S Padre Island Trip Report
 

I went to S. Padre Island the first week of June and had a great time. Here is what we did:

Day 1: Drive from Austin to S. Padre Island. This is a long 6.5 hour drive, not the most scenic either. Got to the island in the evening and checked in to our hotel then went to find a dinner place. At at Louie's on the Bay and had the seafood buffet. I enjoyed the stone crab claws and the baked potato there, but the buffet line is a bit crowded and disorganized. My son absolutely loved having the crab claws.

After dinner we went to the go cart race track next door to get a double racecar that we could race. The track is very interesting, with multiple levels and such. We had a blast - I felt like I was a kid again :)

The hotel (Travelodge) is a decent one, nothing too special but the rooms were nice. The floors are tile which I presume they have to make it easier to clean the sand out of. There is a refrigerator, in-room safe (important), and flat screen TVs. They have a carb fest free continental breakfast (no fruits or protein, just carbs like waffles, donuts, etc.. but it was fine for us).

It is not exactly on the beach, but it has private beach access through a boardwalk that goes in between another property and some homeowner's properties. I presume they bought the narrow strip from their hotel to the beach to claim that they had beach access.

Day 2: Day at the beach

Beautiful day at the beach, sunny without a cloud in the sky from dawn to dusk, temp in the low 90's, perfect beach weather really. The water temp was around 80 degrees, so perfect for swimming.

I had been to S. Padre when I was in college, but only for Spring Break so I don't even believe I set foot on the beach back then as I was in party mode. I didn't really remember anything from that timeframe to be honest.

Needless to say, S. Padre is far different in the summer than during Spring Break. I had vaguely remembered Louie's being a wet t-shirt type facility during spring break but during the summer it was a whole bunch of families eating dinner on the water.

My son absolutely loved the beach and I did too. I tried skim boarding but quickly learned that I'm not very good at it. I ended up injuring my feet (plantar's fasciitis) from doing skim boarding, I guess I'm not as young as I used to be. Kids were taking to it like birds to water, however. I think I'm just going to try to learn how to surf to be honest. Falling on a wave has got to be better than falling on the sand :)

That evening we took a dolphin cruise, they depart right next to AmberJack's. I highly recommend this. One caveat, we went to book the cruise, not knowing the times and all, but having remembered the cruise when we had eaten at Louie's the first night. So we asked them and they said that there was a cruise in 20 minutes but that it was a 2 hour cruise and they didn't serve dinner, so he recommended I pick up a bite to eat and be back before they departed.

Not wanting to wait in line, I just went to the DQ next door and got some fast food there. Normally I would have planned for something better but I didn't want to miss the cruise. We got back to the boat and got the food on the boat with time to spare.

The boat cruised from the Bay out to the Gulf. When you got out to the Gulf, you quickly realize how much choppier the seas are. They had trouble finding the dolphins, but they colluded with their rival company and found out where they had seen the dolphins. Apparently they help each other out - when one company sees dolphins they notify the other.

My only complaint was that there were some people that brought a cooler and got totally wasted by the end of the trip. The mother was actually tripping on the ladder from the bridge to the stern, quite embarrassing I must say. She made a pass at me which I declined, she was obviously drunk as her husband was very closeby.

Next up, Day 3: Schlitterbahn

Another sunny, cloudless 90+ degree day. We got Schlitterbahn tickets at the hotel, we saved a few bucks that way.

This Schlitterbahn is a Schlitterbahn in name only, it's nothing like the one in New Braufels. There are some pluses though. There were no lines at 10 AM when we got there to get lockers. In New Braufels you have to fight all the crowds, there were few people until after 1PM at the S. Padre Island one.

There is another concept that is nice, which worked out quite nicely. They have a lazy river which can access most of the rides. It's kind of like an interstate highway for rafts, you exit at the attraction you want to take and then it dumps you back into the lazy river when finished. There is, however, at least one ride that is not accessible from the lazy river. The rides are okay, but again nothing like the Schlitterbahn rides in New Braufels and there are maybe 5 rides, and one was closed.

There is a very nice kid's area with a giant (fake) sandcastle with water squirting out of it from every direction. We had a blast in there.

One thing they did better than New Braunfels is the lunch area. There is a very large shaded lunch area with a cafe where you can get tableside service. Also, the restaurant actually serves up decent food, so that's great. As a plus, my waiter gave me free soft drinks so he got a very large tip for doing that.

Another feature of this Schlitterbahn is a boardwalk that crosses extensive sand dunes and leads to the Gulf of Mexico. It is a long very pretty walk over rolling sand dunes covered with dune grass and then you can swim in the Gulf. I really liked this idea and it gave you a nice peaceful way to get away from the crowds at the park. One of my favorite activities was watching the people attempt to surf. I could literally watch that for hours.

Sounds like a great trip! I love South Padre. The one dangerous thing about that Schillterbahn is that it's easy to get sunbured on your front side because you can just stay in your raft almost the whole time!

Thanks for the images of surf, sun, sand and seafood -- I need to get back down there before long!

Just reading your report, with images of splashing in the water in my mind, has cooled me down! Oh, how I'd love to be at the beach -- any beach -- and in the water right now! Get me out of this blasted heat we've been having!

Nice to hear a positive report of South Padre. Well done ((y))

jayne and swisshiker, thanks for the nice comments. Yes, this blasted heat is relentless, huh? But I hear we will have a "cold front" next week that will bump us back down to the mid 90's, which actually sounds cool at this point...

jayne, I put 50 sunblock on but still managed to get burned, but only on my back and nose. I guess there was a spot I missed on my back and that's where I got burned. My nose, well, I always get burned on that even though I was applying SPF 50 every hour.

Day 4: This was the "tourist" day. On this day I wanted to do two things and we did them. First, I wanted to go to the Sea Turtle Rescue Center as I had seen great reviews of it on tripadvisor. So, we went over there and looked at all of the turtles that had been rescued. Back in February the coast of Texas got really cold, in the 20's and sea turtles need warm water to survive. Many of the turtles had hypothermia and the sea turtle rescue center would get the turtles and bring them into a heated center where they could recover. They have heated tanks so the turtles could winter at the facility. When we visited, they were set to release some sea turtles. Also, they were saying the Saturday (after we left) was going to be when the sea turtles eggs hatch and the sea turtles return to the sea. I was saddened that we were one day too late for that.

This attraction is by donation only, $3 suggested for adults and $2 for kids. I highly recommend this.

While at the Sea Turtle Rescue Center, I noticed the Birding Center was right next door, so we decided to go there. It was like $5 admission for adults and $2 for kids.

They have an interesting interactive film where they talk about the ecosystem on S. Padre Island. It was interesting to note that the Bay in S. Padre is hypersaline because of the small rainfall. Basically S. Padre is like a desert island with low precipitation and sunny skies and there are few rivers that lead into the Bay from the coast. This is much different that the coast of Florida where they have pronounced rainfall, or even different than up the coast in Galveston, which receives much higher rainfall.

What this means is that oysters don't really grow well there but it can support limited mangroves. What happens is the mangroves can't get too tall because of the freezes that happen every 6 years. That is why the terrain looks much different than Florida. It also explains the prevalence of cactus and palm trees and other plants along the coast.

The boardwalk attached to the Birding Center is very well done, as is the whole facility. There is a lookout on the 5th floor of the building where you can take great panoramic shots of both the Bay and the Gulf.

We were looking for the alligator which the lady said nobody had found, but some other tourists found the gator under a pavilion. There is a glass floor area and the gator was right under that, so we were able to take pictures of him while being very safe.

I highly recommend this attraction as well.

After these two attractions, we were famished and a bit hot, so back to the hotel for lunch (sandwiches), chips, and soft drinks. Then we spent the rest of the day at the beach relaxing.

Day 5: Drive back to Austin. One thing I didn't like about this drive at all was the checkpoint between Harlingen and Corpus Christi. It seems the INS is no longer content at having border agents at the border but instead around 90 miles inland. So I had to sit in bumper to bumper traffic in the desert going through that customs checkpoint. They just asked me if I was a citizen and waived me on, but my son then asked me "What is a citizen?" after that and then I had to explain to him. He then asked what happens to non-citizens and then I said that they would be brought to jail and sent back to Mexico. He said "Why dad, why? That's not fair." Sometimes the little ones see things oh so much clearer than we do.

To me, I shouldn't have to "show my papers" when I never even left the US, but I guess that's the direction this country is heading.

The Border Patrol checkpoint has been there for years, and it has been enlarged in recent years due to the increased threat of cross-border terrorism and drug smuggling. The checkpoints are on all northbound roads at 40 miles from the border.

Glad you had fun at Padre. Yes, the drive is long and pretty boring. We usually fly on Southwest instead!

loved,loved,loved your trip report. I felt like I was right there with you.I am so glad people take the time out to give us a trip report and I like reading what others did on their vacations. Thank You :)

You're welcome gatlinburglover. Glad you liked my trip report. :)

Thanks for the report. I always enjoy reading them b/c I have young kids too, and you give me great trip ideas.

How was the seaweed? I was in Corpus at approx the same time, and the seaweed and jelly fish were bad.

If SW has a good sale, I may snap up a few tickets bases your your positive review!

Oh gosh, jcb, you raise a good point about the seaweed. My son is planning a 4th of July trip to Port A, so I'd be interested also in the answer to this question.

There was no seaweed at all at S. Padre Island.

Apparently a local was explaining to me with the currents in the Gulf that Port A can be filled with seaweed but S. Padre would have none because of the great distances. Corpus to S. Padre is like the distance from Tampa to Miami and we all know that what happens in Tampa has no bearing on Miami. He mentioned that seaweed is more likely with storms but with the ongoing drought in S. Texas, there has been virtually no seaweed washing ashore because the waves are very low. He said that Corpus and Galvestion get more rain so they tend to have more seaweed. In particularly active tropical years he said that S. Padre may get some though. I have to say, based on the time I was there, that the water conditions there are far better than Port A. I don't know if it's always the case, but it certainly was when I was there.

I guess no seaweed is one advantage of the drought, huh?

Yeah, I suppose that's one advantage of the drought. Good way to be positive!! I just returned from a quick trip to the Los Angeles area. Mom was complaining because it was too hot outside to take a walk (it was 75 degrees...)

My son leaves tomorrow for a few days of camping on the beach at PA. He'll be glad to hear no seaweed and I presume no jellyfish as well.

Glad you guys had fun; I enjoyed your report!

bkluvsNola,

Glad you had a good time. I haven't been there in about 30 years and didn't know Louie's was still there.

The Schlitterbahn experience sounds much better there than New Braunfels. I took the kids to New Braunfels when they were little and we couldn't get in the water for all the tubes.

The Sarita checkpopint is nothing new. Your brief inconvenience is more a statement on Central America countries, not mine.