South Padre Island Visitors Center — Attraction in South Padre Island

Really disapointed. Big lovely building with almost nothing in it! Very very poorly designed entrance. Huge long entry with multiple stairs and concrete area with no purpose, and a wide circle drive to cross from parking area. Then way too many handicapped spaces, then employees or locals parking in next closest spaces..nobody but me in there. I was worn out by the time I got to the front door. Really, I almost just left before bothering to make the trek to the entrance!!! Basically then just for brochures from businesses that are found everywhere in town already. No postcards or SPI bumper stickers, souvenirs, etc. Nobody even can tell me where to get the iconic, SPI in an oval, bumper sticker...not at shops. I was ignored until I approached desk by both. SPI is so much more friendly than that! Items she gave me behind desk should have been out for visitors!! They should have been asking me if they could help and making suggestions, not me having to wrench every bit of info. from them. Not worth my time. No wonder nobody is ever there when I pass! 5 min. to park and walk for 1 min. to look at nothing. Rethink this entry and parking design..beautiful but not user friendly!! And get people enthusiastic about letting people know what activities are going on while they...

I want to review the whole island in general!! We didn’t actually visit the Visitor’s Center (sorry!) but I just want everyone to know how much enjoyed our stay on the island. Everywhere we went and everything we did, the people (tourists and employees and everyone) were very friendly. The beaches were beautiful, and I loved seeing all the various ways different business were working to cut back on disposable garbage and keep trash out of the oceans. Highly recommend a trip to Beach access #6 if you want to collect shells and drive onto the beach. If you collect a bag of trash you can get a rebate on your entrance fee. :) We also loved our horse ride on the beach with SPI Adventure Park, and snorkeling with Southern Wave. If you check out the bird and animal center right now you can hold baby alligators! Our favorite restaurants were the Longboard Bar and Grill and the coffee shop, Cafe Karma. We felt safe during our entire stay and we had the best...

Beautiful building but what purpose does it serve when you can’t even get brochures because they are locked up behind closed doors. I tried to get information 3 times during regular business hours. There was nobody at the desk and the majority of the pamphlets were locked up in a room. A visitor center should promote the activities available on the island and I’m not the only one that left dissatisfied that info was not available. If you can’t have an employee or volunteer available during your business hours then you at least need to set out the brochures so we can have access to them. I’m sure the businesses that provide the brochures would also be disappointed that visitors don’t have access to information on their businesses. This is their livelihood! I was a resident of this beautiful island for 9 years and I am very disappointed with the lack of service of the SPI...