Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Port Aransas, TX

Easy access to Rockport and Aransas Pass Texas.  Only 10 minutes from Port Aransas Texas.  Sites are large and quiet.

This is a great RV park with very close access to the beach in Port Aransas and the wonderful gulf coast in Texas. The host and maintenance crew were wonderful and were very helpful with everything we needed at the park and the beach was fantastic! Highly recommended!

Full hook ups right behind the dunes in Port Aransas. The park is also within walking distance to local bars and restaurants.

We stayed for four nights and we enjoyed our stay. The roads and pads were all nice, level concrete.

I didn't see the pool myself, but my wife and daughter enjoyed it while I was at work. The playgrounds were nice, but could use some more shade. Same with the dog park.

The dog water fountains at the dog park were not working, so that would have been nice since it is so hot right now. The dog park is just open space with a fence right now, but the front desk said there are agility features coming soon.

The grass and trees were clean and trimmed, but there are stickers in the grass, so beware stepping off the concrete pad barefoot.

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!

The manager is very friendly. They have laundry. They provide quarters for purchase. They have a fishing dock off the campground. A pool. And a dog park.

Very clean and scenic campground. Plenty of space between sites if you park away from the seafront. I personally wouldn’t want to be right by the ocean as it’s just a 5 min walk from the more peaceful sheltered sites. We had campsite 115 and were very happy with it. Close to bathrooms and easy access in and out. Lots to see in the area, and if you want the beach we’d recommend Port Aransas which is only about 30 mins away. That beach is dog friendly and nicer than the closer Rockport. The short ferry ride across is also fun and free. Dolphins alongside the ferry. The only negatives would be mosquitos and humidity. Both were manageable given when we went, but only just. I’d aim for early spring or late fall to try to minimize these.

Near Port Aransas and Rockport. Quiet town with a few restaurants and HEB grocery store.  Cable tv included, wifi good but not the best, cuts out and has to be reestablished but still works good throughout the park.  Nice laundry, protected mail, clean restroom shower rooms and large meeting room. Office has limited hours of 8 am to 2 pm but you can call the host manager.  Additional laundry and bathrooms on back side of park.

Scale 1- bad, 5-Very good 70 yr olds in 17’ trailer:

We plan to return. Overall Rating: 4 Usage during visit: Moderate Site Privacy: Where we are, marker # 28, folks who come out for the day can and do park/ setup between the campsite and the beach. Further towards Port Aransas, barriers prevent vehicles parking such, but trailer is a bit further from surf. Site Spacing: Camping units about 200’ apart. . Apparently, much closer in peak season. Campground Noise 5 at night. 3 during the day. Note other folks on beach are enjoying their time in their own way during the day. Road Noise: 4 at night w an occasional vehicle driving by . 3 during day. Bathroom Cleanliness. 3 - chemical toilets. No TP .
Cell Service (Verizon): 0 to 2 bars Setting: 5 surf sound all night Weather: 4 foggy at night and early AM. Windy at times. Low 70s are day time highs for us. Short pant weather. Solar: Great as soon as fog lifts. 3 nights and no need for generator. Host: Police presence Location: About 350’ from water, depending on tide . Nice.

The park itself doesn’t have much to do as they are still recovering and renovating from Hurricane Harvey a couple of years ago(this was my rationale for a lower rating). Having said this,it’s a great park and I highly recommend it and we would surely return. The bathrooms are above average, clean with nice showers. Our campsite was nice and shady with a picnic table and water. We saw deer and one snake (too quick to identify it). We hiked the trail in the park which was nice and well maintained. The next town over is Rockport which has million dollar mansions on the water. We rented a kayak for half day and kayaked in and out of the canals gawking at the boats and houses. There is a bird sanctuary on the island in little bay where we kayaked and in addition to all the birds we saw two dolphins swimming around. We were close enough to port Aransas to drive over and took the ferry (had to stay in the vehicle due to corona virus). We ate seafood at our favorite seafood restaurant “Snoopys”.

Not my favorite way to camp, but the price was right. We were pretty cramped but the whole place was very quiet. There weren't any kids at all, other than ours. Dog friendly environment but none running loose at all. There was a friendly peacock wandering about who loved grapes.

Easy parking, pull through spots.

The laundry room was very clean which was much appreciated. $1.75 per washer & dryer.

We were parked right across from the owners/manager which was fine, just felt a bit like we were watched. Mind you, we're used to being in the middle of no where though😂. Owners helped us park and have been super friendly the whole time.

There's a small dog park across from the rv park, which was full of burrs and mosquitoes unfortunately. Apparently they are both bad this year.

It was only 0.4 miles to the water and 1 mile to rockport beach- we biked and walked.. it was a nice area to explore. Photo is from rockport beach taken in November.

We camped in the RV area, which has electrical hook ups and water but you have to drive to the dump station. There are nearby bathrooms which are newly renovated and nice, although occasionally people using them to clean off from visiting the beach will make a big mess. Not just sand, but swim diapers and bathing suit tags and that sort of thing. The janitors clean every morning but it’s disappointing when people leave a big mess. Nothing against the park, only against the visitors. There are men and women’s bathrooms, family bathrooms/unisex bathrooms, as well as showers just outside the bathrooms.

Each RV spot is paved and comes with a picnic table and wooden pergola, also a grill for charcoal. We did notice quite a few burr plants so if you have dogs, you might have a problem later in the season when the burr seeds are dry.

You can walk to the beach or drive to the beach. There is tent and primitive RV camping on the beach if you wish, we did see people doing that. We visited around Easter Sunday and it was not too crowded, lots of picnic tables and plenty of space to have fun. We brought along a couple of mesh litter bags and were easily able to fill them up with random garbage that Washington to the beach, it was very satisfying to do that and there are dumpsters and trash cans conveniently located once you’re done with that.

It’s a short drive to Port Aransas or the other way to the edge of Corpus Christi, lots of restaurants and art galleries and all kinds of area attractions. Visit Snoopy’s under the bridge and eat on the deck. You can also take your RV on the ferry boat between Port A and Aransas Pass if you wish. It’s free.

Definitely visit, and go to the beach, and pick up a bag of litter.

This is our 2nd time staying here.
This park is aka Shields. Park has 2 sections. Sect A has grass sites. Sect B has concrete pads and a separate area for tents. Each section has a laundry room and shower building. We stayed in B. Sites are wide and level and have full hookups with 30/50 amp. Good water pressure. Sites are all back ins, Big rig friendly and easy to set up. No matter where you park there is a nice view of the Bay.
I'd give it a 5 star rating but there are a few items that need to be fixed or prepared for. 1st the roads really need to be repaired. Potholes are horrible in some areas. 2nd the picnic tables are so rusted through that many are unusable. 3rd the goat heads or grass burrs are a nightmare especially if you step on one in the middle of the night. Ouch!! LOL If you have dogs (we do) they absolutely can't run in the grass. We bought our pups doggy boots which help some. And this time we brought our leaf blower to blow them off the concrete pad. 4th the winds here can reach 60 mph. Just prepare for it by never leaving awnings out and when bad bring slides in so awning toppers don't get ripped off. (It happened to our neighbors last year) Ants, there are tons of them. I use citronella spray around our leveling gear and tires to deter them from living with us. Lastly if you don't want salt on your rigs don't come here. There are times when its so thick you could use an ice scraper.
Even with those items we really like it here. You can't beat the location to Padre Island and Port Aransas. The sunsets are amazing and walking the private beach daily is never tiring.

Facilities include fishing pier and swimming pool. Family friendly medium priced. Horseshoes, pet run, Wi Fi included.

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

large well spaced out campsites. Allows pets. Quiet. Great area if you like to fish. Only downside was lots of bugs, especially mosquitoes.