Texas beaches map
Sheet TX-22 · 367 miles of Gulf shore · barrier islands from Bolivar to Boca Chica
Nearly every Texas beach sits on a barrier island or peninsula separated from the mainland by a shallow bay, so getting to the sand usually means a causeway, a ferry or a long spur road. The water is warm and silty at the top of the coast and clearer as you go south.
Centered on the upper and middle coast. Pan south along the shore for Mustang Island, Padre Island and the Laguna Madre.
Gulf beaches, north to south
| Beach | Nearest city | County | Driving access | What the beach is like |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sabine Pass and Texas Point | Port Arthur | Jefferson | SH-87 south from Port Arthur | The first beach inside the Louisiana line, at the mouth of the Sabine. Narrow, coarse, backed by marsh and a national wildlife refuge. Ships headed for the Sabine–Neches canal pass close inshore. |
| Sea Rim | Port Arthur | Jefferson | SH-87 west of Sabine Pass | State park where the marsh grass runs right down to the surf line — the "sea rim" the park is named for. Paddling trails behind the dunes, few facilities. |
| Bolivar Peninsula (Crystal Beach) | Galveston | Galveston | Free ferry from Galveston, or SH-87 from High Island | Twenty-odd miles of flat, drivable sand with beach houses on stilts behind it. The ferry crossing takes about 20 minutes and lines can be long on summer weekends. |
| Galveston Island | Galveston | Galveston | I-45 south to the causeway | The most developed beach in Texas. Seawall Boulevard runs about ten miles above the water with pocket beaches below it; East Beach and Stewart Beach are the wide managed beaches at the east end, and Galveston Island State Park is quieter down the West End. |
| Surfside Beach | Lake Jackson / Freeport | Brazoria | SH-332 east from Lake Jackson | The closest open Gulf beach to Houston that you can drive onto. Firm sand, low dunes, small beach town, jetties at the north end of the Freeport ship channel. |
| Quintana Beach | Freeport | Brazoria | FM-1495 and CR-723 south of Freeport | Across the ship channel from Surfside and much quieter — a county park with a fishing pier, used by birders during spring migration. |
| Matagorda Beach | Bay City | Matagorda | FM-2031 south from Matagorda, about seven miles | Where the Colorado River reaches the Gulf between two jetties. Long, empty and windy, with driving allowed on much of the sand and almost nothing built behind it. |
| Port Aransas | Corpus Christi | Nueces | SH-361 with the free Aransas Pass ferry, or Park Road 53 from Mustang Island | A working port town at the north tip of Mustang Island, on the Aransas Pass ship channel. Beach driving is normal here; the jetty and the University of Texas Marine Science Institute are at the north end. |
| Mustang Island | Corpus Christi | Nueces | SH-361 between Port Aransas and the JFK Causeway | Eighteen miles of dune-backed beach with a state park in the middle and very little else. The most reliable wind on the coast, which is why it is a kiteboarding and windsurfing stretch. |
| North Padre Island | Corpus Christi | Nueces | SPID (Park Road 22) across the JFK Causeway | The city end of Padre Island, with condominiums, Bob Hall Pier and the Packery Channel jetties. Corpus Christi's everyday beach. |
| Padre Island National Seashore | Corpus Christi | Kleberg | Park Road 22 south from North Padre; pavement ends past the visitor center | About 70 miles of undeveloped barrier island — the longest stretch of its kind left on any U.S. coast. Malaquite Beach and the visitor center are reachable in any car; South Beach turns to soft sand within a few miles and needs four-wheel drive. Bird Island Basin faces the Laguna Madre for shallow-water sailing. |
| Boca Chica Beach | Brownsville | Cameron | SH-4 east from Brownsville, about 23 miles | The last beach before the mouth of the Rio Grande and the Mexican border. Undeveloped, no services, and the highway is closed to traffic during launch operations at the rocket site it passes. |
| South Padre Island | Harlingen | Cameron | SH-100 through Port Isabel and over the Queen Isabella Causeway | The resort end of the coast: hotels along the south few miles, then open drivable beach north of the town limit. The causeway from Port Isabel is the longest bridge in Texas. Clearest water and warmest winter temperatures on the Texas shore. |
| Rockport Beach | Rockport | Aransas | SH-35 to Rockport, then the bayfront | Not a Gulf beach — a protected, groomed strip on Aransas Bay with calm water, which makes it the usual choice for small children on the middle coast. |
Getting onto the sand
Under the Texas Open Beaches Act the public has a right of access to the Gulf beach up to the line of vegetation, whatever is built behind it. In practice that means most Texas beaches are free to walk on, and many are legal to drive on — Bolivar, Surfside, Matagorda, Port Aransas, Mustang Island and the national seashore all allow vehicles on marked stretches. Several counties and cities sell an annual beach parking permit instead of charging by the day; Galveston, Port Aransas and Nueces County each run their own.
Two free ferries carry cars across ship channels rather than bridges. The Galveston–Port Bolivar ferry runs around the clock across the entrance to Galveston Bay, and the Port Aransas ferry crosses the Corpus Christi ship channel from Aransas Pass. Both can back up for an hour on holiday weekends; the alternative is a long drive around through High Island or the JFK Causeway.
How the coast changes as you go south
The upper coast near Jefferson and Galveston counties gets the outflow of the Sabine, Trinity and Brazos rivers, so the water is brown and the sand is fine and grey. By the Coastal Bend the rivers are smaller and the water clears; from Mustang Island south the sand is paler and the surf is stronger because the shoreline turns to face more directly into the prevailing southeast wind. Behind Padre Island the Laguna Madre is one of the few hypersaline lagoons in the world — shallow, saltier than the Gulf, and only a few feet deep for most of its length.
Sargassum weed washes ashore in windrows from late spring into summer, heaviest on the southern beaches. Hurricane season runs from June to November, and the barrier islands are the first thing a storm reaches.
Beach driving rules, permit prices and vehicle closures change by season and by storm damage. Check with the county or the National Park Service before planning to drive on sand.