South Padre Island, a booming seaside resort area on the Gulf Coast at the southern tip of Texas, includes the island and the neighboring mainland town of Port Isabel. The area, about 150 mi/240 km southeast of San Antonio, is especially popular among high-school and college students during spring break.
There are thousands of hotel rooms, motel rooms and condominiums to rent and all the amenities and recreational activities you could want at a beach resort (boating, swimming, fishing, surfing, sailboarding, beachcombing on long white beaches, birding, camping, in-line skating, parasailing, bungee jumping and eating and drinking).
Side trips include visits to Matamoros, Mexico (across from Brownsville), or the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, a 7,000-acre/2,800-hectare marshland that's home to thousands of waterfowl, as well as coyotes, javelina, bobcats and deer.
For more information about the island, visit the Web site at http://www.sopadre.com.
