vacation ideas? (Houston, San Antonio, Austin: oceanfront, rent, house)

[Dsmall]

Hi - we are probably going to be moving to FW in the next 6 months. So...we will be taking our family vacation sometime after we get there. Can you give me some ideas of a great place to go for some R&R?? Galveston? Corpus Christi? We would love some kind of body of water...would you suggest a lakefront or oceanfront location? Help!!

ETA: We have three kids under 7 yrs. old....

[SafetyGuy]

I would suggest staying away from Galveston since they are still trying to deal with the clean up from the hurricane from last year.

Corpus Christi and Port Aransas are definitely good beach/water destinations in TX.

[loves2read]

frankly I would suggest LAKE vs OCEAN/GULF for water vacations

consider Lake Travis in Austin or one of the Highland Lakes--make sure that the one you pick is a constant level lake--they all are not--rent a house as close to the water as you can afford--there are usually quite a few side trips that you can take in the area--go to Austin--check out the state capital and other sites--good restaurants
check out the state park that is the Canyon of the Eagles--think it is lake Buchannan



or go to New Braunfels area--rent place on the river--go to Schlitterbaum water park--
go to San Antonio--Canyon Lake area (that is not a constant level lake but it usually has accessible water for skiing/swimming--you can rent private home or "cabin resort" type
lots of stuff to do in SA for kids

Beach in Corpus can be disappointing to people who have been to Pensacola/Destin area or Hawaii
check out S Padre Island--but that too can be disappointing--sand is not the same and water quality can be tainted because it has the shipping channel so close...

[pfw]

We went to Horseshoe Bay in July on Lake LBJ. We all thought it was really nice and my daughter (3yo) had a great time. They had a big courtyard with a big checkerboard, had tons of kids activities, and you had access to 3 pools. One was located at the Marriott where we stayed which had kids pool. There was another pool that was at the lake and they had a "beach" so the kids could play in the sand.

From Horseshoe Bay, you could easily drive to Fredericksburg or even Austin.

[CMDallas]

What type of R&R?
The Palo Duro Canyon up by Amarillo is the 2nd largest canyon in the US, 2nd only to the Grand Canyon.
There is Big Bend National park, famous for it's ecosystem's diversity
There is Guadalupe Mountain National park famous for its abundant fossils (and slightly to the north in New Mexico there is Carlsbad Caverns)
There is Corpus Cristi, which is a pretty nice beach.
There is Schliterbahn (sp?) some water park in San Antonio, it supposed to be the biggest in the nation or something like that.
There is the NASA center in Houston

But I would say, it sounds like Corpus Cristi is what your looking for.

[loves2read]

Corpus does not have a good beach--IMO
think you are better off going further south to Padre Island or maybe to Port Aransas--don't know how badly it was hurt by the last big hurricane--don't think nearly as bad as Galveston
but in TX the beach is not the best

[Dsmall]

thanks guys...I am going to print out the thread so that I have all the info for when we are ready!