Tag Archives: Monthly Special

Keith’s Blog October 6 – 12, 2019

Keith's Blog

Welcome Fans, Friends, and Visitors,

 

Hi.  Remember to set your clocks back one hour on October 6th.  We want you to be on time for a tour on this Sunday.  LOL.

Weather in Houston

October is Houston’s sixth warmest month.  You probably do not need a jacket unless it is for water resistance. Click here for the weekly report.

Monthly Special for a 2.5-Hour Walking Tour – Discounted by 17 to 29% Based on the Number of People

The monthly special for October is Downtown Walking Tour E. This is a great month to be outside walking.  The focus of this tour is Buffalo Bayou, 6 performance halls, statues, parks, and historic sites and buildings.  This tour starts in the rotunda located on the first floor of the City Hall building at 901 Bagby Street, Houston, Texas 77002.  Click here to read a description.

Weekly Special for Driving Tours – October 6th through October 12th. Discounted 20%.

With the leaves starting to fall and change colors and falling, this is a good time to go north to Huntsville for a day tour of the Sam Houston Memorial Museum, to see the house in which he died, the cemetery where he is buried, the 6-story of Big Sam, and more.  Click here to read a description.

Weekly Special for National Food Days – October 6th through October 12th.  

These are 3-hour customized tours that can be blended.  The price is the same as a regularly priced 3-hour City Tour.  You pay for anything that you consume.   These include:

 

  • October 6th – National Noodle Day.
  • October 8th – National Fluffernutter Day.
  • October 11th – National Sausage Pizza Day.

 

See you on a tour.

Sincerely,

Keith Rosen
Houston Historical Tours
P. O. Box 262404
Houston, Texas 77207-2404
(713) 392-0867
(713) 643-4086 Fax
houstonhistory@aol.com
www.houstonhistoricaltours.com

Keith’s Blog – June 2019

Keith's Blog

Welcome Fans, Friends, and Visitors,

Hi.  Welcome to the land of heat and humidity.  Houston is the most air-conditioned city in the world.  Bring sunscreen and wear appropriate clothing.

Weather in Houston

June is the first month of the hurricane season that lasts through November 30th, for six months.  However, have no fear.  With the exception of a freak storm that began in the Pacific Ocean and crossed Mexico, Hurricane Patricia on October 25, 2015, 100% of all major hurricanes that have hit Houston do so in a six-week window during the last two weeks of August and the first four weeks of September.  The monthly average high temperature is 91 degrees Fahrenheit/33 degrees Centigrade.  The monthly average low temperature is 74 degrees Fahrenheit/23 degrees Centigrade, and the mean is 82 degrees Fahrenheit/28 degrees Centigrade.  It is the third hottest month of the year and the first of three consecutive months when the high temperature is normally in the 90 degrees Fahrenheit/30 degrees Centigrade.  The average rainfall is 6.8 inches/17.4 centimeters.  It is by far the wettest month of the year.  It is the only month with 6 or more inches of rainfall or 145 or more centimeters of rain.

Tours

Mention that you read about the tours below from the blog and you will receive a 10% discount.

African-American Music Appreciation Month

June is African-American Music Appreciation Month.  Would you like to schedule an evening tour to listen to some jazz,  rhythm and blues, or soul music?

Gay and Lesbian Themed Tours

June is LGBT Pride Month.  We go to a variety of bars, restaurants, clubs, unisex shops, and boutiques, and neighborhoods.  This is usually a late afternoon and or evening tour.

Brewery Tours

Nowadays, Houston has over 2 dozen breweries.  All but one, the St. Arnold Brewery (the grand-daddy), has started since 2011.  We offer brewery tours from 2 to 10 hours, from 1 to 4 breweries, from 1 to dozens of people.  We can play Irish, German, and country and western beer drinking songs along the way or play DVDs of movies and television shows that focused on beer drinking and where everyone knows your name.  Most breweries have either restaurants or food trucks on the premises to eat meals.

Galveston Tours

Galveston tours range from 5 to 14 hours depending on what you want to see.  Galveston has about 6 museums including the Ocean Star Oil Rig museum, The Bryan Museum whose specialty is anthropology, the Texas Seaport Museum, and the 4th largest Railroad Museum.  Perhaps, you would like to tour one or both of the 1890s mansion homes:  the Bishop’s Palace and or Moody Mansion.  You might want to go shopping on The Strand; this area looks a lot like a mini-, cleaned up version of Bourbon Street in New Orleans.  You could see one to three movies about the history and main events in the history of Galveston, including the greatest natural disaster in United States history.  The Galveston Hurricane, also known as the Great Storm killed between 6,000 and 8,000 people in just one city.  That figure was greater than the total number of people killed by all of the hurricanes that have hit the US since that time COMBINED with the exception of Hurricane Maria that hit Puerto Rico in September 2017.  We will also take you around to see the different neighborhoods, and Victorian homes and public structures and to tour downtown, and drive along The Seawall.

National Food Day Tours

Did you know that:

  • The first Friday of June is National Donut Day?
  • June 2nd is National Rocky Road Day?
  •  June 3rd is National Egg Day?
  • June 4th is National Cognac Day?
  • June 5th is National Gingerbread Day?
  • June 6th is National Applesauce Cake Day?
  • June 7th is Chocolate Ice Cream Day?
  • June 10th is National Iced Tea Day?
  • June 11th is National German Chocolate Cake Day?
  • June 12th is National Peanut Butter Cookie Day?
  • June 15th is National Lobster Day?
  • June 16th is National Fudge Day?
  • June 17th is National Eat Your Vegetables?
  • June 20th is National Vanilla Milkshake Day?
  • June 21st is National Peaches “N” Cream Day?
  • June 25th is National Catfish Day?
  • June 26th is National Chocolate Pudding Day?
  •  June 28th in National Tapioca Day?

 

We will create a customized 3-hour themed tour for your enjoyment anytime in this month for the above gastronomical sensations.  We can combine two or more of the above holidays.  Who does not like comfort food and drink?

Monthly Special  – Discounted by 17 to 29% Based on the Number of People

The monthly special for June is the 2.5-hour Tunnel Tour B.  THE TUNNELS ARE AIR CONDITIONED!  CELEBRATE!  Of the three tunnels tours that we offer, this is one of the two most popular tunnel tours.  It has the most visual stimuli, variety of activities, and a moderate amount of walking.  We will see hundreds of different stores and shops, go through the largest food court in the tunnel system, walk through at least 3 skybridges/skywalks from building to building and with smaller groups of 10 or less, go to 59th and 58th floor observation decks.  We walk through the busiest sections of the tunnels.  The walking is 2.0 miles/3.2 kilometers.  Shoppers and people with attention deficit disorder (ADD) tend to love this tour.

The downtown walking tours in May, June, September, and October all begin in the rotunda on the first floor of the City Hall building at 901 Bagby Street, Houston, Texas 77002.  You can enter from either the east or west side of the building.

It goes into the:

  • Wells Fargo Plaza
  • 1 Houston Center/LyondellBasell Tower/1200 McKinney Street,
  • 2 Houston Center/909 Fannin Street,
  • 3 Houston Center/Fulbright Tower/1301 McKinney Street,
  • 4 Houston Center/Shops at Houston Center/1221 Lamar Street, and
  • 5 Houston Center/1401 McKinney Street.

 

It goes under:

  • The Kinder-Morgan Building,
  • 919 Milam,
  • 1000 Main,
  • One City Centre,
  • 1001 Fannin,
  • 1001 McKinney/ International Bank of Commerce (IBC),
  • The Commerce Towers, and
  • 811 Louisiana.

 

You will walk through skywalks/skybridges over:

  • Caroline Street twice,
  • McKinney Street, and
  • San Jacinto Street.

 

A walking tour only moves as fast as the slowest person.

Warnings:

  1. Use a bathroom before the tour begins. Only about two public bathrooms are accessible during this tour.  Most of the businesses in or operating over the tunnels do not allow the general public to use their bathrooms.
  2. Not all of the tunnels are Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 accessible. Thus, you should NOT select this special tour if you use a walker, a wheelchair, or any other device that you need to enable you to move.
  3. If you use a cane, we will be moving at such a slow pace that we will not be able to complete the whole tunnel tour. Thus, we will have to omit some buildings.
  4. We go on elevators and escalators. Thus, you should NOT select this special tour if you have a phobia about either of these mechanical devices.

 

You cannot take photos inside the banks.  Taking photos elsewhere is fine.

  1. 1927 32-story tall Niels Esperson Building. This was Houston’s tallest building from 1927 to 1929.
  2. 1929 37-story tall J. P. Morgan Chase Building. This was Houston’s tallest building from 1929 to 1963.
  3. 1939 17-story tall City Hall. The architect was Joseph Finger.
  4. 1942 19-story tall Mellie Esperson Building. The architect was John Eberson.
  5. 1971 50-story tall One Shell Plaza. This was Houston’s tallest building from 1971 to 1980.
  6. 1975 36-story tall Pennzoil Place. This is Houston’s most award-winning skyscraper. Philip Johnson designed it.
  7. 1982 75-story tall J. P. Morgan Chase Tower. This is the tallest building in Texas. I. M. Pei designed it.
  8. 1983 71-story tall Wells Fargo Plaza. This is the second tallest building in Texas. Richard Keating designed it.

 

We will discuss the architects, histories, different building usages, styles architectural features and changes to the buildings over the years. This tour can include going to an art gallery and seeing sculptures.

The downtown walking tours in May, June, September, and October all begin in the rotunda on the first floor of the City Hall building at 901 Bagby Street, Houston, Texas 77002. You can enter from either the east or west side of the building. Metered parking is usually available in the 500 block of both Walker Street and McKinney Street for up to 3-hours. Underground garage parking beneath Tranquility Park is accessible in the 500 block of Rusk Street.

A walking tour only moves as fast as the slowest person.

Warnings:

  1. Use a bathroom before the tour begins. Only one public bathroom is accessible during this tour after we leave the area close to City Hall.
  2. Not all of the tunnels are Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 accessible. Thus, you should NOT select this special tour if you use a walker, a wheelchair, or any other device that you need to enable you to move.
  3. If you use a cane, we will be moving at such a slow pace that we will not be able to complete the whole tunnel tour. Thus, we will have to omit some buildings.
  4. We go on elevators and escalators. Thus, you should NOT select this special tour if you have a phobia about either of these mechanical devices.

You cannot take photos inside the banks.  Taking photos elsewhere is fine.

Monthly Special Prices

  • 1 person – $40.00.  This is a 43% discount off of the regular price of $70.00

$40.00 + $3.30 (Sales tax of 8.25%) = $43.30 Total.

  • 2 people – $30.00 each.  This is a 25% discount off of the regular price of $40.00 per person.

$30.00 + $2.48 (Sales tax of 8.25%) = $32.48 per person x 2 people = $64.96 Total.

  • 3 or 4 people – $25.00 each.  This is a 17% discount off the regular price of $30.00 per person.

$25.00 + $2.07 (Sales tax of 8.25%) = $27.07 per person.
$27.07 per person x 3 people = $81.21 Total.
$27.07 per person x 4 people = $108.28 Total.

  • 5 to 9 people – $20.00 each.  This is a 20% discount off the regular price of $25.00 per person.

$20.00 + $1.65 (Sales tax of 8.25%) = $21.65 per person.  $21.65 x 5 people = $108.25.
$20.00 + $1.65 (Sales tax of 8.25%) + $3.00 (15% gratuity for parties of 6 or more people) = $24.65 per person x 6, 7, 8, or 9 people.

  • 10 to 19 people – $15.00 each.  This is a 25% discount off the regular price of $20.00 per person.
    $15.00 + $1.24 (Sales tax of 8.25%) + $2.25 per person (15% gratuity for parties of 6 or more people) = $18.49 per person x the number of people.

 

If you know anyone who would be interested in receiving our blogs, please let us know at houstonhistory@aol.com.  Provide a clear name and email address for the person or group and we will sign them up.  Thanks.

If you have any suggestions for special tour discounts in July, send us an email.

See you on a tour.

Sincerely,

Keith Rosen
Houston Historical Tours
P. O. Box 262404
Houston, Texas 77207-2404
(713) 392-0867
(713) 643-4086 Fax
houstonhistory@aol.com
www.houstonhistoricaltours.com

Keith’s Blog – March 2019

Keith's Blog

Welcome Fans, Friends, and Visitors,

Keith Rosen

Hi. March is a month that is booming with activities for men and women. It is as if the tourist business is coming out of hibernation and starting to see buds opening up. March is Women’s History Month and Irish American Heritage Month. It is also when men and women scurry to the biggest rodeo in the United States. The rodeo lasts for approximately 3 weeks. Although not as long or as appealing to the masses, the Azalea Trail in River Oaks lasts only one long weekend from Friday to Sunday when primarily women come from across the United States to see the beautiful flowers and beautiful mansion homes. The professional basketball regular season is ending, March Madness is beginning, and a new baseball season is just about to commence. There is something for everyone.

Weather in Houston

March is one of the four best months to visit Houston. Several reasons exist for this. The temperatures are moderate. You might need a light sweater at the beginning of the month, but by the end of the month, the temperatures are quite comfortable. The monthly average high temperature is 74 degrees Fahrenheit/23 degrees Centigrade. The monthly average low temperature is 55 degrees Fahrenheit/13 degrees Centigrade, and the mean is 64 degrees Fahrenheit/18 degrees Centigrade. The average rainfall is 3.19 inches/81 centimeters. It is the second driest month of the year after February.

Tours Below

Mention that you read about the tours below from the blog and you will receive a 10% discount.

Azalea Trail Tours

The formal Azalea Trail historically has signaled the beginning of spring in Houston. It is always on the first 3 day weekend in March from Friday through Sunday, In 2018, this is March 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. Six homes and the Forum for Civics are opened for touring; two homes that are always on the tour are the late Ima Hogg’s Bayou Bend and the late Harris Masterson’s Rienzi. Bayou Bend has one of the finest collections of Americana art and furnishings dating to the colonial period of the 1600s. The other four houses vary annually. We offer 3 different packages for 1, 1.5, or 2 days. We also take you on tour through River Oaks showing you some of the homes of the rich, famous, and scandalous, and where movies were filmed. Of course, you will see beautiful azaleas and plenty of other flowers. If you either miss the formal Azalea Trail of homes that are opened, we can take you on an informal Azalea Trail for the first half of the month. By the middle of the month, most of the most vibrant azaleas have already bloomed and the petals have fallen off.

Irish-American Heritage Month

March has been Irish-American Heritage Month since 1991. It encases Saint Patrick’s Day which always falls on March 17th. Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, lived from circa 385 to 461 when he died on March 17th. We will visit St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Houston or some other church if you prefer and see the statue of Irish immigrant Dick Dowling who served in the Confederacy, Of course, what Irish American Tour would be complete without going to two or three Irish pubs, consuming a pint of Guinness and whatever else, throwing darts, and devouring some corned beef and cabbage?

Rodeo Themed Tours

The rodeo is the biggest and longest fundraiser in Houston. It provides scholarships for students to attend college. It generally lasts for three weeks and begins in either the last week of February or the first week of March. A different musical performer is featured every night. This is the largest rodeo in the United States and the second largest in North American after the Calgary, Alberta, Canada’s Stampede in July. Everyone should attend the Houston rodeo at least once in his/her life. Try some of the barbecue and go enjoy the activities on the fairgrounds. Traffic is often miserable in the vicinity. If you want to schedule us to transport to and or from the rodeo with or without tickets let us know. If you want to include an activity of visiting an actual ranch, the George Ranch Historical Park in Richmond, Texas, or the Oil Ranch in Hockley, Texas we can arrange that, also.

Women’s History Month Tours

March is a busy month for different groups to be recognized. It is Women’s History Month. Women have often been as the forefront of social progressive movements such as voting, abolition, medical care, civil rights, and more. When men have lacked a conscious, women have filled in the vacuum. We offer a couple of completely different 5-hour tours that focus on women’s history and culture. Visit our website to see more detailed descriptions.

National Food Day Tours

Did you know that:

    • March 1st is National Peanut Butter Lover’s Day?
    • March 2nd is National Banana Crème Pie Day?
    • March 8th is National Peanut Cluster Day?
    • March 9th is National Crabmeat Day?
    • March 9th is National Meatball Day?
    • March 10th is National Blueberry Popover Day?
    • March 11th is Oatmeal Nut Waffles Day?
    • March 11th is Johnny Appleseed Day?
    • March 12th is National Baked Scallops Day?
    • March 14th is Pi Day?
    • March 22nd is National Corndog Day?
    • March 23rd is National Chips and Dip Day?
    • March 27th is International Whiskey Day?

We will create a customized 3-hour themed tour for your enjoyment anytime in this month for the above gastronomical sensations. We can combine two or more of the above holidays. Who does not like comfort food and drink?

Monthly Special – Discounted by 17 to 43% Based on the Number of People

The monthly special for March is a 2.5-hour walking tour to and from art galleries. Did you know that Houston has over 30 art galleries? Did you know that Houston has 3 or 4 areas with 5 or more art galleries within walking distance. We can give you a choice of which area you want to walk through leisurely. These galleries present art in different forms, styles, and genres from different ethnicities, philosophies, and nations. Just imagine. You get to learn about your city, explore new neighborhoods or old ones that you like, and see dozens of works of art. Some of these areas have quaint and cute cafes with excellent food in them to enjoy, also.

The tour begins at The Menil Collection Parking lot by the Bistro Menil. The parking is free. Two entrances exist for it. If you have a GPS, input either 1559 West Alabama Street, or 3860 Mulberry Street. The city and zip code is Houston, Texas 77006 for each address.

Monthly Special Prices

  • 1 person – $40.00.  This is a 43% discount off of the regular price of $70.00

$40.00 + $3.30 (Sales tax of 8.25%) = $43.30 Total.

  • 2 people – $30.00 each.  This is a 25% discount off of the regular price of $40.00 per person.

$30.00 + $2.48 (Sales tax of 8.25%) = $32.48 per person x 2 people = $64.96 Total.

  • 3 or 4 people – $25.00 each.  This is a 17% discount off the regular price of $30.00 per person.

$25.00 + $2.07 (Sales tax of 8.25%) = $27.07 per person.
$27.07 per person x 3 people = $81.21 Total.
$27.07 per person x 4 people = $108.28 Total.

  • 5 to 9 people – $20.00 each.  This is a 20% discount off the regular price of $25.00 per person.

$20.00 + $1.65 (Sales tax of 8.25%) = $21.65 per person.  $21.65 x 5 people = $108.25.
$20.00 + $1.65 (Sales tax of 8.25%) + $3.00 (15% gratuity for parties of 6 or more people) = $24.65 per person x 6, 7, 8, or 9 people.

  • 10 to 19 people – $15.00 each.  This is a 25% discount off the regular price of $20.00 per person.
    $15.00 + $1.24 (Sales tax of 8.25%) + $2.25 per person (15% gratuity for parties of 6 or more people) = $18.49 per person x the number of people.

 

Trivia and Rewards

In the Mid-February 2019, I asked a trivia question with a reward: “Whoever can be the first person to send me an email with the Houston Rockets’s 5 highest single season scorers, the season, and the average (not counting this season) will win a free 3-hour city tour for one person?” Only one person made one attempt and not all of the answers were correct.

The correct answers were:

  1. Moses Malone 1981 – 1982 31.1
  2. James Harden 2017 – 2018 30.4
  3. James Harden 2016 – 2017 29.1
  4. James Harden 2015 – 2016 29.0
  5. Elvin Hayes 1970 – 1971 28.7

Look for more trivia questions in mid-month blogs with free and discounted tours for the first person who submits the correct answers.

Kudos to Us

For the 9th consecutive year since 2012, AAA has included Houston Historical Tours in its nationally-famous tour books. People from all over the country use these tour books to plan their vacations. We are one of only two tour companies identified in the book. However, we are referenced in three different sections on 3 different pages:

  1. Must Do: AAA Editor’s Picks on page 240.
  2. Houston 1-day Itinerary on page 241.
  3. Sightseeing Bus and Van Tours on page 250.

 

I know of no other tour company in the state of Texas that has 2 entries, let alone 3 entries and that are not paid advertisements. We offer a 10% discount for AAA members who show proof of their membership.

Invite Your Friends

If you know anyone who would be interested in receiving our blogs, please let us know at houstonhistory@aol.com. Provide a clear name and email address for the person or group and we will sign them up. Thanks.

See you on a tour.

Sincerely,

Keith Rosen
Houston Historical Tours
P. O. Box 262404
Houston, Texas 77207-2404
(713) 392-0867
(713) 643-4086 Fax
houstonhistory@aol.com
www.houstonhistoricaltours.com

 

Keith’s Blog – January 2019

Keith's Blog

Welcome Fans, Friends, and Visitors,

Keith Rosen

Hi. January is one of the slower months.  This can be attributed to people saving their money to pay for the presents that they bought and the money that they spent partying for the holidays of December.  Furthermore, any month with a public holiday such as New Year’s Day and Martin Luther King, Jr’s Birthday is a month with generally less days of people touring while they spend the day with family and friends at home or in the backyard cooking.  For the tourist, this can be good as it will be easier for Houston Historical Tours to schedule your personal tour.

Weather in Houston

January is Houston’s coldest month.  Be prepared to wear a coat.  The monthly average high temperature is 63 degrees Fahrenheit/17 degrees Centigrade.  The monthly average low temperature is 45 degrees Fahrenheit/7 degrees Centigrade, and the mean is 54 degrees Fahrenheit/12 degrees Centigrade.  The average rainfall is 4.25 inches/10.7 centimeters.  It is the eighth wettest month of the year.

Tours Below

Mention that you read about any of the tours below (other than the monthly specials) from the blog and you will receive a 10% discount in the month of December.  What a deal!

Space Center Houston (SCH) (NASA) Tours

This is a good tour to take, particularly in the latter half of the month and well into February and March.  You spend most of the time in buildings during this cold, by Houston standards, weather.  Once school is in session again, the crowds are smaller, the queues are shorter, the noise is softer, and the tram rides often stop at three sites rather than just two sites.  We offer a number of options.  The tour is normally eight hours to include all of the sites and activities; this includes about 6.5 hours at NASA and allows for about 1.5 hours in total to drive to NASA in the morning and to return in rush hour traffic in the afternoon.  However, if you want to save time and or money by shortening it to 7 or 6 hours by deleting some of the activities, we can customize it for you.  You can also save money if you only want the transportation with or without the admission ticket.  Transport will drop you off at NASA and then pick you up later.  You are on your own to roam about the facility.  A tour includes having a tour guide to run you around, making sure that you see everything possible, and to provide you narratives on the exhibits and about the history and why Houston has a space center.  Go to the Houston Historical Tours website to read more.

City Tours

We offer city tours of Houston ranging from 2 to 9 hours depending on what you want to see.  You have two options for 2-hour tours, A 1 and A2.  A1 focuses on classical Houston – the theater district, downtown, sports stadiums, River Oaks’s old wealth mansions, the Rice Village, Rice University, Mecom Fountains, the primary Museum District, and Hermann Park, Houston’s most popular park.  A2 focuses on the more offbeat Houston where you will see sites that unique to Houston such as the largest church in the US, the most photographed area in Houston, the 64-foot Waterwall where 11,000 gallons of water pour off of it every minute, the 4th largest shopping mall in the US and the largest in the South, the Galleria, the Beer Can House, the Spear House, the Gargoyle House, the art car studio of Mark Bradford or Art Car Museum, a Orange Crush and Beer Can statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and more.  If you take a 3-hour tour, you can see all of that plus stop for a break in The Chocolate Bar.  A 4-hour tour Monday through Friday will normally include walking through a 3-block section of the underground downtown tunnels and going to an observation deck.  The tunnels and observation deck are only open on weekdays.  On weekends, we substitute driving through the Houston Heights or driving through the second Museum District by the University of St. Thomas. A 5-hour tour includes a stop for lunch of your choice.  Just tell us what food you want to savor.  Six hour and longer tours can easily be customized to either cover more areas of Houston such as the Eado and East End or give time to go into museums, galleries, and parks.  The two- hour tours cover about 20 miles/32 kilometers, and we add about 10 miles/16 kilometers per hour of area covered for each additional hour.  For 4-hour tours and longer, we have about one stop per hour to take photographs, use a bathroom, get refreshments, and or have lunch. See our website for the descriptions.

National Food Day Tours

Did you know that:

  • January 1st is National Bloody Mary Day?
  • January 2nd is National Creampuff Day?
  • January 3rd is National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day?
  • January 12th is National Cheesesteak and Cheesecake Day?
  • January 24th is National Peanut Butter Day?
  • January 27th is National Chocolate Cake Day?

We will create a customized 3-hour themed tour for your enjoyment anytime in this month for the above gastronomical sensations.  We can combine two or more of the above holidays.  Who does not like comfort food and drink?

Monthly Special – Discounted by 17 to 43% Based on the Number of People

The monthly special for January is a walking tour through Houston’s lesser known museum district.   If you like high culture, this is a GREAT tour!  You can go inside 5 museums and 3 chapels.  These include:

  • The Dan Flavin Installation,
  • The Cy Twombly Gallery,
  • The Menil Collection,
  • The Watercolor Art Society – Houston (WASH),
  • The Houston Center for Photography (HCP),
  • The Rothko Chapel,
  • The Chapel of Saint Basil, and
  • The former Byzantine Fresco Chapel.
  • Time-permitting, we might go into one or two more galleries.

These sites are all FREE to enter.  The museums are closed on Monday.  Many of these places are world renown.  The Dalai Lama has been to the Rothko Chapel.  Many people consider The Menil Collection as the best free art museum in the United States.  We may run out of time if you are having too much fun while spending a lot of time in any or all of these museums.  You will also discover a number of small cafes and restaurants in the area.<

The tour starts at the free parking lot pathway that leads to Sul Ross Street.  The parking lot has two access points:

  • 1515 West Alabama Street, Houston, Texas 77006
  • 3808 Mulberry Street, Houston, Texas 77006.

Monthly Special Prices

  • 1 person – $40.00.  This is a 43% discount off of the regular price of $70.00

$40.00 + $3.30 (Sales tax of 8.25%) = $43.30 Total.

  • 2 people – $30.00 each.  This is a 25% discount off of the regular price of $40.00 per person.

$30.00 + $2.48 (Sales tax of 8.25%) = $32.48 per person x 2 people = $64.96 Total.

  • 3 or 4 people – $25.00 each.  This is a 17% discount off the regular price of $30.00 per person.

$25.00 + $2.07 (Sales tax of 8.25%) = $27.07 per person.
$27.07 per person x 3 people = $81.21 Total.
$27.07 per person x 4 people = $108.28 Total.

  • 5 to 9 people – $20.00 each.  This is a 20% discount off the regular price of $25.00 per person.

$20.00 + $1.65 (Sales tax of 8.25%) = $21.65 per person.  $21.65 x 5 people = $108.25.
$20.00 + $1.65 (Sales tax of 8.25%) + $3.00 (15% gratuity for parties of 6 or more people) = $24.65 per person x 6, 7, 8, or 9 people.

  • 10 to 19 people – $15.00 each.  This is a 25% discount off the regular price of $20.00 per person.
    $15.00 + $1.24 (Sales tax of 8.25%) + $2.25 per person (15% gratuity for parties of 6 or more people) = $18.49 per person x the number of people.

Some Positive Forms of Recognition

Lastly, here are some positive forms of recognition:

  • Houston Historical Tours has been selected to receive the Small Business Excellence Award for 2018 in the Historical Tours category by Small Business Excellence.
  • Houston Historical Tours will be in AAA Texas Travel Books for the 9th consecutive year. AAA Tour Books are the most popular tour books in the nation.

We are proud of these accomplishments.

Invite Your Friends

If you know anyone who would be interested in receiving our blogs, please let us know at houstonhistory@aol.com. Provide a clear name and email address for the person or group and we will sign them up. Thanks.

See you on a tour.

Sincerely,

Keith Rosen
Houston Historical Tours
P. O. Box 262404
Houston, Texas 77207-2404
(713) 392-0867
(713) 643-4086 Fax
houstonhistory@aol.com
www.houstonhistoricaltours.com

 

Keith’s Blog – September 2018

Keith's Blog

Welcome Fans, Friends, and Visitors,

 

Hi. Now that school is in session, the queues, congestion, and noise at Space Center Houston and museums are now shorter. These institutions are more attractive to visit without the distractions, waits, and loudness to endure. City tours are always good year-round. September is also the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month.

Weather in Houston

September is the fourth hottest month of the year and the second rainiest month of the year. The monthly average high temperature is 89 degrees Fahrenheit/32 degrees Centigrade. The monthly average low temperature is 72 degrees Fahrenheit/22 degrees Centigrade, and the mean is 81 degrees Fahrenheit/27 degrees Centigrade. It is the fifth consecutive month when the temperature is in the 30 degrees Centigrade. The average rainfall is 5.6 inches/14.3 centimeters. This is the most active major hurricane prone month. Remember:

  1. The Great Storm on September 8th, 1900.
  2. Hurricane Carla from September 11th to 14th, 1961.
  3. Hurricane Rita on September 17th, 2005.
  4. Hurricane Ike on September 13th, 2008.

Bring a raincoat and an umbrella. Wear light clothing. It is still hot and humid.

 

Tours Below

Mention that you read about any of the tours below from the blog and you will receive a 10% discount in the month of September. What a deal!

Hispanic Themed Tours

Hispanic Heritage Month is an unusual holiday in that it begins in the middle of the month on September 15 and continues into the first half of October through the 15th. The reason for this unique recognition is:

  1. Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua declared their independence, on September 15, 1821.
  2. Mexico declared its independence, on September 16, 1810. It was recognized, on September 27, 1821.
  3. Chile declared its independence, on September 18, 1810.

 

Read about the 4 Hispanic tours that we offer by clicking here. This link will bring you to full information about our Hispanic tours in Houston.

Space Center Houston Tours

Give yourself at least 6 hours to:

  1. See the 40+ minute IMAX film on the largest IMAX screen in Texas.
  2. View the 18 minute film on Human Destiny that traces NASA’s history from 1961 to 2011.
  3. Hear the 15 to 25 minute speaker about current and future projects that NASA is formulating.
  4. Listen to the 15 to 20 minute representative talk about Living in Space.
  5. Give yourself 20 to 60 minutes, depending on whether you want to read every placard to tour the Independence Plaza sites of going into a 747 and a mockup of a space shuttle.
  6. Allow 1.5 to 2.0 hours to ride on the tram to go to 2 or 3 sites including Rocket Park to see Mercury (1961 – 1963) and Saturn V (1968 – 1972) rockets, the former mission control, and or the astronauts training facility. Saturn Vs were rockets that were used to launch men to the moon.
  7. Have a narrative tour for 30 minutes through the Starship Gallery history museum including touching a moon rock and going through a replica of the first space station from 1973 and 1974 called Skylab.
  8. Spend 20 to 30 minutes to eat lunch at the Zero G Diner.
  9. Shop for 20 minutes in the Space Trader store for souvenirs and gifts.
  10. Stand in queues and walking from one activity to another for some unknown length of time.

Ask yourself the questions, when were you last here and when will you return again. This might be a once in a lifetime or decade trip.

City Tours

We offer 9 tours ranging from only 2 to 9 hours. Decide how much you want to see, how many places that you want to get out and take photos, and how many places that you want to go inside. These tours will cover from about 15 to 70 miles.

September Monthly Special – Tunnel Tour C –
Discounted by 17% to 29% Based on the Number of People

The monthly special for September is the 2.5-hour Tunnel Tour C. This is the longest tunnel tour that we offer with about 4.0/6.4 kilometers of walking. It goes through 3 hotels including the Hyatt Regency and Doubletree and through several businesses. It includes going to a 12th floor observation deck and taking the glass elevator facing the street in the Hyatt Regency Hotel to the 31st floor Spindletop bar and restaurant. Although Spindletop is closed during the day, the elevator rides can offer great views.

The downtown walking tours in May, June, September, and October all begin in the rotunda on the first floor of the City Hall building at 901 Bagby Street, Houston, Texas 77002. You can enter from either the east or west side of the building.

Warnings:

  1. A walking tour only moves as fast as the slowest person.
  2. Use a bathroom before the tour begins. Only about two public bathrooms are accessible during this tour. Most of the businesses in or operating over the tunnels do not allow the general public to use their bathrooms.
  3. Not all of the tunnels are Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 accessible. Thus, you should NOT select this special tour if you use a walker, a wheelchair, or any other device that you need to enable you to move.
  4. If you use a cane, we will be moving at such a slow pace that we will not be able to complete the whole tunnel tour. Thus, we will have to omit some buildings.
  5. We go on elevators and escalators. Thus, you should NOT select this special tour if you have a phobia about either of these mechanical devices.

You cannot take photos inside the banks. Taking photos elsewhere is fine.

Monthly Special Prices
(along with the totals including sales tax and gratuity for 6 or more people):

  • 1 person – $40.00.  This is a 43% discount off of the regular price of $70.00

$40.00 + $3.30 (Sales tax of 8.25%) = $43.30 Total.

  • 2 people – $30.00 each.  This is a 25% discount off of the regular price of $40.00 per person.

$30.00 + $2.48 (Sales tax of 8.25%) = $32.48 per person x 2 people = $64.96 Total.

  • 3 or 4 people – $25.00 each.  This is a 17% discount off the regular price of $30.00 per person.

$25.00 + $2.07 (Sales tax of 8.25%) = $27.07 per person.
$27.07 per person x 3 people = $81.21 Total.
$27.07 per person x 4 people = $108.28 Total.

  • 5 to 9 people – $20.00 each.  This is a 20% discount off the regular price of $25.00 per person.

$20.00 + $1.65 (Sales tax of 8.25%) = $21.65 per person.  $21.65 x 5 people = $108.25.
$20.00 + $1.65 (Sales tax of 8.25%) + $3.00 (15% gratuity for parties of 6 or more people) = $24.65 per person x 6, 7, 8, or 9 people.

  • 10 to 19 people – $15.00 each.  This is a 25% discount off the regular price of $20.00 per person.
    $15.00 + $1.24 (Sales tax of 8.25%) + $2.25 per person (15% gratuity for parties of 6 or more people) = $18.49 per person x the number of people.

 

Invite Your Friends

If you know anyone who would be interested in receiving our blogs, please let us know at houstonhistory@aol.com. Provide a clear name and email address for the person or group and we will sign them up. Thanks.

See you on a tour.

Sincerely,

Keith Rosen
Houston Historical Tours
P. O. Box 262404
Houston, Texas 77207-2404
(713) 392-0867
(713) 643-4086 Fax
houstonhistory@aol.com
www.houstonhistoricaltours.com

Keith’s Blog – June 2018

Keith's Blog

Welcome Fans, Friends, and Visitors

Hi.

  1. Do you like sunshine?
  2. Do you like heat and humidity?
  3. Do you want curly hair?
  4. Do you like to sweat?
  5. Do you feel more comfortable when your eyes are stinging from perspiration dripping in them?
  6. Do you like your hair matted on your neck within 1 minute of going outside?
  7. Do you like drinking the air?

 

Welcome to Houston where you can have all of this. Dress as lightly as possible and bring fluids to hydrate yourself.

June is Gay and Lesbian Month.
Houston was the first major city to have an openly gay mayor: Annise Parker from 2009 to 2015. Some estimates show that Houston has the sixth largest gay population in the United States. An area of Houston known as Montrose has a thriving gay population. Houston is among the leaders in the nation for performing and theater arts. The gay population is active as sponsors and participants. However, you can find the gay population throughout the city in all walks of life

Weather in Houston
June is the first month of the hurricane season that lasts through November 30th, for six months. However, have no fear. With the exception of a freak storm that began in the Pacific Ocean and crossed Mexico, Hurricane Patricia on October 25, 2015, 100% of all major hurricanes that have hit Houston do so in a six-week window during the last two weeks of August and the first four weeks of September. Some people who come from cooler climates who are not used to air-conditioning complain that our buildings and cars are too cold. However, within two minutes of us turning the AC off, these same people will complain that the temperature is too hot and insist on us turning on the AC again. Many ethnic minority women shield themselves from the sun and heat by using umbrellas on bright clear days. You might want to wear a cap or hat with a bill to keep your forehead and face a little cooler. The monthly average high temperature is 91 degrees Fahrenheit/33 degrees Centigrade. The monthly average low temperature is 74 degrees Fahrenheit/23 degrees Centigrade, and the mean is 82 degrees Fahrenheit/28 degrees Centigrade. It is the third hottest month of the year and the first of three consecutive months when the high temperature is normally in the 90 degrees Fahrenheit/30 degrees Centigrade. The average rainfall is 6.8 inches/17.4 centimeters. It is by far the wettest month of the year. It is the only month with 6 or more inches of rainfall or 145 or more centimeters of rain.

Tours

Mention that you read about the driving tours below from the blog and you will receive a 10% discount.

Gay and Lesbian Themed Tours
We go to a variety of bars, restaurants, clubs, unisex shops, and boutiques, and neighborhoods. This is usually a late afternoon and or evening tour.

Brewery Tours
Nowadays, Houston has over 2 dozen breweries. All but one, the St. Arnold Brewery (the grand-daddy, has started up since 2011. We offer brewery tours from 2 to 10 hours, from 1 to 4 breweries, from 1 to dozens of people. We can play Irish, German, and country and western beer drinking songs along the way or play DVDs of movies and television shows that focused on beer drinking and where everyone knows your name. Most breweries have either restaurants or food trucks on the premises to eat meals.

Galveston Tours
Galveston tours range from 5 to 14 hours depending on what you want to see. Galveston has about 6 museums including the Ocean Star Oil Rig museum, The Bryan Museum whose specialty is anthropology, the Texas Seaport Museum, and the 4th largest Railroad Museum. Perhaps, you would like to tour one or both of the 1890s mansion homes: the Bishop’s Palace and or Moody Mansion. You might want to go shopping on The Strand; this area looks a lot like a mini-, cleaned up version of Bourbon Street in New Orleans. You could see one to three movies about the history and main events in the history of Galveston, including the greatest natural disaster in United States history. The Galveston Hurricane, also known as the Great Storm killed between 6,000 and 8,000 people in just one city. That figure is greater than the total number of people killed by all of the hurricanes that have hit the US since that time COMBINED. We will also take you around to see the different neighborhoods, and Victorian homes and public structures and to tour downtown, and drive along The Seawall.

San Antonio Tours
We offer single-day tours of between 13 and 14 hours as well as multi-day tours. The single-day tours generally leave from downtown at 6:30 AM to arrive in San Antonio by 9:30 AM. We will go to the Alamo, Alamo Plaza, St. Joseph’s Church, the Riverwalk, the Arneson River Theater, La Villita with homes from the 1700s (It is now an artist colony, and Market Square (the Mercado). If time permits, we will go to the Mission San Jose y San Miguel from 1720. We will drive through the King William District of old mansions of a German settlement from the mid to late 1800s. We will drive through downtown where we will see the Bexar County Courthouse, City Hall, Spanish Governor’s Palace from the early 1700s, San Fernando Cathedral from 1731, 1840s home of Jose Navarro, the 1929 Majestic Theater (an old movie theater palace) and the home of the great short story writer O’Henry. Multi-day tours can include a day at Seaworld and or Fiesta Texas, as well as going to Austin, New Braunfels, and or San Marcos, museums, the San Antonio Zoo, and Japanese Gardens.

Monthly Special
Discounted by 17 to 29% Based on the Number of People

The monthly special for June is the 2.5-hour Tunnel Tour B. THE TUNNELS ARE AIR CONDITIONED! CELEBRATE!

Of the three tunnels tours that we offer, this is one of the two most popular tunnel tours. It has the most visual stimuli, variety of activities, and a moderate amount of walking. We will see hundreds of different stores and shops, go through the largest food court in the tunnel system, walk through at least 3 skybridges/skywalks from building to building and with smaller groups of 10 or less, go to 59th and 58th floor observation decks. We walk through the busiest sections of the tunnels. The walking is 2.0 miles/3.2 kilometers. Shoppers and people with attention deficit disorder (ADD) tend to love this tour.

The downtown walking tours in May, June, September, and October all begin in the rotunda on the first floor of the City Hall building at 901 Bagby Street, Houston, Texas 77002. You can enter from either the east or west side of the building.

It goes into the:

  • Wells Fargo Plaza
  • 1 Houston Center/LyondellBasell Tower/1200 McKinney Street,
  • 2 Houston Center/909 Fannin Street,
  • 3 Houston Center/Fulbright Tower/1301 McKinney Street,
  • 4 Houston Center/Shops at Houston Center/1221 Lamar Street, and
  • 5 Houston Center/1401 McKinney Street.

 

It goes under:

  • The Kinder-Morgan Building,
  • 919 Milam,
  • 1000 Main,
  • One City Centre,
  • 1001 Fannin,
  • 1001 McKinney/ International Bank of Commerce (IBC),
  • The Commerce Towers, and
  • 811 Louisiana.

 

You will walk through skywalks/skybridges over:

  • Caroline Street twice,
  • McKinney Street, and
  • San Jacinto Street.

 

Warnings:

  1. A walking tour only moves as fast as the slowest person.
  2. Use a bathroom before the tour begins. Only about two public bathrooms are accessible during this tour. Most of the businesses in or operating over the tunnels do not allow the general public to use their bathrooms.
  3. Not all of the tunnels are Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 accessible. Thus, you should NOT select this special tour if you use a walker, a wheelchair, or any other device that you need to enable you to move.
  4. If you use a cane, we will be moving at such a slow pace that we will not be able to complete the whole tunnel tour. Thus, we will have to omit some buildings.
  5. We go on elevators and escalators. Thus, you should NOT select this special tour if you have a phobia about either of these mechanical devices.
  6. You cannot take photos inside the banks. Taking photos elsewhere is fine.

 

Monthly Special Prices

1 person – $40.00. This is a 43% discount off of the regular price of $70.00.
$40.00 + $3.30 (Sales tax of 8.25%) = $43.30 Total.

2 people – $30.00 each. This is a 25% discount off of the regular price of $40.00 per person.
$30.00 + $2.48 (Sales tax of 8.25%) = $32.48 per person x 2 people = $64.96 Total.

3 or 4 people – $25.00 each. This is a 17% discount off of the regular price of $30.00 per person.
$25.00 + $2.07 (Sales tax of 8.25%) = $27.07 per person.$27.07 per person x 3 people = $81.21 Total.$27.07 per person x 4 people = $108.28 Total.

5 to 9 people – $20.00 each. This is a 20% discount off of the regular price of $25.00 per person.
$20.00 + $1.65 (Sales tax of 8.25%) = $21.65 per person. $21.65 x 5 people = $108.25.$20.00 + $1.65 (Sales tax of 8.25%) + $3.00 (15% gratuity for parties of 6 or more people) = $24.65 per person x  6, 7, 8, or 9 people.

10 to 19 people – $15.00 each. This is a 25% discount off of the regular price of $20.00 per person.
$15.00 + $1.24 (Sales tax of 8.25%) + $2.25 per person (15% gratuity for parties of 6 or more people) = $18.49 per person x the number of people.

See you on a tour.

Sincerely,

Keith Rosen
Houston Historical Tours
P. O. Box 262404
Houston, Texas 77207-2404
(713) 392-0867
(713) 643-4086 Fax
houstonhistory@aol.com
www.houstonhistoricaltours.com

 

Keith’s Blog – February 2018

Keith's Blog

Welcome Fans, Friends, and Visitors

Hi. February is Black History Month, the month of Presidents, and of course, a sweethearts month with the holiday of Valentine’s Day. All of these designations and events make good excuses to go exploring. In our subtropical climate and with the temperatures becoming both more erratic, but consistently hotter, one now sees spring beginning in winter. By the end of the month, you will see new leaves on trees and some flowering plants beginning to bud.

Weather in Houston

February is Houston’s third coldest month after December and January. These are the only months where the average high temperature is in the 60s Fahrenheit/Teens Celsius. However, cold is a relative term. We see snow in Houston about once every three years and then it is usually a light dusting that will melt by the following day. Be prepared to wear a light jacket. The monthly average high temperature is 67 degrees Fahrenheit/19 degrees Celsius. The monthly average low temperature is 48 degrees Fahrenheit/9 degrees Celsius, and the mean is 58 degrees Fahrenheit/14 degrees Celsius. The average rainfall is 3.01 inches/7.65 centimeters. It is the driest month of the year. The next four months will all experience progressively more rain.

African American Themed Tours

February is Black History Month. Celebrate it with an African-American historical tour. We offer 7 different African-American tours, including two that go out of town. These are normally six-hours each with a stop to eat at a traditional soul food, barbecue, fried chicken, Creole, or Jamaican restaurant for lunch. These tours can be shortened with fewer stops or sites and or two different tours can be combined to equal six-hours. The tours are divided by geographic locations. With a population of over 500,000 African Americans, Houston has the second largest Black population of any United States city. We will have maps to show you the original wards, as well as historic photographs and articles. Did you know that the first African Americans served on the Houston city council in the 1870s? Yes, that is correct!

Valentine’s Day Themed Tours

Are you or someone special to you feeling romantic? Does your special person like chocolates, flowers, and or wine? Do you like domestic or imported chocolates, chocolates with or without nuts and or fruit, sweet or semi-sweet, white, dark, or milk? How do you want to be remembered? Is receiving affection important to you? We have tours starting from 3 hours to 5 hours for you to make a good impression and have an amorous day. We can also include stopping at a wine bar or flower shops to add to the occasion. You choose.

Think About March

Two major Houston events occur almost exclusively in March:

  1. The Houston Rodeo begins on Monday, February 26th and continues through Sunday, March 18th. This covers a three-week period. Will you need or want rides to and or from the rodeo or other surrounding areas?
  2. The Azalea Trail occurs on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, March 2, 3, and 4. Let us know if you want to plan such a tour so we can buy Azalea Trail home tour tickets in advance. This will include touring inside six homes, seeing beautiful gardens, and taking a tour of River Oaks.

 

The time to plan is now.

Monthly Special – Discounted by 17 to 29% Based on the Number of People

The monthly special for February is a 2.5-hour walking tour through the Rice Village and Rice University. The Rice Village is a cute shopping area that gets its name as it is next to Rice University and it is like a village of mostly mom and pop small stores. Many of the shops are locally owned and operated which means you will generally get better service from knowledgeable and concerned workers. It has over two-dozen cafes, restaurants, and specialty food stores and hundreds of retail stores. Most of the stores cater primarily to women. You may want to go to one of them for lunch after a tour.

Rice University is one of the twenty highest ranked universities in the United States and one of the top two or three universities in all of the South. It has a sprawling campus that goes on for over 1-mile/2-kilometers, yet it only has a few thousand students. Found in 1912 as the William M. Rice Institute for the Advancement of Literature, Science and Art, it became a full-fledged university in 1960. Ralph Adams Cram (1863 – 1912), one of the most renowned architects of American churches, libraries, and universities was the original architect. We will enter a number of the buildings, see several statues, and even view a piece of the Berlin Wall. You will see the statue of William Marsh Rice (1816 – 1900) sitting over where his ashes were buried after he was murdered. Tall oak trees surround and dot the campus. It is a lovely place to spend 4 years as a student or part of a day on a walk.

We begin this tour at The Chocolate Bar at 2521 University Boulevard, Houston, Texas 77005. There is free, unrestricted parking on the south side of the 2400 and 2500 block of Shakespeare Road, Houston, Texas 77005. This is one block behind The Chocolate Bar. Free parking is also available on the north side of University Boulevard and in front of The Chocolate Bar, but for only two hours. Metered parking abounds in the area.

See you on a tour.

Sincerely,

Keith Rosen
Houston Historical Tours
P. O. Box 262404
Houston, Texas 77207-2404
(713) 392-0867
(713) 643-4086 Fax
houstonhistory@aol.com
www.houstonhistoricaltours.com

 

Keith’s Blog – January 2018

Keith's Blog

Welcome Fans, Friends, and Visitors

Hi. January is one of the slower months. This can be attributed to people saving their money to pay for the presents that they bought and the money that they spent partying for the holidays of December. If December is the month to party, January is the month for a hangover and recovery. I have long thought that if people are over-spending their money for presents in December, they are saving their money to pay their credit cards in January. Furthermore, any month with a public holiday such as Martin Luther King, Jr’s Birthday is a month with generally one less day of people touring while they spend the day with family and friends at home or in the backyard cooking. For the tourist, this can be good as it will be easier for Houston Historical Tours to schedule your personal tour.

Weather in Houston
January is Houston’s coldest month. Be prepared to wear a coat. The monthly average high temperature is 63 degrees Fahrenheit/17 degrees Centigrade. The monthly average low temperature is 45 degrees Fahrenheit/7 degrees Centigrade, and the mean is 54 degrees Fahrenheit/12 degrees Centigrade. The average rainfall is 4.25 inches/10.7 centimeters. It is the eighth wettest month of the year.


Space Center Houston (SCH) (NASA) Tours
This is a good tour to take, particularly in the latter half of the month and well into February and March. You spend most of the time in buildings during this cold, by Houston standards, weather. Once school is in session again, the crowds are smaller, the queues are shorter, the noise is softer, and the tram rides often stop at three sites rather than just two sites. We offer a number of options. The tour is normally eight hours to include all of the sites and activities; this includes about 6.5 hours at NASA and allows for about 1.5 hours in total to drive to NASA in the morning and to return in rush hour traffic in the afternoon. However, if you want to save time and or money by shortening it to 7 or 6 hours by deleting some of the activities, we can customize it for you. You can also save money if you only want the transportation with or without the admission ticket. Transport will drop you off at NASA and then pick you up later. You are on your own to roam about the facility. A tour includes having a tour guide to run you around, making sure that you see everything possible, and to provide you narratives on the exhibits and about the history and why Houston has a space center.

Click here for more information about our Space Center Houston Tours..

City Tours
We offer city tours of Houston ranging from 2 to 9 hours depending on what you want to see. You have two options for 2-hour tours, A 1 and A2. A1 focuses on classical Houston – the theater district, downtown, sports stadiums, River Oaks’s old wealth mansions, the Rice Village, Rice University, Mecom Fountains, the primary Museum District, and Hermann Park, Houston’s most popular park. A2 focuses on the more offbeat Houston where you will see sites that unique to Houston such as the largest church in the US, the most photographed area in Houston, the 64-foot Waterwall where 11,000 gallons of water pour off of it every minute, the 4th largest shopping mall in the US and the largest in the South, the Galleria, the Beer Can House, the Spear House, the Gargoyle House, the art car studio of Mark Bradford or Art Car Museum, a Orange Crush and Beer Can statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and more. If you take a 3-hour tour, you can see all of that plus stop for a break in The Chocolate Bar. A 4-hour tour Monday through Friday will normally include walking through a 3-block section of the underground downtown tunnels and going to an observation deck. The tunnels and observation deck are only open on weekdays. On weekends, we substitute driving through the Houston Heights or driving through the second Museum District by the University of St. Thomas. A 5-hour tour includes a stop for lunch of your choice. Just tell us what food you want to savor. Six hour and longer tours can easily be customized to either cover more areas of Houston such as the Eado and East End or give time to go into museums, galleries, and parks. The two- hour tours cover about 20 miles/32 kilometers, and we add about 10 miles/16 kilometers per hour of area covered for each additional hour. For 4-hour tours and longer, we have about one stop per hour to take photographs, use a bathroom, get refreshments, and or have lunch.

Click here for more information about our Houston City Tours.

Bakery Tours

We offer eight 3-hour bakery tours. These tours can be extended in duration for large groups and for those parties that want to include a lunch stop. In a cold month, warm comfort food is wonderful. These are smorgasbords of a variety of several ethnic pastries for breakfast, snacks, and desserts. These cover different geographic areas of Houston. Different tours can include the following ethnicities, continents, and countries:

  • African
  • African-American
  • Arabic
  • Chinese
  • Creole
  • Czech
  • Filipino
  • French
  • German
  • Greek
  • Guatemalan
  • Hispanic
  • Indian
  • Italian
  • Irish
  • Israeli
  • Jewish
  • Korean
  • Louisianan
  • Mexican
  • Turkish
  • Vietnamese

 

They can also include bakeries that specialize in:

  • Breads
  • Breakfasts
  • Cakes
  • Cheesecakes
  • Cookies
  • Cupcakes
  • Desserts
  • Donuts
  • Pies

 

Are you getting hungry yet? Do you want to explore more of the world’s sweets now?
Click here for more information about our Bakery Tours.


Monthly Special – Discounted by 23 to 46% Based on the Number of People
The monthly special for January is a walking tour through Houston’s lesser known museum district. If you like high culture, this is a GREAT tour! On this tour you will be able to go inside almost 10 museums and chapels that are all FREE. Some of these are world renown. We walk through the pretty University of St. Thomas area in the Montrose District. The cultural sites that we go inside include: the Dan Flavin Installation, Cy Twombly Gallery, the Menil Collection, the Watercolor Art Society – Houston (WASH), the Houston Center for Photography (HCP), the Rothko Chapel, the Chapel of St. Basil, the former Byzantine Fresco Chapel that now has other exhibits, and the Neon Gallery. We may run out of time if you are having too much fun while spending a lot of time in any or all of these museums. You will also discover a number of small cafes and restaurants in the area. Regardless of how many museums, chapels, and galleries that we enter, you will be more enlightened with the exhibits and Houston.

Click here for more information about our tour through Houston’s lesser known museum district.

Sincerely,

Keith Rosen
Houston Historical Tours
P. O. Box 262404
Houston, Texas 77207-2404
(713) 392-0867
(713) 643-4086 Fax
houstonhistory@aol.com
www.houstonhistoricaltours.com

 

Keith’s Blog – December 2017

Keith's Blog

Welcome Fans, Friends, and Visitors

Hi. December is a joyous month. Chanukah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa help to provide joy and hope for a better future for most everyone. Regardless of your religion or lack of, race, ethnicity, gender preference, and gender, it is a time when we often come together to share happiness.

Weather in Houston
December is Houston’s second coldest month. Be prepared to wear a sweater, coat, or both. The monthly average high temperature is 65 degrees Fahrenheit/18 degrees Centigrade. The monthly average low temperature is 47 degrees Fahrenheit/6 degrees Centigrade, and the mean is 56 degrees Fahrenheit/13 degrees Centigrade. The average rainfall is 3.78 inches/9.6 centimeters. It is the ninth wettest month of the year.

 


Holiday Lights Tours
December sees an uptick in our tour business because of the holidays. We offer 9 different Holiday Lights Tours. Four tours are 3 hours, three tours are 4-hours, one tour is 5-hours, and one tour is 7-hours. The 5-hour tour goes to Texas City and Galveston. The 7-hour tour goes to Santa’s Wonderland in College Station. This area has over 1 million lights.

Tour A, for 3 hours, is far and away the most popular of the Holiday Lights Tour. It includes the Galleria, River Oaks, Tanglewood, Uptown Park, River Oaks District, Highland Village, and Greenway Plaza. Our other three hour tours can include the various Heights, ethnic minority areas, the elite Green Tea subdivision in Pearland, Candlelight Plaza, Prestonwood Forest, and more communities. The 3-hour tours are normally from 6:30 to 9:30 PM, although we can be flexible. Remember that sunset takes place at about 5:30 PM so you want to start sometime thereafter. They normally have one stop at a Starbucks for bathrooms and holiday drinks. Visit our website to see more of the detailed descriptions.

Click here for more information on our Holiday Lights Tours.

Mexican Restaurant Tours
December is a good month to also go on a comfort food tour. We offer several food and drink tours including Mexican Restaurant Tours. You can choose the length and how many restaurants that you want to visit and how much you want to eat. We take you to a historic Mexican restaurants that are generally considered among the best in Houston. All of the restaurants were found in the 1900s. Some specialize in entrees, some in appetizers, some in margaritas. We recommend that you select one thing, for example nachos or quesadillas, that you can compare and contrast at each restaurant and still have more space in your stomach to try some more at the next restaurant. Many of the Mexican restaurants are beautifully decorated for the holidays. Visit our website to see what restaurants we include on such a tour and customize it.

Click here for more information on our Mexican Restaurant Tours..

Galveston Tours
Galveston has a certain mystique, similar to New Orleans, but on a 1/10 size. Like New Orleans, it was a port city, the state’s wealthiest city and full of immigrants and sailors coming into it. It was the largest city in Texas in 1870 and 1880. Prostitution and gambling thrived during the years that Galveston was an open city. Hurricanes have repeated beaten it down only for the city to bounce back. The greatest architect in Texas history designed some of the most impressive buildings in the state from 1872 to 1900. Galveston is currently experiencing its first growth in six decades. Hurricane Ike in 2008 resulted in people reinvesting in Galveston. We offer Galveston tours from 5 to 12 hours that can include a boat ride to see dolphins and a sunken ship in Galveston Bay, museums, mansion homes to tour, historical homes from the 1830s and 1840s to stop and photograph, movies to watch titled “The Great Storm” and or “The Pirate Island of Jean Lafitte,” seeing tree sculptures, great food and drink to consume, and exploring different neighborhoods. December is a particularly good time to visit because of the festival Dickens on the Strand. It started in 1974 and is held on the first weekend in December. A tradition is a descendant of the great British author Charles Dickens leads the parade and people dress in costumes from the era of Dickens’s best selling book The Christmas Carol. You will have a bloody good time.

Click here for more information on our Galveston Tours.


Monthly Special – Discounted by 23 to 46% Based on the Number of People
The monthly special for December is a Hermann Park and Museums Walking Tour. This 2.5-hour tour focuses on going through Houston’s most famous and popular park, Hermann Park. It was named after Houston’s greatest benefactor, George Hermann. We will stroll through the Japanese Gardens and the Cheri Flores Garden Pavilion up Houston’s version of the Tower of Babel. We will see over one dozen statues including several busts of Latin American revolutionary leaders, Robert Burns, Confucius, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the most famous statue in Houston: General Sam Houston. Walk past the Houston Zoo, 18-hole golf course, McGovern Lake, the Miller Outdoor Theater (MOT), the Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS), the children’s train, picnic areas, and more. Have a great time in one of our most beautiful parks. Bring a jacket depending on the weather. For families, you will have a new destination for your activities. There is so much to do in Hermann Park.

Click here for more information about this Hermann Park and Museums Walking Tour.

See you on a tour.

Sincerely,

Keith Rosen
Houston Historical Tours
P. O. Box 262404
Houston, Texas 77207-2404
(713) 392-0867
(713) 643-4086 Fax
houstonhistory@aol.com
www.houstonhistoricaltours.com

 

Keith’s Blog – October 2017

Keith's Blog

Welcome Fans, Friends, and Visitors,

Hi.  October is generally our busiest month. The reasons for this are three-fold:

1.  October has arguably the best weather of any month in the year. It is moderate. The temperatures are generally in the 70s and 80s Fahrenheit/20s Centigrade. The humidity starts to fall in autumn. The most active hurricane period ends in September.  We now have safe and pleasant weather. It is a relief after 5 months, May through September, of oppressive heat and humidity.

2.  We have Halloween on October 31st. Houston Historical Tours offers nine different haunted tours. This includes 6 driving tours of 3.5-hours and 3 downtown walking tours of 2, 3, and 4 hours. We conduct on average of about 2 haunted tours per month from November to September. However, in October, associated with Halloween’s folklore of spooks, ghosts, orbs, and apparitions, we conduct 10 to 15 such tours. Most such tours start at 7:00 PM, but we are flexible and can start the tours at almost any time as long as we finish before midnight. You can read more about these haunted tours further in the blog.

3.   Houston has the world’s largest quilt festival. The International Quilt Festival Houston has over 60,000 people coming from all over the world to look at, buy, sell, and display quilts as well as to buy fabrics, machines, patterns, take lessons, and more. We conduct an average of about 2 quilt tours from December through September. However, quilters start arriving a week before the Quilt Festival begins and some stay after it ends. We conduct about 10 quilt tours during the latter half of October and the beginning of November. We offer eight different 8-hour quilting tours across Houston and small towns within 110 miles/177 kilometers and week long quilting tours across Texas and Louisiana. You can read more about these quilt tours further in the blog.

Hurricane Harvey – August 2017
Over the past 1.5 months, I have had several people for whom I gave tours in past years write to me to inquire about me. Thank you for your concern. I am alive and well, well reasonably well – diabetes, high blood pressure, and cholesterol. None of these issues started with Hurricane Harvey. LOL. Hurricane Harvey drenched us for five days from Friday, August 25 to Tuesday, August 29. My house did not suffer any flooding even though a gully is my boundary in the backyard on the west side and a major bayou is three houses from my house on the north side. I never lost electricity or air conditioning. My house suffered from some roof leakage at the points where the flashing met the shingles and the water went under the flashing. I had three buckets of water collecting rainfall in my den on August 29th. The next day on August 30th, I found the only hardware store open for miles/kilometers, bought what I needed, got one of my ladders, and climbed onto the roof. I was probably the fattest, old, white guy, who spoke primarily English within 1,000 miles/1,600 kilometers making roof repairs. So far, so good. No more water has leaked into my house and we have received rain a few more times.

Many people from around the world have seen the destruction of portions of Houston. Indeed, many individuals and families have lost a lifetime of achievements. However, many parts of Houston suffered little or no damage. My lawn is now greener, my pool had more water added to it, and my utility bills for water and electricity went down. I do not wish for another hurricane, but there were some positive effects. Perhaps, the destruction will have the most positive effects if it motivates our penny-pinching politicians to spend money on infrastructure for flood control that has been ignored for over three generations. The only two reservoirs, the Barker and Addicks, to hold water to protect Houston from flooding were built in the 1940s.

Unfortunately, the voices of gloom and doom and negativity resulted in several tours being canceled, not scheduled, and rescheduled. Houston is bouncing back and I have been leading tours as if nothing has happened. I can give you a tour and you would not know that a hurricane ever existed and visited Houston. On the other hand, many people want to see examples of the destruction and I can show that as well.

Until August 2017, I thought Harvey was a six foot, three and one-half inch tall invisible rabbit that was Jimmy Stewart’s best friend and meant no harm to anyone in the 1950 comedy.

Haunted Tours
Our driving tours include going to abandoned cemeteries, bars where people have been murdered or committed suicide, former hotels and hospitals where people were killed and died, drive by the mansion homes of River Oaks where people were murdered, and so much more. Two driving tours go to other cities about 30 miles/48 kilometers from Houston in Katy and Spring. Two tours specialize in only going to abandoned and lost cemeteries that may be hidden in jungle-like areas. Three tours are children friendly with no stops at haunted bars. The three downtown Walking Tours are of 2, 3, and 4 hours with the 4 hour tour having everything that the 2 and 3 hour tours have. This tour goes into the oldest operation building in downtown Houston. It was built in 1860, over 150 years ago and just 24 years after Houston was found. The walking tours focus on the oldest parts of Houston where you will see Allen’s Landing, the site where the Allen family landed in 1836 to become the first settlers of Houston.

Click here for more information about our Haunted Tours.

Quilt Festival Houston – 1st Weekend in November Annually
Quilters begin arriving about 1 week before the Quilt Festival begins.  It is a five day event beginning on a Wednesday night with classes starting at 5:00 PM and the Preview Night from 7:00 to 10:00 PM.  After that, the Festival begins at 10:00 AM each day through Sunday.  It is held in the George R. Brown (GRB) Convention Center.  This is a one-quarter of a mile/0.4 kilometers long building.  It has five halls, A through E, and all five halls are used.  Be prepared to walk miles/kilometers to see the thousands of quilts.  The daily price is extremely reasonable:  only $12.00 for adults and $9.00 for seniors, children, and military.  Full show passes are available for a discounted price, also.  Nothing like this is comparable in the world!

We offer 9 different quilt tours, A through  with one primarily in Houston and the other 8 tours like a spokes wheel going out in different directions.  On Tour D, we visit the Texas Quilt Museum in La Grange, Texas.  These are great tours to explore the Texas countryside, visit some towns, and buy fabrics and supplies and great prices.  Enjoy!

Click here for more information about our quilt tours.

Wine Tours
The state of Texas has designated October as Texas Wine Month. Check our website for dozens of wine tour opportunities. We take people to a total of 16 wineries and tasting rooms in 13 different cities. We offer 5 different geographic located wine tours with from 1 to 4 wineries and or tasting rooms on them. The average winery tour includes 4 tastings at each winery. The tours can last from 3 to 12 hours depending on how many wineries you want to visit and how far you want to travel. You must be at least 21 years of age to go on this tour. Salud/La’ chaim/Cin cin.

Click here for more information about our wine tours.

Brewery Tours
October is the month for Oktoberfest. It was called Wurstfest in earlier years. Although this is supposed to be a celebration of sausage, it makes for a good excuse for drinking beer. In the greater Houston area, we now have over 25 craft or micro-breweries. Check our website for dozens of brewery tour opportunities. These can range from 2 to 10 hours with one to six breweries in one day. A couple of breweries have their own restaurants on the properties. You must be at least 21 years of age to go on this tour. Prost/Cheers/Ariba/Sante, Skal/Slainte.

Click here for more information about our brewery tours.

Monthly Special – Discounted by 23 to 46% Based on the Number of People
The monthly special for October is Downtown Walking Tour D. This 2.5-hour tour focuses on going through the Buffalo Bayou area, Sesquicentennial Park, Market Square Park, and Tranquility Park, as well as by the many performance halls for opera, ballet, the symphony, plays, and concerts, and seeing many statues including those of George Bush I and James Baker. This is a great month to be outside walking.

Click here for more information about our Downtown Walking Tour D.

See you on a tour.

Sincerely,

Keith Rosen
Houston Historical Tours
P. O. Box 262404
Houston, Texas 77207-2404
(713) 392-0867
(713) 643-4086 Fax
houstonhistory@aol.com
www.houstonhistoricaltours.com