Billed as THE premier resort area in Texas and ranked as one of Americas top 10 beaches, South Padre Island (SPI), as the name implies, is the south end of what was once a long narrow sand spit of land along the Gulf of Mexico in southeast Texas called Padre Island. (It is now separated by a channel.) The 34 mile long stretch of SPI's white sand beach is bordered to the east by the Gulf of Mexico and to the West by the Laguna Madre bay.

All of Padre Island is part of the Padre Island National Seashore which encompasses 65.5 ... (more)