Beachfront on South Padre Island

We finally did it!!! We arrived in time to set up before sunset! We had a bit of a treacherous journey as we had to cross a bridge (Queen Isabella Causeway) that was under construction and had reduced to one lane that had cement barriers on both sides. Tim was clenching his teeth hoping we wouldn’t scrape either side of the RV, but we made it to our destination without incident.

Our latest campground is Isla Blanca Park on the beach of South Padre Island, Texas. The county-run park has a huge campground, and we had a site facing the beach for 6 nights.

We took advantage of the beach on the second day of the visit; laying out on the sand and soaking in the sun. There weren’t many people on the beach, as it is officially almost winter here like any other place in the U.S., but we didn’t mind having the beach and our 70+ degree temperatures for our own enjoyment. 

On our second day here, we also enjoyed one of the restaurants in walking distance from our campsite – Mahi Nic. We both got delicious Mahi sandwiches and “mangonadas” (sort of a mango flavored pina colada). The fries were huge and oh so good. We quickly learned that we were at the restaurant on an historic night, as the Port Isabel lighthouse was going to be relit across the bay that evening for the first time in 117 years!

Our next-door neighbors at our campsite were from Wisconsin and sold homemade Maple Syrup, so we bought some for a Christmas present. They also warned us upon our arrival of the mosquitos, and they were not kidding. That was one of the negatives about this campsite – the mosquitoes! Not so bad on the beach though!

On our third day, we took advantage of the grills located at the nearby pavilion on the beach to grill burgers and chicken. It was a Saturday, so the beach was bustling with activities including lots of great kites. Grilling is one of the things Tim missed most while living in NYC (along with getting good vegetables). We have a new propane grill that we can plug into the propane located at our RV, but we haven’t gotten a heat resistant table to put it on yet.

On our fifth day at the campsite, we ate lunch at another restaurant located just outside of the campground (Dirty Al's); we had tasty fried shrimp and grilled Flounder. Then we took the free bus (from a stop located right outside of the campground) through South Padre Island. We ran errands at a hardware store, the post office (no holiday stamps), a convenience store, and… a liquor store.

On our sixth and final full day at the campsite, we walked the entire loop of the campground. There is a statue of Jesus memorializing fisherman who died on the nearby waters. There is also a giant Christmas tree made of brushes and wire.

Review of Isla Blanca State Park on South Padre Island, Texas

We really enjoyed our stay at this campground. We liked how there were good restaurants located within walking distance, as well as the bus stop for the free bus taking us into town. We could have gotten pretty much anything we needed taking the free bus, which is great since we don’t currently have a car. There were many restrooms with showers around the campground, but they weren’t in the best condition (clean but old). The negatives included no laundry on the premises; an apparently frequent occurrence of the electricity being cut off for a few hours (it only happened to us on one day for about two hours); and oh, did we mention the mosquitoes? There were activities like bingo and an events center in walking distance from the campground, but we didn’t take advantage of these this time. We will almost certainly come back to this campground at some point though. You can’t beat the view!