Blake Walsh

15 Best Things to Do in Pearland, TX

  • Published 2022/02/12

A vacation in the southern Brazoria County of Texas can be most memorable if it revolves around the things to do in Pearland.

It is one of the principal cities brightening up the lifestyle in the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metro area.

As such, this city promises varied leisure options, much like the range of flavors of the pear fruit from which Pearland drew its name.

But the city didn’t rely on the local abundance of pear trees to grow its economy and nurture Pearland’s many innate charms.

The city’s growth started to bloom after pioneering railroad companies built in the 1800s a railway from Houston to Galveston through Pearland.

This growth momentum further gained traction in the late 1930s after the oil discovery near Pearland.

All these factors eventually gave rise to the city’s destinations for diversion and fun, as could be gleaned from this list of things to do in Pearland.

Enjoy the Outdoors at the Shadow Creek Ranch

A white bird walking along a swamp.

Lawrence Jefferson / Shutterstock.com

Shadow Creek Ranch is a 3,500-acre lake-themed master development on the western part of Pearland.

It has much to offer to both visitors and residents alike, one of which is the Shadow Creek Ranch Nature Park on Del Papa Street.

Two white ibis birds standing on a wooden fence.

Lawrence Jefferson / Shutterstock.com

This 42-acre park provides natural experiences for visitors, allowing them to connect with nature and explore the park’s surroundings.

Aside from its paved trails and educational signage about the natural environment, this park has an elevated observation platform.

From this vantage point, you can enjoy Pearland’s natural vistas with binoculars and appreciate the Shadow Creek Ranch ecosystem as an urban oasis.

Visit the Pearland Arts League Gallery

The vibrant art scene in Pearland gets an extra boost from the Pearland Arts League Gallery at the Town Center Mall.

Opened in 2021, this gallery provides the city’s artists and league members with a permanent location for their exhibit.

It likewise allows city visitors and residents to purchase and enjoy the artworks of local and Houston area artists.

Available for viewing and purchase in the gallery are various art pieces, including abstract and realistic paintings, as well as sculpture and creative works in photography.

Notably, members of the Pearland Arts League rendered the pear sculptures that many visitors enjoy searching around the city in a scavenger hunt promoting local tourism.

Tour the Fairways of the Pearland Golf Club

Drawn by its claim of having the “best greens” in the Houston area, many visiting golfers book tee times at the Pearland Golf Club.

The club’s course, the “Country Place” layout, is located on Flower Field Lane and offers 18-hole of play over 6,802 yards from the longest of its five tee placements.

This par 72 championship course has a 72.8 rating and a 125 slope rating on Bent grass.

Players have access to GPS-equipped golf carts in the Pearland Golf Club, which also maintains a well-stocked Pro Shop.

Opened in 2011, this club also provides a grass driving range and a putting/chipping green.

It likewise retains the services of three teaching pros to help players improve their game.

For dining, the Pearland Golf Club takes pride in its food outlet, The Grille, featuring the Signature Angus Burgers.

Shop and Dine at the Pearland Town Center

Outside view of the pearland town center with trees along the way.

Brian Reading, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

This large shopping plaza at Broadway Street on the western part of Pearland affirms the city’s rapid growth.

Completed in 2008, the Pearland Town Center boasts 1.1 million square feet of commercial space.

It has as anchors four of America’s favorite stores: Barnes & Noble, Dillard’s, Macy’s, and Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Welcoming sign of the pearland town center on top of a building.

Grguy2011, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

For diners, this regional shopping mall offers BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse, Fish City Grill, Lotus Seafood, and Crafty Crab, among others.

A luxury apartment rental community, The Residences at Pearland Town Center, is also nestled in this commercial hub.

Likewise, within its acreage are two sizable lagoons with paved walk paths around them and just next to the city’s South Gate Park.

Go Birdwatching on the Wetlands

Despite its urban character, Pearland enjoys an abundance of wetlands, open waters, riparian, and hardwood forests, making it a prime location for birdwatching.

One of these is the John Hargrove Environmental Complex & Wetlands on Magnolia Road.

Pearland takes pride in this area, as it stands as the first municipal floating wetlands in Texas.

Hundreds of nesting pairs of birds have been routinely observed forming rookeries in this vast complex.

Besides the various species of waterfowl, like the roseate spoonbills that visit this area, birdwatchers also derive enchantment from the other avian denizens of the complex.

Those who fully explore the 1.7-mile nature trail of the complex report encounters with such charming fliers as American white pelicans, blue jays, and bald eagles.

Take the Challenge of the Pear-Scape Trail

Go on an adventure in getting to know Pearland through the Pear-Scape Trail Scavenger Hunts.

These hunts, which feature a version for adults and two for kids, revolve around a search for four-foot-tall, pear-shaped sculptures put around the city.

Each of the hunts takes one to two hours, with adults searching for 19 sculpture pears in nine stops.

Kids joining the hunt will look for nine pears in either four or six locations designated in the hunts’ maps.

These maps, which also provide the hints and clues for the pear sculpture search, are available at the website of the Pearland Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The bureau recruited local artists to create the pear sculptures for these hunts promoting the city’s Public Pear Art Sculpture Trail.

Take the Kids to the Delores Fenwick Nature Center

This nature center, located on Magnolia Parkway, enables its visitors the opportunity to not only view a variety of live native animals but also allows visitors to play with its interactive exhibits and join in nature crafts.

Kids can enjoy most the DFNC touch table, where they can examine and touch different animal bio-facts.

More wait for them at the nature center’s grounds with nearly 2 miles of walking trails around two ponds.

These ponds feature nesting islands serving as the habitat of migratory birds, turtles, and other wildlife.

Regarded as Pearland’s top environmental education facility, the DFNC also offers workshops, like fishing basics for families.

Buy a Day Pass at the Pearland Recreation Center & Natatorium

Exterior view of the pearland recreation center building.

Patrish Jackson / Shutterstock.com

Keep up with your fitness training program even as you’re enjoying a vacation at Pearland.

You can easily do this by purchasing an affordable Day Pass at the city’s Recreation Center & Natatorium on Bailey Road.

This 107,000-square-foot facility not only provides cutting-edge fitness equipment that will enable you to maintain your training routine.

A closer exterior view of the pearland recreation center during daylight.

Patrish Jackson / Shutterstock.com

It also features two court gyms, two racquetball courts, a zero-depth entry pool, a 50-meter competition pool, and an activity/dance room.

Additionally, the Pearland Recreation Center & Natatorium has a Kidz Korner for babysitting the children of parents using its facilities.

Watch a Movie at the Cinemark Theater

The movie house chain Cinemark Theater has a Pearland location on Silverlake Village Drive.

Movie aficionados troop to this movie theater for the latest Hollywood releases, drawn by its Extreme Digital or XD screenings.

The XD movie experience is so much more enjoyable than in ordinary movie house screenings.

With the XD, the silver screen extends from floor to ceiling and wall to wall.

At the Pearland Cinemark Theater & XD, there are 12 screens set for movie showings.

Besides the XD choice, you can enjoy reclined seating plus picks on either beer or wine with your popcorn.

Enjoy the Independence Park’s Welcome

Pearland puts its best foot forward in Independence Park to welcome visitors looking for open spaces, recreational facilities, and fun events.

This 74-acre park is located on Pearland Parkway and flaunts an outdoor stage and amphitheater berm that can accommodate more than 3,000 spectators.

You can view in the park’s amphitheater tunnel a mural celebrating the performing and visual arts.

This mural is part of the Pearland Mural Tour comprised of six public art locations around the city.

Pearland’s Independence Park also boasts superb landscaping, an enhanced pavilion, and a full-access playground featuring custom play facilities.

This park hosts Pearland’s farmers market on the third Saturday of each month.

Check Out What’s Showing at the Pearl Theatre

The performing arts are alive and well in Pearland, thanks largely to the nonprofit Pearland Theatre Guild, established in 2009.

This guild, which taps the city’s creativity and its region’s talents, is devoted to enriching community life.

To achieve this, it produces thought-provoking and entertaining shows at the Pearl Theater on Park Almeda Drive.

Since its foundation, the Pearland Theatre Guild has consistently staged a diverse lineup of musicals, comedies, and dramas.

Its season offerings include family-friendly and classic titles like The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Robin Hood and Annie, Jr.

Tour the Sri Meenakshi Temple

Sunny day view of the tall Sri Meenakshi temple.

Jim Evans, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Pearland pulls a surprise to visitors in the Sri Meenakshi Temple on McLean Road south at the southern part of the city.

Completed in 1982, this Hindu temple is impressive in its large, snow-white palatial structure.

Pearland’s Sri Meenakshi Temple, dedicated to the Hindu goddess of marriage Meenakshi, is the only such shrine outside India.

Imported granite materials from India were used to adorn this temple that was constructed as an exact copy of a similar Meenakshi shrine in Madurai City of southern India.

Once inside this Pearland Hindu temple, its intricate stonework and majestic columns combine for a peaceful atmosphere truly worth remembering.

Try the Beers at Bakfish Brewing

This beer lovers’ darling on Broadway Street lays claim as the first microbrewery in Pearland.

Bakfish Brewing crafts its beers onsite in its 2,000-square-foot taproom with a covered patio.

A light lager, Texas Tall Boy, is one of the bestsellers of Bakfish Brewing, as this beer comes to light too on the wallet.

Kudos from seasoned beer drinkers also go to the brewer’s Highest of Fives, a crushable blonde beer that delivers a clean and crisp taste.

For some patrons, the Defying Gravity of Bakfish Brewing is unbeatable.

It flaunts a medium body copper in color and delivers a nutty malt backbone taste with a grapefruit character masking its subtle resin bitterness.

Bakfish Brewing likewise has tasty offerings from its Food Truck Station and in-house menu list.

Have a Mug of Vallensons’ Beer

Vallensons’ (pronounced of Val-N-sons) is a small family-owned nanobrewery run by spouses Valle and Lori.

Located on Rice Drier Road, this brewer’s products are in small batches of varying beer types.

Among the brews that you can sample here include porters, IPAs, ambers, stouts, and wheat.

Many of these are brewed seasonally, but Vallensons’ has three mainstays that pay tribute to Pearland and its history.

One of these flagship brews is the Settler’s Oatmeal Stout honoring the early Pearland settlers.

Vallensons’ Brewing also has the Depot Pale Ale as a salute to the city’s historic 1930s train station.

It also hails Pearland’s first newspaper in the brew The Advocate Amber.

Patrons of Vallensons’ Brewing look forward to its hosted events with live music, such as during celebrations of St. Patrick’s Day and Super Bowl championships.

Order Crawfish at the Baytown Seafood Restaurant

Established in 2006, this restaurant on Broadway Street is homegrown in Pearland.

The Baytown Seafood Restaurant specializes in boiled Cajun seafood that has become popular among foodies in the US.

This popularity is soundly expressed in Pearland when the city hosts its annual Crawfish Festival, traditionally held in April.

Besides great seafood, this festival also features live music, games, and vendors.

With Baytown Seafood Restaurant around, you need not wait for this festival.

It offers the best crawfish sourced from California, Louisiana, and Oregon, along with other fresh seafood items available at the Gulf Coast.

Final Thoughts

Making Pearland the focal point of a tour of southern Brazoria County in Texas makes perfect sense.

This city offers a rich mix of things to do, ranging from fun outdoor and indoor activities to enlightening cultural experiences.

With all these on Pearland’s plate, you can even leave the points of interest in nearby Houston for another day.

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