Are you in search of a hidden gem beach destination? Look no further than South Padre Island in Texas. Many people may not realize that this beach community is ranked as one of the best in the country, which is why Nick Johnson embarked on a two-day journey exploring all that South Padre Island has to offer.
Nick’s video showcases the beauty and charm of this famous Texas beach, as well as the unique experiences it has to offer. From Clayton’s beach bar, a popular spot for Texas college kids, to the pristine Gulf of Mexico coastline, Nick takes you on a journey through the different aspects of South Padre Island.
Despite its reputation as a party destination, South Padre Island also offers a more tranquil and laid-back atmosphere for the majority of the year. With wide, clean beaches and clear, warm waters, it’s no surprise that this beach has drawn comparisons to some of the best beaches on the East Coast.
In addition to exploring the beautiful natural surroundings, Nick shares historical and geographical insights about South Padre Island. From its roots as a ranching and oil-rich area to its transformation into a popular tourist destination, this video provides a comprehensive look at the island’s history and culture.
Overall, Nick’s video provides a captivating and informative look at South Padre Island, showcasing its natural beauty and unique character. Whether you’re looking for a party destination or a serene beach getaway, South Padre Island offers a little something for everyone. So, if you’re planning your next beach vacation, don’t overlook this hidden gem on the Texas coast.
Watch the video by Nick Johnson
This is Clayton’s beach bar this is a big deal for Texas college kids every spring they come by the truckloads they say 25,000 drunk 20-year-olds come here every single day spring break became a being here in South Padre Island in the mid 80s after all you can still drink on the
Beach here you can’t do that in a lot of the gulf I think I can still smell the booze in the sand here’s what it looks like when it’s in full drunk mode wish I could have seen that now it wasn’t until day 8 on my great Texas road trip before we finally
Made it to see the the water and what a sight it is that’s the Gulf of Mexico this is the first day we’ve seen the sun since that one afternoon in San Antonio that felt like a long time ago at this point so we’re going to begin right here
At the end of Texas and take a week to drive all the way to galeston now i’ had never been to this part of the country before and I had so many questions that needed answers now it’s time to get some sand in my saddle and find some Dames that like Whiskey [Applause] the f Texas coast it’s amazing isn’t it everything that vacationers and second home owners dream about a total escape from the rest of the state the entire country okay it’s fall so there aren’t that many people here and it kind of looks like Florida but hey we’re lucky we get to
See all this without all the tourists we’re in South Padre Island on the first day of November if you look at a map at Texas where we are is right here we’re on a long skinny Island that’s 34 Mi tall and South Padre Island is the southern 5 m section of the
Thing most of the island is uninhabited it’s the most southern place on the Texas coast that you can get after this it’s Mexico land I spent two days here looking at the most famous beach in Texas the locals call this place SPI it’s sort of like a mini Panama City
Way out in the middle of nowhere there’s only 2,000 permanent residents that live here but that doubles in the winter there’s a lot of retired people some government employees some teachers and Border Patrol and a bunch of SpaceX workers that’s because they launch rockets on another Beach nearby we’ll
See it in a little bit it can feel very local only for much of the Year here it’s not really that exciting there’s a lot to do it’s fishing and burning and drinking you can do all the resort stuff you’d find at a popular Beach town like kiteboarding and Paras sailing and drinking
This part of Texas used to be part of Spain and then Mexico and then was inside the Republic of Texas those were the good old days a lot of this island was ranches in the early 1900s and then they realized hey hey there’s a lot of oil under here so they
Dug all that up in the 1950s that brought in a lot of rich people so the place blew up and then when they invented air conditioning the place really blew up and people with money have been coming down here ever since JFK was in office I hear a lot of the old money
Here wasn’t just oil money it was drug money too uh-oh you probably know South Padre Island is a place for parties it is that but only for some of the year for about 7 months or so it’s just this quiet sleepy Beach town as you can see the place looks like
It’s booming now but in the 80s a lot of this was pretty desolate I I guess you can say the drunk kids added a big spark to the place most of the time it’s really safe here except for spring spring here is a real racket the only reason this place
Has a high crime ranking is because of all the crime stats that rack up in the springtime people here are like hey look we love when you come down here and spend your money have fun but do you have to fight and trash the place every year they call themselves The only Tropical
Paradise in Texas I don’t know if I’d call this a tropical or a paradise but it is nice so where we are right now is called bullach Chica Beach it’s on the south end of the island this beach is has been called one of the top 10 beaches in the US by many
Publications you’ve heard of and people say this is the only nice beach in the whole state of Texas now I had never been to the Texas coast before but I had heard some bad things I heard the Gulf Coast here was all nasty water gross but not this this is actually pretty
Nice the beach here is really wide and clean and chill just looks like a normal East Coast beach to me the sand here is kind of thin and muddy at the same time very sticky not nearly as nice as the sand I’ve seen on other Adventures on the
Gulf like Panama City over in Florida their Sand’s way better the water here was still sort of warm and the Shelf was shallow nice Beach especially for Texas I can see why it’s so highly sought after e feels good not too cold it’s clear that parking is a
Premium look at that lack of parking at the beach people and this is neat so you can stand right here at the far end of spi and you look across a little Bay and you can see spacex’s Launchpad right there that’s one of many places where they launch their
Rockets one time not too long ago they sent a rocket up from there and it blew up in only 2 minutes right out there above the ocean that would have been cool to have on video huh now back when I was homesteading in the Panhandle all of this was R meets the
Sea and now hell they got Rockets going to Pluto one day this beach used to be a big drop off point for drugs being smuggled into the country well hell Mappy I wonder if there’s still any Coke in that sand there’s two ends of this island
We’re on the south side now if you drive up to the North End into the island it gets really isolated and Sandy fast it’s so desolate up here sand dunes creep into the roadway all the time sometimes you got to come to a complete stop the whole island is called Padre
Island and just about all of it’s uninhabited I’m glad they keep it like this up here all desolate like that means less you and me up here that’s a good thing the Northern end of the island looks like the other beach at the South End of the island just less people and
You can drive on the beach up here that’s cool it is nice to feel all alone out along the water that certainly is true if you drive around the island almost all the neighborhoods look the same just your standard Beach Fair everything’s really nice and because the Island’s so skinny seems
Like everyone’s two blocks from the water I was really surprised to see that the average cost of a house here is 450 Grand when I was in town I think the average price also includes all the condos I’m guessing that almost everybody here is a second homeowner or
A local because there has to be close to zero jobs here that would pay well enough that a family could afford to move here the homes here are nice looking look like any other Beach Community I’ve seen everything’s very nice and clean you can tell people here have
Pride in their hoods and in their homes you don’t see that a lot in America anymore do you just I was in South Padre Island for 2 days so I did as much as I could there’s not a lot to do here that isn’t drinking
Along the water which is fine but I had just began the second week of the trip so I was a little bit tuckered I showed you Clayton’s already that’s the first place we actually went to when we got here mostly just because the clouds finally went away we were
Just glad it was nice out I was like there’s some sun look at that parking lot you can tell they’re used to hosting big crowds here of course there’s rules here can’t have 5,000 drunk kids around for weeks at a time and not lay down the
Law and what a place look at that my kind of place oh my god look how big it is this place comes as advertised tons of room to get after it and a big stage too their drink menu proves they don’t mess around look at all that booze and
Sugar I went with the painkiller and the fish tacos not a bad way to spend my first afternoon at the Texas coast okay we even made friends with the Barat I named him Padre even though he’s only one he likes the fries but loved the fish before we left I wound up getting
One more Lone Star done ight the Clayton’s way in case you’re curious here’s what the Clayton Beach Bar bathroom looks like very impressive very impressive indeed most of the island isn’t that beachy a lot of the places here are Bayside bars and restaurants super cool along the water very nice and well
Done just super clean and quiet not a single bum or piece of trash in sight nice job South Padre Island nighti South Padre Island Texas first night we went to a joint called Louis by the water super neat view just look at how big this place is like multiple bars and stages big but they still pack them in it is a scene out here in the spring and summer again just this
Massive and this is just one patio that is just packed in the summertime well my first ever sunset in Texas sure is a be isn’t she South Padre Island scene and boy is it a scene in the summer I do love the lack of people though I’m not going to
Lie for dinner I sprang for Lou’s Famous big bowl of fish now this thing is terribly named it’s a seared piece of Mahi over some taters and it was good I don’t think I’ve had a bad meal on this trip to this point except that nasty TexMex in San Antone damn
It Lou is cool very beachy inside chill just the way I like It the night we were here must have been old’s night or maybe that’s every night in the off season the bartender told me that during peak season the oldtime locals have their own room set aside just for them they have to show their driver’s license to prove they live on the island and
They can’t even bring a guest that’s what it’s like here in spring and summer maybe I should come back and show you my sack night on the island was much more tame some tacos on the beach and some drinks at one of the fancy hotels in town they had a band from Seattle
Here they were pretty good yeah I can tell we got lovers in the house I don’t care if it’s like eight or nine of them they’re all still lovers right yeah and that dude’s shoes man while we were in town we stayed at the fabulous Sandy Feats sandbox in just
Two blocks from the ocean we had our own space for the first time in a week and look at that bed so high so the monsters don’t get you I guess and check it out the woman who owns the place is a sand castle architect yes she travels the world building sand
Castles on our first night we toured a big sand castle display that she built herself I think well she probably had help but she designed all this it’s very lovely I think there has to be some sort of glue or something to prevent all this
From come in a big pile again but I don’t know what they use and look some of them even have lights an Elon Musk themed sand castle everyone that’s because of that SpaceX facility nearby and here she is the owner of Sandy feet and the world’s best sand castle architect her name’s Lucinda
She’s a South Padre Island local been here forever it does attract a a wide variety of types you know the real estate types the surfer types the um there’s a lot of drinking that goes on here partying that’s what people come here to do and uh we Embrace that as well so
It’s uh it’s hard to stay focused sometimes because people come here to have fun and it’s really easy to jump in there and have fun with them you know instead of of doing what you’re supposed to do so on our last morning in South Padre I
Got up early so I could record my first ever Texas sunrise and no more words are needed for this part so lucenda how has South Padre Island changed since you’ve been here over the years well it’s changed a lot it’s it’s a lot more commercial it used to be a
Lot more funky and and uh and I don’t know no but I still love it here I I you know they’re going to drag me out by my boot heels I like it do people like the fact that it’s getting more touristy busy or do they like it well you know it’s
Always the the ancient you know do we want to make money or do we want to live a Wonderful Life and uh you know you got to find a balance so that’s the constant struggle here you have the retirees who wanted to stay quiet and you have the people who
You know look here and see a chance to make a living and that’s that’s what I did you know I I to built s castles for a living and uh it’s been a good run what is it like to live on South Padre Island well it’s not for everybody thank
Goodness you know we don’t want everybody living here but um it does attract a a wide variety of types you know the real estate types the surfer types the um there’s a lot of drinking that goes on here partying that’s what people come here to do and uh we Embrace
That as well so it’s uh it’s hard to stay focused sometimes because people come here to have fun and it’s really easy to jump in there and have fun with them you know instead of doing what you’re supposed to do so mhm that’s gotten easier as I’ve gotten older I don’t feel the
Inclination to go out party all the time anymore but I certainly went through that phase MH you’ve been around the world how would you compare South Padre Island to people that have never been here what’s it like the most if you were going to try to compare it to somewhere that most
People have been to or heard of that’s a tough one it’s not really like any other place I’ve been to beaches my you know my favorite Beach maybe was Tasmania but I would see some carryover you know I I I judge a beach by its sand and we
Got really good sand here and other places don’t their Sand’s not as good so yeah there’s that but also weatherwise I mean it’s warm here all the time except for today it’s not warm but it it is it’s it’s way warmer than Michigan yeah I like it here
Mhm what’s the difference between South Padre Island and like the rest of the Texas coast well the rest of the Texas coast is more industrialized you know there’s a lot of um plants and oil related things and that’s coming here we’re getting it here the LNG is
Coming we fought it we’re still trying to fight it but uh you got enough money how do you fight that you know you can’t so you just got to hope that you know they say that this particular LG plant is the cleanest one that has ever been
Made and you know you you hope that’s the case but it’s hard to trust them mhm is is uh the island here a place that families could could afford to move to or I mean what’s the cost of living here if if if somebody was going to is even
Realistic for a family to move here and try to make a living or is this more of a touristy second home kind of place it it is but um we’re trying to be something more than that um it property value just went through the roof in the last couple of years
So that’s that’s a problem is finding affordable housing here you know you got people like me I got a spare place while I’m trying to do short-term rentals because that’s the only way I can afford the taxes so it’s sort of a vicious cycle but
Um it is uh I think a great place for families and I think a lot of people would agree I I didn’t have a family myself but I work with a lot of kids and school groups and um art projects for for young people and
Um I I I think this would be a dream place to grow up you know as a child I would I would have loved to have grown up here but you know it is it’s hard it’s hard for a family it the only the only industry here is tourism so if you can’t
Figure out a way to serve tourists then you better not need to make an income yeah mhm would it be fair for me to assume that for 5 months a year it’s Bonkers here and then for the other 7 months it’s sort of sleepy Island life like what we’re seeing here
Today yeah I think that’s fair to say um the winter Texans do inject a lot of life in in January and February you know there’s uh the Louise told me me the manager there that the young people Spring Breakers don’t really drink much anymore it’s it’s the old people they’re the
Ones that uh that really keep the bars jumping so yeah we welcome those winter Texans come on down let’s have a party are you looking to move and need advice I do Consulting that’s right I’ll sit down and talk about where the next perfect place for you and your family
Should be I do it all the time together let’s find you a new home that’s safe and checks all your boxes and I can also help you find your new house too email me and I’ll work with you I’m not just helping you figure out where to move but
I can help you find your perfect home too that’s right I know awesome reliable agents all over the country and I’d love to connect you to somebody who can help you search for that perfect home hey guys if you learned something new about America or what it’s like to live in
America great you should think about subscribing and turning on your notifications you can also click one of these videos or playlists for more this is Sage Nick manager this has been a cornerhouse entertainment production
Video “Exploring South Padre Island (The Famous Texas Beach)” was uploaded on 01/20/2024. Watch all the latest Videos by Nick Johnson on Gretopia