South Texas Gulf

CKinsella · 01-18-2016, 12:07 PM

We are currently at South Padre Island staying at the KOA for a week. The weather has been beautiful. We're talking about coming back next year for a longer stay.
I want to look at other places in the area. This is nice but a bit pricey.
Has anyone spent time in the Corpus Christi area? I see that there are many campgrounds near the water. Does anyone have a recommendation?

Bassdogs · 01-18-2016, 12:49 PM

Also interested and are heading that direction next week. Think w/b working our way down the texas gulf coast. Don't plan on going all the way to S podre. No destinations reserved as this is a gypsy trip.

TxTwoSome · 01-18-2016, 02:21 PM

Well I have been to Lake Corpus Christi State Park it is actually in Mathis Texas about 35-40 minutes from Corpus.

It is a very nice park we stayed there for a week last year.

I am not much help if you want on the beach spots the wife and I do not like all sand. We stay at the lake and take day trips to beach and other stuff in Corpus.

I know there is a campground on the Padre Island National Seashore National Park but I have never camped there.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

SmokerBill · 01-18-2016, 02:23 PM

At the north end of Padre Island near Corpus is Bird Island Basin. Great place to camp if you boondock- no electric, water or sewer at the camp area, though there's a National Park campground a few miles away, where you can use the dump station and get fresh water for free. I'm not sure if the NP campground has electric.

At Bird Island Basin, the campsites are just a few feet from the water, and it's a popular place for wind surfing. There's even a windsurf board rental shop there if you want to try it. Cost is something like $10 for 8 weeks camping in a year, 2 weeks max at a time- very cheap!

Edited to add: they might have raised camp fees to $5 a day, according to the website page. A couple years ago a one year camping pass was just $10

Bird Island Basin - Padre Island National Seashore (U.S. National Park Service)

Farther up the coast is Goose Island State Park. I've stayed there a couple times and it's very nice, especially if you want to see whooping cranes and fish off a nice long pier. I caught a 32 pound black drum there last time I went.

http://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/goose-island

CKinsella · 01-18-2016, 02:51 PM

We arrived without reservations and were able to get in for a week. We were playing it by ear, following the weather, but in the future I would like to have reservations. We got the last site they had open for the full week.

Fairenatic · 01-18-2016, 03:54 PM

I have lived near Galveston for the last 25+ years.

I like Corpus Christi but I think you will find the water much more beautiful in Port Aransas. The blue water comes in much closer to shore and the water is much deeper sooner. Great fishing, as well.

Have fun and welcome to the lone star state.

LesBevil · 01-21-2016, 09:10 PM

We usually stay in Port Aransas at the Pioneer RV Resort. Great area to visit the beach but also has several towns nearby (Rockport, Aransas Pass, Ingleside) and is not that far from Corpus Christi. Pioneer has a great breakfast on the weekends. Large spaces with pull thru, easy walk to the beach.

Camper_bob · 01-21-2016, 09:33 PM

+1 for Port Aransas. Our favorite is Gulf Waters RV resort. It's a little pricey, but it's very nice. There are plenty of places to stay around there. You can even boondock on the beach if you want. The beaches are relatively clean most of the time (seaweed can get pretty bad), the crowds are thinner than S Padre most times when we're there, the water is clean, just an all around great place IMO. And you have easy access to Corpus Christi for dining options, the USS Lexington (highly recommend if you like military museums, I enjoyed it a lot) the Texas State Aquarium..... Lots to do in Corpus.

I'll also give a nod to Corpus Christi SP. We stayed there last year and had a nice time. The campground is kind of old, and it gets crowded on nice weekends with people day-tripping out of Corpus, but we had a fine time. Well except that a guy drowned in the lake about 200 feet from where we were swimming earlier. It was very near our campsite too. We could see the gurney being loaded into the ambulance. It was a little disturbing, but we tried not to let it bother us too much and decided to talk about water safety, as this was a sobering reminder of what can happen.

Anyway, that whole area is beautiful, and there's plenty to do in addition to beach bumming or fishing. If you like fishing, it's just a short drive up to Rockport which is a fishing town for sure.

RedHorse1 · 01-22-2016, 08:35 AM

"On the Beach" in Port Aransas is nice. We've stayed there twice and really like the CG. If you stay in Port A for more than a couple of days look into renting a golf cart to drive around town.

Camper_bob · 01-22-2016, 08:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RedHorse1

"On the Beach" in Port Aransas is nice. We've stayed there twice and really like the CG. If you stay in Port A for more than a couple of days look into renting a golf cart to drive around town.

I looked into renting a cart once, and backed away slowly when I saw the rental rates

RedHorse1 · 01-23-2016, 09:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Camper_bob

I looked into renting a cart once, and backed away slowly when I saw the rental rates

We were there off-season and rates were negotiable, don't know about the "in-season" rates but I'd expect less flex. Looked into renting at WDW and that was sticker shock.

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