How to Spend a 12 Hour Layover in Houston: IAH to the Menil and Rothko
Updated October 10, 2026
Fourteen large dark paintings by Mark Rothko hang in an octagonal chapel on the Menil campus in Montrose, a quiet neighborhood of free museums an Uber ride from IAH. See the Menil Collection, its Drawing Institute and two single artist buildings, sit in the Rothko Chapel and eat across the lawn.
John and Dominique de Menil were collectors who settled in Houston in the 1940s, and they left the city a campus of art spread across a few blocks of gray bungalows in Montrose. The Menil Collection opened in 1987 in a long building by Renzo Piano, lit from above by daylight through a roof of white leaves. The Cy Twombly Gallery and the Menil Drawing Institute sit just south of it, the Dan Flavin installation fills an old grocery store on Richmond Avenue, and the Rothko Chapel, which the de Menils commissioned, is a block east. All of them are free. There's no simple transit link between IAH and Montrose, so take an Uber each way. The Menil opens Wednesday to Sunday, so the plan only works on those days.
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Is it worth leaving the airport?
Easily, from Wednesday to Sunday, as long as your inbound flight is not badly delayed. The Uber ride is long in traffic, but the stops are all a short walk apart. You'll be back at IAH with well over the two hours the airport advises for domestic flights.
Getting from IAH into the city
Take an Uber from IAH. Follow the rideshare signs at your terminal and ask for the Menil Collection on Sul Ross Street in Montrose. The drive is long and slows badly in traffic. Book the ride back from Chrôma, across Sul Ross Street from the Menil lawn, and allow extra time for rush hour traffic.
Plan on about 2 hr 28 min for the round trip between George Bush Intercontinental Airport and the first and last stops.
This plan also keeps 45 min to get out of the airport and 1 hr 30 min to get back through security before your flight. You can customize these buffers with Navi through text.
Times are estimates, not guarantees. Confirm your boarding time with your airline and check entry requirements before leaving the airport. You are responsible for getting back in time for your flight.
Visa and entry
Travelers arriving from abroad clear immigration and customs at IAH, or at their first US airport, before they can leave the building. Domestic travelers need only the ID they boarded with. Everyone goes back through TSA screening on return. If your onward flight leaves the country, give yourself extra time, because international check-in closes earlier and the airport asks for three hours.
What to do with your bags
IAH doesn't advertise a left luggage service you can rely on, so assume your bag comes along. Large bags are awkward in the Menil's galleries, and the Rothko Chapel asks visitors to leave food, drinks and large bags outside or in the lockers at its Welcome House. As of October 2026, Bounce lists Houston drop-off shops from $3.95 a day, but an Uber from IAH to Montrose doesn't pass one, so travel with a bag small enough to keep with you.
The 12 hour plan, stop by stop
About 7 hr 17 min in the city
Time to head out from George Bush Intercontinental Airport for Menil Collection. It's a 1 hr 13 min transit ride if you leave now. Here's the link
The collection ranges widely: antiquities, Byzantine and medieval art, art of Africa and of the Indigenous Americas, including the Pacific Northwest, and surrealists such as Max Ernst and René Magritte. Renzo Piano's roof filters daylight through curved concrete leaves, so the galleries feel bright and calm. The museum sits on a 30 acre campus of lawns and gray bungalows. Entry is free, and the museum opens Wednesday to Sunday.
Tip: The galleries have no wall text by design, so pick up the free gallery guide at the entrance to each exhibition. The lawn out front is a good place to rest between buildings.
- Time here
- 1 hr to 1 hr 30 min
- Website
- menil.org
NaviTime to head out from Menil Collection for Cy Twombly Gallery. It's a 1 minute walk if you leave now. Here's the link
Across Branard Street, this single story building by Renzo Piano opened in 1995, designed with Cy Twombly himself to show his paintings, drawings and sculpture. Daylight filters through a layered roof and a fabric ceiling and falls softly on large canvases of scrawled words, loops and bursts of color. It belongs to the Menil, so entry is free and it keeps the same days. It is small and very quiet.
Tip: Walk the rooms slowly, then go back to the one that held you longest and sit a while. The Menil doesn't allow photography in its galleries, though casual photos are fine in the entryways and hallways.
- Time here
- 25 to 35 min
- Website
- menil.org
NaviTime to head out from Cy Twombly Gallery for Menil Drawing Institute. It's a 3 minute walk if you leave now. Here's the link
The Drawing Institute opened in 2018 in a building by Johnston Marklee set around leafy courtyards, with a roof that tempers daylight to protect fragile works on paper. It shows modern and contemporary drawings, with an annual wall drawing commission alongside temporary exhibitions. Ellsworth Kelly's Menil Curve stands at the entrance, and two works by Michael Heizer lie in the field to the east. Entry is free, on the Menil's days.
Tip: The building closes between some exhibitions, as it did until September 9, 2026, so check the On View page on the Menil's website before you go. Look for the Heizer works in the field to the east, which are easy to walk past.
- Time here
- 25 to 35 min
- Website
- menil.org
NaviTime to head out from Menil Drawing Institute for Dan Flavin Installation at Richmond Hall. It's a 4 minute walk if you leave now. Here's the link
Richmond Hall was built in 1930 as a neighborhood grocery store and later held a series of bars, including a country and western dance hall. Dan Flavin designed three works for it in 1996, shortly before he died, and the installation opened to the public in 1998. Green fluorescent tubes line the rooflines outside, white lamps cross the lobby on the diagonal, and pink, yellow, green, blue and ultraviolet tubes line the long main hall. It is free and keeps the Menil's opening days.
Tip: Walk through to the gallery at the back, which shows four earlier Flavin works, the monuments for V. Tatlin, that the de Menils bought in 1970. The building is small, so it fits easily between the Drawing Institute and the Rothko Chapel.
- Time here
- 15 to 25 min
- Website
- menil.org
NaviTime to head out from Dan Flavin Installation at Richmond Hall for Rothko Chapel. It's a 7 minute walk if you leave now. Here's the link
The de Menils commissioned this octagonal brick chapel from Mark Rothko, and it opened in 1971, a year after his death. Inside, fourteen large dark paintings hang under a skylight in a room meant for meditation by people of every faith or none. Outside, a reflecting pool holds Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk. It opens Tuesday to Sunday, with shorter hours on Wednesdays, and closes about twice a month for events.
Tip: Check the chapel's calendar the day before, since event closures are posted there. Sit on a bench for at least ten minutes; the paintings change as your eyes adjust to the low light. The chapel asks visitors not to take any photos.
- Time here
- 25 to 40 min
- Website
- rothkochapel.org
NaviTime to head out from Rothko Chapel for Chrôma, Sul Ross Street. It's a 4 minute walk if you leave now. Here's the link
Chrôma took over the Sul Ross Street space of Bistro Menil, which closed in June 2025, across from the Menil lawn. It opens daily from early morning for coffee and pastries, serves lunch on weekdays and brunch on weekends, and stays open for dinner. It sits in the middle of the campus, so it suits a break between galleries as well as a meal at the end.
Tip: Weekday lunch runs until late afternoon and weekend brunch ends earlier, with dinner after that, so time your visit around the menu you want. If it's full, the Menil lawn is a pleasant place to wait.
- Time here
- 50 min to 1 hr 15 min
- Website
- chromahtx.com
NaviTime to head out from Chrôma, Sul Ross Street for George Bush Intercontinental Airport. It's a 1 hr 15 min transit ride if you leave now. Here's the link
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