How far south along the coast do you have to go to get blue water?

[Muhnay]

Originally Posted by Austin97

We have a beachfront place in galveston but are thinking about switching to corpus. How far south along the coast do you have to be to get blue water and whitish sand?

Ive been to south padre and the water there while not great is fine and the beaches have nice sand.

You have to go to Florida. Texas does not have clear blue water.

[rstrstx]

Oh please, the water at South Padre is fine enough for most people, but I'd compare it more to places on the US Atlantic coast than the Caribbean or Florida Gulf.

For the original poster, most places on the coast will have water at least a little nicer than Galveston, but some of my favorite "beach" places like Rockport are on the bays and not directly on the coast. Bay water is usually going to be murky unless you're in a shallow cove where sea grass grows that can hold the mud and silt down. Do you want to be right on the Gulf or will a bayside location suit?

If you're in Austin the Corpus area would be more logical for a beach getaway since you don't have to go through Houston traffic to get there. The quality of the water is usually between SPI and Galveston in "niceness". SPI will be the best of course but it's a long way from Austin, and due to the National Seashore there is not going to be any development on the Gulf between Corpus and SPI any time soon

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by rstrstx

Oh please, the water at South Padre is fine enough for most people, but I'd compare it more to places on the US Atlantic coast than the Caribbean or Florida Gulf.

For the original poster, most places on the coast will have water at least a little nicer than Galveston, but some of my favorite "beach" places like Rockport are on the bays and not directly on the coast. Bay water is usually going to be murky unless you're in a shallow cove where sea grass grows that can hold the mud and silt down. Do you want to be right on the Gulf or will a bayside location suit?

If you're in Austin the Corpus area would be more logical for a beach getaway since you don't have to go through Houston traffic to get there. The quality of the water is usually between SPI and Galveston in "niceness". SPI will be the best of course but it's a long way from Austin, and due to the National Seashore there is not going to be any development on the Gulf between Corpus and SPI any time soon

Thanks, thats what I needed to know. I was thinking about corpus already, but we havent been down there. I actually didnt realize that it was about the same amount of time to get there as galveston (galveston can actually be 4-4.5 hours). Ive started windsurfing and bird island basin is some of the best windsurfing in the country. Bay side would probably be fine as I want to sail and windsurf anyway. Right now our beach property faces the gulf and it is really nice, but the waves (and the law) preclude you from having a boat dock or anything.