Padre Island National Seashore — Attraction in Kingsville

A beautiful place, though we were surprised by how many people were there. We had expected a more secluded, wild experience, but it seems the park’s popularity has grown significantly since our last visit to the area.

If you’re just looking for a relaxing visit without going too far in, the area near Mesquite Beach is easily accessible for almost any vehicle and still offers a very enjoyable experience. However, we were looking for more peace, quiet, and immersion in nature, so we drove further down where off-road capability is necessary. Some areas were a bit unnerving, but our vehicle handled it, and we made it safely.

If you plan to go deeper into the seashore, I highly recommend doing your research and preparing accordingly. There are several YouTube videos with helpful tips on driving in the sand—these helped us a lot. Also, make sure to bring recovery gear in case you get stuck, along with all your essentials: water, food, and supplies. You’ll be very far from any services or assistance, so it's important to be self-sufficient.

We almost got caught in a storm and had to leave in a hurry. You won’t have signal for most of the drive, so keep a close eye on the weather forecast before your trip and watch the horizon while you're there for any approaching storms. Situational awareness is key, as any trouble could mean a long wait for help.

Also, be aware of wildlife. The park is actively patrolled, and rangers often mark off sensitive wildlife areas—like nesting sites—with flags. Please respect these markers and avoid driving near them. Obeying the rules helps protect the wildlife and ensures we can all continue to enjoy access to this beautiful and unique place.

One disappointment was the amount of trash along the shore—likely washed in from the ocean. It’s unfortunate and reflects the global environmental challenges facing our coastlines. Still, the area remains...

Take this review with a grain of salt because I worked on the beach, and spent almost every day of the past 5 months on the beach. What I have experienced is probably not representative of what it will be like visiting for a long weekend, but I have seen just about everything on the beach. The beach is 60 miles long and is mostly the same along all those miles, so unless you are driving all the way down to brag about it or get to a fishing spot I’d say it’s not worth it. A couple miles down and you’ll likely see the same stuff as 60 miles down. A lot of sand and not much else. I got a lot of questions about big and little shell beach- both of which didn’t exist while I was there. Patches of shells moved up and down the beach with a higher abundance of larger shells around 50 miles down, but in my opinion you can find nice shells just about anywhere. The sand and salty air will destroy everything you bring to the beach, so be sure to think about what you are bringing along and clean it off right when you leave! Beach driving conditions vary greatly even from the morning to the afternoon on the same day. Some days any car could make all 60 miles and other days even heavy duty off-roading cars can struggle right away. Be prepared to not have a perfect beach when you come. Tides can make the beach hard to enjoy, lots of tar and trash wash up, so just don’t come with expectations of a pristine perfect beach and you’ll be fine. It definitely can be beautiful though, and there are lots of fun birds (and other animals like coyote and turtles) to watch! Remember to let the professionals deal with the turtles if...

Padre Island National Seashore is an amazing primitive camping area or also great for day use. We came here to camp on the beach with our RV.

This is a 4 WD area and we have that, otherwise DON’T take your regular RV here on the beach.

Theres 2 dedicated camping area on park grounds ,Bird Basin & Malaquite. Before you drive onto the South Beach at Padre we filled up with fresh water, used the dump station and disposed of trash. We also grabbed a couple yellow trash collection bags provided by the park service to pick up trash. Unfortunately there’s a fair amount of trash on the beach. We easily filled our bags right away from picking it up in the area we chose to camp. Everything from Mylar balloons to prescription glasses and plastic bottles.

We camped at about mile 6, and there are mile markers every 5 miles as you drive down the beach.

We highly recommend coming to Padre Island National Seashore either for day use or camping . Just make sure you have EVERYTHING to be self sufficient when you come here as the closest “town” is about 15 miles away. The visitor center center has ice, water and snacks, but being prepared for a primitive experience will make your stay enjoyable.

REMEMBER- if you don’t have an off road ready vehicle/ 4 WD beach driving may not be for you as towing will be super...