Houston Orientation: Getting Started for Your Trip

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) March 26, 2006 -- Orientation

The fourth-largest city in the US, Houston is the hub of a sprawling metropolitan area. Houston is located in eastern Texas, 50 miles (80km) northwest of the Gulf of Mexico on the southern edge of the US. The city is 240 miles (385km) south of Dallas and 200 miles (320km) east of San Antonio. Streets follow a fairly predictable grid pattern, though south and east of Buffalo Bayou the downtown grid shifts a few degrees. Given Houston's size and lack of geographic definition - it's flat as a pancake - a map is the best way to keep track of where you are - you may even want to bring a compass. Snaking along west of downtown, the trickling waters and high banks of the Buffalo Bayou are the closest thing Houston has to an interesting landscape.

Downtown Houston, the original business center, is a thicket of highrises interspersed with parking lots, ringed by elevated freeways. The streets can seem surprisingly empty during the day, with nary a pedestrian to be found braving the hot and shimmering sidewalks. But the people are there. In a variation of a post-apocalyptic nightmare, most downtown buildings are linked by air-conditioned underground pedestrian tunnels lined with shops and restaurants. After dark, the area is sparsely populated above and below ground, though some life can be found around the new baseball stadium and in the north end's nightclub district. Major neighborhoods include Houston Heights, an affluent, quiet residential area north of downtown, overlooking the Buffalo Bayou; Montrose, the center of Houston's gay scene, with a funky mix of shops, restaurants, galleries and tattoo parlors a few blocks southwest of downtown; the Museum District, sandwiched between Hermann Park and Hwy 59 southwest of downtown; and University Village, a few square blocks with hundreds of shops, cafes and pubs west of Rice University, adjacent to the Museum district.
Houston has two airports: Bush Intercontinental Airport is located 22 miles (35km) north of downtown Houston; William P Hobby Airport is 11 miles (18km) southeast of the center. The Amtrak train station is in a scruffy area at the western edge of downtown Houston. The bus terminal is between downtown and the Museum District.

Source: http://www.yahoo.com

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