Padre Island National Seashore South Beach | Wild Camping

April 10th, 2024 by Delica_girl

Sweet beach camping, lots of people in the first few km, then quiet. Know the tides, the printed schedule from the vc is great, and park way up. Lots of sea birds to see during migration!

February 26th, 2024 by phanie.nature

Great place! More cars and trucks on the beach than we expected but it slows down at night.

December 28th, 2023 by info

great camping, lots of rigs here, went a short was on beach in my 2WD, seems ok

January 19th, 2023 by Lau

Nice and free place with America the beautiful pass.

Be aware that the tide is affecting the space available to drive along the beach and will affect as well where you'll park. We wish we would have known when the high and low tide were to better gage a nice spot to park as we stayed at the entrance (we have a Dodge Ram b350 1994 not 4x4). We saw an other van parked a little further and they were not 4x4 either.

Everyday (or so) a bulldozer comes at the entrance to remove the accumulated sand at the end of the paved driveway for around 2 hours just FYI.

Pit toilets are clean.

Please, pick up after yourselves. There's also bags to pick up trashes on the beach available for free at the visitor center. Enjoy!

November 13th, 2022 by chuckhalikas

Camped right along the beach just passed the visitor centre. I have a Promaster and no issues on the sand. Saw some big rigs as well. Always windy which keeps the bugs down but there are big mosquitoes on this island. Free to camp on the beach but must pay the park entry fee. $10 for 1 day, $25 for 7-day pass or $45 for a year at this park only. We got a year round all Federal parks pass for $80. Visitor centre has clean toilets. Outdoor showers are great. Plug in by the picnic area but the 30Amp did not work so had to recharge on the 15Amp.

November 6th, 2022 by brad.mason509

As said before, when the park road ends, the beach camping begins. No facilities, but they do have trash bins. The sand is no problem for 2wd for about the first 4 miles of beach. After that, you need 4wd. It is free with an America the Beautiful Pass. If you don't have one, there is a fee. Rangers drive up and down often, and there wasn't many people on the beach when we go there. There was a ton of wind, and it was very humid. Fires allowed, but make sure to put them out good.

March 20th, 2022 by megumicoop

stayed the night, it was beautiful but the tide came up way higher than anyone expected and my car got SUPER stuck!!! make sure you park back by the dunes even if people tell you it's all good. other cars had gotten stuck but we're able to get out. thank the sweet sweet universe for placing a pickup truck with chains close by 🙌🙌🙌

February 23rd, 2022 by CJ

Excellent stay! While you CAN park and stay on the beach for free, you do have to pay the National Park Fee or use your pass (I did). I got in free and found a spot on the ‘south’ side. The ranger said it was better there because the ‘north’ side shares that beach with the public beach further north. South is more safe, he thought. Gotta register before heading out there. I hate driving in sand but this was pretty packed and I was careful not to park too far up. I literally grabbed the very first spot lol. Really lovely. It was too bad it was so cold and windy while I was there. I’ll come back!

January 30th, 2022 by Patrick Cashman

Great place for boondocking. The beach goes on for miles. Plenty of room for any vehicle.

January 29th, 2022 by Humble Bumble

Beautiful sandy beaches, was out at mile post 25. 4x4 needed going out but the next day cars were driving. Depends on the tide I guess. Pack it in, pack it out. Verizon signal hit and miss, not only strength but time of day. Thanks Verizon

April 20th, 2021 by ukdude

This beach has easy access with miles of hard packed sand to go as far as you want to get away from others.
They accepted my Federal America the Beautiful pass so entry was free for us.
Day 1 was perfect with sun and blue sky. We felt good! Day 2 brought a cold wind that blew sand everywhere; we were unable to get out of our RV all day, and with no cellular service (Verizon) we decided to move north up the island to find a better spot.
Otherwise this spot is perfect.

March 7th, 2021 by instagram.com/krawchy/

Enter at this pin and drive for a few miles south if you like. I went .7 miles south in my 2WD Sprinter with no issues. The sand is hard packed but you’ll just have to choose a good spot to turn right up towards the dunes to camp. Some of the sand between the packed path and the hard sand camp spots is soft but nothing too crazy. Saw one SUV get stuck but mostly because they did everything wrong. Even saw a corvette go past my van a few times so that should tell you everything about this road (and Texas!). Beautiful beach, great sun rise and set and everyone was very chill. There’s indoor not hot showers a few miles up at the visitor center if you’re looking to clean up.

Windy so make sure to point the van into the wind. Mostly seems to come from the north/northeast.

Very spotty at best T-Mobile service. A bar here and there.

February 22nd, 2021 by ccummings208

Been staying here about a week. Lovely place to camp out. You do have to pay a fee to get into the park, unless you have a National park pass, but camping itself is free and you can fill your water up and empty your waste tanks for free at a dump station in front of the Malaquite RV Campground, you don’t have to be staying there. There are cold rinse showers and flush toilets at the Visitor Center. The visitor center and its plumbing is currently closed, however, due to the winter storm a few days ago. I expect it’ll open up again soon once the local power and water utilities are back up. At the entrance to South Beach are pit toilets and dumpsters, and also the self-registration station which you are supposed to leave vehicle information. I neglected to do this my first night, but no one bothered me. Plenty of campers here for the first 10 miles, but also plenty of space between. Despite pamphlets and signs saying the first 5 miles are accessible to 2-wheel drive vehicles, I found that it starts to get tough at about mile 3, and I almost got stuck at mile 4, even with a 4-wheel drive truck (though I was pulling a low-clearance trailer). I didn’t try to venture beyond this, except on foot. I hiked all the way out to Little Shell Beach, at about the 11.3 mile mark, and was disappointed by the beach combing. It was just about the same, if not worse, than the rest of the beach. Still lovely, though. And more secluded.

February 4th, 2021 by draestoddard

National park pass will get you in and free camping on the beach. There are 2 campgrounds in the park, the visitors cent has outdoor showers, dump station, pit toilets, picnic tables and trash. Windsurfers campground is $8, no hookups, dirt/gravel parking, picnic table, pit toilets. The other campground has full hookups and showers

December 28th, 2020 by cavinda

Miles of open beaches. Last week of 2020 and I'd estimate a few hundred folks camping here. Most are well spaced out. The sand is well compacted and accessible even by 2 WD vehicles. As you go further south the beach narrows and less vehicular traffic means less compacted sand to drive on. This is after the fee station - $25 for a weeklong pass. No T-Mobile service, Verizon is spotty.

February 26th, 2019 by allan.hildebrandt

On the beach for $7/night. On laguna madre $4.

February 3rd, 2019 by instagram.com/ryan.j.drewes/

Great stay. Not much more to be said than others have stated.

February 17th, 2017 by Steve Presnal

This stretch of beach is called the Padre Island National Seashore South Beach. Free wild camping but you do have to pay an entrance fee of $10 unless you have a National Park pass. The first 5 miles of the beach are accessable by any vehicle. We drove a 30' motorhome with no problems - just had to stay out of the loose sand. After 5 miles, 4-wheel drive is recommended for the next 55 miles. There are pit toilets and a dumpster just before you enter the beach area but no trash cans on the beach. We were there in mid-February and most campers were spaced from a couple hundred yards to a quarter mile apart. Flush toilets and cold-water rinse showers are available nearby at the Malaquite Visitor Center which you'll pass on your way in.

If you don't want to pay the entrance fee, you can stay at the Padre Island National Seashore North Beach. The turnoff is just before the pay station. So, no fee.

February 14th, 2016 by die.hesslers

a beautiful beach on Padre Island
free camping on the beach is permitted up to 14 days
no restrooms, no water , no Stress
just a few other people here - just perfect!
you can also drive along the beach for miles but in some areas a 4x4 is recommended