L.A.
We like Port Aransas or Padre Island. The Texas Gulf coast is not known for its pristine water.. It is a Gulf..
But it is still lots of fun..
My 3 year old tells me about 3 times a week that she has never been to the beach. All she knows about the beach she learned from Max and Ruby. How is Galveston? We are in Dallas so I don't want to take the extra time to drive to Padre. Where to stay, what to do, ect?
We like Port Aransas or Padre Island. The Texas Gulf coast is not known for its pristine water.. It is a Gulf..
But it is still lots of fun..
Im from Cypress and i grew up going to galveston and i cant believe my parents took us ..In my opionion its dirty . But Galveston has Moody Gardens which has a man made beach called Palm Beach..Thats where i take my kids and they have a blast .
I agree, Galveston is not nearly as beautiful as the beaches on the west coast of Florida but if you don't want to travel so far, it's ok for a weekend trip. The beaches are brown compared to the sugar white beaches of the more luxury tropical destinations. I didn't like that the hotels are across the street from the beaches so you have to risk life and limb to get across several lanes of fast moving traffic to actually get to the water. We went once and stayed at the Holiday Inn....like I said, ok for a weekend, but no way would I spend a week there. I'd spend the extra money to head to Florida....Since your kiddo is so young, though (my twins were newly four when we went last summer), it'll be fine, she just wants to experience the vastness and beauty of the ocean, she won't realize there are other beaches that are much prettier.
We took our kids to 2 day vacation to galveston last year is not a beautiful beach but they have a blast playing with sand and we go there just for they to know the sea.
I've stayed in Galveston several times and as I got older my family took vacations there. We normally rented a beach house through I believe Century 21. You can look up rental houses. I liked it because the beach areas were more private and a little cleaner than some of the public areas. I have also stayed at the Victorian, San Luis, and the Galvez. All are nice. I guess it just depends on what your preference is. The shopping on the sea wall and in downtown Galveston is fun. The Aquarium is great and Schlitterbaun isn't bad either.
We took our kids last summer for a 3 day weekend and loved it. I guess it's all in what you expect, but people warned us about it being dirty and we didn't think anything of the sort. We stayed at the Hotel Galvez right across from the beach. Crossing the street to get to the beach was easy and we had a 7, 5, and 1 1/2 year old with us. No it's not a whitesand beach like the resorts, but it was clean and I had no problems with the kids playing in the sand or the water. They had an absolute blast and are begging us to take them back again. We went to Moody Gardens for one day and were disappointed. We should have just gone to the beach another day.
Good luck,
K.
We stayed at Surfside Beach many years ago and really liked it. It's about a 30min drive to Galveston so we took a day trip to Galveston to do the things there. Galveston is okay but not too great. I think there is also a beach called Crystal Beach that's supposed to be better too.