Place to Stay at the Beach

We went to Galveston a few years ago and stayed at some Condo's called "Seascape" - what I REALLY liked about them is that they were located on the ocean side - not across the sea wall - (so there is no driving or crossing a busy street to get to the water) - they are at the west end of the island. Go to galveston.com/seacape and you can see them. Also they are not to far from the grocery store !!

A.

The Galvestonian is fantastic, if you are looking for a condo. Crystal Beach is fantastic, if you are looking of a house to rent. Something that people haven't discussed is that with the Mississippi River flood, there could be lots of junk washing up on the beach this year. Moody Gardens is fantastic. It isn't on the beach, but has a man-made beach. That could be an option to avoid the junk that will most likely wash up. If you don't mind a little longer of a drive Padre is the best and it's far enough away from the mouth of the Mississppi that you won't need to worry about debris.

Is Galveston your only choice? I have never been there so I cannot give an opinion on it.

We love being in the DFW area due to the travel options. My husband is on a plane 2-4 times a week. We do not drive anwhere if it is more than a 2 hour drive. You can get deals to fly. We fly to Miami....(NOT child friendly, you MUST be open minded), Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Fort Walton Beach (Sandestin....this August will be 2nd trip there). Most of these flights are less than 2 hrs and you are on a FL beach.

If you STILL want a TX beach, we fly to Harlingen (sp) via Southwest from Love Field, (have to stop in Houston first) then drive to Padre.

I don't know a lot about West Coast Beaches. My daughter sometimes has modeling gigs in LA and we go to the Santa Monica Pier for fun. Hubby plays golf so we go to Pebble Beach, Carmel.

All in all, we LOVE the FL beaches because we can't get to Hawaii as much as we would prefer!! The flights are not bad and hotels are nice. We love Sandestin in FL. Great beach.

IF you still choose to drive, good luck. We are just not road trip type.

It's been years since we went to the beach at Galveston...my youngest boy was three and saw something that looked like a balloon on the sand. He ran for it and we told him not to touch it but he grabbed it because he was afraid it was going to be washed back out into the water. It was a jellyfish. His hands were stung pretty badly and were treated at a local clinic. He kept crying so we unwrapped them and found they hadn't removed the tentacles between my son's fingers. We learned a lot...after we survived that we ended up having a good time and he loved the beach.

We took our 2 1/2 year old twin boys, a couple of weeks ago, to Pointe West in Galveston. We had a wonderful time. They have a fantastic pool area with a kiddie pool. It's 20 minutes past downtown Galveston but, it's worth the extra drive. We stayed in a two bedroom condo and made lunchs in our own kitchen. Since your son is 2, I think you would really like this place. He's kinda young for a lot of the activities in Galveston and truth be told, all my guys wanted to do was play in the sand and walk in the ocean water. You don't have to cross a busy street to get to the beach, like most of the ones in Galveston. It's right there. I highly recommend it.

The San Luis hotel is on the beach (actually across the street) and is GREAT!!! It has a great pool, wonderful spa, yummy food and make sure you rent a condo, not the actual hotel room... although your son is still young but, for us- with three kids - it lets us have them in the living area (with pull out couch) and we get the master room - also has a kitchen which cuts down on eating out every meal. Pricewise it beats two hotel rooms... if you still only need/want one room - and don't care about the kitchen, then I know there is a new Holiday Inn that has a room, an open suite area, and the kids section is supposed to be decorated totally kidish.

have fun!
D.

While Galveston is fun, if you don't mind a longer drive, South Padre Island is a much better beach and well worth the extra time to get there. If you decide to go to Galveston, we would recommend taking the ferry over to Bolivar. There are beach house rentals right on the beach that are very reasonable, and beaches are less crowded. And your son will love riding the ferry boat! (It's free.) At South Padre, most any beachside hotel is nice. The Tiki, Marisol and Bahia Mar are all good places to stay. Have fun!

I happen to be reading this magazine - Texas Parks and Wildlife at the library. And they had the top 10 beaches in Texas. I typed out the list - but the magazine has lots more description. I have friends who have been to Port Aransas beach - and they liked it. They say that it is a fun place for kids. I hope the following helps. The website does not have the July issue yet. But it seems Port Aransas has a few beaches around the area.

Top 10 Beaches in Texas

Texas Parks and Wildlife July 2008

www.tpwmagazine.com

1. Magnolia Beach, South of Port Lavaca.

2. San Jose Island, Aransas

3. Port Aransas Beach

4. Padre Island National Seashore

5. Matagorda Bay Nature Park

6. Matagorda Island Wildlife Management Area

7. Rockport Beach, Aransas County

8. South Padre Island

9. Mustang Island State Park

10. Galveston Island State Park

When we took a trip to Galveston we stayed here: http://www.casadelmartx.com/

It was clean, close to the beach (right across the street from the sea wall), and close to Moody Gardens, which is a lot of fun! http://www.moodygardens.com/

I'd stay no place but Hotel Galvez.
http://www.wyndham.com/hotels/GLSHG/main.wnt

We went last summer and it was a wonderful hotel. Most other places are more generic or appear dumpy. It was very hot and humid - but that is Texas in the summer.

We stopped at NASA on the way back. If you go be prepared for a huge McDonalds playscape just inside. We had trouble dragging the kids away from that to see the space exhibits. We found out later you can also get discount coupons from the McDonalds located a few blocks from NASA.

Crystal Beach, TX is the place to go! Clean, affordable and family friendly. It's a short drive from Galvaston, but the beaches are cleaner and less crowded. Hope this is helpful.

We stayed at Moody Gardens last year....very kid friendly and close to everything!

Hi J.,

We had stayed at the Best Western on the sea wall, with a 4 month old and a 3 year old. We are also headed back in a few weeks and staying in a beach house. We have never stayed there so I cannot recommend it yet! There is TONS to do, it's no Florida, but having grown up in League City, 45 min. away I know I LOVE Galveston! Be sure and shop on the strand and eat some of the awesome sea food, ALL over the place! I have also stayed at the Galvez (old but neat) and the San Lius it has an amazing waterfall pool and it's right in the middle of the sea wall strip. Be sure and take your little one up and down the sea wall, it's cool!

ENJOY! S.

P.S. Have an 8 year old girl and a 5 year old boy that are FUN!

Hi J.,
We stayed in the Nasa Area about 30 minutes north of Galveston. The cost of hotel is much more reasonable and the drive is an easy one. We spent a day at Johnson's Space Center is wonderful for kids and adults alike and then would go to the beach in the mornings on our other days. After the beach we would go to Moody Garden. Tons of stuff to do at Moody Gardens. Oh and by staying were we did ...it made Keemah Boardwalk accessbile to us as well. The Aquarium Restaraunt is there and my son loved this place.

Hi J.,

We also just went to Pointe West with 6 adults and 4 kiddos (ages 8 months to 5 years!). It's fabulous! They have "villas" or "cottages". The cottages are single family homes in a neighborhood setting. The only disadvantage is that you have to drive to the pool (takes about 1 minute!) Or if you don't have a ton of stuff, you could probably walk. ??? The villas are with the main "beach club" pool and beach access. The pool is great and there's a smaller kiddie pool and grills where you can grill your own food, but bring all the utensils. The restaurant won't give you anything to work with unless you order off the menu. All of the units are new with very nice interiors (granite counters, stainless appliances, etc.)

We rented through another company, but I would recommend going directly through www.pointewestvacations.com. Also, the ferry to Bolivar was a complete waste of time for us. However, we didn't have anything planned to do over there so we basically got off and turned around to get in line to go back to Galveston (that line was 2 hours long!!)

The drive from Dallas to Galveston was also very easy even w/the kids. OH, and the beach where we were was really clean. I think (not for sure) that they clean it every morning.

Good luck!

We just got back from Port Aransas. I think it's a little farther than Galveston. We got a condo at the Mayan Princess and it was very nice. It's right on the beach. You go out the back of the hotel and there are 3 pools then there is a walkway to the beach. It's nice to have the choice of either with the kids. It was a great getaway for our family. Also we went from Monday-Thursday and it was alot less busy. Have fun.

Crystal Beach, TX. You can drive there or take the ferry from 45. The ferry would be a cool experience for the kids. Also, there are beach house that rent out CHEAP!

I live in the Dallas area, but I am really from Florida. I was so disappointed when when my family took a trip to the Texas Coast, because the sand was like mud and brown. It takes 11 hours to drive to Pensacola Florida, where the sand is like sugar and crunches as you walk in it and is white as snow, literally. I think the beaches start getting whiter in Alabama, so that would even be closer. Just an alternative thought for you.