Imagine this: the sand's soft and squishy beneath your bare feet as you wade along the deserted stretch of gulf beach. Frothy waves splash around your ankles, leaving the shore splotched with glistening blobs of bubbles. As the tide recedes, dozens of colorful coquina mollusks — left grounded by the water on their glossy sides — quickly tunnel back into the sand and vanish. A short distance away, a lone western sandpiper scurries along the water's edge, pausing here and there to jab its long bill at a bug or maybe a worm.
Not exciting enough? You'd rather ride the breakers on a boogie board or land a monster tarpon in the surf? Go swimming with the kids or watch sea turtles in their native habitat? No problem. With 367 miles of gulf shoreline and 3,300 miles of bay beaches, Texas offers more than enough opportunities to enjoy all sorts of seaside sports and activities ... or simply to bask in isolation. In all, some 60 recreational beaches — managed by cities, counties, and state and federal agencies — dot the Texas Gulf Coast.
As a disclaimer, we won't claim to be the authority on what makes each beach special and unique. That's a personal preference. However, after much deliberation, we've compiled a list of favorites, a daunting task when you consider the scores of shores we had to leave out.
And on that note, here we go ...
