South Padre Island, the Jewel of Texas, is located at 26 degrees latitude near the U.S.-Mexican border in the Gulf of Mexico. The temperatures during August are in the 90s, but feel warmer with the humidity. Like elsewhere in Texas this summer, it is record-breaking HOT. Unlike most of Texas, it's perfect sand beaches and refreshing Gulf water make it a perfect escape.
What really sets SPI apart are the kid-friendly activities. Dolphins, sea turtles, kite-flying, beaches and sandcastle-building lessons filled our vacation with experiences our kids could all enjoy.
The most highly recommended dolphin watch tour is run by George and Scarlett, who also run the Dolphin Research and Sea Life Center in Port Isabel (across the bridge from SPI). You can check them out online at www.spinaturecenture.com . These are really small tours of 6 people or less, which really lets you get close to the dolphins. Even better, watching the dolphins in silence is not allowed. The more happy noise you and the kids make the better! The more interesting you are to the dolphins, the closer they will come to the boat. Bring your own snacks and drinks and be ready to be on dolphin lookout the whole time. You'll also see other marine life and lots of birds. Overall a great lesson in natural habitats and wildlife. For $25 per person, this is an affordable, fun and educational adventure for the whole family.
The Sea Turtle Inc at www.seaturtleinc.org is a highly rated sea turtle rescue and rehabilitation center. People had said you'd need over an hour to see this, but it was not crowded when we went and 30 minutes gave us plenty of time to see everything twice. Although the building is not large, the sizes and varieties of turtles, as well as the educational material was really amazing to see. The kids were especially fascinated with the little hatchlings and wanted to go look for the nesting sites next time we went to the beach. Sea Turtle Inc asks for small donations per person to visit and have a gift shop to help fund their cause.
We didn't do any kite-flying ourselves, but watched so many families successfully getting their kids flying kites that I wished we'd made time for it. The breeze at the beach was perfect and the kites went high. It was fun to watch. There are several kite-dedicated stores on the island.
I normally would not recommend any outdoor activity in this Texas heat that isn't accompanied by direct contact with shade and water, but the Laguna Madre nature walk located next to the south side of the SPI Convention Center is well worth doing...just save it for the evening. This is a short two-trail boardwalk over the marshy Laguna Madre area with lots of fish, crabs and the possibility of Alligators that my kids loved. We're nature lovers! This activity is free.
We also paid for sandcastle building lessons. This was our most expensive activity on the island as it costs $75 per hour and we did the kid-friendly two-hour lesson. With our kids ages ranging from 9 months to 9 years old it was good to see how much interest they had in learning to build with sand. The baby did not participate. Our 4 year old was very involved for about 1-1/2 hours, our 6 year old lasted for almost 2 hours and our oldest could have kept going for most of the day if she'd had the tools to continue decorating our sandcastle. There are several world-class sandcastle-builders on SPI. Amazing Walter and Sandyfeet (Lucinda) occasionally travel to competitions around the world, while Dennis prefers to stick around SPI. Dennis was wonderfully patient with all the kids (and us parents too) while he explained the techniques, equipment and secrets to building big sand structures. He let the kids choose what we would build and made sure everyone had an opportunity to participate at their comfort and ability level. You can check out his site with pictures of his lessons with links to other sand-building websites at http://sandslave.com .
Finally, any discussion of South Padre Island must include mention of it's beaches. To compare, we are used to Southern California beaches, which have a wide variety of sand: from fine to rocky to crushed shell. I think only the baby-powder fine sand at Coronado Island beats the fine sand of SPI. In addition, the Pacific is cold water, which means I only ever get in it once or twice a year in September when the water and air temperatures get warm enough for me to enjoy the beach while wet. Here in SPI, getting in the water is a pleasant must. The water is not cold, but not bath-water warm either. Although for picturesque and groomed beach appearance, California is the best, the water clarity, temperature and price in SPI beats Cali hands down.
We couldn't find many online beach recommendations, so we asked the locals. Apparently, the water on the Gulf side is prettier than the bay side. We tried out several beach access spots recommended to us.
The first recommendation took us to the restaurant/villa entrance "with the anchors". A large parking lot with free parking was nice. It had easy access to a water sprayer/foot wash and cold drinks for purchase at the restaurant (as well as bathrooms). This location had sand volleyball and shade tents for rent. It was also very popular.
Next we tried the Blue Circle (#9?) beach access off of Gulf Blvd. This spot has limited parking, but is still free. No foot washes or bathrooms here.
Then we went to the Andy Bowie County Park. Parking here costs $4 per car. There are bathrooms with a couple of showers, a small food and beach toy stand and an outdoor shower. There was also a playground, which was too hot to use. This beach was less crowded when we went, however we were there on a weekday.
Finally we tried Beach Access #5 off Ocean Blvd/TX100. It has an entrance fee of $8, with $4 refundable if you return your bag of trash before 7pm that day. We were excited about this one because you can drive right on the beach. This beach only has Port-a-potties and was pretty much a free-for-all when it came to parking. Although many people brought their kids here, I didn't think this was a safe environment for kids. Cars parked above the high-water line, families played at the water. and traffic drove between the two. Maybe your kids always look before they cross a street, but we saw some adults almost get creamed as they walked from their car to the water. Not how anyone's vacation should end.
Two other negative points of beautiful SPI: the snorkeling here is not kid-friendly with the only snorkeling sites at the jetties, and hand and foot protection are necessary. Also, although there are lots of food and shopping options, we found the service very poor for such a tourist-destination.
Locals also mentioned that after school starts, August 22nd, the tourist population drops and things get even cheaper.
While South Padre Island is not a kid-friendly destination for Spring Break, the rest of the year SPI is a place of memory-making magic for the whole family.
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