Galleria, Houston

Texas does everything BIG. The state itself is the 2nd largest state! Houston is the 4th largest city! And the Houston Galleria is the 7th largest shopping mall in the United States of America!

People have said that the Galleria is 'ugly' on the outside. Well, it is! Once you get inside, though, it's a magical place! Near Charlotte Russe, they have a very high glass chandelier that drips water down to the fountain-pool two stories below! It really is quite the fancy place :)

The Galleria is easy to get lost in. There is one complaint i have to the first picture featured up at the top. That is NOT the food court, that is a Starbucks (LOL). The food court is down on the 'Rink-Level' next to the ice skating rink. Usually, the rink is crowded and the surrounding food courts.

I live in Texas and have been to the Galleria not so many times, and i have just found out that there are a boat-load of top designer brands there! They have BCBGMAXAZRIA, Saks Fifth Avenue, Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel, Gucci. You name it, they probably have it. The Houston Galleria has a over 350 stores and TWO complete Macys!

The Cheesecake Factory is a good place to eat, but if you are there on regular shopping terms, i'd suggest going down to the food court for restuarants like FamousWok, Chick Fi La and more.

There is a long walking distance in the Galleria, so good walking shoes is your best bet. It's also best to come prepared of what stores you'd like to go to and where they are, because it's easy to get carried away! Many of the stores are high-end and for the 'Rich Shopper', so bring your wallet, your Coach purse or your money-clip, because the shops are just the half of it!

The Houston Galleria sports two Westin hotels and more. Have fun shopping!

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Leave the Galleria shopping center! Yes leave retail therepy for a little while and visit the green area in front of the Williams Tower for half an hour or so. The Williams Tower is an impressive structure which overlooks the Galleria Shopping Area. Great place for a quick lunch or picnic before shopping some more...

Monstrosity of Retail, the Houston Galleria truly is the place where you can get anything you need! There are so many stores in this shopping center that you could spend days just walking around. It is so large, they put two seperate hotels in the mall itself! On opposite ends, you could actually spend 3 days without every leaving or sleeping in the same place!

I can not understand why anyone would put the Galleria on their list of things to do while visiting Houston. It's a shopping mall!!! Surely you can find better things to do than waste your vacation in a mall. Plus, it's overrated. It's 4 sections, forcing a long walk. Galleria 1 is plain. Built in the early 1970s, it is a rectangle around the ice rink with drab concrete walls. The parking garage is ugly, old, and smells. From the outside the Galleria is invisible, with no architectural merit that I can see. Regarding restaurants, apart from the fabulous Cheesecake factory the pickings are slim. The food court has been remodled to bring the standard food court selections, replacing the formerly meager row of 5 generic restaurants. Don't bother to visit the lousy Ruggles Grille 5115 ($$$) unless you MUST pay $35 for too-salty emu with goat cheese. Instead, visit the outstanding Ruggles Grille on Westheimer near Montrose.

Galleria 2 until recently was a vacuum for stores and shoppers. It's busier now, but still Feels lonely and depressing, Architecturally, it's a plain atrium to an office building.

A long walk brings you to Galleria 3. Almost deserted. Depressing. A lack of "must visit" stores in this remote outpost results in a lack of shoppers and reasons to visit.

A loong walk brings you to the brand new Galleria 4. If you are visiting the Galleria it's worth the walk. It's bright, new, sparkles, and bustles. It even has a store where a person can buy a watch for less than $10,000, namely, Foley's.

Galleria is lousy shopping unless you are rich. Stores like Cartier, Saks, and Fred cater to those with $$$$. I'm in the wrong mall when the stores keep the door closed and have to buzz me in. Unless you walk into Fred with shoes that cost $1,000 each, like Michael Douglas in "The Game," you don't get that glass of complimentary champagne. Instead you're likely to get ignored or worse, though I must say that the Cartier people are nice to me when I go buy my $10 pen refill.
Just visit Memorial City instead.

Galleria--The biggest mall in Houston. You could walk around this mall and hear 10 different languages being spoken in 10 minutes. Great shopping selection, although the prices can be a bit higher than if you go to the other malls in the city. There is an ice skating rink in the middle of the complex.

Houston's Galleria shopping center, which is about 5 miles west of downtown, was such a success that the Galleria in Dallas was modeled after it.

You can find most of the high-end shopping in Houston including Tiffany, Versace, Fendi, Hermes, etc. in the Galleria or surrounding area, in addition to many other popular stores or unique stores.

Esquire magazine and The Wine Spectator have more than once named Houston as the fourth best restaurant city in the nation, just behind New York, San Francisco and Chicago. Many of these are in the Galleria Area. Some notable places in this area include Cafe Annie, Tony's, Americas, Grotto, Nit Noi, and Bombay Brasserie.

Also be sure to check out some of Texas' architectural best -- the Williams Tower (tallest in the country outside of a downtown) and Waterwall, and the unique street signs, arches and lights on and around Post Oak Blvd.

Uptown Park is a new shopping development just north of the Galleria area. This development is more friendly to those who enjoying walking around outside from shop to shop.

The Galleria Westheimer has got to be Houstons best shopping mall or at very least, the most well known. The mall is set beneath large glass atriums and has over 300 shops and restaurants with many designer brands featured.

There is an ice skating rink on the bottom which can best be viewed from the upper levels. Be careful of taking photos here, if the security guard sees you he will ask if you have a permit.

There are no signs up to tell you that you can't but fortunately I had my photos already. If you do want to do it legally, you need to go to the managers office and ask for a permit.

The Galleria features more than 350 fine stores and restaurants, an impressive ice skating rink and two Westin hotels.

People come from out of town and even internationally (from Mexico) to shop at the Galleria.
Mon - Sat 10:00am - 9:00pm
Sun 11:00am - 7:00pm

They have a lot of expensive stores here, but they also have normal stores too. This is a good place for one-stop shopping!