South Padre Island Opinions

[austinnerd]

We were there last year for the first time. The beach was nice, it was hot and the water was cold but the kids loved it. The only downside to the water was that on the last day we were there, some oil blobs showed up (this was last year). The place itself didn't really "wow" me, we felt it overbuilt and hardly "charming" or "beautiful" with all the buildings/traffic/people, but not terrible.

We drove along the beach, just know that visions of jumping your 4x4 over some dunes will remain just that, visions. We ended up crawling along due to the massive amount of people (this was during the middle of the week during the summer) and trash. It took a good 1/2 hour of driving on the beach itself to finally get to a place that wasn't crawling with people. Plus it's illegal to actually drive on the actual dunes, you have to stay on the beach. I was not impressed.

That said, we stayed at a beach front condo and the kids generally loved it. We would definitely go back again but not for too long (maybe two or three nights max) and probably would just stay near the condo and not do the beach driving thing again. We did the pirate ship from Port Isabel and we saw several dolphins without having to do a dedicated dolphin tour plus the pirate ship activities kept the kids occupied when the dolphins weren't around.

Agree about Amberjacks, ok food, kinda expensive. We also went to the piano/pizza place, again, the food was average at best and the place had smokers (it's a small place so it's impossible to get away from the smoke smell). We went to a tiny place that normally caters but on some nights also serves in a small dining room, the food was very good, by far the best of anything else we had on the island. Can't remember the name though and I think it was probably a bit on the spendy side, but not overtly so.

[Shutterbugg]

I love Texas beaches and am about to go to to N. Padre for my second time! It is beautiful....there are lots of animals...ie Dolphins and Jellies...birds...etc...I am from Arkansas, and though I must say I have not been to a California beach...I have been to Florida, Naples...and it was nice...but....(here is why I love Texas beaches) it gets deep fast! In Texas you have zero grade entry that goes very slowly to deeper water... you have much more "playable" space than in the other coasts. And besides that, when you are in Texas, you KNOW your in Texas...makes me wish I was from there! People have Texan pride are proud to be who they are! Love that!
You feel like your visiting friends! Keep it up Texas...you ROCK!

[juanitabanana]

Hi interesting forum. I love forums about subjects that interest me. When you are talking about the water and swimming. The bacteria count of the water is low, isn't it? Is the water just silty or is it polluted. I can't be around water without swimming in it and I don't want to swim in polluted water. Where are the best swimming places? Oh, we are coming that way after the first of January 2011

[CptnRn]

South Padre beaches and water are some of the cleanest, least silty and least polluted on the TX coast.

[love roses]

silty.