Escape to North Padre Island on the Texas Coast

Get Away from it All

Padre Island, Texas is a barrier island that extends over a hundred miles of Texas coastline, running from Corpus Christi to the Mexico border. The southern part of the Island is a popular place at spring break and has a reputation as being a party beach. North Padre Island on the other hand, is something else entirely. For starters, it's not that well known. Most people I've come across, when I tell them about Padre Island, they automatically assume it is South Padre Island that I'm talking about. Perhaps this is not without good reason. Indeed when I called AAA to ask about booking a room on the Island, they didn't even have a listing in their International Hotel Database for a North Padre Island. I even gave them the zip code, and they still said they had no listings. Of course they had listings for the southern part of the island. I found that very odd, considering that here are a handful of hotels here.

North Padre Island is separated from South Padre Island by the Port Mansfield Channel, so while you can drive down the beach a long way, you cannot get to South Padre Island from North Padre. What you can get to by driving down North Padre Island is to the National Seashore. There's nothing there, and I mean that in a good way. It's all dunes, tall beach grass, and wildlife. There are so many kinds of birds here, from seagulls, to cranes, to egrets. There are even flamingos!

And if you don't feel like driving very far down the Island to have some peace and quiet, you don't have to! The beach nearest the northern tip of the island, and hence closer to the city of Corpus Christi, is fairly tranquil at most times of the year. Even in summer, if you come during the week, there are relatively few people on the beach compared with some other beaches I've been to. About the only time the beach is packed is on a holiday or on a nice weekend in the summer.