Five miles southwest of downtown, the oak-lined, student-thronged boulevards of the Museum and Rice districts are enjoyable to explore on foot, full of interesting exhibition spaces and several good bookstores.

A magnificent purpose-built gallery at 1515 Sul Ross St - designed by Renzo Piano, who contributed to the Pompidou Centre in Paris - houses the private Menil Collection (Wed-Sun 11am-7pm; free; tel 713/525-9400, ). The superb works, gathered by oil millionaires John and Dominique de Menil, are displayed in spacious rooms, white-walled and naturally lit. Pieces range from paleolithic carvings dating from 15,000 BC, and a female idol from the "Mother Goddess" civilization of Catal Huyuk in Turkey, right up to modern sculptures such as Barnett Newman's 1950 Here 1 . Artists with rooms to themselves include Max Ernst - look for the bronze The King Playing with the Queen -and René Magritte, while there's also a fine array of African art, including woodcarvings from Mali and ivories from Benin. One block east, the minimalist Ecumenical Rothko Chapel , 3900 Yupon St at Sul Ross (daily 10am-6pm; tel 713/524-9839, ), contains fourteen morose paintings commissioned by the Menils from Mark Rothko shortly before his death. The artist, who worked with architect Philip Johnson in designing the chapel, considered these to be his most important works, but many people today deride the building's resemblance to a nuclear bunker. The broken obelisk in the small park outside is dedicated to Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Diagonally opposite, the Byzantine Fresco Chapel Museum , 4011 Yupon St (Wed-Sun 11am-6pm; free; tel 713-521-3990, ), houses a pair of thirteenth-century Cypriot frescoes in a contemporary structure with a somber, subdued ambience.

At the intersection of Bissonet and Main streets, the expansive Museum of Fine Arts (Tues, Wed, & Sat 10am-7pm, Thurs & Fri 10am-9pm, Sun 12.15-7pm; $5, free Thurs; tel 713-639-7300, ) features an eclectic collection from all eras, with Renaissance art especially well represented. Crane your neck upward from the Matisses and Rodins in the pine-shaded Cullen Sculpture Garden outside to the downtown skyline.

Hermann Park , three miles south of downtown, is a pleasant green space with its own Japanese meditation garden. Exhibits on natural history at its excellent Houston Museum of Natural Science (Mon-Sat 9am-6pm, Sun 11am-6pm; $5, free Tues after 2pm; tel 713/639-4629, ) include the Cullen Hall of Gems and Minerals, with its fascinating spangly array of diamonds and other jewels. The Cockrell Butterfly Center (additional $4) is a giant three-story greenhouse where you can walk among lurid, exotic butterflies as they flutter around a rainforest environment, and even watch them emerge from their cocoons. There's also an IMAX theater (hourly Mon-Thurs 10am-6pm, Fri & Sat 10am-8pm, Sun 11am-6pm; $6.50), a stunning gem collection, a McDonald's on the premises and a sundial fountain lapping a map of the Texas coastline. Be aware that the park is best avoided at night.

A short walk away, the Contemporary Art Museum , 5216 Montrose Blvd (Tues-Wed 10am-5pm, Thurs 10am-9pm, Fri-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm; free; tel 713/284-8250, ), is worth a look if only for its striking architecture, notably its huge windowless corrugated-steel facade. The Holocaust Museum Houston , 5401 Caroline St (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat & Sun noon-5pm; free; tel 713-942-8000, ), is housed in another architecturally striking building, with a massive black funnel emerging from a triangular glass wedge. A chilling movie, Voices , is on permanent play and installations focus on concentration camps and those local people who survived.

Museum District and the Rice University area

• Museum District and the Rice University area

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