Best Glamping near Padre Island National Seashore

Make sure to fill up on gas, water and ice before heading out on the 63 miles of available beach! You can drive for hours along sparkling waves with shell laden sand, passing isolated camps and groups fishing. If you want privacy, this is it! You must take all you need The cell reception is spotty, around mile 25.5 if you walk towards the bayside you’ll get a signal best with Verizon, and at Mansfield Cut. Any Texas beach camping is not for the inexperienced... BEACHES ARE WINDY, CAMP LIKE YOU’RE IN A TORNADO! METAL POLE TENTS WITH SAND RATED STAKES, & SECURE EVERYTHING!! Solar yard lights are great to set perimeters to late night drivers. There are jellyfish, wear long pants or bring meat tenderizer for the stings!! The Turtle Patrol passes several times a day. Yes there is strewn garbage, it’s deposited every high tide from all around the world, bring a rake, garbage bag and a reality check. People do speed, pay attention. Showers, dumpsters and toilets are only at the entrance to the beach/Malaquite Visitors Center. This is our favorite place to go because of the privacy, beauty and the fishing. Nights are gorgeous with starry skies, waves, and a fire. Make the time to check this place out, sit and pretend you’re the only person on your private island, you will be hooked!

Awesome place to pull up the beach, listen to waves and make a fire. No trash collection so make sure you pack it out. Also, I did see some rats or something running around the dunes so just be aware

We were in site 8 for 4 days. Sites are first come, first served and spacing varied from fairly well spaced to somewhat close, but appeared to all be fairly level. The beach side campsites were asphalt surrounded by grass and these filled up first. The campsites on the opposite side were basically just parking lot stalls and generally had several empty sites while we were there during the week. Showers were clean, if somewhat dated, but also rather chilly, i.e., no hot water. The beach was nice, but there was a lot of trash, debris and Man O’ Wars that had washed up. I found AT&T coverage to be essentially nonexistent here, without a signal booster. With out it, my iPhone fluctuated between no service and 1 bar, but no connectivity either way. However, with the booster, I was able to get 2-3 Bars of LTE service, with speeds up to 4.5 MB/s. Since there are no trees, satellite coverage is not an issue, so we didn’t try to get any OTA channels. When we pulled into the dump station, we noticed that one side had backed up on a previous dumper, so we used the other side, which worked fine. We notified the office, so presumably that has been resolved.

Easy access to beach. Well kept area. No hookups but bathrooms, showers, dump station available.

This is a national park. $25 to enter or free with the America the Beautiful pass. The campground is $14/day or $7 with the park pass. What I didn't know before I got here is that there's free camping right on the beach just after the visitor center. 14 day max stay.

Can't beat being right on the beach, just remember to wash your rig good afterwards 👍

This was a great park. Camp on beach with a weekly fee of 25.00. Also has three paid camping no hookups but have dump station and water feel up. Beaches are clean and Park Rangers are a lot of help.

We’ve stayed at all the campsites along Padre Island over the years, they’re all pretty similar for views but they have different facilities. In a tent you can camp out at the beach or right next to the picnic table/parking lot. The breeze off the ocean is great. This is a very basic campground, they just have water and toilets, and it’s all very open and close quarters but you are right on the beach so it’s still nice. Not far from the main entrance but still a bit of a drive from “civilization.”

We were lucky to get a campsite on the ocean and it was amazing. Falling asleep to the sounds of the ocean was a first for me. The campgrounds were a bit crowded but it was nice that there were showers in the visitors center. Overall I would recommend visiting here because it was an amazing camping experience for me.

Camp on a little strip of land right on the gulf. White sand, gentle waves,wildlife, sunrises, not too crowded. Primitive tent camping close to the water. Very basic but clean facilities. Sites are very close but the views make it worthwhile, though there are some other camping options in this park. Feels almost like parts of Florida. Worth shaking sand out of your sleeping bag for months...

The showers were warm in June.There is no warm water setting . Man-O-War on beach be careful. I wished motorhomes would turn off their lights at night, so we could get a full view of the awesome sky.

People friendly. Tent camping on beach.could be quite sandy. Sand will go through mosquito netting. Keep pets leashed!

get there early as weekends fill up fast. we usually get there Wednesday night and stay till the following Wednesday. June-July are great to go and watch the sea turtle releases.

This is a great spot to camp with the family. No hook ups for you RV types but they do have facilities to use. Best to get there during the week though as it fills up fast on weekends.

Toilets & showers on site. No food nearby. Purchase supplies before entering island.

As you drive on PR22 you feel yourself getting to a slower way of living! Once thru the main entrance enjoy the drive. You'll pass the Visitor center on your left, be sure to stop in. They have an excellent little gift shop, great displays & good information. It is also where you can shower. Several good overlooks of the beach also. Worth the stop!

Once you reach the pavement and you're on the beach, just a couple of miles past the Visitor Center. There's a bathroom & dumpsters at that point.

Continue on and you're driving on Padre Island beach! It's beautiful! The first 5 miles are where RV's & regular cars & vans can get with no issues. At the 5 mile point you'll see a sign that says high clearance, 4X4 only part this point. The sand gets heavier, deeper & harder to get thru at that point.

1-4.5 miles from the road are the places to RV camp. Beyond is for the adventurous & tenters!

I found a spot about 1 mile I . It was great! Got my RV 🚐 level, place to park my 4X4, breezy & beautiful!

If you're a sun & sand person, you'll be in heaven! 🐸 LOL. For me, my favorite time is about 7pm to 8am! I cook quite easily! 🐸

Not too many people during the week. Enough room the even on Cinco de Mayo weekend the beach was not packed...busy, but with room left over!

If you do the beach, only fee is park entrance fee. You can stay up to 14 days. Be sure to pack it more teach than you generate to help the beach! Make sure you have extra clothes. I highly recommend either a good weather app on phone or a NOAA weather radio, or both!

I spent 6 nights there...it was awesome! Would have stayed longer but weather got me! Between a storm front & wind driven tides, 7th morning woke up to the tide under me! 🐸 LOL! Called in the cavalry...my kids...to come help me dig it & pull me out! But it was grand!

If you have the National Parks annual pass or the Senior Pass, it is free camping on the beach. If you need supplies it is about a 22 mile roundtrip to Wally & HEB.

Would I recommend this beach - YES! Excellent views, great wildlife, peaceful & breathtaking!

For more of my adventure, please go to... www.ayntsi.us or truckingfrog.blogspot.com

Enjoy the Nature! 🐸

I drive my RV right on the beach, and good time BBQ swim and drive my Jeep down the Island to Shell Island where you can find thousands of shell washing a shore, just beautiful, get up early watch the sun rise. Just love it.

Pretty, clean beaches! 4 camping areas to choose from, each a little different. Shower at the visitors center.

The previous reviewer is correct about the airport noise.

Pros:

• Our RV site was a back-in with plenty of room on a concrete pad with a picnic table. We were in the back row.

• Our site did not have trees hanging over like a lot of sites (we have solar panels).

Cons:

• The campground wifi sucked. We relied more on our own Verizon wifi hotspot (we never assume park wifi is good).

• Next to airport.

• RV park, especially on eastern half, has seriously poor drainage. We were trapped in our RV lot, unable to leave, because the water was too deep for our Class A to go through without damage/mess of some sort.