Thread: Galveston Beaches

What is the best beach near Galveston, TX?

Will you find any reallyl good beaches if you go south of the city?

I like South Padre Island a lot better than Galveston for beaches, but I will ask my DH for his opinion, since he grew up here.

Originally Posted by MCcruiser

I like South Padre Island a lot better than Galveston for beaches, but I will ask my DH for his opinion, since he grew up here.

I secong that one...I also used to go up to Crystal beach but that is pretty far from Galveston (like an hour I think)...

Crystal beach is a ferry ride away so you can get there anywhere from 15 min to 2 hrs depending on traffic. It is a cool beach but East Beach is great in the late season / winter. We drove out there yesterday and they just installed these nasty cement pilings everywhere which I guess is supposed to help traffic or something. I liked it better when it was totally flat and you could see forever.

Galveston does have more and more clear water days but it is a crap shoot. There are days when I think "Man, that water is so gorgeous and green" and I can see my toes in waist deep water. Then 1/2 the other time it looks like chocolate milk - nasty!!

East Beach also has the coolest place at the end to watch the boats go by - they look so BIG and in winter/fall they leave at/after sunset and all the lights are on. It is so romantice to watch them glide by.

By far my favorite beach is "our beach" but I'd have to kill you if I told you.

I have pics under destination of last year's famous Christmas Day snow. 6" or so fell on Christmas Eve. One of the few snows in Galveston history that "stuck", was several inches & the only one ever to happen at Christmas. Everyone was out as soon as the first ray of light came out like me taking pictures of the beach and all the "landmarks".

Galveston seems to be trying to clean up their act. Beaches were cleaner than I have seen in past & many major improvements along Seawall Blvd. Old hotels & businesses are being torn down & replaced with nicer looking places.

It's wonderful to see Galveston reaching for their full potential! It was a mess in the past. I've watched it improve over the last several years!

We were really pleasantly surprised with Galveston.
Even managed to have time to walk along the beach and do some great shopping at some of the dive shops.(they had some great sales!)

The beaches have improved greatly over the years. They used to be full of litter and people used to let ther dogs run free. I was impressed how clean they were when we went last year.