Best Houston Hotels, Restaurants & Attractions

The best things here are: shopping; an abundance of excellent restaurants; the Houston Museum District; many excellent day spas to choose from; the NASA Johnson Space Center; Six Flags Astroworld/Waterworld; Ima Hogg's (yes, it's pronounced I'm a Hogg) former estate near the prestigous River Oaks area; the fabulous New Year's Bash at the Hyatt Regency Downtown; the Houston Ballet; touring the Astrodome or the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory in nearby Brenham, Texas; the ritzy Houstonian, Westin Galleria, or Adamsmark hotels; the many nightclubs on the Richmond strip; interesting displays at The Museum of Natural Science; the IMAX Theatre; the planetarium; betting on horses or Greyhounds; and a trail ride on a horse out in nearby Spring, Texas. Finally, you might choose to take a daytrip to nearby San Antonio, Galveston, or shopping for the day at the ever popular Katy Mills Outlet Mall in Katy, Texas.

Houstons has additional locations throughout the U.S. in places like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Arizona, Florida, Denver, New Orleans, New York, Boston, Tennessee, Washington, and Atlanta. Houstons delivers consistently high-quality food and excellent service in a romantic setting.

What are the best items to order on the menu here? First of all, their specialty salads are so large here that you don't need a meal to go with them. The salads are the best I have ever had anywhere. The fried chicken salad with avocado and bacon is especially good. However, the steaks and red snapper here are magnificent. I always have a hard time deciding what I want here because everything is so mouth watering!

The ambiance here is best for romance with dimly lit rooms with candlelight, cloth napkins on the table, and wooden tables and booths with brass fixtures. I have been here time and again both for romantic dinners and often for lunch with a group of friends from work.

What sets Houstons apart from other quality restaurants? Well, for one thing, I have insider’s information about the methods by which managers of the Houstons restaurants are hired and trained. Corporate recruiters hire new managers only after a thorough battery of psychological tests. These tests ensure that Houstons hires only the cream of the crop. Houstons pays their managers what they're worth, so of course, that too has an overall impact on quality of service and food. Good management equals employees who provide excellent service and carefully prepared meals to customers. The service here is always the best of the best.

The only thing I can recommend you avoid at Houstons is eating here on a Friday or Saturday night. It's packed like sardines in here on those nights. This is one of the top three places to eat in Houston. Expect to pay around $80 for dinner for two.

After having lived in Houston for the past 15 years and testing out many day spas, I have found this one to be quite a cut above the rest. What makes it a cut above? For one thing, the inside of this spa is brand new, beautifully decorated in fine and comfortable furnishings, and it provides top-notch services, the ultimate in pampering. The staff here will take those extra steps to ensure that your experience here will be the best you have ever encountered.

I find that many visitors to the Houston area are motivated to drive out to Katy Mills Outlet Mall for shopping. The Spa at Cinco Ranch is very convenient to Katy Mills Mall (a stone's throw). Therefore, whether you are a local or a visitor to the Houston area, you're likely to find yourself looking for some comfort and pampering after a long day of shopping at Katy Mills.

The moment I stepped foot into this luxury day spa, I somehow knew that my experience here was going to be a cut above. There were marble-tiled floors, comfortable lounge areas with fresh flowers, and pitchers of distilled water topped with only the finest of sliced fruits. I glanced around thinking, If the services are as good as the interior decorator, I'm going to have a wonderful day.

Just after checking in at the front desk, a pleasant-looking female attendant immediately whisked me off to the ladies changing room/dry sauna. The attendant was friendly, professional, affable, attentive, and thorough in her explanation of how things work here. I followed her into the ladies changing area as she explained the procedure: You'll find private changing areas to the right inside the ladies changing room. First, you should change out of your clothes, leaving your underwear and bra on. You'll find a fresh, clean Turkish cotton robe hanging in the private change room to put on. You will keep this robe on throughout your visit with us today for your comfort. You can place your clothing, purse, and valuables into your locker (located just feet from your changing room). The only thing you will carry with you throughout your stay today is the key to your locker, which has a comfortable wristband attached to it. There are a plethora of Cinco Ranch hair care products and toiletries here on the marble countertop for your use at any time during your visit with us. The dry sauna is right here in the ladies changing room and is available for you to use free of charge, regardless of whether you're having one service from us today, or ten. I know you do have more than one service scheduled today so we've set you up to have your 90-minute hot stone massage first, and then an attendant will walk you over to our hair salon for the services you have planned there. In between services, you will find comfortable lounge areas throughout this facility, complete with fresh pitchers of the fruited, distilled water. Would you like some fruited, distilled ice water? Do you have any questions? I change into my extremely soft and fluffy Turkish cotton robe with the Cinco Ranch Spa logo embroidered on the front while the attendant brings me some fruited, distilled ice water. The attendant then leads me down a long, marble hallway where there are obviously a lot of massage rooms; perhaps 12 rooms. The attendant introduces me to my massage therapist and leaves me in her hands.

In the past, I had received many Swedish massages, but never a hot stone massage. I was looking forward to this as I had been told the hot stone massage was good for tight, stressed muscles. The massage therapist coats my back with a thin amount of oil and takes the hot stones out of a steamer, which keeps them hot. She uses them two at a time, running the two stones lightly and slowly down the length of my back, allowing enough time for the heat of the stones to relax the muscles. This is by far not a deep-tissue massage, and I prefer the light, muscle relaxing massages. This was pretty close to what I was hoping for - as close to perfection as it comes. The massage table was nice with comfortable linens; even a padded pillow for my face scented with lavender aromatherapy oil. I had truly not felt this pampered at any spa I have ever been to. After nearly 2 hours of the hot stone massage, I was nearly asleep. As I popped up off of the massage table, I realized that she had massaged me for 30 minutes longer than she was scheduled to. How nice for me!

Feeling extremely relaxed, I slowly sauntered down the hallway in my Turkish robe, following my attendant to my next service, stopping only to refill my fruited-distilled water. My attendant seated me in the very cushy, comfortable sofa located inside the hair salon waiting area. She pointed out where I could get more water if I wanted (just feet away), checked with my hairstylist to get approximate wait time for me, informed me kindly of the wait time, and left. I was content to spend all day here, in this waiting room. The comfort of the luxurious furnishings, staff excellence in serving clientele, and the ambiance makes you want to stay.

I sat comfortably in my robe - sipping my water and thumbing through the good selection of couture magazines provided here. The spa manager quietly approaches me and very humbly asks, How is everything going today? Are you finding everything to be to your liking? I replied, Absolutely!. He then said, Have you been waiting too long? Is there anything I can do to make you more comfortable? I replied, No, not at all. Your excellent staff has seen to my every whim, thank you. With that, he bowed slightly and walked back toward the front desk. Mental note to self: This spa manager very obviously appears to be gay, so I am not at all worried about the possibility of him seeing any skin my robe might not be covering. I did not see any men here other than the manager and can only presume that they provide men’s services in a whole separate area from the women’s.

My hair stylist approaches, introduces herself, and takes me for my shampoo and condition. The scalp massage was lovely. I had been massaged head to toe today. Even my scalp feels relaxed! The hair salon has a very modern feel to it with lots of chrome chairs with black fabric covering. The lounge areas have what appears to be modernized, period furniture, which is brand new. It's all beautiful, classy, and very comfortable. After I feel the stylist knows what I want with regard to the cut of my hair, I relax and let her do her job. I'm so picky with hairstylists and since she was new, I wasn't expecting wonders. Boy was I shocked to see my hair when she was done - my hair looked better than it had in 15 years! I'm definitely hooked on this place now.

Prices here are much more reasonable than you think. It is $120 for a 90-minute hot stone oil massage. I paid about $65 for a women's cut, shampoo, deep condition, mousse, and blow dry with a diffuser styling. Not bad, not bad at all for such a deliciously luxurious day!

I almost felt guilty for enjoying such a wonderful day here… ALMOST. I smiled, thanking the girl at the front desk, and, as I departed. I thought to myself, I would have paid much more for that kind of quality and service. I'll definitely be coming back to this spa - and soon!

Tips:

I managed to schedule my first visit here for a day-long package of services on the day prior. However, I recommend booking a few days in advance.

Check out the hemp-based (shocking for this conservative-looking establishment) hair care products exclusively by Cinco Ranch in the hair salon. The extra body hair gel, mousse, and conditioner were absolutely fabulous and made my hair do things I never thought possible.

This spa is located not more than 10 minutes from Katy Mills Mall. They offer a wide variety of services, such as massages, reflexology, facials, pedicures, manicures, wraps, body bronzing, paraffin hand treatments, lash tinting, chemical peels, hair cut, color, styling, leg and body waxing, cosmetic application, and even bust-firming treatments! You can check out all of their services, pricing, hours, and more on their website at http://www.cincospa.com/

The entrance to the hotel sneaks up on you, so keep your eyes peeled and focused on the left side of the one-way street as you travel down Lousiana Street. Parking for the night is about $17.

As you enter this elegant hotel, immediately to your left are employees posted to retrieve your preliminary paperwork, party favors, and bracelets that allow you entrance into the dinner buffet and party. You must wear your bracelet all evening. Security is tight and you won't be able to enter any of the elevators without your bracelet.

This hotel has new feather bedding, and if you have an allergy to it(like me), make sure that you tell them that you need a feather-free room when making reservations. They maintain at least a few feather-free rooms for those with allergies. Additionally, this hotel is currently undergoing floor to ceiling makeovers.

Once check-in was complete, we unpacked and started getting ready for the party in our room. We were pleased to find the following amenities: bathrobes, cable TV with movie channels, high-speed internet access, coffee-maker with Wolfgang Puck coffee, bath toiletries, hair dryer, iron with ironing board (handy for those last minute touch-ups), room service, available turndown service, video account review, and check out. The bathroom was quite nice and fairly spacious.

We were placed in a 24th floor room that had a balcony facing the atrium; nice since we were looking forward to catching some of the several million balloons released from the 30th floor ceiling at midnight. All rooms face the atrium. Millions of balloons are dropped from the 30th floor and float down to the ground floor lobby where thousands of party-goers anxiously await them. You can choose to stand on your balcony and catch them as they float down or join the multitudes of revelers in the lobby and await them there.

After rushing to get ready, we locked our translucent, sparkly, gold plastic bracelets onto our wrists and made our way to the elevators. We dined on the second floor, indulging ourselves in a sumptuous buffet of prime rib, roasted chicken (my compliments to the chef), fish, and a few other meat selections; the many side dish selections included new potatoes and a variety of veggies (like steamed califlower). The French dinner rolls were a bit hard for my liking, but the chef here made up for it with a wide variety of extremely tantalizing, well-presented desserts. Right next to the mouth-watering desserts on the buffet, you'll find all the Starbucks coffee you can drink. In short, the roasted chicken, desserts, and Starbucks coffee were by far the best parts of the meal. As we dined, we listened to a live band playing jazz tunes. I noted that at least 65% of the women in attendance were wearing little, black cocktail dresses, many of them chiffon. Lots of ladies showing more skin that I expected to see at this elegant hotel. We noted that most of the people here were between the ages of 30 to 60. However, there was a smattering of early 20s college kids here. They sat at our dinner table and we enjoyed our chat with them. We enjoyed hearing about the various colleges they were attending and their plans for marriages and careers.

After dinner, we walked next door to have our New Year's picture taken (second floor, next to the coat room). I wasn't thrilled with how the picture turned out because it was overexposed. However, I wasn't expecting the best in professional photography, so it wasn't a big issue.

We took the escalator down to where all the action was in the lobby. As you descend the escalator, you can hear the music that the DJ is spinning out and get a bird's eye view of the thousands who are socializing in the lobby. There is one large bar in the center of the party (lobby-level) and three more portable bars nearby. You won't have a wait early in the evening, but as the night progresses, you'll find the lines getting longer; the wait between 10:30pm and midnight can be 30 minutes or more. There are also portable bars upstairs in the buffet area, so we typically get one of our drinks there after dinner. They do need at least two more portable bars set up on the lobby level. After you have exhausted your drink ticket (four drinks), you can opt to purchase additional drinks at any of the bars. There's a better variety of liquors available at the main bar in the lobby than there is at the portable bars.

The music that the DJ spins out is primarily bump-and-grind tunes from the '70s and '80s (Commodores, Prince, and others). However, you'll also hear more current, popular R & B and Hip-Hop tunes (like 50 cent, Outkast, and No Doubt).

As midnight approaches, the party may get a little wilder than you'd expect for the predominant age group in attendance. We saw two or three scantily clad blonde women joining the DJ on stage; dancing together in an extremely provacative way. Many of the male revelers were whipping out their cameras and video equipment.

A good spot for people-watching is at the foot of the escalator leading from the second floor down to the lobby. You'll find a variety of different people dancing their way down the escalator as they descend. It's comedic and entertaining to watch them.

At about 11:45pm, we chose to take the glass elevator back up to our hotel balcony for the midnight dropping of the balloons. We caught at least 40 multicolored balloons and listened as the thousands below on the lobby level popped thousands of balloons in unison.

All in all, this is the best party of them all for many reasons. The hotel itself is elegant with huge, stately chandeliers, a well organized New Year’s bash, a luxuriously appointed lobby and rooms, a well-presented dinner buffet with delectable desserts, sociable party-goers, fun music, superior hotel staff and service (exception being not enough bars to service so many), and an all around comfortable stay. For the comfort of the guests here, the party is shut down by security at 2am. This guarantees a quiet night of sleep in your comfortable bed. Reserve early, as this Hyatt is usually sold out for New Years!