Crystal Beach & Galveston, TX
Camp Margaritaville Crystal Beach
January 2024 was spent at a rather new RV resort in Crystal Beach, Texas, just a short ferry ride north of Galveston. Camp Margaritaville is a beautiful resort with all of the amenities: restaurant and bar, pool, hot tub, fitness center, dog park, camp store and access to the beach so you can go walk by the ocean. The park has 204 sites and lots of room for future expansion. January is definitely their off-season so the park was not very busy and mostly snowbirds but I hear in the summer it is really hopping. Even with it being a bit quiet and not exactly “beach weather” (tons of rain and wind) we really enjoyed ourselves.
Bolivar Peninsula allows driving on the beach which is a blast on a sunny day!
Heck, you can even take your horse for a gallop on the beach!
Top down beach day with the Juice
Bolivar Peninsula is a smaller community with one local grocery store, The Big Store, a few shops and a variety of restaurants. We explored quite a few but our favorites were the Nauti Beaver Hut and and Stingaree Restaurant and Tia Juanita’s Fish Camp. Nauti Beaver Hut has great specials on great food, live music and a fun atmosphere. Thursday nights is mug night and if you purchase a mug for $10 you get $2 refills any Thursday. This worked out well for us since we spent a few Thursdays there for their Queen of Hearts card game trying to win over $10,000…..we did not win but the game is still going and the pot is up to $21,000 as of today! I cannot imagine how packed that place is going to be until someone wins.
Stingaree Restaurant offered some incredible seafood and we agreed was the best place for seafood on the Bolivar Peninsula. The Grilled Seafood Platter is amazing and includes BBQ Crab, catfish, shrimp, crab-stuffed shrimp, BBQ shrimp & shrimp étouffée or gumbo for only $25! Greg and I split it and were more than happy.
Stingaree Restaurant - Grilled Seafood Platter
Nauti Beaver Hut
Galveston
Getting over to Galveston via the free ferry is easy and convenient and USUALLY there isn’t much of a wait, if any, however we did have a couple if times where the wait was 30-45 mins. You add that on top of the 18 minute ride and it can add up. They run a very smooth operation though where you can just sit back and enjoy watching all the barges and try and spot some dolphin playing in the waters.
Galveston has a ton of history, at one time being the largest port in the U.S. and one of the largest cities in Texas. This trip we spent some time in the historic Strand District and also got to tour Moody Mansion, a 28,000 square-foot, four-story historic home that was completed in 1895. The tour was very interesting and I highly recommend it.
Seafood lovers are very happy when visiting Galveston. There are so many great places to eat. Willie G’s is a longtime favorite of ours and has phenomenal happy hours specials on both food and cocktails. A new favorite for a nice night out is Gaido’s. It is the oldest restaurant in Galveston, opening in 1911! Safe to say they know what they are doing. We loved the atmosphere, the service and of course the food was amazing!
If you want to get really fancy you can stop by the Hotel Galvez. Also established in 1911 it is known at the Queen of the Gulf and stunning in every way. We stopped by the Founders Bar in the Lobby and enjoyed some after dinner cocktails. There is a wonderful display of the history of the property at the far end of the lobby.
A few other fun favorites were The Poop Deck, a great little dive bar right along the seawall, Galveston, and Galveston Island Brewing with a great selection of beer, ciders and wine.
Hotel Galvez
Hotel Front Desk
The Founders Bar
Hotel Lobby
ELISSA - 1877 Tall Ship
For a little more history, we toured the Ship to Shore museum along with the tall ship, ELISSA. The museum did a great job of describing what it was like for early immigrants to take the long sea voyage into Galveston in the 1880’s. We also learned about life in the bustling port city of Galveston in the late 19th and early 20th century. Afterwards we climbed aboard ELISSA, one of three ships of her kind in the world that still actively sail. ELISSA is still used in an annual sail training program where individuals get the unique opportunity to learn to sail and take this unique ship out to sea.
ELISSA with a Carnival Cruise Ship
“Where Rail and Water Lines Meet”
Anahuac Wildlife Refuge
If it is wildlife you seek, be sure to check out Anahuac Wildlife Refuge. About an hour from Camp Margaritavilla, just west of the town of High Island, is 37,000 acres of wildlife refuge and serves as a permanent residence as well as wintering and migrating habitat for a variety of waterfowl, shorebirds and waterbirds. This place is a birder’s paradise! Oh, and being along the Gulf there are quite a few gators too so keep an eye out!
Overall we had a pretty phenomenal January on the Texas Gulf Coast. We got to visit with good friends that live in Galveston and were also joined by some Wisconsin snowbird friends. Next stop……..Texas Hill Country!
We go now……. Jen, Greg & Poppy