Texas coast

[kwy]

Good morning. My family and I are going to pull our 5er to texas in late July for our summer vacation. Are there any nice destination campgrounds with beach access in the Corpus Christi area? Also, is the South Padre Island KOA as nice as it looks on its' website? Thanks for reading this, I am off to work. kwy

[Elkhartjim]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwy Good morning. My family and I are going to pull our 5er to texas in late July for our summer vacation. Are there any nice destination campgrounds with beach access in the Corpus Christi area? Also, is the South Padre Island KOA as nice as it looks on its' website? Thanks for reading this, I am off to work. kwy

My experience has been KOA's are never very good regardless of how they look on their websites.

[Lorna]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwy ...Are there any nice destination campgrounds with beach access in the Corpus Christi area?

We're in Corpus right now.

Corpus Christi Hotels, Attractions, Group Tours, Beaches & Texas Vacations in Corpus Christi

There is also free camping (3 days I've been told) on the beach... boondocking only.
Padre Island Beach Area | Free Campsites

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/f...ustang_island/ w/e sites and boondock sites

Padre Island National Seashore - Campgrounds (U.S. National Park Service)
For each campground link, read the "Amenities" section very carefully. There are no hookups but there is a water fill & gray/black dump in Malaquite Campground.

Make sure you ask about age restrictions. We found that there are age restrictions in place during the winter. For other campgrounds you need to look in Aransas Pass, Rockport

[Barbara S.]

In October I stayed at Ransom Road RV Park in Aransas Pass, TX. The park was excellent and the management very friendly and helpful. I highly recommend them. (www.ransomroadrvparkinc.com)

[Wayne M]

I have visited most all of the RV Parks in Corpus Christi. I'm glad I was staying at the military park at NAS. If I had to stay in a park in that area I would choose one 20 miles or so away from CC. Rockport, Aransas Pass, and other outlying areas appear nicer to me. You can look at the parks using satellite view (bing.com/maps) and see if they are close, spaced, or other. Also, use the RV Park Review (search on that name) to see what others say about the parks in that area.

Except for 4th of July weekend, you should not have much of a problem finding a space. To darn hot for most Texans, and we all head North.

Happy trails.

[geeksrus]

On Mustang Island, Pioneer is a very good park that has a walkway to the beach.

The SPI KOA's sites are very small & access roads are the same... better to stay at the State Park.

Eh!

[kwy]

Thank you all for your replies. We appreciate it very much. I think Pioneer on Mustang Island is the nicest park, but more to do on SPI. Good luck everyone. kwy

[fatguy57]

We stayed at the SP KOA last October. Yes, it is pretty nice and well kept. We had a pull thru, however, if I ever go back, the back-ins seemed to be a lot more roomier and I would get one of those. They do have one employee park hand who is quick tempered and rude/grouchy (Beware!).

[kwy]

FG57, we are booked a spi koa for late july. We are looking forward to the trip. I am beginnig to wonder about this crabby parkhand. You are the second or third person to comment on this guy. We do have a backin site. By the way, are you or anybody else familiar with the Canadian tx. area for a late evening arrival, overnite stay? Good luck, kwy

[Ernie n Tara]

The S. Padre KOA is as good as it looks or better. It is one of our favorite places:
Sites are gravel, but clean and fresh.
Park w/a view of the gulf if desired.
Walking distance to town.
About a half mile walk to the beach.
Sheltered hot tub and large heated pool.
etc., etc.
Ernie

[glennb100]

We stayed at the South Padre KOA a year ago Thanksgiving. It's a very nice RV park. The site we had was one of their "head-in" sites with a great view of the bay out our front windshield. We didn't encounter the crabby employee and if we would have, we would have simply avoided that person for our stay (remember, crabby is in the eye of the beholder). We cruised through the state park and our impression was that there was lots of maintenance that hadn't been done in a long time and the whole place was pretty shabby.

We've visited Mustang Island (the barrier island off Corpus Christi) for the past three years. Your options for camping there are beach camping, Mustang Island State Park or a number of commercial RV parks. We've stayed at Gulf Shores and Pioneer RV parks. Gulf Shores is definetly up-scale, and is one of our favorites. If you stay there, request a site on the ocean side of the park. There is a bit of highway noise on the highway side. It has really good beach access via a boardwalk over the dunes. Pioneer is fine, cheaper that Gulf Shores, sites closer together and not quite as good access to the beach.

If you have the time, consider a visit to both Mustang Island and South Padre. It's about 200 miles from South Padre Island to Mustang Island.

Have fun.