Porretto Beach — Attraction in Galveston

Be careful - you might get towed!!!! This place appears to have some kind of racket with the towing companies and the city police. The parking lot "closes" at 8pm. We are tourists from out of town who are not familiar with the ways of Galveston, nor have we have ever seen a private business close and immediately start towing cars out of its lot, so we had no way to foresee that our car would get towed. When we paid our money at the front, we trusted that we were going to be treated nicely. They did not have signs clearly posted to state the hours of business or that they would tow if we were still parked there afterward. There is a tiny sign at the entrance way overhead and out of your line of site as you drive in (in small print, covered with legaleez, no less - just looks like a general tow warning) - of course we didn't see it. They had a few signs posted around some of the spots further down, but nowhere near where we parked. How about a big sign at the walkway that clearly states "This beach closes at 8pm"...wouldn't that be helpful? Nope, nothing like that. Furthermore, the ladies at the entrance, who seemed to be burdened by having to get off their lawn chairs to take our money to park, barely said a word to us, much less anything about business hours. The parking stub they handed us even states that our parking was valid until midnight. So...We strolled down the beach at sunset, came back a little after 8:00, and were very surprised to find the parking lot filled with police and tow trucks, one of which had already hooked up our car and was rolling off with it. We stopped the driver just in time. He generously offered to unhook our car if we paid him $125 on the spot (because the law requires him to). Since they don't take cash and we didn't have that much on us, he helpfully told me that I could get it from the ATM in the mini mart across the street. As the driver was threatening to drive off and we had 3 small children with us, there was no other choice. I ran across the street, past a seedy-looking tattoo shop with a large, scary-looking tattooed man smoking in the parking lot, glaring at me, into the mini market, where I found the ATM in the back next to what appeared to be - slot machines, or game machines, or something. There were people bent over them, playing, and I noticed that they had stopped and were eying me very closely as I took a large number of bills out of the ATM. I stuffed the cash in my purse and fled, out of the mini market, past the tattoo parlor and the scary man, and back to the beach, where I was able to pay the driver and get our car back without getting mugged. Luckily, the police are standing by making sure the tow truck drivers stay safe while they send unsuspecting tourists by themselves into scary places to gather large sums of cash. Way to protect the public, Galveston police.What a way to treat tourists. Bottom line: park on the street. It's not that much more expensive to park, you can stay as long as you like and you...

We drove in to check out the beach on Saturday morning.  Parking was a little difficult to find, but we got really lucky after about ten minutes of hunting to be able to find a good spot close enough to the walkway to the beach.  We paid our few dollars for parking and walked across the grass up the path to the sand and water.  The beach was not crowded at all for a Saturday.  We had plenty of space to ourselves.  There were plenty of seashells for the kids to hunt and lots of sand to build sandcastles.  The water was amazing (for salt water at the beach.)  The waves kept the kids entertained.  We put the kids on an inflatable duck and they got a kick out of being bucked off the duck by the waves!!  We swam out past the bigger waves and rode them back to shore.  It was neat to see the fish jumping all around you, birds swooping down to the water to eat, and every now and again, you catch a glimpse of crabs in the water.  Do not forget the sunscreen!! I had researched a lot of different beaches before heading that direction (as it was about 40 miles from where we were staying).  This specific beach had pretty good reviews.  I am glad we chose this one.  It was very family friendly.  I just wish there was a shower to get the sand off all of us before getting in the car! We made this trip our summer family vacation.  We purchased City Passes online, which was a great experience and we will be doing this again for the other locations offered by them.  So, on this trip, we visited NASA, the Houston Zoo, the Houston Aquarium, Kemah Boardwalk, the Holocaust Museum, a Galveston seawall beach, La Porte- Sylvan Beach, the USS Texas, and the San Jacinto Monument.  I wrote detailed reviews for all of these stops, so if interested, please...

I wish I could give zero stars this place doesn’t even deserve one. Avoid this beach at all costs. There’s no proper guidance or help available. We went for a simple evening walk and paid $20 for parking, at the time of buying tickets they said whole day parking and we come back before total sunset and find our car towed. There was no one around to explain what happened or how to find the towing company. The contact number they displayed was a mess—letters instead of actual digits, making it nearly impossible to figure out who to call.

When we finally got in touch with the towing company, they said they had just towed the car and we needed to pay $316 to get it back. We went to the towing location, and again no one was there to assist us. It felt like a complete scam, possibly a setup between the beach management and the towing company. They claimed the beach gave them authorization, and they had just towed the car a few minutes earlier, yet were demanding full payment.

You will be mentally harassed by the beach management and towing company. The entire experience was frustrating, unfair, and clearly designed to exploit visitors.

This experience ruined our entire day. If you park here, you’re taking a huge risk of being scammed out of your time and money. Stay away...