Snowbirding in Texas

I live north of SA, in the Hill Country. I wear shorts 11 months out of the year. January gets cool enough for me to wear long pants and a flannel shirt.

If you're looking for a place where it never gets cold, this area isn't it. However, that cold only lasts a few hours at night. Daytime temps in the winter averages from the mid-30s to the mid-40s/50s, usually the latter temps.

We're also not real humid, so the cold doesn't feel even colder when it does show up. I think you'd be laughing at locals who think it's cold around here...

I suggest you come on down to the SA area and give it a try.

Our first snowbird winter started today! First we're headed to FL to have Thanksgiving with my 95 year old Dad, then west along the southern US coast to South Padre Island for the month of January. Los Fresnos (Brownsville) for February - puts us in perfect position to explore Big Bend, Hill Country & New Mexico in March/April and early May before we head back to Illinois. Hoping we're far enough south...

David said when he retired, he never wanted to be anywhere he couldn't wear shorts. Even Key West fell a bit short a few days last January & February... Time will tell! Maybe we'll see you in South Texas!

John&Joey wrote:
If your goal is just to avoid freezing then draw a line from Corpus Christi to SA. Much more then 50+ miles above you can get some freezing nights.

With that said you'll find people who snowbird in Hill Country and places like Galveston Island all winter. Others will land in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area even.

Many think you have to go to the very bottom of Texas for a nice warm winter. That simply is not true. In the months of Jan/Feb that may be true, but it can get pretty hot those other months where a place like SA would be wonderful.

I'm having difficulty following your logic. Your proposed line runs almost due south to north.:S

John&Joey wrote:
I'll give you my 2c speech like I do on the Snowbird forum. Hopefully it won't bore you two much.

Since you're in an RV website I'm going to guess you are a mobile RV snowbird and not a snowbird that drives down to a park model. Given that assumption, and assuming you're coming from MO (per your signature)I would suggest the following:

Going south go to Galveston Island via the free ferry from the Bolivar Peninsula. No worries it handles multiple 18 wheelers and RV'ers all the time.

Spend some time on Galveston Island. Drive down (from the bottom of the island avoiding Houston) to the Rockport area. Spend some more time. Drive down to South Padre Island and spend some time (Jan/Feb timeframe.) Turn around and head up to SA and spend some time. From there head up into Hill Country (Mar/April/May) and spend some time. Call it a winter wrap for Texas. Then enjoy some of the free Casino parking and parks in Oklahoma prior to the mad dash for home.

Enjoy, if you don't then there is always FL/AZ/CA just to name the big ones for the following winters.

Good advise and much to do and see following that route.

Free opinion, worth what one pays for it:

"Lots to do in the SA area is my main draw. We have friends that winter "in the valley" but from their descriptions, it is not the place for us. We have weathered the Mid-West winters for 67 years now so just looking for above freezing temps, not sunbathing time."

I lived in Ewe-stun for the better part of 12 years....got to where I simply couldn't stand to spend anymore time in Ewe-stun than I had to (work related). So every chance I could, I would get out of Houston: Hill Country, the Valley, Dallas (not much better), East Texas, West Texas, La., etc.

I always found San Antonio to be a great place to go to get out of Houston: big enough to be a "city" but not overwhelming like Ewe-stun or Dallas. The Hill Country was a great slice of Texas.

When the wife and I went to Rockport/Port Aransas/Corpus area...we fell in love with Rockport. We'd never consider living in Texas unless forced to, but we came very close to buying a second home in Rockport.

If SA is intriguing to you, my $0.02 would be that Rockport or possibly the Hill Country would be good alternatives...don't think that the Valley would fit in the same slot.

We are currently in San Antonio, "enjoying" cloudy days, some rain and thunder and lightning. In a few days we head south to the heat. Zihuatanejo in southern Mexico where we will stay at least 3 months before moving a bit north to Puerto Vallarta.

If I have to put on a sweatshirt and long pants when the sun goes down I'm still way to far north.

Lived in the Dallas area for close to 30 years.

A couple years ago, we stopped in the San Antonio area for five days in January - and had temps in the mid-20s every night. But up near 45 each day.

Last winter we were near SA from early Jan to late Feb and only had a couple nights down to 32. Most near 40 degrees as a low.

My winterizing practice is anywhere south of I-10.

I don't expect a guarantee of no freezing temps anywhere north of US-41 across the Florida Everglades. I don't expect a guarantee of no temps in the mid-30s anywhere in the United States except Hawaii.

San Antonio will be fine for a winter, though I do agree with the suggestion about moving around and trying different areas. No one can tell you what you like but you.

Do be aware that if you get outside the San Antonio metro area - i.e. into New Braunfels, Bandera, Boerne, Canyon Lake - the temps can / will be 4-6 degrees colder than San Antonio's official temps.

Climate is what we expect from historical records - weather is what we get.

The likelyhood of getting several days of below freezing nights in a row in San Antonio is very low. The likelyhood of a few days of chilly cold all day is almost certain. Nothing like the weather at your home. But you're not going to find sun-tan weather all year anyplace in the US - every year.

John&Joey wrote:

Chuck_thehammer wrote:
Hill Country (Mar/April/May)

I am doing some planning for the Hill Country .. maybe March or April
I hear there is good motorcycle roads around the Sisters area...
good to hear it does warm up there by then..

Well, March will be for sure chilly and May will have wildflowers. Regardless there are many great roads and small towns for you to explore on two wheels.

Closer you get to May the more the good parks will be booked full. So you might want to book early.

They're saying we're suppose to have an El Nino winter which means March in Hill Country could be very chilly. So March/early April can be a **** shoot because it's the shoulder season for that area. Late April/May everything will be in bloom IMHO.

Good luck.

Hill Country Event and RV Center has nice sized sites and is just north of where RR 337 begins in Medina on Highway 16. I kept my RV there for several years. The Park is popular and is often full of winter Texans who go there every year. Beautiful area when the flowers start to bloom. Many scenic riding/driving areas close. About 35 miles north on Highway 16 is Fredericksburg. Really cool little town that is one of the most popular tourists areas in Texas. Highway 290, which goes through Fredericksburg, has a lot of vineyards with tasting rooms.
http://www.rvtexasresort.com/

LynnandCarol wrote:
We prefer the Rockport, TX area! So much so that we recently moved there! The most you will ever need is a light jacket or sweat shirt/pants and that could be early morning or late evening. We love the small town feel, Port Aransas beach is close via free ferry, the bays are beautiful, great fishing, kayaking, and seafood. During the winter the town is a mix of winter texans and locals. There are about 20 RV parks in the area. Also, a trip to Mexico is only 2 hours away and they run tourist buses during the winter. Corpus Christi is 30 miles away if you feel the need to visit a larger city. Close enough for many day trip locations (ie. San Antonio, Goliad, Kingsville, RGV, etc.). And one of the biggest pluses is it is real reasonable, so with more $ in your wallet, it allows you to do more!

This caught my attention and started looking at real estate in rock port tx, we can get a whole lotta house on the Capano Bay for cheap. Makes me want to sell here in CA to get away and have a change of pace.

Depends on what you mean by "normally."

San Antonio average lows are above freezing even in the coldest month (January there) but occasional short term frosts are possible. Up off the coastal plain, into Hill Country, it can be a little bit cooler but many snowbirds winter there.

Historically, there are cold snaps almost everywhere in North America. It has snowed in Corpus Christi in my lifetime. Temperatures dropped below freezing in Orlando during the night for at least a week the one winter I lived there, but fortunately that was the week we went to Key West, where it dropped only to the high 30s.

Even the coastal areas are tricky. For much of the past 40 years I regularly visited Houston. On one winter trip I got stuck there an extra day because they had freezing rain and no equipment for clearing ice from roads and runways, at least not at Hobby. But it all melted within 10 hours.

For my purposes, San Antonio would work, because there is plenty of stuff to do there, and any dips below freezing would not last long enough to impact my RV. Your RV may have different limits.

But I do not usually snowbird in a RV, because my winters at home are relatively short, and it is a good time to take a tropical cruise or vacation, or visit family in Florida, South Texas, or Mississippi. If someone has a room waiting for me, don't need the RV.