Definently a cool experience its free I think everyone should go :) and social distancing and mask were enforced to keep everyone safe.

I did the $7.50 tour and it was 30 minutes long. It was surprisingly entertaining. The photos you get are pretty nice and our tour guide was fun. Drop by if you have nothing better to do but skip it if youre tight on time.

It was interesting brief cool and when I say cool I mean temperature and the guide sang and the sound quality was fantastic it was really cool so were the optical illusions that she showed us. The park is really pretty I am sorry that we didnt know that there was kayaking available otherwise we would have gone kayaking as well as taking a tour of the cistern.

Entertaining tour guide lead the group around this artistic cistern. The acoustics are incredible.

I grew up in the greater Houston area and never knew about the cistern. I love that it is now a part of Houston history and accessible to the public! I made a visit with a friend to enjoy the sound healing meditation with Pralaya Yoga. What an experience! The space is gorgeous, and made even more enchanting with the vibrations of the meditation sounds. I highly suggest spending the 45 minutes to connect with yourself and the underground space one Saturday morning. Definitely bring a yoga mat or cushion because the concrete is HARD.

By far the best thing in houston museum wise. I had very high expectations and they exceeded them. Our tour guide was very nice and she even sang for our group. Definitely a memorable place.

Interesting tour. The acoustics are fun. Our tour guide sang to us and gave a light show with her flashlight.

What a delightful tour of Houston water history. Our tour guide Sydney hit it out of the park and brought tears to my eyes with your singing at the end of our tour. Totally made the private tour worth more than the price.

Not really worth it quick tour in a dark damp tunnel

We came here for something different to do. Lots of fun - the guide was friendly and informative. Beautiful place! Ive lived in Houston my entire life and never had any idea this existed. Definitely a neat peek into Houstons history. Recommend!

Excellent guide very knowledgeable went that extra mile to give us a tour and ensure we had a memorable experience

We really enjoyed the tour! It was totally worth it and saw the guide giving awesome introduction of the place. Very happy we enjoy the walk and sightseeing inside buffalo park bayou.

A unique place in Houston, right next to the visitors center. A guide will show you around and explain the history plus demonstrate the echo. When they turn off the lights and use their flashlight, you experience the beauty of the architecture. Impressive yet serene.

Nice place to visit a piece of Houston history for a small fee if you decide to stroll along Buffalo Bayou. Its location is also a location to rent bicycles for the day. The Cistern tour is under ground and was 1hr long. Hard to hear the guide talk since it does echo loud in this place.

Great place to hike, walk your dog, or ride a bike! Has a skate park, you can rent a bike near by, and it has several trails for you to enjoy! Great for people that like nature and outdoors!!

Great place to learn Houston water history and take great pictures. A must see.

What a great tour! Pretty cheap and very interesting and accessible. They even moved us to 430 when we couldn’t make our 4pm tour. The history of the cistern and the city’s water supply was interesting too. Talked about how it faired in hurricane Harvey as well.

Loved it! Rosemarie was awesome!

A decommissioned cistern-turned Houston History Hotspot. Quick and easy tour, a great way to beat the heat, informative and interesting, and really quite cool! All that, plus price is super cheap.

The cistern tour is one of my top stops any time I have visitors in town and Ive done it almost a dozen times since it opened. It is always a hit. Its a wonderfully informative tour on the history of Houstons fresh water system inside one of the most unique structures in the city. Its a climate-controlled structure, so a nice break from Houstons heat or threat of rain. Bravo to the partnership for taking advantage of the structure and not turning it into a parking lot!

A wonderful historic tour of this decommissioned underground drinking water reservoir with 221– 25-foot beautiful and tall industrial, slender concrete columns spanning the space.The tour requires walking a distance of one quarter mile. There are guardrails along the entire path.Our tour guide was wonderful.She sang a song towards the end of the tour to demonstrate the 17-second echo.There isn’t anything like this piece of architecture available for public viewing in the country.Indeed, I believe the closest one to it in design is in Instanbul, Turkey.Thank you Buffalo Bayou Partnership (BBP) for restoring and repurposing the Cistern into a magnificent public space for locals and visitors to experience.P.S. if you have time, check out the Down Periscope upon exiting the cistern.

Sucha cool hidden gem! Its a 30 minute tour that is very informative. Super cool and its free on Thursdays, on other days I believe it is 5$.

It is interesting to see this underworld by the Bayou. It is not anything like the Cistern in Istanbul as those are richly decorated, illuminated and can be roamed around; Houstons is just a 1/4 mile loop with some light installation, pretty cool though, you are allowed inside for about 20 minutes which is more than enough, the staff are the nicest. They should make catwalks and allow to roam around the columns and play some classical music.Lot or street parking, there is a very nice terrace above the visitor center as well as a large patch of grass behind the terrace, walk further and you will also find a skate park with downtown views.

A hidden gem under Houston. The symmetry, order, and balance of the cistern are remarkable, especially since it was never intended to be seen. The lighting brings and reflection make this a hauntingly beautiful place to visit. The echoing in the chamber is also striking. Id love to go back for one of their musical events or art installations.

Really cool and fun place for friends.

Im so glad I found this on my research of what to do visiting Houston! This was so cool. The tour is only $5 and it’s worth it. Finding parking was tough on a Saturday afternoon, but once you park just look for the visitor info building and that’s where the tour is. Very cool experience with the history and sound/light animation. Totally recommend!

Very nice hidden gem near downtown. Art exhibit made the experience surreal. You get twenty minutes in the cistern for ten bucks. You must stay quiet. They have lab coats for you to wear while in, but I missed why this was.

This place was so cool! The people working there are so friendly and offer great information. You are able to go into the cistern and see the light display for 10.00 a person. It is dark inside but you can see well and it didnt feel claustrophobic at all to me because of the huge size of the cistern. Definitely worth the visit if you enjoy a variety of art forms.

I was able to visit while during a visual artists concept was on display. Pretty neat place. Ill have to go again to go on the historical tour.

This was a very interesting experience. The tour was very informative and the tour guide was quite knowledge. We attended both the historical tour and the art tour. The historical tour provided a lot of fascinating facts about Houstons history of water consumption and supply. The art tour was a somewhat interactive display of projected lights and sounds in the eerily dark and echoic cistern. While I might not go again, Im definitely glad that Ive been.

Like the other reviews have mentioned, make sure to reserve your spot (cost: $2/reservation) for a tour online beforehand or you will not be able to enter the Cistern. The tour only lasts about 20 minutes, but it is very informative and shows that Houston has a more interesting history than you would expect. The eventual plan to turn the space into an art gallery seems like a perfect addition for the Buffalo Bayou Park.

Wonderful guided visit to the BBP Cistern. Our guide Rosemarie was AMAZING. So knowledgeable and friendly. Would definitely recommend!

This place is unique and kinda cool but it’s pricey even at $10 per person. Art exhibitions change so I doubt you’ll see exactly what I posted below but this was a new type of art exhibit for me, so I appreciated that. Otherwise, you just walk around the perimeter and look at all the columns, didn’t even take us a half hour.

Awesome place. The tour gives some great history about it and Houston. Happy I went and Ill be going back soon.

Interesting half hour tour at 72°

Good art installation. Dont expect to be impressed too much if you have visited other historic cisterns. Lots of other activities in the area as well.

Seems really cool, though we did not get to enter the cistern. The hours are very limited and I wish they made visitors more aware. The visitor center was open and they told us about rotating art exhibits in the cistern that sound really neat! Wish we could have seen. Would recommend but check hours carefully! The surrounding ark is very nice to walk in either way ️

Something neat to do

Surprising and neat experience ...

Unique and beautiful artistic design with carefully crafted laser lighting. Free admission on Thursday.

It was fun to walk around, yell & hear the echo of mine & the groups voices. Would be awesome to attend an event with a light show and music down there

Great place, I loved it all!!!The pictures at least. I would give it a 5 star but man, Im not sure if its the hours or the workers, but I remember, getting there in the blazing heat on one July day after checking the hours they said they were open (I arrived at around 1,30pm) only to find out the workers went on break and wont be back to like 3pm. Like what the heck.? Im going to try and go back this fall when the blazing heat doesnt make me sweat in case I have to walk back to my car (which was parked all the way in the back since apparently it was national park day or something since almost the entire parking area was full.)

Great place to adventure outdoors with young ones! Slide is fun and musical stations were a hit.

Awesome site that everyone should see! Great tour and an even cooler experience once we got to hear the echo and turn off the lights. A must see in Houston!!!

Great spot for a lunch/brunch on the park. The food is good, you can sit inside or outside, and there is plenty of seating to not feel rushed while you eat. We also recommend a post-meal walk around the area as there are some neat things to check out.

Frequent tours made squeezing this into our day very easy. Well worth a visit and a good start to wandering the buffalo bayou paths.

This place is so cool!! my friend and i were looking for something to do in the middle of a hot Saturday afternoon and decided to finally make it out here! we booked tickets 10 minutes online before their scheduled tours and it was so cool to learn about the cistern with our guide down below

Very impressed. The entire area where I walked and sat was clean. Beautiful views.

What an awesome space and AMAZING tour. Very informative and tons of Houston history. A must see for every Houstonian!

Super interesting tour in houstons underground Cistern. Amazing insight and beautiful view.

This place is awesome! Take the tour. Short, sweet, & cool.

This place is a hidden gem! Its cheap $10 box per ticket. 30 minute tour. Tour guide very professional, and knows her stuff!! Thank you for such a beautiful time!!will go again, and most definitely tell everyone about this.

Never knew what a cistern was until my visit. $5 per adult. Something different. (Great guides BTW.)

Loved the tour and can only imagine what the art installations looked like in the past. It is gorgeous down there when the light reflects off the water and the sound is amazing. A must see!!

This was a cool little place to visit and learn a little bit about Houstons history. The $5 tour was well worth it.

Awesome little hidden gem in Houston. Definitely worth doing the tour. Pictures and videos are welcomed.

Its a decent place, parking can be limited and dont expect much during rush hours. One of the many location for pictures and hangout. I do recommend you stop by if your in the area. Its worth the checking out.

My favorite place for a nice relaxing walk

A super cool spot to learn about an unusual part of Houston’s history. The art installations are really eccentric and neat. Great for unique photos, if you know how to work in low light. Thursday’s are free!

Cool tour and staff let me reschedule the time since me and some friends were running late. I’ve lived in Houston for years and never knew this existed so if you’re into art or have the chance to visit check it out. The tours are free on Thursdays and $5 a head any other day but it’s worth it.

Love love love this place. Its probably the coolest tourist attraction in Houston. The staff are super knowledgeable. We go every time theres a special event or we have friends in town whove never seen it. The pictures dont do it justice. See it for yourself.

Its probably the coolest tourist attraction in Houston. The staff are super knowledgeable. We go every time theres a special event or we have friends in town whove never seen it. The pictures dont do it justice. See it for yourself.

The cistern itself is interesting. The art piece right now is very cool with all the moving lights. I really enjoyed it. The staff that take you in and at the visitor center were extremely friendly and welcoming. Overall, a very fun visit that is a little out of the ordinary.

This place is so cool! Whoever likes history, art, engineering, architecture, this is one of the places in Houston you gotta visit. Employees are friendly and helpful too!

Took both the history and light show tour (a out 30 minutes each). Interesting and beautiful. Plan to go again.

Photos and people talking about it dont do the art exhibit justice when visiting the cistern. If you have 45mins and $10, its worth a visit.

A great hidden (air conditioned!) respite from the sun with a bit of history and if you’re lucky the occasional art installation too... Minimal tour costs can be booked online or onsite but best to book ahead, and if you have the time and not so much the money, Thursday tours are free!

You need to make sure you make reservations before going especially on Thursday. If you are looking for a place to film a zombie apocalypse this would be the place. It’s pretty trippy when you first walk in. Great place to go if it’s 100 degrees outside and there is nowhere else to go but it’s an underground reservoir not much more than that- however I would go for a light show because I can see how that would be pretty spectacular in that place.

The Bayou Cistern is massive lots of columns but I wish it wasnt so dark with the light at show..would love to go back when and if its light up ..need to see the structure real architectural beauty..

The best park ever I love to come hereJust looked at this view

Have lived here for 30 years and never knew this was here. Very cool. Awesome 30min tour, nice and cool when its blazing Houston heat outside. Such a cool place to visit.

Excellent tour, very interesting story and location. Absolutely worth the price!

A very cool hidden gem in Houston. One of many hidden gems in out city. These were taken during the Carlos Cruz-Diez at the Cistern ezhibit:  Spatial ChromointerferenceOn view through January 13, 2019

Great for a bike ride or brisk walk!!!

Took my son on the Unguided Tour and loved it. Great experience. However if its your first time going I recommend the Guided Tour. A must see in Houston. Also I believe Thursdays are Free.

Literally a hidden gem along Buffalo Bayou. Great to see and learn about the backstory of Houstons infrastructure. Love how the cistern is repurposed to display artist work. Great place to spend an hour or so.

Great venue and skyline views of Downtown Houston. Sits above the cistern. Houstons original water supply storage tank.

Great quick company history tour of the Cistern. Nicely restored facilities.

This is a great guided tour, and a hidden gem. If you want to learn some Houston history and see an architectural masterpiece, dont skip this. Sometimes they have special art installations as well which is amazing.

The Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern is such an awesome hidden treasure of Houston. Its beauty is outstanding but what makes it even more breath taking is the light shows they put on down there that just mesmorize you! We have been telling all of our friends to go check it out, so I would highly recommend it and also look up some the awesome videos on YouTube that people have posted.

Another fun installation at the Cistern. A Houston hidden gem

Super fun

Hidden gem in Buffalo bayou. Very artistic, quick visit.

Its like being in a sensory tank? Only gigantic... the echo is amazing. Otherwise, its so dim, serene, surreal, and naturally cool even during hot days... cant wait to go again for the immersive art installations.

I live in Dallas, and I wish we had a park like it. All around great experience.

This place is cool...just the history of it is kind if ab interesting historical site for Houston. Then they do some art installations and the place is an all new experience... when guests come from out of town we like to take them there...its about 30-45 minutes and it is really cheap. Everyone that goes thinks its a pretty cool part of history

Definitely a cool history lesson on houston

Really cool experience, guides give an interesting history of Houstons water supply and the place itself is surreal.

Being inside the cistern is actually quite surreal the first ... oh, 60 seconds. After that the tour guide walks you around in a circle, talking a mile a minute. I couldnt even absorb what she was saying, she talked so fast. What I did understand was very informative about the citys history with water. There is apparently an art installation in here Id love to see, but that wasnt part of the tour.

Beautiful! The artist has more of a psychodelic lighting.....not my favorite

We took the tour during the artistic installation and loved it. We will definitely come back for an historic tour when theyre offered. It was about 30 minutes and kicked off our day of exploring downtown.

Great historical spot! Enjoyed learning about Houstons neighboring lakes.

One of the most amazing places I have ever been. Once held drinking water for Houston. Over 2 acers under roof. Its like a different world.

Amazing place with amazing history. Our guide was fantastic. She knew lots about the cistern and the history of Houston. Well worth seeing. Its quite surreal when you inside

Really enjoyed my visit. Cool and damp way to get out of the heat!

Love this place, it always feels so nice to be outside and under the Houston skyline. Even at night its quite a nice place to be.

Great way to spend an hour, and a good history lesson for the city.

Very neat and educational tour that lasted about 20 minutes at a slow walk (~1/4 of a mile) that takes you clockwise around the outside edge of the cistern. At the end, you get to have some fun with the 17 second echo of the chamber, which is really cool.My friend made the reservation online and had read somewhere that you could stay in up to an hour after the tour ended, but this was not the case. Also, they do lock you in underground (its technically ground-level with the embankment built up above) so if you are claustrophobic, this is not the tour for you.Future plans are for a light and/or sound installation, which would be pretty neat.

Must see historical Houston architecture. Come when there is an art exhibit to fully experience the scale of this underground marvel.

Amazing example of civic design and infrastructure. Amazing repurposing. Cool public plaza. Great view of Houston skyline. The acoustics are bananas. 17 second reverberation.