I know this has been discussed but was wanting some recent information.

My wife and I are taking the kids (8 and 13) down to the coast for a couple of days next month. I've never been. Plan is to go down on Thurs, spend the day on the beach Friday, and then tour the Lexington on Sat and head back home.

Where's a good place to stay and get on the beach. We'll be taking a Honda Pilot so not sure what kind of beach access we will be able to get to.

Thanks.

Hotels are EXPENSIVE. I live outside of Calallen, and my dad just paid $200 a night for a Holiday Inn in Calallen. Honestly, I'd reccomend somewhere on the coast further North than Corpus. Maybe visit the Lex for a day.

I noticed that. Ouch! I'm planning on about $200/night. Don't really need beach/ocean view but want to have good access to food and the beach. Thanks for the heads up about going north.

Holiday Inn in Calallen? Things have changed since I lived there in 97.

Staybridge on SPID is where I stayed when I worked there in 17.

I think we stayed at the Casa Condominiums just south of Port Aransas and they were decent and fair priced right on the beach.

I would check out the Inn at Fulton Harbor. I havent been in probably 4 years, but it was great the few times I had been.

Corpus is all buy my home town. Moved their right out of high school, then to Housotn and back couple of time with my job over the years. Traveled there on busienss off and on for years from Houston. Any hotel inner city/SPID are tourist trap hotels and expensive.

Hotels in Portland before you cross the high bridge should be slightly less even though they are closer to the plants being built. I've been kinda locked down and have not traveled in a few months but hotels can be expensive in that area due to all the plants being built, its a busy place now and not the town that I lived in few years back.

Worst case, stay in Kingsville, tour king ranch and drive the 45 miles to CC for the sight seeing stuff.

We stay at Island House Condo every year and there is a beach access right next to them that I like personally. It's called Whitecap beach on Padre Island, when we were there back in July it was pretty open as far as spacing went. Some people piled on top of each other but if you were to drive another few hundred yards down you had a big area to your self. You know those public beaches are like a parking lot at a store, the further you get away from the doors the more spaces you have to choose from.

The jelly fish were really bad when we were there, by bad I mean every few minutes you would watch one float by you. They were mostly small, just annoying to have to watch out for.

I believe the beaches are closed to vehicular traffic for another week or so. Dont know if they will extend that ban. I dont keep up with it at all as I have only been to the beach once in 11 years.

If it were me, I'd go another 3 hours down to South Padre Island. Beaches are much nicer since they don't allow car traffic on them at all and plenty of restaurants and shopping to take in. Went down there for first time in 25+ years, 4 years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. And yes, I lived nearly 15 years in Corpus, from age 8 to 22...Padre Island and South Padre Island, no comparison...

We were down in Rockport last weekend with some trips to Corpus. The beaches are "closed" but there's plenty of people there. The parking lots near the beaches were packed and it was a crowded mad house. The beach area was very crowded closest to the parking lot, but if you walked a mile down the beach, it thinned out. Plan to walk to get to the beach, then walk away from the crown. And of course, I didn't see one mask. The fishing was great, though!

Port A just opened theirs back up since they ran through all their OT money trying to police it.

OP, if you have little kids see if Rockport Beach is open. It’s a lot safer(no rip tides, or huge waves, and shallow to about 200 yards)

Another vote for Rockport-Fulton

Whatever you do, under no circumstances, should you stay in Aransas Pass!

I haven't been to POC in years but it was one of my favorites. Loved the jetties.

Same here. Was there last week and took my boys (2 and 4) to Rockport Beach on a Monday.and they had a blast. Went early, hardly anyone there. Stayed in a house on Copano Bay. Still seeing lots of vacancies on quite a few houses. Fishing was decent in the evening. LOTS of specks. Most were small but they were thick!

Another vote for the Island House and eat at Scuttlebutts.

The only negative of the Rockport beach was the jellyfish and shallow water. The area they had open was in the bay area and had a lot of jelly fish. And you could walk out 300 yards and only be waist deep.

Yep, same experience we had. My 4yo got popped but was acting like such a nut, playing he didnt ever notice. But yeah, there were quite a few. Wish I would have taken my cast net. Tons of bait fish everywhere!

Thanks for the info fellas. Looking at airbnb's in both places. We aren't afraid to splurge on some good food and try to avoid the chains. Would it be better to stay on the coast or the bay for that?

Scuttlebutts looks good!