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Best/Closest Beaches in Texas?

Travel Info
I am living in San Antonio for the summer, and while I am out here, I would like to visit the beach. What beaches do you recommend? Please consider distance and quality. Thank you.

Travel Tips

I am a beach person. Lived in the Caribbean on a cruiseship. I have visitied California and the East coast. Lived in Florida and even Chicago's Lake Michigan. Beaches are my first love, but money is usually not a way of life to bring up a family on the beach route. Still, I know Texas beaches...here you go.

If you are looking for excitement - go to Galveston Beach (41/2 hours away or about 1 1/2 hour from Houston) or South Padre (very close to Mexico and about 6 hours from San Antonio.) Corpus Christi (21/2 hours away) is in a construction phase, so there is a very limited amount to do there although they have a really cool surf museum on Shoreline Blvd. and there's the Lexington and an Aquarium and the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria replicas from Spain, and North Padre is not too far (20 miles from CC) with Mustang Island being the cleanest and with showers. Very quiet. Nice fishing in Rockport also close to the Corpus Area. ( about 25 minutes). Port A is close to Mustang Island, they have some nice fishing tour boats and dolphin tours. There are some good seafood restaurants and there are even lifeguards present in some areas. You can even get a beach house for anywhere between 500-3000 for a week. There are some spots that are even quieter that you can only get to by foot or boat on the Padre Island edge going south with no more highways, but remember they are very remote, if you can handle that. You cannot take any gasoline driven vehicles and water cuts through the beach in areas all the way to the South. So, have fun at your day at the beach. By the way, the best time to go is actually in August when the beaches are the cleanest and the crud from the Mississippi river is at it's least, but right now is a good time for beach treasure hunting. The gulf stream brings down some pretty cool stuff. I have found some neat beach treasures and my hallway bath is completely decorated in beach treasure decor. So, to each his own.
Others

Houston (approx 3 hour drive depending on traffic etc)...Corpus Christi is nice too... Padre islands (about 145 miles from you going East)
Port Aransas is really cool. It has a Key West feel. It is small and quirky. The people are friendly and the beaches are clean. Lots of good restaurants and plenty of hotels. It is closer to you than Galveston.
Fastest route to the beach from S.A.:

I-37 South, 2 1/2 hours... welcome to Corpus. Oh, and don't expect anything to do here, except go to the beach, because frankly, there ain't nothing to do here. I like the Port Aransas idea.