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Continental Airlines Flights from San Francisco (SFO) to Houston (IAH)
Orbitz is pleased to offer airline tickets on Continental Airlines, which operates 3 regularly scheduled daily non-stop flights from San Francisco (SFO) to Houston (IAH), departing between 12:35am and 12:16pm, and 5 additional non-stop flights, departing between 7:50am and 5:50pm on select days of the week. The average travel time from San Francisco, CA to Houston, TX is 3 hours and 43 minutes.
During your Houston vacation, don't miss these great establishments and attractions:
SplashTown
A 45-minute drive from downtown, SplashTown holds special events and live entertainment throughout the season. It gets really crowded here, mainly with kids from north Houston suburbs and The Woodlands.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH)
This is by far the best and biggest public art museum in Texas. It's a wonderful testament to what a lot of oil money can do, and the manner in which it evolved tells something about the development of the city's sense of aesthetics. The original museum, built in the 1920s, was pure neoclassical -- the attitude was that if Houston was to have a museum, it was to look like a museum. In the '50s, the MFAH directors hired Mies van der Rohe, the grand architect of the International Style to build an addition. In the '70s that addition received an addition, also designed by Mies. Both of these were bold statements of modern architecture -- lots of glass and steel forming a light and airy space -- but, unfortunately, not the kind of space that lends itself well for much of the museum's collection.In the '90s, the museum's directors hired Spanish architect Rafael Moneo to design a building that would be a return to traditional galleries. It, the Audrey Jones Beck Building, is across South Main Street from the main building. (A tunnel connects the two; make a point of visiting it.) The new building aims at reconciling the boldness of modernism with the staid character of traditional design. Constructed with rich materials and designed on grand proportions, the building feels monumental. All the galleries on the second floor take advantage of interesting "roof lanterns," which allow Houston's plentiful natural light to enter in regulated amounts. The Beck building doubles MFAH's gallery space and allows the directors to attract first-rate traveling exhibitions. The museum's collection of more than 40,000 pieces is varied, but it is perhaps strongest in the area of Impressionist and post-Impressionist works, baroque and Renaissance art, and 19th- and 20th-century American art. There is also a fine collection of African tribal art, as well as ancient artwork from several civilizations.Aside from the two gallery buildings, there is a large sculpture garden designed by Isamu Noguchi located across Bissonnet from the main building, and the Glassell School of Art, which can be seen just to the north of the sculpture garden. Look for a building made of a strangely reflective glass brick (another architectural pun). The museum also owns two collections of the decorative arts that are displayed in two mansions in the River Oaks area; see Bayou Bend and Rienzi.
Houston Ship Channel
For those fortunate enough not to live among the industrial areas of the Texas Gulf Coast, the landscape of refineries and their intricate tangle of pipes, their forests of cooling towers and stacks, and their fields of tanks are as exotic as the Zanzibar coast. If you find this sort of thing intriguing you can take a free boat ride on the Sam Houston Inspection Ship, which tours the upper 7 miles of the deep water channel. The boat dates from the 1950s and has a lovely cabin trimmed in mahogany as well as fore and aft observation decks. I hail from Houston but rarely have the opportunity to see the ship channel up close, and I enjoyed this trip. You should probably make reservations well in advance during the summer months when it is quite popular, but I'm told that the ship channel is best seen in cooler weather, when there is no risk of bad smells. The trip takes a total of 90 minutes, during which you will most likely see large container ships, tall grain elevators, tugs, and barges. If after the trip, you want to see more of the channel, you can drive to the San Jacinto Battlefield, where the Battleship Texas is on display.
Make your reservations for discount hotel rooms in the
Houston area, including:
Lancaster Hotel
For those who enjoy the performing arts and nightlife, there is no better place to stay in Houston. Within 1 block are the symphony, the ballet, the opera, and the Alley Theatre, and when reserving a room you can have the concierge buy tickets for performances at any of these venues as well as others in the Theater District. Also a block away is Bayou Place, where you can catch a movie or a live blues or rock act, and within a few blocks are many restaurants and clubs. The hotel occupies a small 12-story building that dates from the 1920s and looks all the smaller for being near the Chase Tower (the tallest skyscraper west of the Mississippi). Rooms are a little smaller than their counterparts at the Four Seasons but better furnished, and with more of the character of an old hotel. Bathrooms are ample and have lots of counter space. Service is excellent and includes lots of personal touches.
La Quinta Inn & Suites Galleria
You can tell at first glance that this inn, constructed in 1998, is a new breed of La Quinta, with a gurgling fountain in the lobby, a fitness room, and a fairly large outdoor heated pool with separate hot tub. Proximity to the shopping along Post Oak and in the Galleria seals the deal. Standard rooms are medium to large and come with two double beds; the "King Plus" room comes with king-size bed and a recliner.
Sheraton Suites Houston near the Galleria
The rooms at this all-suite hotel are attractive, with more character than most hotel rooms in the Galleria area. The headboards and accents are postmodern, and the granite countertops are snazzy. These suites aren't as big as those at the Doubletree Guest Suites, but they are in many ways more comfortable and attractive. An easy-to-use retractable door makes the living room and bedroom usable as one large space or as two separate rooms with the ample bathroom accessible from either. The best rooms face westward away from Loop 610. There are 18 business suites that include features such as fax machines and copiers. The service here is attentive. This hotel is 2 blocks from the Galleria.
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