Padre Island Area

racer99 wrote:
To be more specific we are looking at camping at ON THE BEACH RV park in Port Aransas ,We are looking at a month stay so we wondered if the water is blue rather than brown and the sand not shelly-Thanks Rich

We typically stay in Port Aransas for the winter. Water is kind of brownish...mainly from all the sand floating around, I think. If you go out 1/4 mile or so, the water is blue crystal clear.

You'll love the location of the "ON THE BEACH RV park". There are several rv parks in Port Aransas, if that one is full. But none have that type of location.
Surfside RV is probably the next closest full service rv park. It is only about a block from the beach, so is in easy walking distance.

Just dont go at the end of March, when 100,000+ spring breakers show up to the beaches. kind of crazy than, but it only lasts a week.

Great Beach at Gulf Waters

Visit the best RV resort on the Texas Gulf Coast. Gulf Waters RV Resort offers 600’of beautiful sandy beach with warm Gulf Waters,

http://www.gulfwatersrvresorttx.com/

"On The Beach" RV park seemed a bit tight but it is indeed right on the beach. I think Magee (a Nueces County park) would be a better bet if you want to get within an easy walk to the water. The park has water and electric hookups with a dump station. You can also camp with no hookups right on the beach. The gulf water can be murky and brownish or greenish-blue. It's pretty much an easy hard sand drive along the beach as far south as you'd care to go. The salt is definitely hard on a rig and for my money I'd stay more inland. It's a short drive and a ferry ride to access PA from Aransas Pass, where there are several good parks. Rockport is a bit farther away but there are nice parks there as well. We usually load up the toad with a day's worth of reading, food, and beverages, and pitch camp for the day on the beach south of PA. Being able to drive on the beach puts a new spin on what you can take and where you can easily get to. Definitely check out the Port A Beach Lodge for a cold one, and get over to Refugio for one of their country opry shows.

Corpus has the whitest sand that I ever seen!

We stayed at On the Beach RV one time. It is very tight getting in and out. The beach is only steps away and there is a path leading to it. I did not get along with the woman who owns it and will never go back but there were others who seemed to really like it. The beach is not groomed. The driving lane on the beach was kept up very well.

racer99 wrote:
To be more specific we are looking at camping at ON THE BEACH RV park in Port Aransas ,We are looking at a month stay so we wondered if the water is blue rather than brown and the sand not shelly-Thanks Rich

We looked at both parks Gulf Waters is definitely worth the extra money -

We absolutely loved Gulf Waters RV Resort on Mustang Island, just a few miles from Port A. The park features rv spaces that are privately owned and thus owner designed with special paving, landscaping, and amenities. Beautiful park. And it is right on the water.

I was trying to post some photos from my PC but this forum doesn't make that possible. Sorry

I was there a few years ago in January. It was very quiet and a bit windy every day. The beach is nice, sand is hard near the water and gets softer as you get to the land. I drove about 5 miles on the beach with a truck camper and a trailer and camped there free for a week. I saw a few class C but no class A when I was there. The drive is pretty hard sand for the first few miles, I would think you can go with a classs A, especially for the first few miles, but you can ask at the campground I am pretty sure they can inform you on that. The further you go, the softer it gets. At one point there is a post sign for the need of a 4x4, 5 miles I think, but you can drive quite a few miles without 4x4,it is a nice drive. We drove for about 40 miles and turned around as we where pretty alone and if I got stuck it would have been lonely for a few hours maybe!

We where alone on our portion of the beach, a few trucks and cars going by once in a while.

You can also go to Port Isabel, south Padre Island, there is a campground on the beach too or you can camp on the beach, again, class A not sure. Further down south, follow Boca Chica road to Brazo Island, free camping on the beach too, and you can drive to the end of the Rio Grande, 4x4 needed, then on the other side of the river is Mexico.

To be more specific we are looking at camping at ON THE BEACH RV park in Port Aransas ,We are looking at a month stay so we wondered if the water is blue rather than brown and the sand not shelly-Thanks Rich

If you don't need hookups I'd recommend Padre Island National Seashore. There are paved campground spots at Malaquite Beach which is right on the windward side that cost about $8. You'll be about 100 ft from the seashore. If you want the lee side you can camp at Bird Island for about the same price. Thy have hot showers and restrooms at both places. If you really want to get onto the beach to camp you can at no cost. The first 5 miles or so to the south are easily driven - just pick your spot. Beyond that for the next 50 miles or so you'll probably need 4-wheel drive. The beach at Malaquite is closed to vehicles for about 3 miles north and 2 miles south. The vehicle entrance to the beach to the south is on the south side and there's a paved road leading to it. The beach "road" is treated like a Texas highway and there is some oil will truck traffic on it, but not much and they're friendly.

The beaches are pretty clean and sandy. You can find some shells but usually have to go about 7 to 10 miles south to find them. There are usually a lot of folks out there doing surf fishing and sometimes the campground hosts at Malaquite offer instruction.

There's wind surfing on the lee side and there's a rental shop there as well.