Vacation help!! (Houston: rental, wedding, construction)

[Sugarlander]

...(again!!) sorry I meant to say the same distance as Galveston is to Houston )

[Scientist Mom]

The other coastal communities that you inquired about are not vacation areas. Baytown is a small mostly blue-collar? town. There is an Exxon plant there. Seabrook is mostly residential and got hit pretty hard. Bacliff is very low income with some less than desirable citizens. It is my understanding that all those little towns on the coast were hit hard, but none were vacation destinations to begin with.

If being on the water is important to you, you may want to look into places on Lake Conroe. Some areas up there suffered from Ike but I think the damage was less uniform.

[texas7]

I would not stay at Lake Conroe if I had a wedding to attend in Sugarland. Plus other than the lake there is nothing for tourists to do without quite a commute into Houston. Had Seabrook not suffered some damage, I would have called it more tourist oriented than Lake Conroe because of its tourist attractions such as NASA, Kemah Boardwalk (now closed for rebuilding), proximity to both Houston and Galveston, plus its water activities, nature park, etc. Baytown is not a resort area - it is just a working town. Of course, I don't condemn an area because of the "exxon plant" - that's rather narrow minded to pick out one. There are plants all over the place that are probably much greater environmental offenders in the greater Houston area than the Exxon plant but that side of just has the abundance of industry so it tends to be residential most industrial workers and some executives in that those industries.

My suggestion would be to stay somewhere in Houston, nearer your wedding site and find somes in-town activities that interest you. Sorry this storm happened at such a bad time for your visit. What do you enjoy doing when visiting a city and maybe people can better give you some alternatives to the waterfront?

[Watchful]

OK - here is an outside the box suggestion - not on the beach - but could be a nice place to try.

Hyatt Lost Pines Resort - between Bastrop TX and Austin TX - a little over 2 hours away from Sugar Land. It is only a few years old.

(The reason it came to mind - I was thinking about the Hyatt Hill Country Resort in San Antonio and remembered the Lost Pines.)

Caveat: I have not stayed there.

[Topaz]

I'd stay at The Houstonian and make it a spa vacation. Their Web site has a function where you can search for things to do in Houston while you are here. If you have children, the parents on this Board can make suggestions of fun things to do as well.

[tstone]

Originally Posted by Scientist Mom

Baytown is a small mostly blue-collar? town. There is an Exxon plant there. Seabrook is mostly residential and got hit pretty hard. Bacliff is very low income with some less than desirable citizens.

You're right about Baytown being that way. It's continuous with the rest of east Houston metro area (LaPorte/Deer Park/Pasadena/Channelview) and isn't that small for a suburb, relatively speaking... 60k people or so. And there is a LOT more than the Exxon plant, too.

When people spout off about Houston being a nasty, Deep South blue collar town they are probably talking about Baytown. Or they were out in Beaumont and never came here, thinking we are only 20 minutes down the road. That sounds stupid but some people really do think this.

[bamba_boy]

I think your best bet would be Palacios, only 100-120 miles from the SW border of Houston. It was far enough away to escape most damage, I think. Stay in the penthouse of the Luther Hotel, a pre WWII old-fashioned beach resort that used to have a ballroom that Doris Day and others played. While the ballroom is gone the hotel is great and right on the bay. Not much of sand for swimming (more of an inland reaching bay but quite beautifu) but it's too cold for swimming then anyway. Check out this website for the town: Palacios Chamber of Commerce

I haven't done it but friends have had some great deep-sea fishing trips out of the area. The town is real charming - sort of a warmer Brighton! It's sort of a well kept secret even to Houston natives, most just get on the Gulf Freeway for the shorter drive to Galveston I. instead of SW down the 59. Still very manageable trip. Less than 2 -2.5 hrs.

[texas7]

Bama - just looked up the Luther hotel on a travel site - and you are right - looks like an interesting place for a reasonable weekend away from town.

You know over the past few months of posting and reading posts I am seeing a trend (even in myself) that I don't care for. Although we are not in blue collar professions, I think they are starting to get a bad rap. There is a difference in a blue collar worker and a redneck but when people talk about undesirable places to live, ghetto, redneck and blue collar workers seem to all get throw into the same kettle. Blue collar workers do laborous job and often have only a high school education but that doesn't mean that they make bad neighbors. live in crappy neighborhoods, keep bad lawns, etc. (some might but certainly not all). Many live in mixed neighborhoods with white collar workers and if you don't know them personally, you might not know they worked blue collar by the looks of their home. Many of these workers do the laborous work that builds this country and I think we do them a disservice by lumping them into the trashy segment that we sometimes do. Certain parts of town may be undesirable to live in due to the high degree of industry but surely all the people who live in those areas aren't bad neighbors or influences. I've met some very nice people in white collar professions who I have been shocked to find out live in some of the areas deemed undesirable for whatever their choice is to live there.

[lonestarwvu]

If you are dedicated to staying somewhere near the coast close to Houston you could try this place:


Beacon Hill Bed & Breakfast


I know nothing about it, but I always see it on my trips up to Seabrook. When I drove by yesterday it looked like it was open, but you will need to call them. You will need to be prepared to be in a place that is undergoing a massive cleanup if you are coming anytime soon.


The nearest beach that you could go to, that didn't sustain much damage, (that I know of) would be Matagorda. It's about 90 miles from Sugar Land, so it's a bit of a haul. I have never been there, but I would like to go. West Matagorda Bay is supposed to have good fishing, but it's somewhat infamous for sharks, which could make wade fishing very exciting.

[bamba_boy]

Originally Posted by texas7

Bama - just looked up the Luther hotel on a travel site - and you are right - looks like an interesting place for a reasonable weekend away from town.

You know over the past few months of posting and reading posts I am seeing a trend (even in myself) that I don't care for. Although we are not in blue collar professions, I think they are starting to get a bad rap. There is a difference in a blue collar worker and a redneck but when people talk about undesirable places to live, ghetto, redneck and blue collar workers seem to all get throw into the same kettle. Blue collar workers do laborous job and often have only a high school education but that doesn't mean that they make bad neighbors. live in crappy neighborhoods, keep bad lawns, etc. (some might but certainly not all). Many live in mixed neighborhoods with white collar workers and if you don't know them personally, you might not know they worked blue collar by the looks of their home. Many of these workers do the laborous work that builds this country and I think we do them a disservice by lumping them into the trashy segment that we sometimes do. Certain parts of town may be undesirable to live in due to the high degree of industry but surely all the people who live in those areas aren't bad neighbors or influences. I've met some very nice people in white collar professions who I have been shocked to find out live in some of the areas deemed undesirable for whatever their choice is to live there.

This blue-collar/redneck assumption is indeed very false, especially in Houston. I live in a delightful neighborhood in what nearly everybody on this forum has trashed as a blue-collar/dangerous/"ethnic"(not redneck) neighborhood in the SW/Fondren area and have found instead that my neighbors are actually a fine, hard-working mixed group of skilled blue-collars, engineers and other white-collar, and many self-employed entrepeneurs and business owners. In Houston, many of the blue-collars make oodles more than many of the white-collars. For instance, a skilled machinist or offshore worker in the energy industry probably triples or quadruples the yearly income, what with overtime, hazardous-duty pay, foreign service premiums, etc, than the average accountant in a downtown office. He may be wearing coveralls instead of an accountant's monkey suit but his investment portolio probably dwarfs the accountant's!