International Adventures in Houston

In summers past, I've been the queen of the Houston Bucket List, priding myself on knowing and exposing my kids to all the obscure and not so obscure attractions in the Greater Houston that are family friendly. Now that the kiddos are getting older (5 and 7), I thought I would introduce them to my love for international travels without ever setting foot on a plane! You see, we live in Houston, TX, arguably the most diverse city in the United States. We have hundreds of adventures awaiting us just steps from our front door.  Thus we will be embarking on our "International Adventures in Houston" starting this summer!

When a friend heard about this idea, she pointed me to Houstonia Magazine's 2015 article, "Best of International Houston" as a resource.  This was a great place to start! My outline for our adventures included gathering ideas for the following:

1.  Restaurants with authentic foods (of course, because great travel includes great food, right?)
2.  Places of worship 
3.  Cultural centers 
4.  Grocery stores with international ingredients (I love to cook, so we decided to research recipes for our favorite dishes and try recreating them at home)
5. Festivals (this is a secondary priority since festivals happen throughout the year, not just the summer)

The next question is which cultures to explore first?  As a starting place, Houstonia's article picked out the following countries as the most dominant immigrant communities here in Houston:

1. Mexico
2. India
3. Vietnam
4. Philippines
5. Honduras
6. Guatemala
7. China
8. El Salvador
9. Pakistan
10. Nigeria
11. Canada
12. Colombia

Thanks to social media, my best source for finding authentic international attractions in Houston has been a neighborhood Facebook group with lots of wonderful international members!  They have given me more ideas than I can possibly execute in one summer.  So, thank you to all of my wonderful contributors to this project!  And, of course, if you have any ideas to add to my list, I'm open to hearing all of them and sharing them here!

Happy Travels!
Christi