Best RV Parks & Resorts near Padre Island National Seashore

My ranking system:  Five stars is a non-starter, because I do not award any business this ranking. There are always improvements to be made. A four star ranking is "Excellent", and a three star ranking is "Satisfactory". The others are  "Marginal" and "Unsatisfactory". This park receives a Satisfactory grade because it is an average park, with plusses and minuses found in most average parks. Some features are above average, and other features below average.

In looking at the facilities, I  rate this park as Excellent. It has a swimming pool and hot tub, a playground for children,  floor shuffleboard, horseshoe pits and lanes, and corn-hole game set-ups. The park offers use of BBQ grills, having several to choose from, located under a covered picnic area to shade users from an unrelenting sun or torrential downpour. There are three small lakes or ponds that people can fish from without requiring a fishing license, on a catch and release basis. The RV park has a laundry room, handicapped accessorized bathrooms in three areas of the park, two of them being brand new to the facility since Hurricane Harvey, some years ago. There is a small card playing room in the building that houses the laundry machines. A lending library of the park contains books, movies, and jigsaw puzzles, of which there are a good number of books and puzzles to be borrowed.The clubhouse is quite nice and big, capable of supporting large crowd bingo games and dances. There are four 8-foot billiard tables in their own dedicated room inside the clubhouse.

On the downside, but on an improvement schedule, are the roads in and about the park. About a third of the park's roads are in terrible shape. The entry area of the park has had a rock chip covering to smoothen  the drive through the park's entry and to the general office and clubhouse. Plans for future area road improvements have been discussed. So, while a downside, at this point in time, I expect this evaluation to improve as the roads are improved in the future.

One  things the new owners really liked when they bought this park is the community-mindedness of the Winter Texan population, many of whom have returned to this park for upwards to 10-15 years. It is this family attitude that has run the vast number of activities weekly during the Winter Texan Season, to include numerous card games, dice games, board games, bingo, line and trail dancing, beanbag baseball and karaoke. Winter Texan volunteers take care of potluck meals and breakfast. There used to be about 20-25 ladies who maintained a sewing club and used to make honor quilts for veterans and other deserving individuals and organizations, but the vast majority of these ladies have indicated a desire to move on to other RV parks in upcoming seasons.

A new activity the managing staff hopes to grow is the renting of the central clubhouse for outside events requiring a sizable area for entertainment. The clubhouse can probably house close to 200 individuals for these events, which are hoped to come from the communities of Rockport and surrounding areas. It is the hope of the general management at the park to have people look at the RV park as a wedding venue location, given the size of the clubhouse. Rooms upstairs, previously used by the sewing club, have been transformed into dressing rooms for these future events. The clubhouse is closed to Winter Texans during these events.

As with all changes in management, things change to suit the goals of the new leadership. This sort of thing typically upsets people who had been conducting activities at the park for numerous years. That's the case at this park, as well. The new owners seem driven to adjust the focus of this park from one of Winter Texan retirement community to one that also attracts the attention of working families that are looking for a beautiful park to visit. The expected result of this adjustment is to broaden the clientele for the make up of the community population. Done smoothly, with a broad respect for the current community, these changes would bring minimal alteration to the lives of the long term Winter Texan families that call this park home. Done more aloofly, as appears to be the case, and the existing community may feel "under assault" by the new management, yielding the field to anger and discontent on both sides of the line. That seems to be the case as the new owners more fully assume command and control of this RV park.

An initial town hall meeting was called by the new leadership and I thought the thing was conducted in a highly professional manner. Questions and concerns were voiced by the existing community and answered respectfully by the staff. Rumors were set to bed and the game plan for the park was briefed in a way most could appreciate. Promises were made, and so far, several have yielded fruit. A general timeline is probably in place to address promises of future action. That said, the office management has failed to take advantage of this forum type to inform residents and to quash rumors, thus allowing a rumor mill to fester unnecessarily.

Downside changes made have changed the way the Winter Texan community views the park. The park  indicated it will no longer provide a mail service to the Winter Texan community that typically spends from 4-6 months at a time at the park, unless they are owners of permanently affixed park model mobile homes within the park. From the point of view of long term transient residents, who need this service to receive their medicines and bills from home, this decision will likely cause those Winter Texans to seek out other venues at which to spend their winters in the Coastal Bend area of Texas. While most changes can generally be adapted to with minimal fuss, the age category of Winter Texans is such that most of them receive their medicines through the mail while residing at this RV park. If the general office staff is unwilling to assume responsibility for the mail service of their transient long term residents, a solution would be to have the US Postal Service install an NBU bank of mailboxes that can be serviced by the letter carrier that brings the mail to the RV park. In this way, mail service will be available to these Winter Texans and the office will be also be out of the mail business. Other RV parks provide mail service to their clients in this manner, so it should be a consideration for the new owners of the RV park.

All in all, this is a beautiful RV park with lots of potential for growth in character. The management needs to remember they are in the hospitality business and are to manage an environment conducive to the interest of the demographics that either have used the park loyally for years in the past, as well as those who might be convinced to spend their hard earned money at the park in the future. Respect begets respect, from both sides of the coin. One must trust the new ownership wants nothing but the best for their new acquisition. That said, the new owners should remember and respect that which made the park attractive to them in the first place. The previous local management team restored a completely destroyed RV park, thanks to Hurricane Harvey, into one that was vibrant and made returning exciting. Those Winter Texans who impressed the new owners during their visit have become some of those greatly disillusioned by the perceived lack of respect from an aloof new management team, and have left the community for greener pastures. The new owner was really impressed by the quilting club during his inspection of the park, so I wonder how disappointed he would be if he were to learn of the departure of most club members due to the perceived disrespect they received from the current office management.

I have noticed animosity between previous posters and the ownership of the park, and this review is not intended to throw gasoline on either side of the arguments made by the two parties. Mine is a review of the RV park so others interested in staying here might have some ideal of what this park offers, and what things are changing at the park. As I've stated, there are many improvements being made to the park, but some have come at the cost of a tight-knit community. A future community will likely grow from the ashes of the old community, and I'm sure the ownership and those who continue to reside and visit this RV park fervently hope this will be the case. There are few RV parks in the Rockport area that offer the area afforded to visitors at this RV park. The area is green with life, and experiences to be made.

In conclusion, the question is whether or not I would advise new RV travelers to accept this park or avoid it like the plague. To be honest with my evaluation of this park, I think it is one where people can become a part of a community, even to such extent that they return year after year. There are good amenities at this park for visitors to take advantage of, in addition to the local area and its beaches and fishing opportunities. The management is adequate to their task, but could become more community conscious in their demeanor and actions. Some aspects of this park fall easily into the Excellent rating, while other aspects of the park are merely Satisfactory. Overall, this is a Satisfactorily evaluated RV resort park. People need to remember that average is just that - a bit of good, a bit of bad, as found in all similar parks. And with all reviews, take each with a grain of salt. Each review is a vision of the park from a unique viewpoint, whether from a visitor or from the ownership. Each coin has two sides. If you are interested in visiting this park, short or long term, call them and ask questions. Make sure this park suits your needs and wants. If not, go elsewhere to a location that satisfies your needs. If so, then come to the park and inculcate yourself into the local community and don't sweat the adequacies or inadequacies of a managing hospitality crew. Their job is to welcome you to the park and keep things up and running. They work for the corporation, but also for you the visitor. Do not expect them to be your friends. That's not in their job description. Just come and enjoy yourself. Texas has a lot to offer, and this RV resort park is one of them.

We have family that lives in Flower Bluff (basically Corpus Christi) and Mustang Island is just 15 miles from Flower Bluff. We usually do Thanksgiving at their house so it is convenient for us to stay here. It is a nice clean beach with some great fishing spots. (Fishing is free and legal in state Texas state parks without a license.)

The beach is away from the touristy areas of Corpus! They do have RV hookups up from the beach, but they have primitive camping directly on the beach with a permit, which is what we do. It is only a short walk to the bathrooms and covered picnic tables. It is just 5 dollars to get in, or free if you have a State Park pass. There is also a little store in the park with snacks and stuff but nothing to fancy. Also bathrooms are port-a-potties, but hey! it's the beach!

You can swim, fish, kayak or hike! The hiking trails are nice, just not a whole lot of shade. Very easy trails nothing to extreme, but great for kids! They also have a wonderful paddling trail along the coastline , so don't forget the kayak!

There is lots to do around the park as well. If you have kids, which is our main concern when going new places, there are a lot of educational attractions. There is an aquarium in Corpus. Don't expect Sea World, it is smaller, but just as fun. There is also the USS Lexington which is my little boy's favorite! You can go inside and tour the ship, plus there are airplanes parked on the top!! We also saw some Sea turtles being releases back into the wild so make sure you check for events around you!!

Gulf Waters Beach Front RV Resort


5601 TX-361, Port Aransas, TX 78373 

We stayed here 16 days in a 34 ft. Travel Trailer. Our site had an outdoor kitchen, cement picnic table and benches and a lovely palapa. The resort grounds are gorgeous and very well maintained. There is a pool, hot tub, showers and gorgeous private beach. The sites are each individually owned and decorated. We enjoyed the nice walk, up and over the dunes on the boardwalk, right onto the beach.


Staff was super courteous and helpful. Grounds were kept clean.
Great location, located between Corpus Christi& Port Aransas.

I can’t say enough about this amazing experience.We will be back! Excellently maintained RV resort!

Good day- My name is John and my wife and I live in Dana, North Carolina... Just south of Asheville. Back in May, I had booked two(2) RV spots(one for us and one for dear friends coming in from California). I booked for a week, running from 5- 12 October, at a total(pre-paid) cost of$1,433. However, on Friday, 27 September(8 days before our trip), our region experienced Hurricane Helene. One hundred and twenty feet of our driveway was wiped out- totally washed away. The main road to our home was also washed away. Roads in and out of the area were destroyed and there were thousands of downed trees and power poles. The destruction was and remains hard to convey. We lost power and all communications for 13 days. We had no way in or out of our property for over a week. On Monday, 30 September, I was able to hike out to our local post office where I found I had one bar on my phone. I called family and friends, including the other couple that we were supposed to meet At the Firefly RV Resort. I explained the situation to them and asked them to call Firefly, cancel the reservation and,(given the circumstances) ask for a refund. The staff at Firefly were beyond rude and refused any consideration of a refund. When pressed on the matter by our friends, and stressing the dire conditions that all of North Carolina was facing, the Manager at Firefly told our friends the following-- and this is a direct quote:"Well, if the government would stop sending money to Ukraine, maybe they would have money to give to North Carolina." Enough said. I would strongly ask all conscientious RV-ers to BOYCOTT the Firefly RV Resort.