Exploring the Texas Coast: South Padre Island

Our Fourth week along the Texas Coast

Sunset from the west side of Padre Island

One thing I knew for sure when planning our month along the Texas coast is we would end up in South Padre.  Neither one of us had been there and missed out on the college spring break trips entirely (unless you count a bus trip to Milwaukee to see the Bucks).  This was supposed to be our great beach week, enjoying days sitting on the beach reading and relaxing. 

However, we arrived just a few days before the historic storms that brought power outages to much of the state Feb 14-17 2021.  Yes, I realize we were better off than our friends back in Minnesota, where temps were below zero for two weeks.  But Minnesota is prepared for that kind of could and as we found out, Texas is not.  Not even close.   

Some of our friends asked "why don't you just drive north?"  Well, when you need to fill up your tank every 2-2.5 hours, and you're not sure if gas stations are a) open b) have gas and c) will take credit cards - you stay put, especially if you have a Class A owner/angel next door letting you use his power! 

So our long term evaluation is somewhat impacted by what we experienced, and we will try to review our stay at the South Padre Island KOA objectively.  I selected the KOA over the other primary RV park on the island, Isla Blanca, due to the huge size of Isla Blanca.  Some people prefer the larger parks and their social activities, etc. but in general we prefer smaller parks, and the KOA although large, it is about 1/2 the size of Isla Blanca.

Site 159 at South Padre Island KOA

Rating the South Padre Island KOA

• Weather: We hit a week with historic lows; temps in 20s and 30s overnight, winds at one point were 35mph.  However, we will rate the temp based on average temps for mid February, which should be 67-70 degrees, with winds about 5mph.  We gave the typical weather here a 7/10.
• Activities:  There are planned activities in the KOA, however most were cancelled during our stay.  Not easy to access beach for walks - you must go through Isla Blanca Park. There are several fishing piers and boat excursions you can walk to from the KOA, however, everything was shut down due to the weather.   No great biking trails, etc. We gave Activities a 5/10.
• Cost: The rate is $434/week ($62/day) with a KOA Value Kard, and I was unable to geta  monthly rate from the KOA, but I assume it would be over $1000/month. Cost at the South Padre Island KOA gets a 5/10.  Note:  when the power was out for two days and no ETA on it being restored, our neighbor called around and found that across the bay there was power in most locations.  He found that the Port Isabel Marina and RV Park had space and we moved there as soon as we could.  Very nice manager, however the park was in pretty rough shape.  The manager was working on making some significant improvements, and could offer a waterfront spot for $650/month, something to consider in the future!
• Environment:  The Gulf is a 15 min walk to a very expansive beach, which we ventured out to one day when it was not raining.   Once the storm had passed we could see a sunset from the sunset deck within the KOA.  We gave it 6/10 for Environment.
• VIBE:  Not easy to rate as everyone was inside most of the time.  People leaving early because of weather.  Staff - when they were in the office - were very friendly.  We did end up meeting a great couple from Iowa that let us use their generator for power when most of the island (and the state!) lost power for two days.  Vibe for the South Padre Island KOA is a 6/10.
• Site: Gravel sites, decent size, with a patio and picnic table.  This park had a lot of Class A's and fifth wheels - with not a lot of space between each site.  This was actually what we wanted for this week as it helped block the wind. The site gets a 6/10.
• Food Basics:   A very nice grocery and liquor store (IGA) is less than 3 miles away. There's also an Ace Hardware for the non-food necessities, and a CVS. This results in a score of 8/10.
• Culture:  A lot of bars on the island, mostly beach bars catering to the spring breakers.  Some are on the water, mostly on the bay side.  There is just one brewery which we visited least twice - here is our review of Padre Island Brewing Company.   Once the weather improved, a lot more people out and more of a 'party' atmosphere, even amongst the 55+ crowd!  Plenty of restaurants, and tons of shopping, but again, mostly cheap touristy shirts, etc. targeted at the spring breakers.  7/10.
• View: Short walk to see the bay and a sunset.  View is 5/10.
• Noise: We didn't hear any unusual traffic or aircraft noise - the only unusual noise was the constant wind for three days, which again, would not be typical for February. Noise gets 7/10.

With all of that said, our overall score for South Padre Island KOA based on our long stay criteria, with adjustments due to not really experiencing a typical stay on the island is 61.6/100.  You can see how that stands up against the first three places we visited along the coast.

Images and Video

Here are some of the images we captured during our stay - not a ton of 'wildlife' as it was hunkered down or being rescued as well.   

Here's a short video Tim made of the South Padre Area, and another brief video showing the Port Isabel area video.

Overall, our time on South Padre Island was, shall we say, interesting.  The KOA seems nice enough, and the area does have some great bars.  Not sure I would stay a month.  It is a LONG way to get back up north from the area!  Our first stop after South Padre when heading back north was Fredericksburg, 360 miles north of South Padre Island, about 90 minutes northwest of San Antonio.  I'd sure like to give it another chance, if our travels take us anywhere near the area!

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Have you been to South Padre Island?  Where did you stay and what do you think of the area?  Leave your comments below!  Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following us.