.

Houston Citypass Booklet

The booklet gives you admission to 5 attractions and you have 9 consecutive days to use the passes:

NASA Space Center
Downtown Aquarium
Houston Museum of Natural Science
Houston Zoo or Museum of Fine Arts
The Children’s Museum or Kemah Boardwalk

If you notice the last two options you get one or the other, not both. I went with the Houston Zoo and the Children’s Museum.

NASA Space Center

This attraction is located in Galveston and the great thing about having these passes is skipping the lines. You just walk on in to have your pass removed from the booklet.

Space is fascinating because there is so much out there that we have yet to explore. At the Space Center, you can see one of the rockets, mission control, a glimpse of how the astronauts lived in space, and other fun activities. There are also tram tours that you can take that are included but you must wait in line which can take a while, so come early!

NASA1

NASA2

Some helpful information: The hours of operation are 10am-7pm M-F and there is a parking fee of $6 with cash or credit. The tram lines get longer during the day so come early.

Downtown Aquarium

As the name suggests, it is located in downtown Houston and it is past the restaurant entrance. Go to the ticket booth and show your CityPass. I highly recommend purchasing the All-Day Adventure Pass for an extra $6. This will include the stingray petting station, the mini train ride to see the shark tank, the ferris wheel ride, and the carousel ride. The aquarium is fairly small and it will take less than 20 min to see everything so the pass is a must if you want to enjoy more time here.

Downtown Aquarium

Train ride

Sharks

Some helpful information: Hours of operation are Mon-Thurs & Sun 10am-9pm and Fri-Sat 10am-10:30pm. Parking is $7 and it gets crowded so come early.

Museum of Natural Science

The attraction is located south of downtown Houston and here is where you can see replicas of dinosaur bones!

Raptor

 

They also have jewel and minerals exhibit, ancient Egypt exhibit, wildlife exhibit (taxidermied animals), etc. You can also visit the butterfly exhibit or planetarium for an additional charge.

Some helpful information: Hours of operation are Mon-Sun 9am-5pm. Free on Thursdays from 2-5pm.

Houston Zoo

Located south of downtown near Herman Park, you can visit all your favorite zoo animals. Since Houston gets extremely hot during the summer, there is also a kids water play area to cool down in. I recommending coming early or later in the day to avoid too much heat exposure.

Giraffe

Seal

Some helpful information: Hours of operation are 9am-7pm all year except Christmas day.

Children’s Museum

I guarantee your child can spend all day here. There are lots of fun interactive activities they can participate in and there is even a Kidtropolis area where they can pretend to be adults by learning about jobs, having their own atm card, and going grocery shopping. This is highly recommended for families to visit.

Kidtropolis

 

Some helpful information: Hours of operation are Mon-Sat 10am to 6pm, Sunday 12pm-6pm, Thurs 10am-8pm. Parking is nearby and costs $9 for 3+ hrs

City Pass cities

If you are interested in other cities around the country, they are offered in the below cities which all vary in prices:

Altanta
Boston
Chicago
Dallas
New York
Philadelphia
San Francisco
Seattle
Southern California
Tampa Bay
Toronto

Disclosure: The Houston CityPass was given to me to review, however, the opinions in this post are my own.

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