South Padre Island

For our 2019 Spring break trip we chose to visit a tiny little island in Texas called South Padre. I had heard a lot of good buzz around this place and wanted to check it out, and I am so glad we did! Read on to learn about our trip to South Padre, complete with reviews and suggestions.

When we fly, we always fly Southwest. We have never been disappointed in their service. We boarded our plane at Chicago Midway and flew to Houston for a short layover. The Southwest crew on this flight went above and beyond! They presented Evelyn with an honorary Pilot certificate and a pilot wing pin! She also got to tour the cockpit of the airplane and meet the pilots. She absolutely LOVED it!

Meeting the pilots. Notice the lucky rubber chicken? 😆

After that the flight was uneventful thanks to Evelyn’s tablet, a doll, as well as coloring book and crayons to keep her busy. With the layover included it took about 5 1/2 hours to get to Harlingen. After we landed in Harlingen, we rented a car and drove the 1 hour and 15 minutes to South Padre. It was late when we arrived at our hotel, The Courtyard.

My only huge complaint about the hotel is that the pool was not heated. We went mid-March and the temperatures were on the cooler side. The pool was cold, but that didn’t stop my little sunfish from swimming.

The girl is obsessed with all things H2O.

For breakfast we decided to try a friend’s recommendation and try out Yummies Bistro. It did not disappoint! Below is my original review on Trip Advisor.

After grabbing some breakfast, we decided to visit the Turtle Sanctuary. It is a small sanctuary, but they do so much good for the turtle population. It’s definitely a must- see place to go to on the island, if not only for just the intent of supporting them. If you love turtles, they have an adorable turtle named Allison who has a prosthetic fin to keep her from swimming in circles. They have a few other resident turtles, but mainly rehab and release the injured turtles back into the wild once healed. We all enjoyed seeing the turtles and learned a lot about them that day!

After visiting the turtle sanctuary, we decided to check out these huge sandcastles at the visitor center. My youngest was amazed at how big the sandcastles were. Make sure to go inside the visitor center to get coupons that you can use around the area!

After viewing the sandcastles, it was time for some lunch! We hit up Ceviche Ceviche. Now if you haven’t had Ceviche before, think of it as a salsa type food. It’s great to eat with chips and it’s really healthy for you! There wasn’t anywhere to sit down inside the restaurant, so we grabbed some to-go. We took it back to the hotel and ate it on our balcony while watching the ocean.

After lunch we decided to hit the beach and get our feet wet! Now remember this was March, so swimming was out of the question for us, although there were a few brave (drunk?) souls toughing it out. The water was ice cold, so good on them. There was also tons and tons of little blue jellyfish everywhere. Apparently, that is normal around Spring break.

After playing around in the sand we walked back to the hotel, cleaned up and headed out for dinner. We were all craving pizza, so we chose D Pizza Joint to have our meal.

After dinner, it was time to head back to the hotel and get some rest for our big adventure the next day.

Day Two

On day two we grabbed breakfast at the hotel before heading out for our big pirate adventure! We booked a pirate cruise from Black Dragon Cruises. It was chilly that morning and I wished we would have brought coats and sunscreen as it was even chillier on the boat even with the full sun on us.

It was complete with sword fights with the crew, water gun battles with the whole ship (yes even parents got to play!) and searching the ship for plunder, i.e., GOLD Matey! This was so much fun. What kid doesn’t want to sword fight a real pirate?! We sailed around the bay for 2 hours while the kids were being entertained the whole time. We even got to see dolphins! There was a snack bar onboard in case you get hungry or thirsty as well.

This was by far Evelyn’s favorite part of the trip and I can’t say I blame her. I had a blast too! First, she got an honorary pilot certificate and now she’s a pirate!

I get asked a lot what sunscreen I use for Evelyn. I prefer to use organic whenever possible and love the baby organics brand, which if you can tell, I completely forgot to put any on Evelyn. Mom fail!

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After our fun pirate adventure, we stopped back at the hotel, rested a bit, and then got ready for dinner. I was craving some crab legs, so we decided to give Daddy’s Seafood a try! The menu was on the pricey side, but the crab legs were fresh and the Musette was amazing!

They also had a kid’s menu and Evelyn got spaghetti, of which she ate it all, so it must have been delicious. The inside of the restaurant was nice and big and on the top level of a building.