Beaches (Austin, Corpus Christi, Galveston: restaurants, bars, beach)

[redrocket2]

Any nice beaches within reasonable driving distances of Austin? I hear the beaches in Houson are terrible, what about Corpus Christi? I see South Padre Island is about 5 hrs away so is it reasonable to do a weekend beach getaway there?

I looked at some pics of South Padre Island and the beaches look terrible... and I thought Southern California beaches were not that great LOL!

[woodinvilleguy]

I think the closest nice beaches are in Alabama.

[Idlewile]

South Padre Island is pretty nice, at least the nicest in TX. I was surprised the water was a clear as it was. I think it's a little far for a weekend trip though. When we went, we were there for a week.

[tfresca]

Galveston has horrible beaches, Corpus Christi is only slightly better. Probably easier to fly to San Diego than drive to South Padre.

[Austin97]

Port aransas has nice sand, really powdery. But the beaches are not groomed, I prefer ungroomed beaches.

[centralaustinite]

If you think South padre beaches are terrible, then you are out of luck! Try Alabama, Mexico, or California.

[AustinGuy]

To give you an idea of how (not) nice the beaches are in Texas: we like to drive on them.

[madrone2k]

In my opinion, you have to get to the eastern part of the gulf to find nice beaches. All of the mud and silt from the Mississippi River that is dumped into the gulf travels west. Consequently, Pensacola and points east of Louisiana have nice beaches.

[eastontracks]

I recommend 3 beaches, none that are s padre (still decent beach though)

Port aransas- this will be closest beach to you that isn't chocolate milk brown like in Galveston. More grayish and when you swim in the water, it doesn't feel (too) gross.

Malaquite beach- skip the 6 hr trip to s padre and travel 3 hours here. this beach is about 20-30 miles south of port aransas and a private park. The water gets much better for some reason and to me is better than s padre. Only downside is there are no restaurants or bars to grab a piña colada but it's a clean park where you can relax. I really liked this one and when I went in fall '12, the water was teal green.

Gulf shores, orange beach, destin-
Waters here rival places like cancun. Water is beautiful, clear, and with white soft sand. A 4 day weekend should be enough to make the drive and enjoy it a few days. There are no waves like the west coast but it's amazing. It almost felt like I was in a water park.

[CptnRn]

Photos of the Port Aransas beaches and Rockport areas here Rockport / Port Aransas, TX Photo Gallery by cptinrn at pbase.com