Texas has huge variety of beaches, most long and hard packed with fine white sand, on the mainland and on the barrier islands. There are great party beaches such as Galveston Island East Beach and quiet deserted ones like Boca Chica on South Padre Island where people go for solitude, romance and to enjoy unspoiled nature.
Discover the beauty of Boca Chica, South Padre Island
There are many spectacularly beautiful beaches on South Padre Island, some lively, others quiet and deserted, but Boca Chica Beach manages to stay empty of crowds and beautiful. It is located just east of Brownsville on a sandy peninsula separated by the Rio Grande River from Mexico and by the Brazos Santiago Pass from South Padre Island.
Attend a festival on Galveston Island East Beach
Galveston Island East Beach is Galveston’s largest, prettiest, and the most popular beach. It is the place where the best parties are held and where there are concerts, festivals, and events of all kinds going on the whole summer like the popular sandcastle building competition.
Find it at this Address: 1923 Boddeker Rd, Galveston, TX 77550, Phone: 409-797-5111
Stroll through the bird sanctuary at Rockport Beach
Relax on Rockport Beach, a magnificent long crescent of fine sand and calm shallows has 65 quaint picnic areas with shade, grills, and picnic tables, volleyball courts, several kids’ playgrounds with swings, and a beautiful ¾-mile-long walking path along the Little Bay shores. The beach is a designated bird sanctuary, so try to spot some colorful birds while you are walking.
Find it at this Address: 210 Seabreeze Dr, Rockport, TX 78382, Phone: 361-729-6661
Fish on the Horace Caldwell Pier at IB Magee Beach
Located in Port Aransas on the northern end of Mustang Island, IB Magee Beach is a 157-acre-long beach stretched along the shipping channel. It is part of Nueces Country Parks, open all year, and contains 75 well-organized campsites. Simple camping is allowed on the beach. One of the main attractions on the beach is the 1,240-foot-long Horace Caldwell Pier that extends deep into the Gulf of Mexico.
Find it at this Address: Nueces Country Park, 321 N on the Beach, Port Aransas, TX 78373, Phone: 361-749-6117
Take the kids to Magnolia Beach
Magnolia Beach is a small town on the coast of Lavaca Bay, southeast of Alamo Beach. The town beach is an 8-mile-long stretch of fine sand, quiet, peaceful and perfect for family day under the sun.
Enjoy great bird watching at Matagorda Bay Nature Park
With 2 miles of beachfront at the Gulf of Mexico and 2 miles of Colorado River frontage, magnificent 1,600-acre Matagorda Bay Nature Park is wonderful place to visit with the family. There are acres of dunes and coastal marshes with thousands of birds, offering one of the best bird watching areas in the country.
Find it at this Address: 6430, FM2031, Matagorda, TX 77457, Phone: 979-863-2603
Take a day trip to Mustang Island
An 18-mile long barrier island near Port Aransas, the whole of Mustang Island is a state park with five miles of spectacular sandy beach. Off its southern end is Padre Island and Corpus Christi, connected by the JFK Causeway.
Find it at this Address: 17047 TX-361, Port Aransas, TX 78373, Phone: 361-749-5246
Tour Padre Island National Seashore
If you want to visit the longest undeveloped barrier island in the world, go to Padre Island National Seashore. This park was developed to protect more than 70 miles of majestic coastline, huge dunes, prairies, and tidal flats as well as the wildlife that make their home there. It is a protected nesting ground for the Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle and a sanctuary for more than 380 bird species.
Take the paved scenic Grasslands Nature Trail to see the unspoiled nature, the way it looked hundreds of years ago, or take your off-road vehicle along the beach, or take a tour of the island with one of the park rangers and learn about its history and environment.
Find it at this Address: 20420 Park Rd 22, Corpus Christi, TX 78418, Phone: 361-949-8068
Attend the sand castle building competition on Port Aransas Beach
Once known for its pirates in the 18th century, Port Aransas is a small town on Mustang Island known for its great fishing, its 18 miles of long sandy beach and a large number of Texas beach resorts. It is the only town on Mustang Island, one of the longest Texas coast barrier islands. Its beach is famous for the SandFest, an annual sand castle building competition that turns into a large festival.
Find colorful shells on High Island
High Island is located at the edge of a vast marsh, with twisted oaks clinging to the rims of salt domes at times 40 feet high above the Gulf. The beach has nothing but coarse sand that stretches for miles towards Louisiana, dotted with colorful shells, often deserted, sometimes visited by riders cooling horses in the surf.
Only an hour and a half from Houston, it is the perfect beach for those who want solitude and unspoiled nature. There are four bird sanctuaries nearby. The largest is Smith Oaks Sanctuary, with four lakes and a lovely rookery with herons, egrets, roseate spoonbills, and cormorants.
See the wildlife sanctuary on San Jose Island
Just a short ferry trip from Port Aransas is San Jose Island, your chance to soak in unspoiled Texas nature. This privately owned island was originally a ranch, but is today mostly a wildlife sanctuary and a paradise for beach goers and bird lovers.
The heart of the island is off limits, and visitors can only enjoy the public portion of the island – the beach below the line where the vegetation starts. Not to worry, that is where you can enjoy the best bird watching, fishing, shelling, and strolling along the beach. The beach is 21 miles long with fine white sand and covered with thousands of colorful shells, some of them rare.
Relax on South Packery Channel Beach
South Packery Channel Beach or the South Packery Jetty Beach is a sandy oasis between Mustang Island and Padre Island.
Find it at this Address: 14218 S Padre Island Dr, Corpus Christi, TX 78418, Phone: 361-949-7004
Go for a stroll on Surfside Beach
Surfside Beach is a small beach town about 60 miles from Houston, between the Intracoastal Waterway and the Gulf of Mexico. The town has more than 4 miles of beaches popular for horseback riding and walking.
Find it at this Address: Bluewater Highway, Surfside Beach, TX, Phone: 281-732-8800
See the large dunes on Whitecap Beach
Whitecap Beach is a lovely sandy beach in Corpus Christi on North Padre Island.
Find it at this Address: 14802 Whitecap Blvd, Corpus Christi, TX 78418, Phone: 361-826-3469
See the attractions near North Beach
Just a short drive from downtown Corpus Christi is North Beach, one of Texas’ most naturally gorgeous beaches, and a tourist magnet for well over a hundred years.
