Isla Grand Beach Resort — Attraction in South Padre Island

My wife and I stayed at Isla Grand on April 9th. We did a quick romantic getaway and decided to stay at the Isla Grand for the first time. We had a wonderful experience from check-in to check-out. We went to walk the grounds and find our room, and when we got there we found a beautiful room. We stayed in the Pool and Garden view cabana with a king size bed. We had a decent view of the pool and garden, but not too close where we would possibly hear the noise from the pool area. It also had a decent view of the gulf when we were sitting out on the balcony. The bed was nice and comfortable, and the pillows were just right. After freshening up a bit, we decided to head down to the bar to cash in on the free drink. The barteneder (again, I forgot to get her name) was fantastic, and made a delicious hand-crafted drink. She was friendly the entire time we were there. She had a number of people who stopped by for a drink, and she did a fabulous job of making sure each guest was taken care of. The drinks were perfect as well. We took our drinks and went to lounge by the pool. The Isla Grand has two pools to choose from. One is a heated pool and the other is not. Both pools have some nice water features. You do need to stop by the front desk to get a towel. They will take your name and room number when they give you your towel. Then you return it to the front desk when you are finished. When we finished our drinks, and decided to take a dip in the heated pool. It was a little chilly out, so we didn't get in the other one. There are three hot tubs located in the pool area. There were people already enjoying them, so we decided not to join them. When we were done with the pool we went and took a walk along the water thanks to the Isla Grand's beach access. It was a nice perk to be able to go from the pool straight to the sandy beach. They have a little shop on the way to the beach where you can rent chairs and umbrellas, and purchase beach items. They also have outdoor showers to rinse off after getting back to the resort and get some of the sand off of you. They do have a workout room on the premises, but since we were only there for one night we didn't utilize it. They also have a game room with pool tables. We were going to check it out, but ran out of time. There were people in the game room enjoying themselves. They also have tennis courts on the premises. After our walk, we washed up and then headed to the Quarterdeck Lounge to listen to Clay Underwood sing. He was fantastic. He has a great singing voice, and he really interacted with the crowd in a great way. He told entertaining stories, and also sang really good music. They also have crab races on Wednesday nights and comedy shows on Thursday nights. We've been to both of those events, and they're really fun and entertaining. The host for the comdey nights, Raymond Orta, is a really funny comedian, so definitely check out the other entertainment that they offer during the week. You won't be disappointed. The servers in the Quarterdeck Lounge are great. We had migas at Windjammers Cafe and they were delicious. Our server was very friendly and her service was exceptional. When we checked out, the clerk remembered us from the day before. He was very friendly and made sure that we had a great and relaxing time. Overall, we had a great experience. Definitely one of our more memorable stays on South Padre Island. We would definitely stay there again, and are planning to visit again and this time...

I planned a trip to Isla Grand in April arriving in second week in July. We stayed in the large tower with 2 bedrooms with 3 adults, 2 teens and 2 children under 5. 7 total. I was very disappointed.

As others have stated the hotel was not up to par.

Short version - no balcony access, lots of construction, pool was nice, beach access was great - and the people who worked there were very good and very attentive. This resort has the potential to be amazing! Bottom line the non-communicated construction and no balcony access was a big downer to me. The construction and remodel is definitely a positive direction but again would have like the communication.

Long version - we were given a room on the 11th floor in the middle of the tower, room 1105. First impression is room was ok but there is no balcony access or railings on the balconies as it’s under remodel. The phone did not work. And the room was literally in front of the elevator. You could hear everyone coming in and out all night long. Also I didn’t like the setup of the master bedroom. 3 pocket doors slide out from the wall to essentially have a wall. Zero privacy from our children and grandma. 2nd bedroom had 1 king bed, not 2 full or queen beds as you would expect with 7 people in our family. Morning after the first night was woken up to heavy construction sounds and men hanging from a scaffold able to look right in. I don’t even know why you have rented out this room knowing this was going on. I would have been ok with construction if I would have been told there was construction and had a choice to stay here, but I wasn’t told.

I immediately went to front desk and angrily request a room change. Front desk obliged. They moved our family from 8th floor to 12th floor corner room, room 1209. This room had it going on, the room was much better than previous. Master bedroom actually had wall instead of 3 pocket doors. 2nd bedroom had 2 queen beds. Still no balcony railing or access. We loaded up the 4 kids and grandma and hiked down to the beach. Upon arrival at the beach I was called and told we could not stay in that room as it needed repairs. They forced me to move once again. Spent 90 minutes moved from 1105 to 1209 and now going to spend another 90 minutes again. 🤬

After a total of 4 hours moving on day 2 they had moved us to 809, another corner room. Room was better than 1105 but not as crisp as 1209. Master bedroom was back to pocket doors to close up the room. 2nd bedroom was back to a single king bed. We stayed in this room for the remainder of our time here.

We left items in our 1st room and the staff brought it to us right away. When we called to request more blankets on 2 occasions, the staff was quick to respond both times.

Apart from our room debacle the rest of the resort was decent. The pool was nice, the hot tubs were nice. We did not try any of the restaurants on site. My wife did do the Starbucks downstairs and said they were spot on. Access to the beach was easy, they have a long boardwalk to make it easier lugging everything down to the beach.

My older kids checked out the game room and seemed to enjoy it enough to go twice.

Many restaurants and...

I stayed in another hotel while at SPI this past week. However, I was only there because my niece was getting married and they chose this location as their venue.

The wedding ceremony itself was beautiful however, the reception was a total disaster. Was not worth the 3K they were charged.

The reception was to begin at 5. However when guests arrived to the designated location at 4:20 none of the tables were set nor were the chairs opened for arrival. You would think that considering this business offers themself as an event location that the "event organizer" would be reachable and on the site of the designated location by 4 to have their staff members setting things up. Not the case here.

There was a choice of 3 different meals to choose from. Shrimp/beef Ka-bobs (shrimp was like leather it was way over cooked), Chicken del mar, and chicken cordon blue.

None of the chicken cordon blue was served everyone whom ordered it ended up getting del mar. (Some are alleregic to to crab which is in the del mar and some are not allowed to eat greens due to the meds they are on which spinach is also in the del mar) These meals were 32$ per plate.

They had teenagers serving the meals whom came to the table I was sitting at and asked if anyone had cordon blue (which none of us did) and when told to go ask another table in the party because they had no meals at their table they instead took the plates back to the rack..

I got up and asked the other guests if they had cordon blue (which all of them did) so I told the staff to serve the table. Unknown to us that it was not cordon blue at all and was del mar.

The event planner informed us that we started arriving too early and that when you have a choice of 3 different meals then there will most likely be "mishaps" with the meals..... Not acceptable for the price paid.

Also some of the guest were supposed to be booked for 3 nights but were only booked for 2 and had to go to another hotel for their last night on the Island.

When it came time to pay for everything my niece was surprised to find out that it was 1K more than she estimated because they did not go over other fees with her although it was on the contract.

My suggestion is to the staff. Go over EVERY detail with your guests no matter how small it is to you. They are choosing your place as a destination for their SPECIAL day and they should NEVER be treated this way.

Make sure the event coordinator is at the designated location overlooking every detail especially if you are claiming that you "do events".

After all of the problems they refused to even discount anything or even take responsibility for their wrong doings.

My daughter was planning on having her wedding using this hotel but after all of this that will be a huge NO.

I don't care who it is no newly married couple deserves their special day to be stressful due to the lack of concern by an...