Originally Posted by Shannon

3. I haven't been to South Padre Island so I don't know how it compares to the beaches there. However, our favorite beach is Padre Island National Seashore. There are several named beaches in the seashore. If you have a 4x4 vehicle, you can go many miles down-island and pitch your tent and camp. The less far you drive down island, the more traffic you'll probably have driving by your location to head down-island, but at night the quiet is deafening. The quality of the sand changes depending on which named beach your on. Malaquite and the 'frontage' beach at Padre are soft, fine sand. Down island on Padre are Little Shell and Big Shell beaches, named aptly for the types of shells found in abundance, mixed in with the same fine sand.