Husband and I are visiting son in Oklahoma Christmas but then will be traveling around Texas for a week. We'll be spending a couple days in San Antonio. We enjoy beach & marina areas...any suggestions? (Corpus Christi, Galveston have been recommended.) Any other suggestions besides along the shoreline would be appreciated too!)
Kaye

Personally, I dont' care for Corpus or Galveston for the beach. I prefer Port Aransas/Mustang Island for more "charm". Just an FYI, Texas beaches aren't that great. The best being S. Padre, which is a few hours South of Corpus. However, for a marina... Corpus might be better.

A couple days in San Antonio will be great at Christmas time. (H and I usually stay a night the weekend before) The Riverwalk is beautiful with all the lights and decorations.

If you only have a week, then the coast, San Antonio, and perhaps Austin might be the best bets. Are you going to be here right before Christmas or soon after?

Texas isn't known for particularly beautiful beaches or coastline, but of the places on the beach, Padre Island is definitely the prettiest in the state. It's a 5+ hour drive from San Antonio, so you might consider flying instead of driving just to save time. It won't be warm enough in December for swimming, but there will be birdwatching and SPI has some really good restaurants.

San Antonio at xmas is lovely. From there, it's just a hop-skip to C.C. Don't be fooled. South Padre is NOT that different than other parts of Padre Island. Corpus is very pretty with lots to do: The Lexington, a pretty dang impressive aquarium, the unexpected Victorian home-village near the convention center, water garden and art museum (which has a beautiful "Christmas Tree Forest"). In C.C. you can hang out at the T-heads and watch the shrimpers come in in the evenings with their haul, and see all the boats/yachts decorated in xmas lights. Very inexpensive fun! As for beaches, Mustang Island is just a few miles from C.C. off of....SPID (south padre island drive--clever name, huh??). The beach is pretty deserted in the winter, and if you head north you'll find yourselve in fishermen's paradise: Port Aransas. There are lots of fishing outfits in that area if you're interested in fishing in the gulf. Also, Rockport/Fulton are great little towns for fishing and shrimping-watching. All this within an hour or so of C.C. If you'd like any more info on these places, please let me know! I'm always ready to blab about the Coastal Bend!
I may be partial (having been born and raised in C.C.), but I think Galveston is too seedy. C.C. is slow-paced and relaxing. Not words I'd use to describe Galveston/Houston.
Enjoy the balmy coastal breezes....

Thanks for the above information - we'll be in Texas around Dec. 26.
We're gonna be flexible this trip - might just drive along the gulf coast to Biloxi or New Orleans. Just searching for any neat ideas.
Usually have everything planned out but just decided to go for it this time.

We took a short dolphin watch trip near Corpus after Xmas 2 years ago, and it was great. My daughter tells me it was called Dolphin Connection. It left from north of Corpus. I think we reserved it on the same day or the day before. You might also want to take a tour near Port Aransas to see endangered whooping cranes. I did this 12 years ago while staying in Corpus.