South Padre Island

SOUTH PADRE

Altitude 5

General

South Padre is known for its water sports, including jet skiing, by, surf, and deep-sea fishing, parasailing, sailing, and windsurfing. Other island activities include bicycling, tennis, shelling, and horseback riding on the beach.

The South Padre Island Tourist Bureau provides detailed information about accommodations, activities and events related to boating, sailing, fishing, and seashore recreation.

FISHING

ISLA BLANCA PARK

ISLAND EQUESTRIAN

PADRE ISLAND

PAN AMERICAN UNIVERSITY COASTAL STUDIES LABORATORY

SEA TURTLE, INC.

Attractions

• FISHING - Available from the beach, piers, and jetties where catches may include redfish, speckled and sand grout, sheepshead, founder, croakers, skipjack, and drum. Group boats provide bay and deep-sea fishing for full or half days; charter cruises are available for individual or small party offshore sport. Offshore species may include tarpon, sailfish, marlin, kingfish mackerel, ling, pompano, bonito, red snapper, warsaw, and wahoo. Marinas provide fuel, bait, tackle, launching ramps, and boat rentals. Small boats with guides are available for day fishing.
• ISLA BLANCA PARK - County park offers group camping area, cabanas, fishing and swimming in the Gulf. At the island's southern tip.
• ISLAND EQUESTRIAN - Take a romantic horseback ride along the secluded beaches while savoring the beauty of miles of sand dunes encrusted with sea oats and beach morning glory along the Gulf of Mexico and Laguna Madre. Horses are usually available from sunrise to sunset. just north of the town on Padre Blvd.
• PADRE ISLAND - The long, narrow sand island sweeps in a gold arc north some 110 miles to Corpus Christi. Modern hotels and motels edge several miles of the Gulf at the island's southern tip. Farther north, the island is entirely natural - sand dunes, sea oats, and beach morning glory. (There is no bridge between South and North Padre.) Beautiful, gently sloping beaches are perfect for swimming and surf fishing. Beachcombers will find bright shells, perhaps floats from the West Indies, driftwood, and occasionally flint point of Karankawa Indians who roamed the area.
• PAN AMERICAN UNIVERSITY COASTAL STUDIES LABORATORY - Marine life and representative examples of the region, both form the Gulf and Laguna Madre; fish, mollusks, plants; extensive seashell collection. In Island Blanca Park at the south tip of Padre Island
• SEA TURTLE, INC. - Living museum of the "Turtle Lady," Ila Loetcher. Educational shows featuring endangered sea turtles given on Tuesday and Saturday at 9 a.m. during the summer, 10 a.m. other seasons. At 5805 Gulf Blvd.