City guide

Houston

Houston is the largest US city with no zoning laws, and it shows: sprawling, car-dependent and endlessly reinventing its own street grid, held together by NASA's Johnson Space Center, a genuinely diverse restaurant scene, and a downtown Museum District punching well above its weight. It's flat, hot and humid for most of the year, and the Gulf Coast location means hurricane season (June-November) is a real planning factor, not a footnote. It rewards visitors who come for specific things (space history, food, museums, the rodeo) rather than an aimless wander.