Camping on the beach at Padre Island

Bob hall pier is where you need

Had a couple of friends, who happen to be retired science teachers that volunteered at a wildlife refuge on the coast several years back with their fairly new Bounder during sea turtle hatching season. They were parked on a paved hookup site on the land side of the dunes for two to three months. When they got back home, he ended up replacing around 300 rusted screws with with stainless steel screws, along with some prepping and touch up of rusted steel frame components, in and around the basement compartments. Needless to say, they declined when invited back the next year. He said the off shore winds were terrible for salt spray and they had hosed down their coach every week or so.

At Port Aransas you can camp on the beach or there is a state park campground. The campground is electric and water with a dump station. Port A is about 20 miles North of Padre Island National Seashore. It would be my choice if I were wanting to camp on the beach.

Malaquite Beach in Padre Island National Seashore just south of Corpus Christi has a paved parking area where you can camp for a couple dollars a nite. No hookups, but there are restrooms, showers and a dump station. The parking lot is within about 100 ft of the beach. You can also drive onto the beach and camp if you'd like. The beach road for about 5 miles south is a State Rd and in good enough condition for any vehicle, beyond that you could have some problems.

But, as others have said - sand and salt water spray. Even in the parking lot you'll get some salt water spray. The sunrises are nice though as is the warm breeze coming on shore.

There's also a parking area where you can camp on the lee side where the salt spray and breeze isn't as strong.

South or North Padre Island?

South - I sure would not do it, and nobody ever does.

North I guess it's possible in certain areas and many do. Just watch out for the salt damage if you're out for any length of time.

Salt, sand, mild steel underbody/framing. Not for me.