Texas Coast recommendations?

[daveg777]

I am looking for suggestions on where my wife and I can go and spend a couple of days down on the Texas Coast. Love great seafood, may fish or may not, budget is around $150-$200 a night, and just looking to relax and maybe shop a bit.



Dave

[stvnscott]

I grew up on the TX gulf coast.

The best water is around South Padre Island. Galveston is OK, but the sand and water are both brown for the most part, and if you wander off the strip/strand, it turns ghetto pretty quickly. Corpus Christie is pretty cool. It is a lively city with decent restaurants and shopping and night life, but the coast is all sea wall IIRC.

[RonH]

Port Aransas near Corpus Christi is nice. You might want to look into it. South Padre Island would be great if you don't mind the long trip. Galveston would the closest to you but watch your areas like the previous poster mentioned. You won't have a problem finding great seafood!

[playsarobin]

I live a little over a half hour from Galveston and I'll say, without hesitation the nicest coast we have to offer (IMO) is south padre.
Beautiful area and some nice restaurants.

[cratz2]

We lived in Galveston for a year many years ago (84-85, I think) and there were some pretty hanky areas back then. I can only imagine the lesser areas have gone far down hill since then.

Went to Corpus about four years in a row, everywhere we went was pretty decent.

Padre is definitely the way to go among those three in my opinion.

[Bankston]

Padre.

For the upper gulf coast, try Surfside Beach in Brazoria.

Galveston is just now starting to recover from Hurricane Ike.

[beorn]

Padre is correct.

[nsureit]

Rockport - nice little resort town with good restaurants. Easy drive to Port Aransas and Corpus Christi. Tour the Lexington aircraft carrier and visit the aquarium in Corpus.

[RedTiger]

Rockport - nice little resort town with good restaurants. Easy drive to Port Aransas and Corpus Christi. Tour the Lexington aircraft carrier and visit the aquarium in Corpus.

+1 for Rockport.

[yugnat]

If you're coming from out of state to visit one of our beaches there is no doubt South Padre is where to go. Not North Padre, Corpus, Galveston, etc... While those are 'ok' I wouldn't make a beach vacation to any of those places, especially coming from out of state.

[Jarrett]

I spent about 30 summers growing up in Rockport and Port Aransas. Lots of fond memories there. Surfside is also nice. Galveston is exactly like everyone else says. South Padre had the nicest beach but its a looong way. If I were going to hangout at the beach today it would either be Rockport/Port Aransas or Surfside area.

[NAC25]

Just got back from a Galveston trip. Galveston has its own charm. Lots of things to do other than the beach, which isn't the best.

Best water and beach is in South Padre.

[LHanson]

We go to Rockport every year.

[billywade]

Cool town but really not much actual beach in Rockport? Right? Port A/N Padre is basically right there (a very short ferry ride away) and consists of miles and miles of beach.

Edit: Just realized you said coast, not beach. Rockport is a cool seaside community and has everything you've specified.

[Ben S.]

South Padre.