72 hrs in h-town
mini (long) trip recap of my recent girls trip to Houston
Since 2025 started I have not sat down – already since January I’ve been to Charlotte, San Juan, Harrisonburg, Houston, and am now writing this from my second return to Charlotte. I love traveling and I’ve always had a nomadic bone, whether it be living like a local as I visit family and friends in their hometowns or crossing off a bucket list destination. However, I’ve always been terrible at capturing videos and pictures throughout a jet-setting weekend so I wanted to share some of my experiences in written form - sharing my ratings on hotspot restaurants, giving a delicious drink recommendation at trendy bars or just recollecting how I spent my day-to-day.
Inspired by a mixture of NYT’s 36 Hours Guides and Refinery29’s Money Diaries, this will be a series of my travel destinations both old and new. And without further adieu, here’s how I spent 72 hours as an H-town hottie 🤠.
Friday, April 11
1:00pm – I closed my laptop and promptly caught an Uber to the E 125th Harlem station, just to catch - surprise, another Uber. I decided to try out the Uber airport shuttle to LGA and despite the added travel, it was a nice experience. For just $10 you get to ride in a roomy Mercedes sprinter van for 20 minutes, dropping you straight to the airport doors; it definitely beats the long ride of the M60 or the surge pricing of a regular Uber so I’ll be keeping it in my back pocket (and praying the price doesn’t go up).
My flight wasn’t until 3:00pm so after making it through security, I grabbed some Dos Toros and popped a squat to finish some work until boarding.
3:02pm – We took off on the 3 ½-4 hr flight to HTX. I had every intention of staying up and reading a few saved Substacks, but there’s something about a plane mid-air that activates my circadian rhythm like nobody’s business. Safe to say I was out like a light until about an hour out, deciding to tap into my downloaded Netflix shows (Manifest and A Different World are on my current watchlist) for the final leg.
6:18pm (now CT) – I landed at IAH and headed to baggage claim to grab my complimentary checked bag. Miss Sierra, my other half for the trip, wasn’t landing for another hour so I grabbed some water for my liquid IV (starting early for the night ahead), made myself comfortable in a waiting chair, and waited for her arrival.
7:11pm - I took the airport train, which likened itself to a pre-industrial era subway, to meet Sierra at her gate. Reunited!! 👯 We made our way to the rideshare area and caught an overpriced but still a steal Lyft (cause why was Uber talkin bout $80??) to our Airbnb in Montrose.
8:00pm – Once we arrived it was go timeee. We had a 9:00pm dinner reservation so went straight to getting ready for the night and rushed to catch an Uber to the restaurant, leaving my final press-ons to be applied in the car.
9:00pm – Our first stop of the night was Bungalow - we had to try out Houston’s raving restaurant, and ofc support a black-owned business. Overall, I would give it a 10/10! We were greeted with complimentary champagne while waiting for our table (already an A+ in my book) and didn’t wait too long before being seated. The food and drinks were amazing - I tried their Golden Pear cocktail which was topped with an edible glitter, and Sierra had a version of a Strawberry Lemon Drop. For entrees, we enjoyed the dynamite shrimp, mac & cheese and truffle pasta - 10s across the board.
The ambiance was beautiful in the restaurant as well and everything came out fairly quick so no complaints in my book. Before heading out for the night, our hostess recommended lemon drop shots which came out on fire - delicious and points for presentation!
11:15pm – After dinner we headed across the street to Off the Record for their R&B night. I’ve heard people say the line was crazy but we didn’t wait too long before getting in - it was packed inside, but not overly stuffed. The music was good but I didn’t feel too moved to dance so we grabbed our drinks and scoped the scenery out. After a while of seeing people pop upstairs, we asked the bouncer if we could check out what turned to be a “VIP” space. Nothing else going on but it was a good place to rest our feet, a less crowded bar, and be able to look out over the party like Ghost at Truth.
After about an hour we decided to shuffle on to see where else the night would take us.
We wandered over to a cocktail garden next door and left soon after. The music was blasting EDM style tunes and people were scattered across the garden either pulled up in circles or around the tiny bar. Not the vibes at allll so we decided to head to where we knew we’d find more of our people 🖐🏾 – CRU.
12:30am – Now I didn’t even know there was a CRU in Houston, but I am an occasional frequenter of the Atlanta locations. It’s a vibe and you know what to expect - hookah, cheap drinks, and loud music. We ordered shots and hookah, and as the night went on, met some new friends and made our way into a section with moree shots. Now I probably went a little left mixing the Crown shots they ordered with our prefaced tequila and vodka drinks but when in Houston!
When CRU started to close down, our new friends asked us to join them at the afties. I’ve heard about the Houston afties so despite being a little drained from the day’s travel, I convinced Sierra we had to go just for a littleeee. We hopped in an Uber and found ourselves at Bad Habits.
2:15am – By now we’re crawling along but we made it to the spot and lemme just say, vibe shift 😭 Not in a negative way but I didn’t really know what to expect and I was instantly like OH. It gave strip club (but the girls weren’t stripping, matter of fact they were barely dancing when we got there :/). My new bestie bought me another drink (which were overpriced and I barely sipped, sorry bookie). The people started to pour in after a while and the DJ was hitting so we vibed until the day (and our feet) caught up to us and Sierra and decided to call it a night.
3:26 am – We got back to the Airbnb and that was a wrap on Day 1!
Saturday, April 12
11:00am – I am a certified sleeper-inner, especially after a night out so by time I got up Sierra had already gone for a walk, got a smoothie and made it back home lol. We got ready for the day and hit our next Houston staple
12:30pm – The Breakfast Klub - 8/10! Babyyyy they do not be lying about that line, when we got there it was around the block. But honestly it moved quickly and we ordered within 30-40 minutes of standing in the heat. Everyone was so nice, from workers to locals, recommending us menu items and asking how we enjoyed - I didn’t realize how much I’d been missing that southern hospitality.
I ordered a veggie omelette and potatoes and Sierra got the fried chicken with grits and eggs. The food came out super quick and we both got the lemonades - it was sooo sweet, which one of the other patrons warned us about, but still really good. I feel like I was still feeling a little of the liquor guts from the night before so I couldn’t enjoy my food the way I wanted to but it did what it needed to
After breakfast, we headed back to the Airnb to pregame and get ready for Saturday’s main attraction - Souled Out Dates Fest.
6:35pm – Now we usually love the SOD parties, especially in DC, but if you’ve seen the recent discourse on TikTok I have to say… I slightly agree 🫣 (insert girl’s video) The energy on stage was high per usual but the party itself wasn’t hitting fr. My first qualm was the party was advertised as a festival and originally supposed to be outdoors, so with the hefty ticket price I was assuming there would be a festival (shocker!) - I’m thinking food, drinks, maybe an activity or two. Imagine my surprise when I walked in to a dark, half full venue with nothing but a bar in sight.
Now I will say we got there only about 1 ½ hr after it started so there was potential for the rest of the evening, but after about 45minutes of standing around we were hungry and craving a change it atmosphere so we dipped.
8:20pm – For dinner we went to Barcelona Wine Bar - literally one of my faveee restaurants ever. I didn’t even know they had one in Houston but they never disappoint, and the flirty bartender even gave me a free marg so 10/10 for service + food!
10:47pm – Post-dinner we headed to Kiss for some drinks and hookah. The crowd seemed to skew a little bit older but the drinks were tasty and the DJ was good so I’d give it a 9/10. We stayed for a couple hours and then decided to call it a night so we could get be well rested for Sunday-Funday 🤸🏿♂️
1:215am - Day 2 done!
Sunday, April 13
1:30pm - The star of the show! Everyone knows atp not to leave Houston on a Sunday so we started the day with a little liquid IV and filling up some flasks before brunch at Lost & Found.
2:00 pm - I’d give Lost & Found a 7/10. The food was good but they didn’t have seats inside so in addition to the heat we spent most of brunch swatting away flies, so they lost points on ambiance. The mimosas were cheap though and I’d go back for that cajun pasta!
3:17pm - We had some time to kill before heading to Chapman & Kirby so we went to Forget Me Not & had ourselves a time - 10/10 recommend! Sierra isn’t a big mimosa girlie so I ordered a carafe for myself and went to town. We ended up joining some girls at a table nearby who had ordered a mimosa tower and whew 😵💫 that + the shots, it’s truly a blessing I made it to C&K!! Auntie can’t drink the way she used to.
5:30pm - Our new friends came with us to C&K, which was also a time - 9/10. The line to get in moved pretty quickly and we headed to the backyard area to do a couple laps. We found a table with a mutual from DC and the drinks started flowing on entryyy - shots, shots and more shots. I ended up texting my cousin who’s from Houston and was so excited I got to see her since she moved away from NYC. I definitely see the hype with the spot - the music was good and everyone was actually having fun from what I saw, not just the fake-it-for-IG type fun.
Only point lost was because it was so crowded but for the vibes I didn’t really mind!
8:40pm - Some of our new friends from C&K (we picked up a lot of friends on this trip as you can see) invited us to go pre-game for the night, but that quickly turned into a detour back to Lost & Found. We were game to go out but after a few more drinks the day started to catch up to us and we decided to call it a night since Sierra and I both had early flights. We made a pit stop at Velvet Taco for the girls and then made our way home.
Sunday, April 14
9:30am - I woke up and chugged a liquid IV, realizing the Sunday Funday activities had indeed hit me a little more than I thought. I hurriedly packed up and caught a Lyft to the airport.
10:45am - After making it through the airport, I had in impromptu run-in with my sister who happened to have a layover on her way to Cali at the exact same time as I was leaving. (Sister soul ties, we will literally find each other in any universe)
11:30am - I caught my flight back to LGA, promptly going to sleep on the plane.
And that’s a wrap on Houston! More trip recaps to come :)